Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsHARD TO CLEAN!! DOES NOT FILTER!! Gets dirty EXTREMELY fast! Filters don't even fit!
Reviewed in Canada on May 12, 2024
Alright, to start, I had been using Catit flower fountains for a few years before making this purchase. This fountain looked perfect, and I thought it was exactly what I wanted. So, I purchased this fountain in October 2023. I intended to have both my Catit flower and this fountain run at the same time (one in the common area, one in my bedroom) so the cats would always have plenty of easy access to water. I originally hoped to retire my catit flower fountain to eventually get a second one of these.
The primary reason I was hoping to switch was because I wanted to move away from plastic to provide my cats with a stainless steel fountain, and because I hate the cheesy cheap look for the flower fountain. I like tacky things, but the flower fountain looks tacky in a cringy way. My cats are also obsessed with faucets, and I thought this design might attract them because of its faucet-like design. I also wanted something super quiet, that clearly showed the water level, and I was hoping for something that was easier to clean with less parts.
During the first month, I loved it! I thought it was perfect... however, the longer I've used it, the more I noticed its problems. A deep clean only lasts a few days before the whole interior gets slimy and grimy. The filters DO NOTHING on this thing. The water pump collects a ton of slime that is difficult to clean out because there's a bunch of tiny holes for the slime to collect into. I can spend half an hour deep cleaning the pump to get rid of all of the slime from all the of the tiny holes, and then it becomes just as extremely dirty against in just a few days (less than a week).
Using the exact filters it came with... they do NOTHING. Firstly, the filters this fountain comes with are VERY SMALL... in fact, they don't even fit in the filter holder properly. They are extremely loose fitting, which means lots of dirt and debris goes through. Just watching the promotional video for this fountain, the clip where the woman drops in the filter gives you a hint at how just how loosely the filters fit. It's too small and too lose and doesn't cover the entire base, therefore it can't properly filter anything.
In comparison, the Catit flower fountain filters fit TIGHTLY so that debris cannot go through, which means the water stays clean longer and it doesn't get slimy within days (in fact, I don't deal with a lot of slime build-up in the Catit at all, usually only if it was overdue for a deep clean).
Another problem is the pump itself. It technically works perfectly fine, but it is SO HARD TO CLEAN. The mesh filters to wrap around it DO NOTHING. If the main filter actually worked, you shouldn't even need this mesh filter to begin with (just like the Catit Flower Fountain doesn't need a mesh filter around the base of the pump). Because the filters do not filter and do not stop debris from going through, the interior gets slimy and dirty extremely fast, which means slime rapidly starts collecting in the filter grid holes, and this is EXTREMELY time consuming to clean out every other day.
I was excited about this stainless steel filter because I thought it would be less annoying to clean than the catit... but the filter alone is what makes it a much bigger pain to clean... which wouldn't be so bad if the filters for this fountain actually fit and filtered anything.
**********************
PROS:
- When it's freshly deep cleaned, my cats do appear to like this one better than the Catit fountain...
(but this only lasts like two days before they stop using it because the water gets nasty because the filters don't actually filter anything.)
- The water level window is so convenient. The LED light makes it easy to see at night and it's much easier to see the water level at a quick glance as compared to the Catit flower fountain.
- It's actually super quiet. Definitely quieter than the Catit flower.
- The design is much more visually appealing that the cheesy ugly Catit Flower Fountain
CONS:
- The filters for this machine do not actually fit in the filter container. They are too small and fit super loosely, which means it doesn't actually even filter anything. Debris goes right through, and when I clean I always see dirt that went right through BECAUSE THE FILTERS ARE TOO SMALL. This has NEVER been an issue with the Catit fountains.
- The mesh filter thing for the pump does nothing and is a pointless extra step and extra waste
- The pump has so many little holes that quickly accumulate slime which makes it a time-consuming nightmare to clean, especially since the filters are tiny and useless and fit so loosely that dirty easily goes right through so that a deep clean only lasts a few days.
- The drain to the pointless filter container clogs up very easily, especially as I have a long hair cat who sheds a lot. It keeps collecting his fur and clogging it. Again, this has never an issue with the Catit Flower.
If this fountain had filters THAT WERE ACTUALLY DESIGNED TO BE CAPABLE OF FILTERING, and had a pump that was easier to clean (catit pump is MUCH easier to keep clean), then I would love this fountain.