Review on OlarHike Replacement Filters & Sponges For 61Oz/1.8L Stainless Steel Pet Water Fountain - 4 Pack Each, For Cats And Dogs by Tai Wiest

After reading the reviews, I had high expectations for this fountain. It is stainless steel throughout, which is nice, but might look a little too industrial depending on your decor or where you are planning to put it. Cleaning is a nightmare, since you have to remove the pump and pull through the very long power cable and then pull it back through for reassembly. The cord length is both a positive and a negative from my point of view. If you need that much cord, it's great, but for me it was a negative because I had to wind up and secure the cord every time I cleaned it because my cats are cats, and a long cord to them is a temptation. It's just a string in their eyes. Of course, this made cleaning even more of a pain. I clean the fountain 3x a week, so this was really a non-starter, but one I decided I'd deal with since my cats seemed to like it at first. Fast forward two months after purchase and the pump is making intermittent loud noises, which I suspect means failure is imminent. I've kept the pump clean, and took the parts off that I could to inspect it. There's no hard water buildup or anything like that, so maybe I just got a lemon since it shouldn't be failing in less than three months. Because of the noise, I was having to unplug it at night, which made it even more of a hassle to use. It's now happening often enough that it's scared my cats, so now they won't use it at all. At the end of the day, it's just a really expensive stainless steel dish. My cats prefer their taller plastic fountain, and for me, it's about getting liquids into my fur babies, so I can't recommend this fountain. Great concept, poor execution. It also doesn't have a way to see how much water's been consumed without taking the cover off, which is a total design flaw. I'd have sent it back if the pump had started making this noise before the return period, but of course that didn't happen. There are way better options out there, including fountains that don't require fighting with the cord to clean. I have one of those as well and it beats this fountain hands down. My cats even prefer it over this now non-functional fountain. The only upsides are 1. It's stainless steel, and 2. You can control the flow (not that noticeably, but it's a good feature if they developed it a little better. The downsides make those not all that worth it: 1. Hassle to clean, 2. Cord may be too long to be practical for some users and which makes the hassle of cleaning even worse, 3. Pretty short for adult cats, 4. No way to see how much water was consumed without removing the top, 5. Stainless gets water spots and over time I imagine this would end up looking like an old kitchen sink. That doesn't really go with my decor. Hope this helps someone who may be wading through all the positive reviews looking for an honest take on this product.