Best Pet Water Fountains

The Petcube Fountain is a battery-powered, motion-activated fountain with a 1.7-liter tank and an app that tracks filter life and cleaning. CNET's Tyler Lacoma picked it as the best overall cat water fountain, calling it one of the best-designed pet fountains he has seen and especially quiet, with dishwasher-safe main parts. He also found the motion sensor inaccurate, and noted that the 30-day filters are sold in three-packs and that the fountain is too small for large pets.

The Petkit Eversweet Ultra is a large fountain with a 5-liter fresh tank, a separate 1.8-liter waste tank and a built-in AI pet camera. CNET's Tyler Lacoma scored it 8.5/10, finding it silent in continuous mode and praising the non-recirculating design, water heating and the features available without a subscription. He called it expensive at about $250, large, and slow to learn because of the number of app controls.

At 168 oz, the PetSafe Drinkwell Platinum Pet Fountain holds enough for several pets, and its automatic refill reservoir snaps onto the back to top the bowl up. Reviewers noted the adjustable free-falling water stream entices pets to drink more, and a built-in carbon filter keeps the water fresh. Most parts go on the dishwasher's top rack; the pump has to be hand washed. It needs to be plugged in, and that separate pump cleaning is an extra chore. Owners who want a reliable automatic fountain with good capacity and filtration are the fit.

The Petlibro Capsule Dog Fountain is a 2.1-gallon plug-in fountain for dogs with a whirlpool drinking dish and a splash-catching outer ring. Pocket-lint's reviewer scored it 4/5 after using it as a 70 lb golden retriever's main water source, estimating that the ring caught almost 90% of splashes. The same review found the trickling loud once the tank was half empty and put filter costs at about $65 a year.