PetSafe Drinkwell Ceramic Pet Water Fountain - Quiet Automatic 70oz Dispenser for Cats & Dogs with Filters - Dishwasher Safe Square Design

I have tried water fountains before a few years ago, and I found them to be more trouble than they were worth with all the cleaning involved. I decided to give this one a try to encourage our 2 cats to drink more water. I picked this one, because it was ceramic, dish washer safe, and would still function as a water bowl if the power goes out. Noise - It makes no noise whatsoever. It does not even make a trickle sound. Easy to Clean - I clean the fountain once a week. It takes only a few minutes to disassemble, wash all the pump pieces, and rinse the filters. Then I stick the rest into the dishwasher. I don't wash by hand because the ceramic is very heavy and slippery, and I know that dropping it while washing is very likely. So every weekend, I do an extra load in the dishwasher to wash this along with any other food mats, or other items I can throw in. I think it's also better this way, because the dishwasher will do a better job at sanitizing the ceramic parts. Assembly - It took a few minutes to read the instructions and figure out the first time, but after a couple times from cleaning and reassembling, it feels quick and easy now. Filters - I imagine this depends a lot on the quality of your water. I live in an area with EXTREMELY hard water. I use a Zerowater filter for our drinking water, and I use that to fill up the fountain. So the water is already filtered starting out, and the water fountain filters are used mainly to help keep the water clean for a week until I clean the fountain again. I stupidly forgot to order replacement filters in time to replace after 2 weeks, so we are now on week 4 and the filter seems to be doing fine. In the future, I will probably be replacing the filter after 3 weeks, to be safe. I have not noticed any slime, smells, or anything out of the ordinary as some users have mentioned. If you use unfiltered water to fill the fountain, I would imagine you would need to replace the filters much more often so that may be when the sliminess starts to happen. Drinking more water? I noticed that it does seem to catch their attention, and I feel like I witness them drinking more often than they did with regular bowls. I left their old water bowl out, on the first week for transitioning, and I noticed that they preferred the fountain over the bowl, so that was enough to convince me to keep it. Tips - If you have an anxious pet, that gets nervous from new things, leave their old water bowl next to the fountain when transitioning, and leave the pump UNPLUGGED. At least until you see the pet drink from the unplugged fountain. After they're comfortable drinking from the fountain, try turning the pump on, and leave the old water bowl out still, just in case. When you see the pet drink from the fountain while the pump is on, then you can take away the old water bowl.

I used another Drinkwell model for years; bought it the same day we adopted our older cat. It got harder and harder to keep clean, needing bleach spray and scrubbing to keep the film of bacterial goo off the plastic, and was always a little noisy, even with proper deep-cleaning of the motor every month or two. The noise eventually got unbearable, being the loudest thing in the house, so we splurged on a replacement. I considered a few other, cheaper models, but realized that with noise being such a huge factor, many would not work for our house. Most cat fountains seem to employ splashing water as a feature, using longer drops either directly into the water or onto a flat surface to attract cats. My previous, plastic model used a short waterfall onto a ramp, that was nearly-silent (aside from the pump noise) if you tuned the pump's output correctly. This strange, ceramic orb is even quieter. No pump noise, no water noise, it's dead silent, unless the pre-filter is clogged with hair. Would probably get loud if you let the water run low for too long, because these motors require water to keep cool, which brings me to my only functional con: This thing has lower capacity than my previous fountain. My two cats, once they got over the transition (which took about one full day), drink out of this thing constantly, seemingly more than the old model. It holds less water to begin with, which means I need to top it off every other day or so, when the old one would run about 4-5 days without needing a refill. I really don't mind this, but it may be a concern if you have 2 or more cats and planned to leave the house for more than 3 days; you'd probably return to a burnt out motor and thirsty cats. The other con I have, is the price. Why does this cost so much? I can buy similar ceramic wares for less than $15, the motor retails for about $15... I could justify it being $40-50, but $80 is a little ridiculous. Still paid it, though, because I wanted the continued convenience of a brand where I can buy the filters everywhere for cheap (12-pack for $12, 6 prefilters for about the same, I change those every other month), or replace the motor if I needed. The ceramic surface and shape is much easier to clean, the only parts you have to be careful about is the dome, the plastic filter housing, and regularly disassembling the motor for cleaning, which is not as hard as it sounds; a butterknife and some tweezers (or gentle use of pliers), and maybe a cotton swab, is all you need, every couple of months. Compared to the previous plastic model with all its ridiculous nooks and crannies, this one's a dream.

This is the best water fountain I've tried. I went to the shelter and saw a big tuxedo cat that was so friendly. I noticed that his kennel area was wet but I just figured he tipped it over due to his size and being kind of bumbly. I was wrong. He liked tipping over bowls of water. I tried many different solutions and found that he prefers moving water. I tried many fountains and he still pushed them all around before drinking. This one is the only one he cant tip over! It's heavy and lays low to the ground. The ceramic is easy to clean and the motor is soooooooo quiet! I almost forget it's in the house. I got a rubber mat to put under it because he still manages to push it around a little bit but, I'm no longer worried he will make a mess. I will buy again! I love it and the cat loves it too!

Cat loves it. He drinks more water. Its easy to set up and to dissasemble for cleaning. It does not make any water sounds, its quiet so no annoying water trinkling. Also the motor is very quiet. I am happy with the purchase. Only thing, be careful when you clean it, since its mase out of ceramic it could break. But ceramic is a great alternative to plastic, if your cat or dog has allergies due to plastic. My cat had cat acne, little black dots and his lips would get rodent ulcers. Turns out it was caused by plastic. So this product is perfect for my cat.

First of all, this is a decent fountain and certainly the most QUIET on the market. I’ve owned a lot of different PetSafe models and I will only by PetSafe due to their amazing customer service. Secondly, this is a SLIMY fountain. It needs cleaning weekly as one of the other reviewers said. The calcium build up along with pet hair and slime are horrible. Thirdly, I’m disappointed with the filters. In other PetSafe models the filters are great because the carbon inside continually clean the water with the vibration and movement, however; maybe this one is too still but the filters will clog and make the water flow non-existent or very slow. The fix is taking the filter out and shaking it up to break the carbon molecules apart. Annoying.. but not the end of the world. If they could fix this one problem, then it would be hands down a 5-star product.

This worked for me! Put it together easily. The first time I tried to clean it and change the filter I don’t know what I did, but the motor is now very noisy which is annoying. When I first set it up it was whisper quiet. Watching my cats get used to it was very amusing. They love it now.

Fonctionne très bien !

***Updated after use*** I’ve modified my rating as the product works out. My initial concerns of the black power residue was really from not washing the included filter enough first. Overall it’s good quality, likely easy to break so you just have to gentle during wash. My cat loves it too. It’s very quiet, I never hear it. I’m overall more impressed than I was initially, and I would recommend this fountain.