UniWES

I purchased this fountain for my cat, Willie, who is going to be 20 years old this month. He is unbelievably healthy for his age but does have CRF. Because he should drink as much water as he can and loves it from the faucet, I thought this would be the perfect solution. Well . . . it still could be. It’s been operational for 10 days and I’ve seen him actually enjoy a refreshing drink from it twice. Since I’m not watching him every minute, a few kitty licks could go unnoticed.

It took some time for him to figure out that the object on the floor was for him, that it was a source of water, and that there is more than one way to capture his drink. He seems to prefer the water at the source where it bubbles up or as it runs down the little ramp toward the bowl.

The fountain runs very quietly. Willie does not hear well anymore but if he did, I don’t think the pump noise would concern him. There is one suggestion I do have, however, when you’re preparing this fountain for your kitty. After you’ve gotten all the parts washed and have filled the fountain with water, let it run a short while, then empty that batch of water. Refill with fresh water and run it a while longer. Now comes the funny part–get down on your hands and knees and sniff the fountain where the water bubbles out. When I did this, it was no longer a mystery why Willie was not immediately drawn to drink from his new fountain. There is a rubber grommet where the water flows out and it smells so strongly of rubber that’s it awful! No one would want a drink from something that stinky, especially not a kitty with a sensitive nose. Keep running fresh water through the fountain until you’re convinced that YOU would be willing to take a little drink from your kitty’s new fountain. When there is no more smell, your kitty will eventually be tempted to investigate and hopefully taste the water that flows from his new gift.

Good Luck!

***********UPDATE*************

6/19/10

I have updated my rating of this fountain from 3 stars to 5. Willie is really enjoying his new source of water! He’s tried drinking from the bubbling source, the ramp, and the still pool at the bottom. He likes having a choice. Just in case this didn’t make the cut with him, I left his “old-fashioned” regular bowl of water setting next to the fountain and he walks right passed it in favor of his new gift.

Also, you should know the cleaning of this fountain couldn’t be easier. After I’ve washed the human dishes on Saturday, I simply unplug, disassemble, and hand wash the entire fountain. I put it back together and we’re good to go for another week. My plan is to disassemble the motor and clean it when I change the filter–which is going to be the middle of July. I think 45 days will be appropriate for both activities.

Well, once again, good luck if you purchase this pet fountain. I hope your experience is as favorable as ours. Two paws up from Willie, the 20-year-old cat.

I was getting really worried about my cat, Zoe, as her water bowl did not appear to be getting any action. Ad this to the fact that Zoe would literally LEAP the moment any faucet would turn on, I was very concerned about her being at risk for a urinary infection. It’s not at all sensible to keep the taps running all day for her, so this was a fantastic buy!

It’s about the same cost as all the other kitty fountains out there, but I feel it is hands down the prettiest out there. I was really attracted to the black ceramic fountain, and probably would have gotten that one if it wasn’t back ordered. That said, the steel fountain looks really slick on my bamboo floors.

Zoe immediately took the fountain (though she played with it a lot in the first few days, that calmed once she got used to it and there are no more puddles on the floor!). She loves drinking right out of the fountain, but she also likes licking the water right off the incline as well. I’ve never seen her drink out of the pool part of the bowl, but we already knew she didn’t like bowls

I have the fountain on the highest setting, so it’s definitely noticeable when you are in the room(my living room is connected to my kitchen). I quickly got used to it though, once I convinced myself I didn’t have to get up to make sure that sounds wasn’t the faucets running! This might bother someone so I’d like to note the lower setting was nearly silent.

Aside from my Breeze kitty litter system(LOVE!), this is my favorite purchase for my kitty. She loves it cause it makes the right noises to get her excited about drinking, and I love it cause she’s drinking!! And it’s very pretty and fits in well with my apartment. I would highly recommend.

Would like to note that cleaning looks simple, but I haven’t had it long enough yet to report on this. Will update at a later time.

***UPDATE 5.18.10*** Having just cleaned out the fountain today, I can assure you it was incredibly easy to clean, and clean thoroughly.. even for tired, grumpy, just got home from work me

There are four main pieces on the fountain: The top piece that sits in the lower bowl, and a plastic container inside (that holds the motor and filter) which just snaps right apart. It takes a few seconds to pull out the motor from the inner piece, but once it’s out, it was very simple to wash down all four pieces with a sponge. The insides are all large and curved and easy to scrub down with a sponge, no tiny areas you need to dig into.

This was a big feature for me, because I know I am not good at keeping up on intricate, detailed cleaning. I couldn’t bear to have a fountain that wasn’t easy to clean.. it would just be a pain for both me and the cat! This fountain really is beautiful, easy to clean, and the filter works like a champ!

I had ordered the ceramic fountain, but got the stainless instead as the ceramic one was back ordered. While not as pretty, it is more practical, as it will not break if knocked around. The parts go together easily, and the cats took to it quickly. Some drink the flowing water, and somedrink in the “quiet ” part of the bowl. It is not as much of a fountain as some of the other styles (the water runs down a trough into bowl) but the cats don’t seem to want to play in it quite as much. One star taken off because while it hold 50 some odd ounces, if it gets down a third the pump will not move water, so it needs to be refilled more frequently than I had expected. It is easy to clean, and that is a big bonus. The filter needs to be replaced once a month (at least at my house, where the well water has a lot of sediment) and that might get pricy. All and all I am pleased. I do not use it for my dogs though, as I would need to refill constantly. A good choice for people who want to encourage their cats to drink more (Kidney disease, urinary tract problems)
AFTER A YEAR 2/11: Had to stop using this, as the cats did want to play with it. They would dislodge the top and I would find water everywhere. The filter was not useful, and the pump screen got clogged easily. (I have many cats.) I bought two, and on the first the pump motor died after a few months. Went back to the drinkwell.

I searched around for a stainless steel pet fountain for our two cats and puppy. The cats had been drinking a lot from our bathroom faucet, so they really like flowing water. The Pioneer Pet Rain Drop Pet Fountain is sized reasonably, the water flows down the ramp and into the “still water” area, and is very quiet. Our cats drink from both the sill area as well as the top of the water flow. Our puppy loves to drink the water as it falls down the ramp.

A huge positive in my opinion is that I have been re-using the filter by refilling it myself. The filter casing is plastic and is in two halves that fit together. You can carefully separate the filter top and bottom(it has small plastic posts on one side that fit into holes on the other side of the filter casing)and dump out the old filter floss and activated carbon. Then go to a pet supply store and buy a bag of floss and activated carbon, I fill up one side with the carbon, then put some filter floss on top and rejoin the top and bottom halves. The result is a fresh new filter. A big bag of filter floss is $5 at the pet store, and a big jar of activated carbon is also about $5. So for about $10 I have over a year supply of the materials for new filters – which is much cheaper than buying new filters themselves. I’ve been changing the filter 1X per month, washing out the filter housing and pump, and running the pet fountain itself through the dishwasher. This pet fountain has ran reliably for over 6 months now. Our cats and puppy love it and we highly recommend it. It also looks stylish, which is a nice bonus.

This is one of my few reviews for any product. But since there were so many mixed reviews on this fountain, I wanted to share my experience-especially since it has been such a good one. My cat had a blocked urethra about 2 years ago, when we switched him to urinary tract health food and a water drinking fountain. After my vet bills and the fear of him ever having to go through this again, I bought the best water-drinking “encourager” apparatus I could buy. That was the Drinkwell Platinum water fountain. That fountain proved to need very frequent cleaning (we only have the one cat) and was a major pain to clean. It has about 8 separate parts that all have to be disassembled to be washed, fit very awkwardly in the dishwasher, and don’t even seem to get squeaky clean after being in the dishwasher and being scrubbed by hand. It is also big and having just the one cat, I wanted something smaller. (By the way, it would be perfectly fine for 2 cats. If you have 3, then you will be filling it a lot, still worth it compared to cleaning the other though). About 3 months ago, I was looking for a smaller, easier to clean alternative. I found it! My cat did not take to it right away, but did within a day or two. After he got familiar with it, he loves it. My husband even commented that he is drinking more water. That should say enough, but I will mention a few more things. Even with more frequent visits to this fountain, it needs far less frequent cleaning. I don’t know if its the stainless steel or what? It is compact, quiet, and a breeze to clean. It has three parts. Simple! The base, the pump, and the cover. I throw the base and cover in the dishwasher and scrub the pump by hand. Squeaky clean. I know some reviewers said the pump is loud. Well, mine makes some noise, but only for about 10-15 seconds when I first turn the pump back on after cleaning (while the water is being circulated again). I do need to refill it more than the Drinkwell, but not everyday or even more than twice a week. My cat and I could not love this thing any more!!!

I have gone through three pet fountains well before their natural lifespan because the calcium and other sediment in our local water builds up so badly on the plastic that no amount of decalcification and cleaning will get it off. While it’s theoretically no harm to our cat, it bothers me that it ends up looking so icky and that the plastic starts feeling rough. I’ve even tried using the water that’s gone through our Brita filter, but either we forget to use it or the build-up just happens anyway. One of the fountains we had used in the past had a stainless steel track but a plastic reservoir. I thought that might help, and it did. The track was easy to clean and stayed nice, but the plastic bowl and reservoir got the same build-up.

After my most recent fountain started looking not-so-fresh, I decided to search again for a pet fountain. Finally, someone has made one of these fountains almost entirely out of stainless steel! I ordered it right away. In fact, I ordered it on Friday and it arrived on Sunday (yes, SUNDAY). Setup was very easy. The design is very elegant, and, thanks to the curves, there’s no corners for things to get caught in. The stainless steel parts are incredibly easy to clean.

The only plastic part is the case enclosing the pump and the filter. It’s a plastic clamshell piece. It’s small enough that I think the calcification won’t be as much of a problem with it. Also, it’s hidden, so if it is just a matter of it not looking as nice, you aren’t looking at it.

Best of all, this fountain operates silently. I know many of the fountains say this, but this one really does run silent. I think that is part of why my cat took to it right away. We usually had to wean him from one to another, but this one he went right up to and drank…no “break-in” period.

It’s also just beautiful to look at. You could put this in your bathroom and guests would think it was one of those zen fountains instead of a pet fountain.

This fountain is great if you have one or 2 small animals-our dog and cat share it and they are the same size. It does spill over where the water runs down into the bottom if you fill it too full. Our rug was soaking one morning and we didn’t know why until we saw the fountain nearly empty! And it does make sputtering noises if it gets low at all-sounds like it’s really low but it’s not-but it’s nice to have a circulating fountain for fresh water for them. It has to be filled probably every other day and cleaned once a week but the filter seems to last 2 weeks and it stays way cleaner than the plastic variety! That’s the best part!

We replaced a “Drink Well” fountain with this one.

Great choice. Silent. Cats took to it right away.

There was a very slight rubber smell that was eliminated with one soap & water washing.

Great design. I highly recommend this product.

I had been using a drinkwell fountain for my two cats, and along with the pump being noisy, it was not horribly attractive and one of my cats would rip the lid that covers the area housing the filter to drink out of that part of the fountain only. Along with that she was constantly moving the fountain about and spilling water all over the place. By ordering the heavier ceramic verison of this raindrop design I have eliminated PoohBears ability to create massive spills on my countertop. Also the fountain was so so easy to put together , it seemed too easy to be true. When I first plugged in the fountain, I was pleased right away to note how much more quiet the pump was compared to the one on the drinkwell fountain. Also PoohBear took to drinking out of the fountain within mere minutes and the fountain is way more asthetically pleasing to the eye and looks like a fountain you would add to your home decor. I have had it for over a week now, and no problems, no complaints! I am very pleased with this fountain and would recommend it to anyone.