Cat & Dog Water Fountain 2 L with Triple Filter

Cats and small dogs are famously indifferent to a bowl of standing water and famously keen on a dripping tap. This fountain works with that habit rather than against it: a submersible pump lifts water out of the tank, sends it through the filter and returns it down a curved, tap-style spout into a shallow top tray, so there is always a moving stream to drink from and a calmer pool for pets that prefer one.

The tank is moulded in polycarbonate, a hard, impact-resistant plastic that stays see-through enough to read the water line from across the room, with MAX and MIN marks on the wall to tell you when a top-up is due. The bowl is round with no sharp corners, the top tray lifts away in one piece and the spout pushes into the cover by hand. Below it the filter sits in its own tray and stacks three stages: a blue sponge layer that catches hair and grit, ion exchange resin that softens hard tap water, and activated carbon that takes the taste and smell out of it.

Power reaches the bowl as a low-voltage USB lead rather than mains voltage, and the pump is a small submersible unit with a three-position flow switch, so you can run a lively stream through the day and turn it down when the house is quiet. The maker rates the pump at fifty per cent less noise than its earlier models.

Everything that touches water comes apart without tools. The manufacturer asks you to rinse the parts under running water rather than scrub them with detergent, and to strip and rinse the pump regularly, since a clogged impeller is what makes a fountain start humming. Plan on a fresh filter every month or two, sooner where several animals share it or the water is hard.

It suits a single cat or a pair of them, kittens learning to drink, and small to medium dogs, and it earns its place fastest in a household with one pet that walks past its bowl all day or one your vet has asked you to keep better hydrated. It is built for dry indoor floors: a kitchen corner, a hallway, a utility room. This is a household product, not a kennel or cattery fitting, and it is not for outdoor use.