Ancestors

Toot

Written by Julian Missig on 2023-10-24 at 01:41

one of our better cat-life purchases has been a drinking fountain.

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Descendants

Written by Julian Missig on 2023-10-24 at 01:42

I always have nits, but the good things: it's aesthetically clean and straightforward. it's much quieter than the cat water fountains I’ve heard previously — pretty much just the noise of water flowing, no human-ear-discernible motor noise. it has a braided USB cable for power. it has backup batteries for when the power fails. the water container is steel (I wish the drinking tray were steel too).

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Written by Julian Missig on 2023-10-24 at 01:43

but the best part is the "smart" functionality — the water will flow for a while, then will remain still for a while. the change between flowing and not reminds the cats that it's there, and often is the prompt for them to remember to drink. this is great.

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Written by Julian Missig on 2023-10-24 at 01:51

this particular model is a Petkit Eversweet 3.

unfortunately this starts to get into the nits — this model has a wired connection in the water basin between the pump and power. pretty much guaranteed to fail someday, just sitting there in water. the 3 Pro switches the wire out for an inductive connection (smart!), but has (requires?) an app to control it instead of straightforward buttons.

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Written by Julian Missig on 2023-10-24 at 01:55

and all this is produced by a company based out of mainland China. nothing against them, but longer-term I worry about their app, and their government's requests, and any future "decoupling" of economies

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Written by Cabel Sasser on 2023-10-24 at 02:06

@jmissig Ok question!! Our cats happily drink water from a spare cereal bowl that I refill from the sink every day or two. 😝 But I find myself thinking about these gadgets all the time, you know how it is. Is the idea that cats will drink MORE water from one of these? Or is it for cats that don’t drink water on their own? Or is it just for fun?

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