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

Update 2: Auto CleaningI am continuing to use the original, and the extra unit that I purchased, rotating them each week, and using the dishwasher to clean the dirty unit. This has worked out great, for many months now. The only thing I was cleaning manually, was the motor core because I didn't want to risk damaging the electrical connector.I came up with a solution for that, and now the entire unit is cleaned in the dishwasher. I found a male connector to match the female connector that's on the cord of the motor, and I plug that in to keep water away from the metal parts of the female connector.The ceramic parts and the filter housing go straight into the dishwasher. The motor core, and the motor parts, and the two small plastic parts of the unit go into the silverware basket, with the lids on the compartments closed to keep the parts from washing out of the silverware basket.That's it! The dishwasher does a great job of cleaning everything, and the female connector on the motor cord is fine, after several months of doing this each week.Our four kitty buddies love this fountain. They drink far more water than any cats I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of cats.Update 1: I mentioned initially that I was thinking about getting a second unit. I did that and it has worked out quite well.Each week I fill the clean unit, then disassemble the dirty one and put ALL of the parts except the motor core, in the dishwasher. I spend another minute cleaning the motor core, and that's it; all set for next week!The work required to maintain is now less than 5 minutes/week. Also, since I handle the ceramic parts much less now, it's less likely that I'll break one. The cost/benefit ratio for buying the second unit is excellent—for me.----We rescued a one week old litter of kittens, that were drowning in our backyard during a violent thunderstorm. We ended up keeping four of them, and they are all very healthy and grown up.I mention this because two of them have very severe phobias about the sounds of rain, and of course thunder, so I worried that the sound of the running water would be a problem.No problem at all! All four of our kitty babies love this fountain, and they drink so much more water than they did before.I've read through a lot of the reviews and I have a list of tips that I think might avoid some of the problems people report:* We disassemble and clean the fountain, and install new filters once a week without fail. We could push it a little longer without too much trouble but the way I look at it, I want our babies drinking nice clean water, so changing the filters, even a little early, makes ME feel better if nothing else.* Usually once during the week, I will dump out all the water and rinse and refill the bowl. I don't consider this a cleaning per se, it's just that they manage to get little pieces of food in the water so dumping it out and replacing it halfway through the week just means that their water is cleaner, and it takes all of one minute to do.* I top off the water in the bowl each day. If I forget to do this and the water level gets too low, the fountain will start making sounds that are just annoying enough to serve as a reminder. So I consider that a feature, not a problem.* After every fourth cleaning (each month), I will clean and reassemble it without the filters, fill the bowl half full with water, add a 1/4 cup of chlorine bleach, and let it run for 5 minutes. Then I will dump out the water, rinse it thoroughly, fill it with fresh water and run the motor for a minute or so, dump out the water, install the filters and refill it with fresh water. I do this just to make sure that the ceramic and the few plastic parts remain free of bacteria. The bleach doesn't seem to have damaged any of the parts.* I have never had any problem with charcoal fragments or deposits in the bowl. Maybe that's just luck; all I can say for sure is that at each cleaning I use a new charcoal filter after running water through it while gently shaking it, and also inverting it a couple of times to run the water through it in both directions until it runs clear.* The ceramic sphere gets slippery with algae, and I realized the first time I cleaned it that dropping that thing would be easy, and since we have an enamel sink, it would undoubtedly break if I dropped it, so I have the habit of putting my finger through the hole on the top and always hold the sphere that way while cleaning it.* When we were bottle feeding the kitties, back when they were just tiny babies, we had tiny little bottles for the kitten formula. We had to clean those with little brushes, and then sterilize by boiling them. Those little brushes are perfect for cleaning the motor because they fit into all of the little crevices. I also use a toothbrush, and a dishwashing brush for the larger parts.* Once or twice when I was in a hurry, I have disassembled the unit and put everything but the motor core in the dishwasher. I put the tiny motor parts into the silverware basket that has a little lid that snaps down; that keeps them from getting washed out of the basket. I have seen no problems with any of the parts as a result of this.* This all sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't. I've got it down to about 10 minutes to clean the whole unit thoroughly.We love this fountain, and our kitties love it too! I am about to order a second unit because I know that eventually I will manage to break something. I can be kind of a klutz, and ceramic is ceramic.Some people have claimed that this unit is a little pricey, but my perspective on that is that it is quite a bargain considering the benefits of having it.

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.