I had questions about a couple of small fountains (Kenzo and M-series Platia) before my purchase, particularly about the color selection, whether the color was through or just surface paint and if they splashed water outside of the space of the fountain. I spoke to Sara and she said that the finish depended on color choice and was like paint on the surface, and that the small fountains did not splash outside of themselves. I was planning to put it indoors on a wooden desk, so splash-free was essential.

I ordered during the best sale of the year, and got a good deal so decided to get both models I liked and put them in different places around the house. They arrived 9 days later. Upon unpacking, I found that the Kenzo had several places with chipped paint, and one corner was banged up a bit, and the Platia had a one broken part. The factory had packed three pieces of the fountain together on the same level with no padding in between! I called Garden Gates and told Sara about the problems, and she said to send photos, so I did.

On December 10th, a box with a new part and three bottles of paint arrived and I began the touch up process. I’m glad they sent paint for the Platia fountain too, because it had several places that needed touch up as well but I hadn’t noticed because I didn’t even unpack it from the box the first time when I saw the broken piece. I let the touchup dry and then applied the sealer, let that dry, and then started assembling the fountains using the provided instructions. They provide small rubber pads to put under fountain to keep it from scratching the surface but they were too thin to be effective so I had to substitute my own felt furniture pads.

While assembling the Palatia fountain I found it impossible to put the second level over the pump housing because of the way the hose was sticking out, so I ended up trimming the hose back 3/4” as well as adding two half-inch copper elbows to the end to allow the hose to route in a way that wasn’t problematic.

I did the leak checks and everything seemed good so I brought them from my garage up to my kitchen counter to give them a try. One of the first things I noticed was the amount of splashing that occurred outside the fountain, there were drops of water appearing all around in about a foot of the fountain. The pump is adjustable so I disassembled the fountain and turned the pump all the way down. Tried it again but it still was splashing, but not as much as before.

I decided if I cut the half-inch copper tube at the top down about 1/2 inch it probably would reduce the splashing so I tried it. I still saw a little bit of splashing so finally I ground down about 1/4” more of the tube with an angle grinder and that seem to work for the Platia fountain.

I did the same with the Kenzo but it’s still splashing. One problem with the Kenzo is the water seems to flow more on one side than the other and it takes a lot of shimming to get it leveled. I’m not sure if I can get this thing splash free because it’s not made perfectly flat on top.

Anyhow, here’s my summary. Support from Sara at The Garden Gates is excellent and I’m really happy with that, but the build quality from the fountain manufacturer and the packing skills are not so great. If you’re using the fountains outdoors or on a tile floor you’re not gonna have a problem with a little bit of splashing. These fountains are really good looking, better than anything else I’ve seen in this size range. Finally, you might need some extra copper fittings to get things to assemble correctly, depending on the model you get.