PETLIBRO Water Fountain for Cats, 2.5L/84oz, Automatic, WiFi Enabled

My cats love itTo defo buy

The overall concept of the fountain is good, it's just that the whole product should be stainless steel.My cat got chin acne because of the plastic nozzle.Not recommended.

Had this for over a year and has worked great! My cats love it and have drank water more consistently with it. Size and noise level as advertised. It is a bit of a chore to clean as the whole interior pump needs to be taken apart, should probably be cleaned once a week minimum or it gets slimy. But I imagine any fountain like this would require more maintenance than a simple bowl.

I recently replaced my previous cat bowl, the Catit plastic flower bowl, because it kept getting really gross and was a pain in the neck to clean with the cord the motor design, which always got full of gunk and was really difficult to get completely clean. I chose this one based on the fact the bowl/motor is wireless from the base and every piece comes completely apart. This one is awesome! While you can't put all of the parts in the dish washer (it's still mostly plastic), the motor itself disassembles so you can completely remove gunk out of any crevices. I picked this app version so I could get notifications on when the water gets low and the filters need changing/the bowl needs cleaning. That has been awesome since I previously would set it and forget it until the previous bowl got really noisy.One caveat: the notifications this one gives on how much water your pets have drank are only useful if you only have one cat. I have two, and while it's interesting to see when they drink, I don't know who is drinking when. If that's a meaningful feature to you, they sell a different version that can pair with collar tags to identify different animals. But for my purposes, which is just making sure my kitties always have clean, fresh water to drink, the app is good enough.Also, note this version is only a wireless *pump*. If you want the version whose base runs on a battery and doesn't need to be plugged into a wall, that's a different listing.

PROS:1. Simple, elegant design that doesn't draw attention2. Wifi and app alert you to low water and power/connection issuesCONS:1. Spillage - Major design flaw results in water puddles under the unit (see below)2. Braided USB Cable - Typically considered an indicator of a higher-quality cable, the fabric braiding just soaks up spilled water, becomes stained, and results in the harboring of mold and bacteria.3. Poor Cable Management - The notches cut into the feet of the base station have a hard time retaining the cable, which can cause water level misreadings when loose. PetLibro instructs the user to make sure the cable is installed in these cable management slots.4. Difficult Pump Disassembly for Cleaning - The plastic pieces of the pump assembly fit too tightly together, and make disassembly of the motor difficult for regular cleaning. Extra tools are often required to separate pieces that should easily come apart for regular cleaning. One of the pieces on mine has a crack from the force required to separate the piece from the pump.5. Mold & Bacteria - There are a number of tight "nooks and crannies" where bacteria and mold can grow in the motor housing behind the black mesh filter, as well as the plastic filter tray, that are too small to fit the included cleaning brushes into.6. Main Filter is Probably Useless - There is a silicone pipe that extends from the pump up to the plastic pieces of the bowl. The filters have a hole cut into them for this pipe to pass through. The hole is far too large, meaning debris such as fur, food, and other contaminants can simply drop right into the tank. In addition, the "tabs" on the filters cause additional small gaps for debris to pass through. I say "probably" useless, as whatever media is in the filter might actually do some filtering and/or bacteria reduction, but it's highly unlikely.More Information:This fountain suffers from a major design flaw. The stainless steel bowl is too shallow, and as a result, any animal that laps water near the edge will cause water to overflow the edges and form a puddle between the bowl and base station, as well as on the floor. This is a major flaw for a water fountain. In addition, the base station is NOT submersible, so water ingress through the feet of the unit could permanently damage the unit.I reached out to PetLibro about this flaw. As of May 9, 2025, PetLibro is choosing to ignore the issue, and has not made available a simple plastic shield that would mitigate the overflow. What makes the situation worse is that if you look at PetLibro's newer water fountain offerings, you'll see that these plastic shields are included, which indicates two things: 1) PetLibro is aware of the problem, and 2) PetLibro is choosing to ignore the problem.Additionally, I question the reliability of the water pumps themselves. The water pump that was included with my fountain stopped working after only 3 months of usage. PetLibro indicates they have a 24-Month Warranty on this product, and might have replaced the pump free of charge, but in my case, I needed it working sooner than their Customer Service could get a replacement to me, so I was forced to buy a replacement pump from Amazon.While the unit was disassembled, one of my cats expressed his displeasure with the lack of flowing water by chewing on the neck of the silicone pipe that extends from the pump to the bowl of the fountain, nearly severing the top end from the rest of it. The result of this is that I've been very gingerly cleaning the pipe since then, though it grows closer and closer to coming off completely each time, and I fear it will soon do so.The replacement pipe, according to PetLibro's Customer "Service", is $8. That's on top of the $14 I'm out for replacing the pump, bringing the total for replacement parts to over 25% of the overall cost of the entire product.At less than 2 years of ownership, I'm already over $200 into this thing between the purchase cost, replacement parts, and replacement filters of highly-questionable effectiveness.Overall, I do NOT recommend this product. At this point, now having communicated with PetLibro's Customer Service, I can't recommend buying any product from them. I won't be buying any further products from them once this water fountain and the food dispenser cease to work.I just gave the unit a thorough cleaning a day or two ago. I'll try to remember to get more photos of the things mentioned in this review and update it next time I clean it.