Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This thing is great. I just read through several of the poor reviews purely becuase I came back to give 5 stars and was shocked to find that it wasn't rated higher. Frankly, most of the issues seem super petty and after trying several of these over the past few months, I'm pretty positive that this is the first doggy drinking fountain they've owned. Here's my two cents on why this guy takes first place (by a landslide) over 3 others that I've tried. Water movement & noise: Some of these fountains seem to be going for a real fountain-like display, and in doing so, you end up with tiny streams of water that don't quench your pups thirst and have a tendency to be noisy. This has more of a central overflow waterfall design which circulates the water more quickly than others I've tried and makes it nearly dead silent. As someone pointed out, when the water level gets to nearly empty, it gets a bit noisier and makes a gargling sound. Um, yeah, when a water pump no longer has water to pump it gets noisy. That's why they call this a water fountain and not an air circulator. To me the noise is a great reminder that the dogs need water. Fill it past that 1/8 inch mark and presto, no more noise. "Drinkable water basin" - another common theme I've found even with some higher capacity models is that the actual basin of water available to your pet at any given time tends to be relatively small. My ~65 lb lab mix could clear out the last one we had with about the same overall capacity in about 10 seconds. Leaving him to rely on the little stream of water dribbling from the plastic tree tops ( or whatever they were). We all know that look that our pets give when they are in clear disagreement about something... Let's just say I found him just standing and giving that same look to our last two fountains on more than one occasion. This one has a nice big basin And still circulates the water really well. In fact the volume of water being circulated with this design is probably about twice that of any others that I've had. Solid design for sure. Capacity Capacity is awesome on this guy. I've got one medium-large dog and one medium-small dog sharing this as their only water source and depending on their activity levels, a good fill will last anywhere from a couple of days to 3-4 if I let it go all the way to empty. I've started just keeping a pitcher handy and topping it off when I feed them though so that I'm not letting the pump run dry if I can avoid it. Stand to reason that I'll squeeze a bit more life out if it but we shall see. Refilling The design makes it easy to see the water level and large basin and high water flow make it easy to just pour from a pitcher while it's still going without much hesitation. Almost all of the others that we've tried required you to pour just a little at a time and wait for it to trickle down or makes it's way into the filtration. Someone downgraded their rating because there was no fill line. It's a bowl... Don't fill it past where the sides of the bowl end and you should be just fine. This approach had allowed me to fill stress free without even considering that I need further instruction for completing this task. Pro Tip: THERE'S A LIGHT ON THIS THING, CLICK THE BUTTON ON THE POWER CORD. Maybe I'm dumb, but I didn't notice the button until weeks after starting to use the fountain. Makes it a lot easier to see the water level ... Duh! Cleanliness Again not understanding some of the comments on this. This is a drinking fountain/water bowl that adds a little extra help to keep the water from being totally stagnant with hair and particles of food forming a protective layer on top. Our little guy REALLY appreciates this as he would often show his disgust when he had to drink right after big brother who is a bit less hygienic. This was actually what started us down this path to begin with and is a definite success with this fountain. That said, if your expectation is that this will filter the water like a Britta pitcher and magically make all the crap that falls out of your dogs teeth vanish into thin air, you may want to reset your expectations a bit or consider purchasing a Britta pitcher instead. The filters most definitely help and the circulation itself does a lot to keep things a bit cleaner, but if you have messy mouth dogs, this is not going to solve that for you. Overall this thing is sturdy and fits together nicely (apparently not a concern for some manufacturers), holds plenty of water for our two dogs, doesn't make much noise unless our dogs are about to be out of water, and serves the purpose of providing some filtration and water that isn't totally gross for several days. At half the price of other high capacity models. Not too bad. And no, I was not paid for this review, I just came back to give a rating after filling the fountain this morning and couldn't let the pettiness of a few detur others away from what I've find to be a great product. Hopefully this review will help those fountain shopping for the first time get a feel for some things to keep an eye on. Skip the $20 bargain fountains and just buy this one, you'll thank me later.