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Water Fountain?

post #1 of 12
9/3/11 at 8:40am
Thread Starter 
Hello all. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a really nice but also easy to clean water drinking fountain for kitties?

I had a Petmate Fresh Flow Pet Fountain and my cats LOVED it. My cat now has become a water snob since we got rid of it & I would really love to get a new one.

My problem is I don't have a dishwasher and the one I had and many others I looked at are impossible to clean. Even with regular washing it would get filthy and I just couldn't get in all the little crevices to clean.
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post #2 of 12
9/3/11 at 12:08pm
I have a Drinkwell fountain, and I don't find it too hard to clean. Once a week I do a real good cleaning, I take it all apart and soak it in the sink with hot water and sanitizer (actually beer line sanitizer for the kegerator) for a half hour, then rinse it, scrub it with a little bottle brush type thing and rinse some more. As far as I can see, I get all the gunk off. before we had the kegerator and the sanitizer, I soaked it in hot water with dish soap, and that worked fine too.

We do have a dishwasher, but I forget about it even though it's right next to the sink, because we never use it!
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post #3 of 12
9/3/11 at 2:27pm
http://www.waterfountaindesign.net/w...Fountain-1.jpg

I have a Petmate and my cats love it. I find it very easy to clean. But with 3 cats, I need to replenish the water daily or it makes that low water aerating noise. I definitely need to find a large dog sized one, lol
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post #4 of 12
9/3/11 at 4:11pm
I have two Drinkwell Platinums, and while its no big deal to throw them in the dish washer, I'd never want to wash them by hand. Yucky! If you want to be thorough, there's just too many surfaces, including the long tube that needs a special cleaner brush to access.

Without a dishwasher, the no-brainer from the ones I've tried would be the Pioneer Big Max: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3jm...el_video_title

It is available in Black Ceramic, White Ceramic, and Stainless Steel. The only downside with the stainless one, is that its fairly light weight so when its low on water is easier to push around and it can dent if you're really careless. The ceramic on the other hand is quite heavy and resistant to dings, but they are the same price so is just a personal preference thing.

Ceramic: http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Cerami...5091440&sr=8-2
Stainless Steel: http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Founta...5091440&sr=8-1
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post #5 of 12
9/4/11 at 1:58pm
Hey
I've had a couple of petmate's and a old style cat it (with the big dome). I can say that I like the petmate's better because the filter on the catit would get clogged very very quickly and sometimes the water would not gurgle down into the bowl. I think my cat's liked the catit better though, if that makes any difference.
I am currently using a homemade fountain made out of a large stainless steel dog bowl with a rubberized bottom and a fish tank filter. The filter is just hung on the outside of the bowl. It's not as pretty, but the bowl carries about a litre and a half, and is very easy to clean AND the filters are much cheaper than the speciality ones for the cat bowls. Downsides are that it is not pretty and you have to go to a place that supplies fish to get the filters.

Ducman: out of curiosity, why aren't you using the bigmax anymore? They look rather nice!
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post #6 of 12
9/4/11 at 2:24pm
I'd love to get one like this, but I haven't been able to find one in North America, specifically in Canada. I'd even order from the USA if I found a supplier there.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/c...untains/146304
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post #7 of 12
9/4/11 at 9:36pm
I use the Platinum drink well fountain. Something just dawned on me and a friend suggested as well that this could be the culprit to five of my six cats and chin acne. Pipsqueak has a severe case and it is getting worse. The antibiotics are not helping. I have been driving myself crazy trying to get to the bottom of this problem. Diet, bowls, feeding mats, etc. I have been cleaning chins for weeks. It has to be my fountain. It must have bacteria running through and I have not been cleaning the unit properly even though I take it all apart once a week and scrub with hot water and soap. It is impossible to get in all of those crevices. Why I never put it in the dishwasher was just . I am taking the fountain away in the morning to see if chins clear up. I do love the fountain and my cats love to drink from it but The Platinum is too difficult to clean and once the slim starts, it is a huge battle to keep it de-slimmed. My gosh, could this be the answer to this medical nightmare for my babies. poor Pipsqueak, I feel so bad.
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post #8 of 12
9/5/11 at 1:49pm
I have a big dome shaped one (I think it might be catit), and the water doesn't flow properly over the dome unfortunately. I have tried rubbing the dome, through the bit where the water comes out, but it hasn't fixed it. :-(
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post #9 of 12
9/5/11 at 2:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalie_ca View Post
I'd love to get one like this, but I haven't been able to find one in North America, specifically in Canada. I'd even order from the USA if I found a supplier there.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/c...untains/146304
Cool design, hadn't seen that one before! Thanks for sharing.
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post #10 of 12
9/5/11 at 4:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jessy View Post
I have a big dome shaped one (I think it might be catit), and the water doesn't flow properly over the dome unfortunately. I have tried rubbing the dome, through the bit where the water comes out, but it hasn't fixed it. :-(
That was one of the many issues I had with that one. I wonder if the newer small ones would work better?
I spent way too much time talking to that fountain trying to convince it to work the way it should.
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post #11 of 12
9/6/11 at 6:08am
When I was looking to buy a water fountain, I looked at this one as well:

http://smartshopbuy.com/images/AnimalSupplies/hagen-catit-fresh-clear-water-fountain-for-ca.jp

The first thing that came to my mind was kitty slobber all over the dome from it being licked, and how gross it must be to try and clean it. Which is why I went with the Petmate one.

I'd still like a heavy ceramic one though. The Petmate is virtually silent, but cats have excellent hearing, and while I can't hear the fountain unless I'm up close to it, the cats can hear the aerating sound of the water and push, pull and tug the fountain all over the dining room as far as the cord will allow them to. No water gets spilled, but it's still annoying, lol
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post #12 of 12
9/6/11 at 12:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylorna View Post
That was one of the many issues I had with that one. I wonder if the newer small ones would work better?
I spent way too much time talking to that fountain trying to convince it to work the way it should.
that's so funny! This fountain is driving me nuts! I thought I was doing something wrong!
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