Two of my cats came down with pretty severe chin acne, and I was advised to get rid of any and all plastic dishes as they can be a breeding ground for bacteria. I had a Drinkwell Platinum water fountain that I loved and my cats loved, but unfortunately it was all plastic.
I replaced it with Drinkwell’s Stainless Steel fountain. Overall, I’m not happy with the way this fountain operates for a number of reasons.
- First, this fountain is substantially larger than the plastic fountain, so it requires more space.
- The area where the water pools is too small for the cats to drink from, and therefore, they must drink from the water stream… but they prefer to drink from the pooled water. It took them a while to get used to drinking from stream – they were afraid of it at first.
- The fountain’s filtration system is a cylindrical cartridge that doesn’t filter as well as the Drinkwell Platinum’s filter.
- Finally, the pump comes with a spongy piece that fits around the pump and blocks larger debris from clogging the filter. The issue with this piece is that it collected a great deal of debris and dirt and probably bacteria. This sponge ultimately prevented the water from flowing properly and made the water stream very weak, even at its highest setting. I removed this piece and the fountain seems to be operating better than when I initially took it out of the box.
Additionally, I clean the fountain fully every week, and it needs it! It gets really slimy and I find cat hair in there floating around. Overall, I wish Drinkwell was able to make a stainless steel version of their Platinum model.
