CatIt Dome Cat Fountain Review

To provide your cat adequate amounts of clean water, you should consider installing a CatIt Cat Fountain. Here is our full CatIt Dome Cat Fountain Review.

Introduction

We used to have a lot of different bowls standing around the house. Cats take a lot of dirt around the house by their fur and body parts, such as dust, hair, cat litter and food rests.

Some of our cats like to drink with their paws, because they don’t like to get their long whiskers wet while drinking head-first. They use their paws to spoon the water out of the bowl. Dirt from their paws when drinking with their paws or from their face while licking their water ends up in the water bowl.

On top of that do algae grow faster in still standing water. The result was that we had to change both water and bowls very often. It was a big hassle with different bowls each time, spilled water all around the bowl because of cats using their paws to drink and a lot of cleaning and refreshing.

With the CatIt Cat Fountain we solved all these issues in one go. We got currently two CatIt Cat Fountains installed in our house and do plan to implement more of them.

Read also the CatIt Bowl “Flower” Cat Fountain Review.

Cats Need Water All The Time

Like us humans, cats use water to stay hydrated. We got many cats living in our house and so we need a lot of water sources everywhere. Even in houses with only one cat, adequate and clean water is important.

If you serve dry kibble, your cat needs to drink a lot of extra water, because dry kibble gives your cat only 10% of the water intake it needs daily. Do you happen to feed your cat with wet food, your cat will drink a lot less extra, as they will receive 78% of their water need via their food.

It is therefore very important to give your cat(s) additional clean water everyday.

CatIt currently has at least four different models of cat fountains. Three of them are very similar to each other. They got a round bowl with bubbling up water.  We reviewed the round bowl version too and we did a comparison. In this article we will review their very first fountain model, the CatIt Dome Fountain.

Who Is It For?

The CatIt Dome Fountain is meant for thirsty and curious cats that need a sparkling fresh source of water added to their house. The fountain gives a curious making experience that always attracts cats throughout the day.

To provide water to the cat, the fountain needs to be connected to wall power at all times.

Product Overview

As we got many cats, both from RSPCA in foster care and of ourselves, we need to provide them a lot of water everyday. We have had the CatIt Cat Fountain with a dome installed for the past six years.

CatIt Dome Fountain

When cats drink water, they often use their paws or they lick directly with their face into the bowl. Cats take a lot of loose cat hair, food rests and not to forget cat litter with in their fur and paws. So the water bowls we put out for them got dirty after every use and did need to be refreshed more than once a day.

Installing the CatIt Fountain was a perfect solution to the problem where water bowls needed to be cleaned several times a day. Now the water gets circulated through a filter by a pump mechanism.  The water gets pumped up in the middle and pushed through the cylinder in the middle of the dome. Water than glides along the sides of the dome, and into the containing bowl besides the dome. From there it will go through a coal filter and back into the area where the pump pushes it back up over the dome.

The idea is that cats can lick their water directly from the dome’s surface. In the same time there is also a bowl on the side of the dome, where cats can drink from.

Some of our cats prefer to lick the water off the dome, while our other cats prefer to drink out of the bowl. This dome fountain offers a solution for both type of drinking preferences.

The cat fountain comes with an extra bowl for food. However slightly deep, it can be used for serving your cat(s) food directly next to the water.

Easy Refilling

Refilling is pretty easy, as the dome can be removed from the fountain. It is though a good idea to unplug the device, as the fountain motor is situated directly below the dome.

The Dome has a spring filling point. You simply push the spring down and twist it clockwise to lock it in place. Now you can position it directly underneath your water tap and fill it the dome entirely. Alternatively you can use your finger to push it down (but it will get cold for your finger). When you finished refilling the dome, you need to counter clockwise twist the little spring to let it jump up again and close the dome off.

Putting the refilled dome back on the fountain requires some practice, as their is only one way it will fit upon the fountain motor.

Cleaning

The biggest problem with plastic bowls and in general with open water is that oxygen contains a lot of germs. The germs in oxygen come in contact with water and form algae. The sunlight / UV radiation makes sure that the algae can grow. Plastic bowls let a lot of sunlight through as does open water. The other thing is that the possible added chlorine in the water will gass-off in an open water system.

Cleaning the water fountain is a little bit more challenging, but the dome and fountain can be taken apart in a great many pieces that fit into your dishwasher.

Even if you refuse to use dishwashers chemicals on cat bowls, you can clean every part of the fountain thoroughly with a soft brush or cloth and some mild soap. After cleaning parts in a dishwasher, be sure to rinse the parts before putting everything back together.

Cleaning The Dome

When you lift the dome off the fountain bowl, you will find a green screw plastic part underneath the dome.

This screw can be unscrewed (not an actual screw, but a part of the bowl) and the plastic see-through part of the dome will come off.

Now the blue part and the dome part can be cleaned on both the inside and outside with a soft cloth with soap and water.

Cleaning The Bottom Bowl Part

The bottom part gives most of the challenge. First of all the motor is connected to it (hole in the bottom part of the bowl).

The wire of the motor is also partly protected by a tube. Luckily the adapter that is put into the wall socket can be detached from the wire. This way you can remove the motor and wiring from the water bowl.

Now you got a free bowl to clean, but the bottom part contains a lot of ridges that make it difficult to clean. Certain special brushes such as pipe cleaning brushes could work well for this or perhaps something simple as a toothbrush. You can wriggle a cloth into most nooks and crannies.

Cleaning The Motor

The bigger challenge is cleaning the motor, but it can also be done. The motor can be taken apart in four different parts, three of them are taken off the wired part. All the different parts and the wired part can now be cleaned thoroughly with warm water and a mild soap.

Make sure that no soapy rests remain in the pump / pump parts.  I clean the fountain once a week, while I refill the dome about every other day.

Filters

There is a replaceable filter that filters the water for impurities and removes hair, dust and food rests that cats possibly take with into the fountain when they start drinking. The filter has coal particles in it and a foam filter to improve the quality of the water.

These filters need to be replaced once in the three to four weeks or whenever there is a dirt buildup. How heavily the fountain will be used, depends on the amount of cats in the household and/or the amount of drinking places in the household.

>>> Buy more filters here <<<

If there is only little dirt buildup, you can easily take the filter out of the fountain. You need to turn of the fountain and remove the dome first, before you can get access to the filter. The filter can be cleaned by flushing it under the tap.

Extra filters can be bought from the store and come in a package of three pieces, so you have enough for 2 to 3 months each time. I always make sure I have got plenty of them in my drawer.

Here is a video of the entire cleaning process:

Pros/Cons

Pros

• Fresh water everyday
• Interesting sparkling water that attracts cats attention
• Carbon and foam filter to keep the water pure
• Multiple cats can drink at the same time
• Two different drinking preferences: dome licking and bowl drinking

Cons

• Challenging to clean properly

Conclusion

The CatIt Dome Fountain is a perfect solution to households with cats that need a sparkling clean source of fresh water added to their daily life. The fountain functions very well for multiple drinking preferences and adds an interesting motivation for your cats to drink water everyday.

The dome is actually a container that holds 2.9 liter of water and can be refilled easily under a streaming tap. The container holds enough water for a couple of days in a one to two cat household or at least for two days for a multi cat household.

It comes with a coal and foam filter that filters the water for impurities and keeps hair, dust, food rests and cat litter from getting into the motor and your cats tummies.

Cleaning the CatIt Dome Fountain is a little more complicated, but if one follows the instructions carefully and does this often, it will provide your cat(s) with a healthy and clean source of water.

>>> Buy your CatIt Dome Cat Water Fountain Here <<<