The 10 Best Cat Water Fountains, Tested With Real Cats

Best Overall

PetLibro Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain

$59

$53 at Amazon $75 at Chewy $80 at Wayfair

Our favorite electronic water fountain received a whopping 4.9 overall score in our testing categories, and we’re happy to report that we’re still happy with it over six months in. The Petlibro Dockstream has a minimalist design that is packed with helpful features from easy cleaning, app reminders for cleaning and filter changes, and water intake and level monitoring. These insights allow you monitor your cat’s water intake over time to spot changes that may be early indicators of health issues.

Overall, this fountain’s sleek modern design and matching Wi-Fi dock base with a wood grain accent adds an extra bump of style that isn't found on most pet fountains. Cats prone to pushing around their water won’t get very far thanks to the four rubbery anti-skid feet on the bottom of the dock. An 84-ounce reservoir means it’ll hold at least a week’s worth of water for one cat, and the stainless steel tray keeps things sanitary. Water is filtered through two filters (refills available on Amazon), one near the pump and one near the spout. A cool thing about this fountain is the two-part pump which makes it a cinch to pull out and clean every two weeks (though it is not dishwasher safe).  

Best Stainless Steel

Pioneer Pet Raindrop Fountain

$60 at Amazon $68 at Chewy View on Wayfair

The Raindrop Fountain resembles a standard (albeit a little oblong) stainless steel pet bowl, except for the curved water slide design, which creates a sluice of water to attract your cat. It has a 60-ounce capacity, or just under 2 quarts, and operates quietly. It's a simple, no-frills fountain at a reasonable price, especially compared to cheaper-feeling plastic models. The design features a flat stream of water that flows gently and quietly into a main water dish reservoir, and is substantial enough that it isn’t easily moved by combative cats. 

The biggest drawback to this fountain is the varying recommended cleaning and replacement schedules for the different parts. For example, it’s recommended to disassemble and clean the pump every two weeks, replace the filter every 2–4 weeks, and disassemble and clean the unit once a week—it’s a lot of dates to remember and we wish there was a more streamlined calendar. That said, the water fountain is easy to clean (it’s dishwasher-safe, too), and the filters are easy to replace.

Best Budget

Veken Pet Fountain

$22

$20 at Amazon

The Veken 2.8-liter Cat Water Fountain is compact, runs quietly, and is a good entry-level fountain for those on a budget. We like that the spout actually splits the water output into six different streams, giving your cat more options and providing more overall circulation to the water flow. It holds up to 94 ounces (slightly under 12 cups) of water and has a built-in five-level filtration system to keep fresh water running for a cat to consume. 

This fountain should be cleaned and the filter needs to be replaced about every two weeks, which is pretty average. Cleaning is easy and we like that the company is upfront about the original pump lasting about 1 to 1.5 years. There’s also an LED indicator light to tell you when the water levels need to be addressed. The only standout negative during the testing period was the extreme brightness of the LED light. This can be turned off with the push of a button, but then you lose the alert it needs to be refilled.

Easiest To Clean

PetSafe Drinkwell Pagoda

$91 at Amazon $90 at Chewy $90 at Target

This combination of this fountain’s dishwasher-safe ceramic material, rare rectangular shape, and the tester cat-approved small, top-level drinking area made this product stand out for us. It’s also got an ideal 70-ounce capacity and houses an internal pump in two separate parts. The fountain’s dual-fountain design enables multiple cats to drink from either end of the fountain, and we like that it comes with a proper power adapter that plugs directly into a wall outlet rather than just a USB cord. 

However, it wasn’t without faults. We found the internal water pump set-up complicated, which also made it a pain to disassemble. And, even though the pump motor operated with a barely discernible hum, the spouts dropped water directly into the bowl from a significant height, making it a little noisier than similar water fountains.

Best Pumpless Design

PetSafe Outlast Pumpless Cat Water Fountain

$71 at Amazon View on Chewy View on Petco

The PetSafe Outlast Pumpless Cat Water Fountain features a trailblazing pump-free motor. Pumpless motors will likely last longer than traditional motors with pumps since there is no mechanism to wear down over time. Instead, this fountain uses PetSafe’s patented HydroSpin technology to keep the water moving through the fountain. It comes with ion filters that remove impurities and soften water so it’s more palatable for your cat. We found the setup to be super intuitive, and we got the fountain up and running in under five minutes, including the time to quick-rinse the parts before use. There’s no app with this fountain which also cuts down on setup time. 

A big plus with this fountain is that the pumpless design requires less frequent cleanings than traditional water fountains. When you do need to clean it, the food-grade plastic parts are easy to disassemble and can be popped into the dishwasher. LED lights alert you when the filters need changing or the water level is low, and nighttime sensors will slow the flow of water. That said, over time we’ve found this fountain requires weekly cleaning in order to avoid gunky buildup. We also noticed the fountain functions best when the reservoir is nearly or completely full, which requires a little more diligence than we initially thought.

Quietest Operation

Catit PIXI Drinking Fountain

$50 at Amazon View on Chewy $45 at Wayfair

This cute and compact water fountain has an adorable cat-inspired look and cat-friendly ergonomic design with a wide bowl and ideal height for drinking comfort. It was “virtually silent” when operating—as long as you don’t use the included optional spout attachment (which produces an annoying and loud trickle).

Our cat was immediately curious about this fountain, though he didn’t actually go in for a drink until after the spout attachment was removed. This triple-filter fountain holds 2.5 liters of water and the transparent nose lights up red when the water level gets low. The manufacturer recommends cleaning the unit 2–3 times per week (more than usual), but at least we found the process to be quick and simple. 

During initial testing we found ourselves needing to change the filter around every 10 days rather than the recommended 3-4 weeks, though this may have been user error or a faulty first batch of filters because we did not have that issue with continued use.