Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions koender 16 foot windmill

i just ordered a 16 foot koender windmill does anyone else have one? they look simple to assemble
i was just looking for some pointers on the install.

I have the 12 foot model - the only difference should be that you'll have an additional 4 foot section of tripod on the bottom.

There are a lot of small parts involved in assembling a Koender's - nuts, bolts, and locknuts mostly. You will need a place to lay out the parts as you bolt them together, and you will want it to be someplace where you can't drop and lose the small pieces. A concrete floored garage stall (with any floor drain covered over) would work OK. I did all my parts sorting and assembly work on a 16 foot hay wagon inside a barn, then pulled the wagon out to the pond for erection and final assembly.

You should be able to do most of the work alone if you won't have a helper available. This is how I did it, constructing subassemblies one at a time working on Saturday and Sunday afternoons:

1) Tower assembly - about two half days.

2) Tail/pump assembly - one half day.

3) Rotor assembly - one long or two short half days with the largest incidence of four letter words.

4) Erect and anchor tower - short half day.

5) Place tail/pump assembly on tower, the attach rotor assembly to drive shaft - short half day.

6) Attach air hose to tower, bury air hose, place airstone in pond - how far away from the pond is the windmill going? How are you digging your ditch?

Steps 1 through 4 can be done alone, IF you have long arms. Putting the rotor together is the hardest, because there are lots of sharp edges you have to reach around and past. Step 5 will require at least 2 strong adults and might go better with 3, IMHO, along with some means of getting the tail/pump and rotor assemblies 16 feet up in the air (they are both somewhat heavy and awkward). With our 12 foot model, we were able to do a two-person lift on them using two step ladders (a 10 foot and a 12 foot).

There is a LOT of nut and bolt tightening which will let you know how good of shape your hand muscles are in (this contributed to my working half days on it; my hands were plenty sore after that much time). Koenders did an excellent job on my kit of sending the correct number and size of bolts; I did buy some bolts one length longer for putting the rotor assembly together as it made mating up some of the parts easier.

thanks i have a cordless impact so tighting the bolts should be pretty easy . did you attach the rotor after the tower was up? the video i saw of the tower raising they raised the tower with the rotor
already installed. thanks for the info.

windmill does not come with loc nuts. I bought extra reversable loc nuts for my K.windmill. There now is another windmill available that pumps about twice (2.8-3cfm) as much air as the Koenders model plus they have eliminated some of the short commings of the K.windmill.

what are the short commings of the k windmill?

Wicked:

The biggest shortcoming of a Koender's is just that it's a windmill - you can't turn it on when the wind's not blowing. After that limitation, it would probably be the airstone (if that it what it is still supplied with), but you can upgrade that to a rubber membrane diffuser if you feel you need to.

I never saw the assembly video. I do know it would have been virtually impossible for me to get the rotor assembly lifted up any higher than 12 feet; so putting it on first with your 16 foot tower may well be necessary. Hopefully I would have been smart enough to figure that out if I'd used a taller tower.

Bill:

I remember mine coming with locknuts, but I could certainly be wrong after 4+ years. I will check and see if it at least HAS locknuts when I am out by the pond today and will post back.

thanks for the info i should have it next week.

I've got locknuts on the tower and the tailfin; rotor was spinning too much to tell about it. Maybe I added them myself? That might explain why I needed some longer than original bolts. Either way (factory or add-on), I recommend using locknuts when you put it together.

Opinions of short comings for K.windmill:
1. Low air flow/production, 2, Poor hub design - rotor clamped onto smooth, all round compressor shaft; 3. welded components in compressor crankshaft - welds known to fail, 4. fan design not best for catching slow winds, 5. No intake air filter; 6. Holes for joining parts do not align, parts usually have to be forced to align properly for bolt assembly. 7. Three legged tower not as sturdy and more likely to pull out of ground than if four legs were used. 8. needs wind to operate and very little air produced in hottest, calmest months when most aeration is needed in ponds.

A new and similar priced (to Koenders) windmill is Beckermills, - USA manufactured http://www.beckermills.com/bk/
Optional high quality powder paint coating available in custom colors.

Improvements: 1. Air flow is about double (2.4-3.2cfm) compared to the 1-1.5cfm of Koenders mills; 2. improved hub design, welded steel hub is preassembled. Hub attaches to shaft with 2 set screws onto a flat spot on shaft. Fans have been known to come off using Koenders spider clamp method. 4. Fan is larger diameter and blade design improved for catching low speed wind, 5. Cleanable intake air filter to keep dirt our of compressor housing, 6. Parts align, 7. 4 legged tower using traditional angle iron shapes for increased strength.

NOTE Both styles still need wind to operate.
Both need quite a bit of labor to construct.
I am pretty sure both still use the air stone method for aeration, which is poor use efficiency of making water move from compressed air.
Both are more expensive to initially purchase compared to an electric rotary air compressor system that can produce more overall water movement per hour especially during calm or low wind periods. Electric system is less maintenance than the windmill method which needs periodic diaphragm replacement, pivot tube greasing, and bolt/nut checking for tightness.

Bill:

Any idea what the expected life of a diaphragm is? Mine's gone for 52 months now - how lucky have I been?

Theo, Diaphragm life is dependant on depth and or pressure required to produce bubbles. Clogged bubbler requires greater operational pressure. Higher the operational presure the faster the wear. It also depends on if diffusser is operated all year long or just during stratification season. It all depends. If you soak new membrane in brake fluid or WD-40 for several days before installation it will last longer. Compared to others, I sell new windmill diaphragms and check valves at reduced, lower than a snake's belly prices.

Thanks, Bill.

Wicked, my indespensible associate, the World's Greatest Parts (Wo)Man - aka Mrs. Theo - read my long post above and instructed me to post the two following additions:

1) She definitely bought locknuts separately (Moral: My memory can be lousy as long as I remember to keep her around)

2) When the instructions say "Do Not Tighten Nuts & Bolts Until All Parts Are Attached," well,
DO NOT TIGHTEN NUTS & BOLTS UNTIL ALL PARTS ARE ATTACHED!

Don't you just hate being wrong in front of a witness?

Theo - I'm sure glad you have an ever present witness. Someone needs to be looking over your shoulder on fishy topics

Ain't it the truth.

my windmill will be here tomorrow whos gonna come help me assemble it?any takers

I'll help by providing this. Make sure all the parts are present. Unless things have changed at the factory, they sometimes forget to incldude a part or two. Then they can ship the part while you are working on assembling other things. Dealers learn that trick . Second hint eluded to by Theo - WATCHOUT FOR THE SHARP EDGES OF THE FAN BLADES . This is as close as I want to be to your new project unless I get paid mileage. Return when you get it up and tell us about your experience.

wickedinhere > This may of been covered already but I would also add the additional anchor kit, this consisted of 3 adjustable cables on turnbuckles running to a rod augered in the center of the 3 legs.I have seen several pull out the 3-4 ft steel stakes and fall over in high winds.I do not know if this was (is) a Koender item or not, Beckermills that Bill mentioned was a Koender dealer years back and installed a 20ft mill for me with this tie down kit and works great.I have the steel stakes also.I moved the mill about 1000 ft to a smaller pond about 2 years ago and loaded it upright on a low flatbed trailer and it was very very top heavy. I was not at home when Becker installed it but they had my son help them and was a 3 man job to set up. I also do not know if they set the tower up first and then the head or did as a complete unit.I may have some pics of the anchoring if you need them.Good Luck Ted

The need for the additional anchoring Bill and Ted have talked about likely varies with soil type. But I'd recommend you tie that sucker down good; you're gonna be sticking up 4 feet farther than I am.

Hey - I just got to mention Bill and Ted, our "Wyld Stallyns".

Ted brings up a very good point. Depending on how the 3 legs are oriented into the prevailing winds the mills have been known to blow over in very strong winds especially in spring when the wet ground is soft like pudding. This is even in soils with lots of sticky thick clay. Some people put the ground stakes/rods in post holes and pour cement into the holes to help anchor the ground stakes. When my first mill started to tip due to strong winds, I dug out the area around the base about 4"-5" deep and filled it with cement; no anchoring problems since then (1996). I recommend Ted's suggestion for anchoring when I sell a mill. Koenders does not offer this optional anchor system, however they do discuss it in the instruction manual. Note I did have one guy last spring say his mill blew over with the screw in type ground stakes. Since I did not sell this mill, I do not know what size screw in stakes he used. I just sold him his replacement parts.

thanks guys i will make sure i anchor it very well
i am gonna cement a mobilehome tie dowm in the center and attach cables to that. i am also going to weld a piece of angle iron to the bottom of each anchor rod so the rod wont pull out of the concrete. i will take pics as i build it. i am sure there will be many 4 letter words.

well i got my windmill in today and everything looks pretty good. i dont think it will be that hard to put together i will start working on it this weekend
and keep you informed on how it goes