Solar Birdbath Fountain Cap

3/15/26 - Need other parts for your fountain?  See this model - Solar Birdbath Parts

We purchased one of those circular solar birdbath water fountains, and they work great - too great.  The water shoots really high and the little fountain empties all the water out of the bath in a short period of time.  Defeats the purpose of the birdbath, and the little pump motor sits there running in the hot sun completely dry.  Not a great design.

This replacement cap should snap on easily but snugly.  I made it so the walls were slightly thicker than the caps that came with the unit for strength, the first version that I made had walls as thin as the originals and it was a little flimsy when 3D printed.

I've uploaded three variations to start:

Cap A - has three 2.5mm holes 

Cap B - has one 5mm hole

Cap  C - has three 3mm holes

Initially, I thought Cap C was the best but Cap B, the one with a single 5mm hole, has taken the lead.  It's been running for a few days and it seems to strike the right balance of creating a nice fountain action but not too much that it all splashes out.

You can print this out of any material, I chose to use PETG for my final prints as it will be outdoors in the sun.  No brim, no supports.  

I've uploaded my Fusion360 source file for this if anyone is interested in making their own versions with their own hole patterns.  If you do, please reshare, it would be fun to print off some different ideas.  There is one parameter in this design, Nozzle, for the diameter of the nozzle holes.  To change it open the Modify menu in Fusion360, select the Change Parameters option on the bottom of the menu and then change the value under the Expression column.

My initial design had 3 sets of holes, similar to the ones that came with it, but it was too hard to get a version with that many holes that worked well, without modeling in some sort of nozzle.  You can suprress/unsuppress features in the Fusion360 timeline or add in your own nozzle ideas.