But not by a lot, although it's way more workable than fountains used to be, so it may be worth your while.
I've not had the unit long and I reserve the right to modify this review as I gain experience. Here's what I learned so far.
The good:
The filters last a long time, apparently.
Some monitoring possible via a mobile app
Much easier to clean in most respects compared to earlier pet fountains (with caveats, detailed below)
Decent capacity--does not require frequent refilling if you have two or fewer cats
Exceedingly quiet operation.
And most importantly the cats actually drink from it, although I won't go so far as to state that they're crazy about it.
The not so good:
Replacement filters are not widely available, nor are spare parts. Your local Petsmart or Petco is not going to carry them.
No monitoring is possible on the unit itself; the lone indicator light on the base tells you only what mode it's operating in, e.g., normal or so-called "smart."
Not all things are a breeze to clean and requires some creativity to do it right, as it turned out.
No included transformer and no power requirements specified for your own transformer. You have to hope what you have is adequate to run the fountain.
Inadequate documentation.
It's relatively easy to give it a decent cleaning out of the box, and assemble it. Which is good, because there are literally no instructions for this. Perhaps there are somewhere, but all you have in the box that is printed is a dozen pages of QR codes from which to to scan with your mobile device. For people who use and perhaps even love their mobile devices, more power to you.
But if you are not inclined to use mobile devices more than, say, your job demands of you, I find the situation frustrating. Not everybody prefers to use, or is able to use, a mobile device for everything.
I checked on the website in the hopes that they perhaps published something on it, e.g., step by step guides with illustrations. The only printable PDF is the same pamphlet, QR codes and all, that came in the box.
The only thing that had even a little bit of information was the mobile app. It at least provides some partial cleaning instructions and a suggested cleaning interval of weekly. It also keeps track of the filter life, although how it is able to discern this is unclear. I would personally measure a pressure drop across the filter, but there is no such mechanism in the fountain.
The app, however is buggy and no excuse for not having, say, a Change Filter indicator on the base that runs the fountain. Just one logic circuit to energize an LED, but do you think anybody thought of that? Evidently not. Also, every time you go out of Bluetooth range, you have to restart the app to get it to reconnect to the base.
But despite of these drawbacks, the fountain is, to its credit, not difficult to figure out in terms of assembly, usage, cleaning, and maintenance. Thank goodness. If I had to rely on the OEM's instructions, I would have already returned it.
I found that there are some challenges to cleaning the fountain that are not covered in the paltry instructions. It comes with a double-ended tool with a small, cylindrical cleaning brush on one end, and a pair of plastic tweezers on the other. The cleaning brush is adequate where it fits, although it doesn't quite get everywhere, particularly the small pump parts. For those small parts, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a pack of pipe cleaners, known as "chenille sticks" these days.
The tweezers, however, are useless. It's meant to extract the pump impeller from the pump housing but it simply does not have any grip! It can't get out the impeller with that tool. Fortunately, I have a tiny pair of needle-nose pliers that, when grabbing by an impeller blade with just a small amount of effort, it comes right out. The blades are made of tough nylon, so it shouldn't hurt anything if you don't go too crazy on it.
Overall, it's much easier to clean than fountains I've owned in the past, which addressed in large measure my chief concern about buying another pet fountain, which I've been avoiding for years due to their difficult cleaning and slime buildup.
In contrast, this fountain keeps the water surprisingly clean and not at all slimy, evidently due to its UV treatment and adequate filter design. I changed the water with its weekly cleaning and that seems to work out fine for this product. Thus, it appears to live up to its claim to keep the water actually clean. No slime experienced thus far.
Even better, our two cats keep drinking from it, although the fussier of the two still prefers having water trickle out of the sink faucet. But he doesn't do that nearly as much, which I'll take as a positive in favor of the fountain.
Despite its drawbacks, I would say, so far, that you should probably buy this if you wish for your cats to drink from a fountain rather than a static pool in a bowl, although the latter ...
Customer reviews for Petkit Eversweet 3 Pro Water Fountain for
