Flow rate (gpm)

Flow rate is the central engineering number for any splash pad. A small ground spray runs 2–5 gpm; a high-volume bucket fill runs 15–25 gpm; a whole 1,000 sq ft recirculated pad might circulate 200–400 gpm during operation. Single-pass pads are billed by cumulative gpm × hours, which is why drought-prone cities meter them carefully. Recirculated pads use far less makeup water but still need flow logged for chemistry calculations.