Sammys Clubhouse Ferret Rescue from Spokane Valley WA
I have in my home, ferrets, dogs and a cat. They all drink more with this unit. Although I advise a mat of some type to catch the water from the animals that play in it - like my ferrets.
So simple to keep clean. Filters are available just about anywhere.
Again - this unit is simply awesome.
23 out of 24 found this review helpful
Chris from Austin, Texas
The fountain I had operated fine, and my dog and cats loved it, and I loved providing it for them. But I had to stop using it because it was far too much trouble to clean. The animals' saliva feeds the growth of an orange algae which looks terrible and (I assume) isn't good for their health.
The problem is that the fountain has many, many corners and crannies that are very hard to get into. Once a week I disassembled the fountain and the submersible pump, cleaned every surface, sanitized with Simple Green, or sometimes bleach if the algae was especially bad, and thoroughly rinsed everything twice. The filters are too expensive to replace weekly. I didn't sanitize them because the activated charcoal would probably retain whatever chemical I used, so I blasted them with hot tap water, hoped for the best, and replaced the filter every 4-6 weeks.
Fully cleaning the fountain and pump required taking everything apart and getting into every little corner with Q-tips and a tiny, tapered bottle brush which I think was made for cleaning kitten milk replacement bottles. Then I sprayed with a sanitizer, let it sit, rinsed everything thoroughly, twice, and put it all back together. Every cleaning was 20-30 minutes of work (excluding time for the sanitizer to sit and work), and that was more than I was willing to do.
I can't understand why Drinkwell made this so hard to clean. Their own testing must have shown how fast the algae grows, how often the fountain has to be cleaned, and how hard it is to clean. Many of the corners could have been filled in and rounded with a little extra plastic, making them much easier to clean, and the pump could be redesigned for easier cleaning.
As much as my animals loved the fountain, I had to ditch it. I went back to a large ceramic water dish, which I dump and refill twice a day, and wash every other day.
11 out of 11 found this review helpful