Review: Ceramic Water Fountain

Hammacher Schlemmer makes ceramic water fountains for pets that make your nicest casserole dish look outdated.  These water bowls come at a price tag in the range of $80-90 and though I could never afford such a water bowl, I was given two of these by some of my pet parents whose cats wanted nothing to do with them.  I was curious how well they would work, since most pet fountains are made of plastic and even some of the nicer plastic ones can come with hefty price tags.

When we adopted Nova & Naveen I did purchase a generic plastic fountain off of Groupon for a mere $22 or so.  It was my first fountain, though I've seen plenty in action, and I've had it for over a year now. Typically lower priced fountains mean their motors are louder, though I was very surprised how quiet my little generic fountain ran.

Back to the ceramic fountain, I kept one in the house for the dogs and one in the garage for the cats.  The thing I noticed right away, is that this isn't a fountain for dogs.. at least not large dogs.  I have a combined weight of about 90 lbs between our 3 dogs and this fountain needed refilling pretty much every day.  It has no reservoir and only holds approx 72 ounces.  When the water level dips too low, the motor is unable to pump the water, so even if there is still water in the bowl, it needs to be topped off, or the motor can stress and shorten it's life (that's just a fact of water pumps, not solely an issue with this fountain).

I also realized I made the mistake of placing these fountains under nightlights.  Because they have such a wide basin, there's a higher chance of catching more ick like bugs, hair, dirt, etc.  Because they were under nightlights, they would accumulate night time bugs, but the real surprise wasn't until I went to clean the fountain the first time.  Those bugs had all gotten sucked into the motor housing, so I never saw all those dead yuckers until cleaning!

Cleaning the unit doesn't seem any easier or harder than cleaning a plastic fountain.  Because our water comes from our private well from deep in the ground, we have an issue with minerals.  So the best way to clean it, is to soak it with vinegar and then use a scouring brush to wipe away the mineralization. 

Overall, the fountains are very aesthetically pleasing, if kept in pristine condition.  I would only recommend this one to smaller dogs and cats though, otherwise you'll be filling it on a daily basis.