Meet Tom Gardiner
Founder and Innovator Behind Water Siphon
Every breakthrough begins with someone determined to solve a problem.
For more than 30 years, Tom Gardiner has worked as an industrial product designer, developing practical solutions to complex engineering challenges. Before beginning his engineering career, he spent his teenage years and early adulthood farming in Hawke’s Bay.
Water Siphon brings these two areas of experience together. Tom has returned to the agricultural world with decades of product development knowledge, focusing on how better land and water management can improve productivity, resilience and environmental outcomes.
His work has addressed long-standing limitations associated with siphoning, leading to the development of a reliable system for moving large volumes of water across challenging terrain.
Today, Tom continues to lead the research, development and application of Water Siphon technology. He works alongside farmers, councils, developers, engineers and infrastructure managers to solve complex water management problems that conventional systems may not be able to address.
contact Tom Gardiner
2026 Auckland Regional Supreme Award Winners, Ballance Farm Environment Awards
We couldn't have achieved what we achieved without the implementation of the Water Siphon drainage technology - It has had a massive impact on our property and our success!
About Tom Gardiner
From Farm Problem
to Patented Innovation
Growing up on a farm in Hawke’s Bay, Tom experienced first-hand the challenges of fluctuating water levels, from drought conditions to wet winters and waterlogged soils.
These early experiences sparked a lifelong interest in managing groundwater and irrigation to keep productive land in the best possible condition.
Tom’s first siphons were installed on the family farm to move water away from fertile but waterlogged land. These self-priming systems operated unassisted for 38 years, helping turn previously saturated ground into productive and profitable farmland.
Years later, Tom attempted to reconstruct the system on his own property. The journey wasn’t without setbacks. Tom vividly recalls the moment his first siphoning reconstruction on his own property failed after only an hour of operation. Keeping the pipe under vacuum and completely gas free over long distances and greater heights proved to be the greatest engineering challenge.
Rather than giving up, Tom spent thousands of hours developing prototypes, testing ideas and working through each problem. This process eventually led to the creation of the Water Siphon Primer Pump and the broader Water Siphon system.
Today, that innovation is a world leading breakthrough with patents granted in Europe, the United States and Australia arleady. It offers landowners, councils, engineers and contractors a simpler and more reliable way to move water without relying on external power.
Water Siphon Technology
Water Siphon technology enables the efficient transfer of large volumes of water
across varied terrain without the need for external power. By working with natural forces, the system can move water over rises and across long distances, opening up options that are not always available through conventional gravity-fed systems.
Why Water Siphon Technology is so Innovative
Water Siphon can continuously remove water from saturated ground and lower surrounding groundwater levels.
This helps create better-aerated soils that support stronger plant growth and greater land productivity. It also restores the soil’s capacity to absorb future rainfall, reducing rapid surface run-off and helping manage flood risk.
By returning waterlogged land to productive use, Water Siphon can create more lucrative opportunities for landowners. The result is a practical, economical and environmentally responsible approach to water movement across agriculture, stormwater management, construction and civil infrastructure.
Innovation Backed by Practical Experience
Every Water Siphon project begins with understanding the problem and finding the simplest effective solution.
Tom combines more than three decades of industrial design, engineering and product development experience with practical farming knowledge and a detailed understanding of groundwater behaviour.
This combination allows the Water Siphon system to be integrated with existing infrastructure and adapted to the particular terrain, water conditions and requirements of each site.
Learn how Water Siphon technology, created by Tom Gardiner, is being used for Flood Solutions across New Zealand or discover how our Drainage Consultant services help identify the best approach for your site.
A Force for Nature Through Innovation
The world has a finite amount of fertile and productive land. With continued population growth, changing rainfall patterns and biodiversity loss, making the best use of this limited resource is becoming increasingly important.
Rising sea levels, intense rainfall patterns, rapid run-off and ageing stormwater infrastructure are also making residential, industrial and agricultural land more vulnerable to flooding, erosion and prolonged saturation.
These challenges require practical and economical innovation that works with natural forces rather than against it.
Our focus is on developing simple and effective water movement solutions that:
- Restore the productive potential of fertile land
- Improve the resilience of farms and communities
- Reduce reliance on powered pumping systems
- Work with existing land and water infrastructure
- Support long-term environmental and economic outcomes
Whether we are working with farmers, councils, contractors, engineers or developers,our focus remains the same: delivering innovative water movement and drainage solutions that solve real-world water challenges.
Our Values
Efficiency
We dislike waste and continually look for ways to achieve more with less time, energy and material.
Simplicity
We work through complexity to fully understand a problem before developing the simplest possible solution.
Problem Solving
Finding solutions is what drives us. We see setbacks as opportunities to learn, refine and improve until we achieve the best outcome.
Balance
We aim to find the sweet spot between innovation, affordability and working in harmony with nature.
CEO & Founder
Tom Gardiner is an industrial product designer with more than 33 years of experience managing product development teams and delivering engineering solutions from initial concept and prototyping through to installation and lifetime service.
Through his product development company, Fulcrum, Tom and his team were involved in prototyping and developing the amphibious Sealegs craft. This experience reflects his ability to take an unconventional idea, solve difficult engineering problems and turn it into a practical working system.
Tom holds a Bachelor of Agriculture in Farm Management and Advisory. He also has broad design and manufacturing experience across multiple materials, products and industries.
His approach is based on understanding difficult engineering problems and solving them as simply as possible. This ongoing pursuit of practical, effective solutions continues to guide the development of Water Siphon technology and its application across agriculture, construction, civil infrastructure, stormwater and flood management.
