Ceramic Pet Water Fountain

Cats are poor drinkers by design. They evolved to get most of their water from prey, and a cat on a dry-food diet is often running a permanent mild deficit. Moving water is more attractive to most cats than a still bowl, and a fountain is a genuinely useful thing to put in front of an animal whose kidneys have to last twenty years.

The basin is glazed ceramic, which matters for two reasons: it does not go cloudy and scratched the way a plastic reservoir does after six months of daily washing, and the weight means a cat cannot shunt it across the floor. It lifts off the pump housing and goes in the dishwasher.

The pump is rated at under 30dB, quiet enough to sit in a kitchen overnight without anyone noticing. It will get noisy if it runs dry, so keep the level above the marked line, and it will get noisy if the impeller furs up, which is what the monthly clean is for. Both are user-fixable in two minutes.

Replace the carbon filter every four weeks and rinse the impeller at the same time; both are stocked here separately and the fountain is designed so you never have to buy a whole new unit to keep it going. Two litres is roughly a week for two cats.