My whole house hold loves the cat fountain but me.

May 6, 2018 11:07 AM

So we have solved the cats not drinking by following ask mefi advice and getting a cat fountain. Its great! BUT I CANT STAND LISTENING TO IT. Bonus Pet tax inside

Here is the fountain in question its wonderful, and I swear when we set it up a couple months ago it wasn't that loud, or maybe I was so happy that Luther was drinking from it that i didn't notice. But now all I hear its its little motor loudly motoring in the kitchen ALL. THE. TIME. Is there any simple solution for this? It doesn't no matter how clean it is.

Pet tax- Luther, Alice & Clyde

posted by zara to Pets & Animals (16 answers total)

We have a couple of pet fountains (neither exactly the same as yours) and they both get loud if they start to run low on water. Try topping it up?
posted by exogenous at 11:09 AM on May 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Have you cleaned out the motor piece? We could get ours to be a little bit quieter by disassembling the whole fountain and cleaning off the motor. But, yeah, the cat water fountains are kinda loud for what they are.
posted by stowaway at 11:20 AM on May 6, 2018

Best answer: Making sure the pump always has enough water is the best way to keep them quiet and in good condition.

If they run on air, or get dirty they can get louder. Also, it could be you need a new pump. Try cleaning it with manufactures instructions.

Make sure it is on a little bit of a soft surface because the bowl will vibrate a little bit. If you recently moved it onto tile floor or it isn't quite as level it can impact the noise.
posted by AlexiaSky at 11:21 AM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Try putting a mat underneath. It will help damp vibration between the fountain and the floor.
posted by workerant at 11:21 AM on May 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Have you cleaned the motor thoroughly lately? I find they get pretty gunky quickly. If that doesn’t fix it, try replacing it. I’ve gonsidered looking at aquatic options, before finding the replacement online. But that might provide a quieter option.
posted by politikitty at 11:22 AM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is the metal right against a ceramic or other hard surface? If so, +1 to the mat. You might also try a ceramic one, we have the ceramic pagoda and I can hear the water burbling but that's all I hear unless the water runs low. Also definitely clean the whole thing regularly and replace the filter, if the motor is laboring that could be why it is loud.
posted by arnicae at 11:31 AM on May 6, 2018

Yep, definitely clean it out, make sure it's full, etc. And then we put a scrap cut from an old yoga mat under ours. That takes care of the annoying hum while leaving the nice trickling water sound.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:40 AM on May 6, 2018

If you decide to get a new motor, my experience trying to substitute a [cheaper] small aquatic pump ended badly; they are close enough in size to persuade me to buy them, but just enough different in either the footprint or aperture to not work. YMMV
posted by carmicha at 12:14 PM on May 6, 2018

Response by poster: Ok, you all are so fast! I put a mat under it, cleaned it all out, topped it up, got myself wet, STILL THE THE HUM. I think it just rattles the stainless steal or its just the pump itself that just is rumbly?
posted by zara at 12:18 PM on May 6, 2018

These thigns make me nuts. I do not have pets but my sister has a few cats who looooove fountains and I stay over there and can hear the thing humming from rooms away. Yours may be on the loud side. You may want to try a few others? This is the one my mother had and was a lot quieter than any of the others my sister had.
posted by jessamyn at 12:21 PM on May 6, 2018

Response by poster: Ok, I just put a full on fluffy towel under it, and NO MORE HUM. So I think it was a solid group effort, and now I can sit in the living room and not hear it from the kitchen. Thank you metafilter for resorting (a bit) of my sanity!
posted by zara at 12:25 PM on May 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

I got so fed up with my cat's fountain noise that I just took out the pump and put it in a stainless steel bowl of water and ran it like that. Super easy to clean every day - just unplug it and run it under the tap. It made the water bubble up so that she'd drink from it and it was really quiet.
posted by essexjan at 1:17 PM on May 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: We have this exact fountain and sometimes just moving the top part just the tiniest bit ever changes how much noise it makes by a ton. It’s so much easier to clean than the previous fountain, so we are sticking with it.
posted by advicepig at 1:24 PM on May 6, 2018

This cat fountain is completely quiet when full, and just makes a little dripping noise as the water inside gets lower, which is actually a nice reminder to refill it.
posted by nicwolff at 4:46 PM on May 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Are you using bottled water or tap water?

I don't want to be The Guy who says to lavish luxuries on a cat, but my town's tap water is kind of gross, and leaves residue on stuff. Maybe your water is also gross?
posted by wenestvedt at 6:24 AM on May 7, 2018

When we had this problem I would take the motor out and clean it--invariably it was full of cat hair and cleaning it solved the problem.

It was this one: https://www.chewy.com/petmate-deluxe-fresh-flow-pet/dp/53410

If yours drives you nuts, try switching to this one?
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:56 PM on May 7, 2018