. It’s easier than you think to choose a pond liner, regardless of the purpose of the pond or your budget. There’s a single choice for material that stands out above the rest, which is why it’s featured in so many BTL Liners products. Make the right choice with these pond liner selection tips.
Material Options
Your materials for flexible pond liners include:
- High density polyethylene (HDPE)
- Low density polyethylene (LDPE)
- Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
- Ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM)
Each of these four materials offers a different combination of advantages and disadvantages. For example, PVC is highly flexible and available at a low cost. However, it also typically includes plasticizing chemicals that make it unsafe for fish. It’s also less resistant to UV breakdown than the other materials listed here. EPDM is durable and fish safe, but it’s very thick and therefore much less flexible. That thickness also adds extra weight that makes it difficult to handle during installation. LDPE offers fish safety, UV resistance, and a lighter weight in the same package. Yet, it’s HDPE that goes a step further to provide superior tear resistance as well.
The best flexible pond liner option is a multi-layer, reinforced RPE liner. Reinforcement means the liner features a layer of fibers in a mesh pattern. When a tear happens, it stops as soon as it hits a row of these embedded fibers. Other flexible liners are particularly prone to tearing during installation. Rocky soil catches at the material, leaving behind tiny holes and tears that are hard to pinpoint. Multi-layer RPE liners, like AquaArmor resist this type of damage, ensuring you have an easy installation process and decades or reliable use.
Liners also vary in how they’re sealed. Materials that only work with adhesives and tapes, such as PVC, naturally form weaker seals than materials that are heat seamed. HDPE and LDPE are both easy to seal with heat welding equipment, providing reliable seams at a much faster rate than adhesive applications.
