Pet Store

Review by Karl S. Chwe:

My aging cat, like many others, needs to be encouraged to drink as much as possible. I read lots of reviews for cat fountains, and decided on this one (there are basically two other options that I know about.)

I have a pergo floor that isn’t impervious to water, so I varnished a thin 2′x2′ piece of plywood to set the fountain on, to catch any random splashes.

Maisie wasn’t sure about the thing at first, though maybe the smell of the varnish was putting her off. After a few days she has taken to it fine. I don’t know if she LOVEs it, as other owners have claimed, but she does use it, which is all I could reasonably expect.

Good:

- It is quiet. The motor is virtually inaudible. I don’t know why some other people complain about the humming or buzzing noise. I don’t hear a thing, and mine is sitting on a hard floor (on top of a sheet of 1/16″ plywood.) It can make a trickling watery sound at the high setting, but apparently some people like the sound, and anyway turning down the flow almost eliminates it.

- It holds a fair amount of water. I don’t have to worry about it going dry every few days as I did with the old water bowl. So Maisie always has water to drink.

- Doesn’t splash water everywhere. In fact it doesn’t splash at all. The water has a landing ramp that lets it down easy.

- Stable, not easy to tip over.

Not so good:

- It does need to be refilled every few days, not because it will run out of water, but because the impeller pump sits a fair distance above the bottom of the drinking bowl, so there has to be a fair amount of water in the bowl so the impeller (like a little paddle wheel) isn’t spinning in air. The pump will complain then, making a sucking, thrumming sound. If the water level falls too low, the pump will run dry and possibly burn out, even if there is still water in the bowl.

- It isn’t that easy to clean. I clean mine every week or so, which seems to be often enough. It doesn’t take me 30 minutes as it does another reviewer, more like 10. I don’t have the problem with cat hair (I brush Maisie twice a day) but I do get a bit of brown or pink slime (just as I did with an ordinary water bowl.) That is anaerobic bacteria, just like you get on the lower edge of your shower curtain, and it isn’t dangerous to your cat. But it is icky.

The fountain was designed with absolutely no thought to making it easy to clean. There are several nooks and crannies that are hard to reach and would have been easy to eliminate. For example, in the water reservoir there is a deep, round cavity about 1/2″ in diameter and about 4″ deep, closed at the bottom. It serves no purpose other than to align the reservoir assembly with the base, and it is continuously filled with water. To clean it well requires something like a test tube brush (long thin round brush with bristles on the end.)

So instead of cleaning it with a brush, I am experimenting with simply rinsing it with white vinegar, which should kill most of the bacteria, and unlike dishwasher detergent or spray cleaners, it leaves no residue and especially, no odor (once it is rinsed away.)

Or I may just use the dishwasher. The fountain is top-shelf safe, but a different plastic would have made it anywhere-safe. Also, it would be hard to position it so that it won’t collect dishwasher water (with little bits of coffe grounds, etc.) somewhere inside.

For those reasons, I give it four stars. The water filter is nice by the way, but it is quite thin and I don’t know that it does very much. Nor do I know if it is really necessary. It is supposed to remove tastes and odors, but there wouldn’t be much in tap water, and Maisie certainly doesn’t mind when she drinks from the faucet. Also, it filters water that has already passed through the pump. It would have made more sense to put a screen or filter in the water flow in front of the pump where it can keep hair out of the impeller.

Review by Derek Hofmann:

Some of the negative reviews indicate that the Drinkwell is noisy. The truth is, it’s only noisy if it doesn’t have enough water or if the intake valve is clogged (which so far hasn’t caused the pump to burn out for me). There’s a slight hum from the pump when it’s working correctly, but it will be much quieter than the other appliances in your kitchen.

Cat hair and cat food can both clog the intake. So to keep it in top condition, check the water level once every day or two (or get the add-on reservoir), place the Drinkwell several paces away from the food dish (so your cats aren’t tempted to moisten their food with it), and break down and clean the Drinkwell regularly, perhaps once a month when you change the filter cartridge.

Review by K. Daum:

My sister’s cat was in the habit of pushing her separate water and food bowls around the kitchen and living room…. spilling a lot in the process. I have the regular-sized version of the Store-N-Feed, and recommended the Jr size to my sister. At the very least, she could put something heavy in the storage area to weigh it down, so it wouldn’t be so easy for her cat to push it around.

Turns out, simply having this Junior feeder solved the problem of the bowl scooting. Something about its size or weight, I don’t know which, but the cat doesn’t want to scoot it around. My sister is very happy she purchased this feeder, and bought another for her new kitten.

Review by Eagle Vision:

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE PETICURE POWER, PROFESSIONAL MODEL.

I have a great dog with a good temperament. However, to cut his nails and then spend a long time filing them takes a lot of time and patience on both the dog’s and dog parent’s part.

Even with walking outside the nails are still sharp. I saw an ad for the Pedipaws but searching on the internet, it was an offshoot from the Dremel and Peticure.

Not having much experience with these devices, I compared the prices of the 3 models by Peticure. There are three models: The Petite, Elite and Power. The Petite and Elite come with 3 filing bands. The Power which operates through a plug has 20 extra bands, is lighter and 2 times more powerful. Given the fact that bands are for 20, there is no reason to get nothing but the Power model (except for recharging capability).

The 2 sheets that accompany the model are poorly written. You have to refer to the company website to watch the videos on how to operate this. Putting the thing together is not intuitive. More explicit directions would have been better.

You need to remove the plastic ring at the base of the head to attach the guard. You push the lock button to untwist the mechanism to place the drum on the unit.

The noise is a moderate pitched whirring sound. My dog was not frightened by it. There are preset ports that the nail is placed into. Stabilize the pet’s finger and use quick strokes to file the nail. After some awkwardness of the operator, me, I got the hang of it. There are videos on the website to direct you. Dewclaws (at least on my dog’s) were impossible to file. The guard prevents but does not entirely eliminate the possibility of hair getting caught into the mechanism so be careful.

After spending 3 times more effort assembling the unit versus actually using it, I was quite satisfied with it.

If you are concerned about cutting your dog’s nails but want something quicker to use, this is IT! This helps me round out the ‘sharp nails’ that I have to deal with when my doggy greets us.

Aside from the stated 4-6 weeks of receiving it from ordering, it was worth the wait.

I highly recommend THE PEDICURE POWER, PROFESSIONAL MODEL.

Review by Tim Ryan:

I received the Peticure Elite cordless model 7802 last week which came with a partial charge. The first thing I noticed about the Elite is the plastic casing felt well constructed, not as quality as Dremil, but satisfactory for it’s purpose. The collar threads below the bit collet are not the same as a Dremil, so you obviously cannot transfer the “Safe Guard” (collects nail dust) to your Dremil. Proprietary, smart.

When I turned on the motor using the variable speed control I noticed the motor is rather weak and produced very little or no torquekick starting off, unlike my Dremil. This indicated Peticure skimped on the quality of the motor probably to lower production costs. Did I mention it’s made in China? So much for keeping jobs in America.

I read all the directions, fully charged the battery, and filed my dogs nails accordingly. The first three paws sanded fine, only taking off a little and not spending more than 3-5 sec pernail as to not burn it. While finishing up on the last nail the Elite just shut downdied. I thought the battery charge was spent but usually that is indicated by a slowing motor; it simply died.

I thought, “Don’t tell me the motor has already burnt out?” Being doubtful that this couldn’t possibly be that big of a piece-O-crap I charged the battery again. I plugged the battery back into the Elite and guess what, the motor is fried. I was barely applying pressure to the nail while filing at the time the motor died! My suspicion of a cheap motor was correct. I turned my Dremil on, which is the same size, and the difference in soundpowertorque is worlds better than the Peticure Elite. This would never happen to my Dremil and I’ve ran it on lesser duties for minutes.

The Elite apparently isn’t so “Elite”. It’s going back in the box and back to Peticure. I don’t want to take a chance upgrading to the “Power” version in fear of wasting more of my time and money.

Conclusion: Great designconcept, weak, cheap motor. What a disappointment.