Drinkwell Pet Fountain

this product is great, if my cat liked it. he drinks from our bathroom sink so to get him out of there i bought this thinking it would mimic the sink. he was afraid of it. wouldn't go near it. i could here the water running in the fountain and it sounded like a faucet was on. once i got used to it, it didn't bother me. but i'll probably give it away because my cat won't drink from it.

I got this fountain because one of my young kittens liked to climb into my bathroom sink and drink from the faucet. While now my much more ancient cat seems to use it more, I see the younger cats use it as well. The machine is practically silent when filled with water, and when the fluid runs low, you can hear the pump start to pull air, which gives you good feedback as to when to refill.

Overall, a useful product that the cats enjoy.

The stream on this fountain more closely mimics a faucet than most of the other options, so the cats seem to like it better. The reservoir is rather small, but having to order a decent-sized reservoir separately smacks of the manufacturer nickle-and-diming the consumer. Overall was very happy with the speed in which it was delivered and the ease of set up, not to mention that the price (including shipping!) was significantly lower than at Petco. A good deal.

I resisted buying a Drinkwell fountain because my cat seemed just fine with drinking water out of a bowl. However, 2 $400 urinary tract-related vet visits later, I figured that if spending $50 on a fountain could save me another expensive visit, then it was worth the expense.

I doubted that my cat would drink more water with the Drinkwell, but he actually does! He makes larger liquid waste clumps in his litter box now. Amazing. I surprised because he doesn't seem to care for the "falling water" part of the fountain and usually just drinks out of the bowl part.

A couple of notes:

-This thing is really crappy to clean. It comes apart into 5 pieces to help facilitate the cleaning, but there are still a million crevices that will require several different cleaning devices and a lot of patience to really get clean. I eventually had to take a toothbrush to mine. I was surprised at how much sludge and gunk could accumulate! I haven't yet invested in the Drinkwell cleaning brushes, so maybe they'll make a difference. Drinkwell recommends that you go through this semi-rigorous cleaning ritual every 2 weeks.

-I haven't had a problem with noise. Aside from the expected trickling water sound, it's pretty quiet. It does make some noise when the water level gets low, but it is easily remedied by refilling the thing with some water. It buzzed in a pretty annoying way after I put it back together after the first cleaning, but I hadn't gotten in the motor back in just right. I shifted the motor a little, and the sound went away.

-The filter it comes with is pretty much useless. It looks and feels a lot like a white version of one of those green scrubber pads. Also, it appeared to be releasing all kinds of particulate matter from itself into the water, so I ditched the thing pretty early on. In any case, larger particles seem to get caught up in the water intake valve in the bowl part of the fountain and I doubted that the scrubber pad thing was doing much for the elimination of microscopic particles. The best way to keep the water fresh is the change it out and scrub the fountain clean.

-I'm not sure that the water stays "fresher" in the fountain. Because it's much easier to change and clean a bowl of water, I tended to do it every day. The Drinkwell, being as hard to clean as it is, has me cleaning it every 2 weeks. Even if the water is moving, it's still subject to the sludge that builds up in the fountain on a regular basis.

I have a strange little cat... her name is Jordan, and she refuses to drink out of a water bowl. I left out a cup of water once when I first got her and that was the beginning of the end, she only drank out of cups. If I left out her bowl and started to pour water she came running and drank the fresh water, but by the end of the day she'd thrown at least one of her toys in there and went back to the cup. However, she loves the pet fountain, my guess is it's the running water. Whatever the reason I'm glad I don't have to leave out cups of water all over the place, she kept tipping them over! Only down side is that it's a little bulky, and cleaning is a bit inconvenient.