Customer Reviews

Petmate Fresh Flow Pet Fountain, Medium, White

5 star:		(325)
4 star:		(189)
3 star:		(91)
2 star:		(85)
1 star:		(113)

 

 

My 4 cats love this fountain and they drink a lot more water now. Depending upon how you have the flow lever adjusted, the water stream can either be silent or a gentle trickle noise.

I have had 3 of these fountains in 3 years. The only problem I have had is with the pump. Like any water pump, the water level must be above the pump so the pump will not be damaged. I burnt out the first pump this way (shame on me). The second pump became severely clogged and stopped when one cat vomited grass into the dish while I was away (naughty kitty). The third pump dying is a mystery to me. It wasn't even a year old. Unfortunately, I just returned it today before reading one reviewer's directions on taking the pump apart for cleaning.

Even with the pump issue, I'll buy this product again. The cats love it, it is easy to clean, and fresh water is good for my cats' health. By the way, I can't imagine how some people are getting algae, etc., with this system. Basic cleaning is required of any food or water dish. The only part of this unit that cannot be cleaned with a sponge is a narrow plastic funnel that brings the water up to the fountain head. A Q-Tip works great for cleaning that.

I bought this fountain to replace a waterer much like the giant bottles you fill and turn upside down. I was concerned my cat would not like it, as he is very skittish around motorized devices (the LitterMaid was a bad purchase - scared him so bad he didnt want to use the litter box anymore). My cat loves this fountain! He now drinks much more than he did before and is not bothered at all by the pump, which is very quiet.

Assembly: Easy. Just follow the instructions and make sure you thoroughly rinse the carbon filter before putting it in the fountain. If not, you will get little black pieces of carbon on the ramp and in the filter chamber. Also make sure you fill up the tub and reservoir appropriately so you don't burn out the pump.

Cleaning: I have had my fountain 2 weeks and had to clean minor pieces of fur from and bits of food out of the tub. Cleaning is easy. The most difficult part is just getting any stray particles of things that have wandered into tight corners. Bunching up a paper towel works well :)

Usage: Great! Once you fill the initial tub and reservoir, it takes about a minute or so for the water to start flowing down the ramp. This is because the pump has to put enough water into the upper right hand chamber (where the filter is - not the blue chamber) to fill it and have it run down the ramp. During this time you can hear the pump, but once it starts flowing, the pump becomes extremely quiet.

Overall, I am very happy with this purchase!

I had a Drinkwell fountain for awhile, for my two cats at home. I also have two cats at work and decided to bring the Drinkwell in for them and I got one of these Fresh Flow fountains for home. I switched at home because I thought the Drinkwell was a pain to clean. The first time I changed out the Fresh Flow I was wishing I had just gotten another Drinkwell. The two main components of the Fresh Flow are easier to clean than the Drinkwell but the benefits stop there. The reservoir is very small and impossible to clean. The water in the bowl gets full of crud the very first day and it all just sits in the bottom (Fur, bits of food, dirt from one cat's paw who likes to dip his paw into the bowl). It needs to be cleaned constantly. The bowl part is too shallow and the water doesn't seem to move out of the reservoir correctly, and the water level in the bowl gets too low and the pump makes sucking noises. The pump itself gets coated in slimy goo.

My cats also prefer the actual waterfall the Drinkwell provides. I've never seen them lap water from the plastic slide in the Fresh Flow. I gave it to a friend and bought another Drinkwell for home. Drinkwell filters are cheaper and easier to find, so even though it's more expensive initially it turns out to be the better deal.

I received the PetMate FreshFlow in November, 2005, and put it to work right away. My wife and I have six cats, ranging from longhair to shorthair to haireverywhere, and I am pretty sure they all drank from it. They became accustomed to it very quickly, the youngest being absolutely fascinated by it. The entire time, I also had a high-capacity gravity-fed waterer in another room, so it wasn't the only source of water being used.

Most noticible is that the FreshFlow is almost silent when the water is topped off, but if the water level falls, there is a very discernable motorized-gurgling noise. This goes away as soon as you refill the reservoir tank by removing the lid, pulling out the tank (which reminds me a bit of a gerbil waterer on steroids), unscrewing the cap, filling it up, then doing all this in reverse; a 30-second process.

The gurgling happens every day, and I would rinse the unit every couple/few days, and completely wash the unit out once every two weeks. I also changed the filter regularly, at least once a month. Beyond this, I made a point of pulling cat hair away from the little plastic screen in the water bowl, well, all the time. In short, I thought I did a pretty good job in maintaining the equipment. Any more than what I did, and honestly, I would rather buy surgical steel dishes and rotate them on a daily basis for the cat's use.

Still, after taking the machine apart completely every few weeks to clean as instructed, the submersible pump failed after exactly 19 weeks and three days of use. I liked the machine... when it was working.

I just purchased a pet fountain from a different company (I can't recall the make offhand... I should be receiving it soon) that ran in the $40 neighborhood, and I think it will be worth the extra money, but time will tell.

All in all, I don't think this purchase was worth it. Maybe it's because of all the cats and cat hair, but for those of us at least who do have a multiple cat household, I think it's wise to consider buying a higher-scale unit.

Like most other products on the market with moving parts, this fountain works well as long as a few simple steps are followed. I have three cats, all drink out of the fountain regularly. I've had this product for almost three years, and so far it has operated flawlessly. I refill the water reservoir daily - even if there is water left in the reservoir I empty it and refill it with fresh water. The entire unit gets taken apart and washed out probably once every 6 weeks to 2 months, and I replace the charcoal filter three or four times a year. The most important thing with this fountain is to keep it clean of fur - the loose fur tends to clump at the inlet of the submersible pump, starving it of water. Rather than taking the pump completely out every month to clean the hair out of it, I used an old pair of my wife's panty-hose to make a bunch of little pre-filters. I put put a small hole near the top of the piece of material, slide the hole over the speed control, and anchor the bottom in place with the removable housing. The home-made screen catches the pet hair and other debris before it enters the pump chamber, and I just scoop it away every couple of days with my fingers (sometimes I use the tines of a fork).

First of all, this product is virtually silent; only if one stands very closely can one hear a soft gurgling of water. The loud motor noises others have reported are due to low water levels as indicated in the instruction book. Mine started out with that noise; as soon as I brought the water to the proper level, the noise stopped immediately.
I found this model a bit difficult to assemble--the diagram wasn't that helpful to me for the smaller parts. That may be my own limitation. This is clearly a low-budget model, but I wanted to make sure my cat would use it. I don't have expectations of it lasting a very long time, but so far I really can't see that a higher-priced model would do a better job. I did crack one small piece (a strainer thingy) during assembly, but I was still able to use the part and the mechanism is working fine.
My cat took to this immediately, and now I no longer have to wastefully leave a bathroom tap dripping in order to encourage her to drink.
You can purchase replacement filters at the same time you buy this unit.

Even after reading several reviews, I was still skeptical that my cats (both of them sink drinkers for 3 years) would switch over. My husband and I were worried about the amount of water they were getting, since we were not home during the day to give them fresh water and they would *not* drink from their bowl. One week after purchasing the waterer, both cats were drinking from the fountain like they had their entire lives. Training was relatively easy as well, we would just pick them up from the sink and take them to the waterer each time they jumped up on the counter. The unit is very quiet and simple to assemble, also seems easy to clean so far. Well worth the money, plus it is cheaper on Amazon.com than some other sites I found.

I was concerned from other reviews that it might be too noisy-after the pump fills and starts the waterfall, it is very quiet, almost inaudible. All of my cats love drinking out of it. I clean it weekly, which admittedly isn't as easy as cleaning a plain water bowl, but I think it's worth the extra 10 minutes. It's funny as now they wait for me to put the fountain back vs. drinking out of a plain bowl. I use the filtered water from my refrigerator and the charcoal filters that came w/ it. The customer service from Entirely [...] was wonderful and this item arrived in a few days. I now shop directly at their web store since they carry CNET dental cat chews that really clean their teeth-Greenies get gobbled too quickly w/o any dental effect.

Having recently adopted two very large cats to join our one Himalayan, we quickly realized that just putting water in a dish wasn't going to cut it anymore, and neither was refilling it several times a day going to work either. Well, we quickly came across this unit and decided to give it a try. Are we ever glad we did! This thing is so quiet that you have to look at it closely just to make sure it's working.

The assembly directions aren't real clear, but it's pretty intuative as to what to do to get it working. I had water running through it in just a matter of minutes.

Being committed to drinking filtered water ourselves, we wanted the same option for our cats, and were pleased to realize that this unit includes at least a charcoal filter through which all the water passes. Very nice inclusion, if you ask me.

Buy it, you won't be sorry you did.

My three cats; Max, Smokey and Charlie just love my new pet waterer. I was a little hesitant to buy it because Max just loves to play in the water and I didn't want a mess. The first day I had it; he sat and kept putting his paw in it but after that he hasn't played in it at all. He loves to drink right from the water slide and he'll just sit and watch the water come down the slide. Smokey and Charlie have adjusted to it as well and I think all three of them are drinking more water. I've had it for 2wks now and today I cleaned it for the first time. It was very easy to take apart, clean and reassemble. It is so nice to not have to worry about my cats having fresh water. I would highly recommend this product to any cat lover.