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Not All Ceramic Cat Fountains Are Created Equal

Sierra BioScience was the first company to commercially offer lead-free ceramic cat fountains that are handmade in the USA. The designer of the Glacier Point fountains is an award winning medical device inventor (with more than 20 issued patents) who used scientific and medically recognized principles and materials that support health and do not contain materials or use workmanship that can cause injury or disease to a pet or a pet parent. Thousands of experienced cat parents have purchased a Glacier Point Cat Fountain because other cat fountains have design defects that range from inconvenient to dangerous. The feedback from our customers who have used more “stylish” cat fountains include:

Ceramic cat fountains that have holes for cords or tubes leak after a few months which is beyond the warranty period for these beautiful fountains. Dishwashers and cleaning methods can often cause the materials used to seal the hole, such as silicon or glues, to fail resulting in leaks. Glacier Point ceramic basins do not have any holes and therefore are warranted against leakage for 20 years. (Warranties do not extend to damage caused by mishandling such as pouring boiling water directly into the basin or cracks that result from the basin being dropped.)

Ceramic fountains that do not have grounded electrical cords (three prongs) are not to be used around water. Source: http://www.tva.gov/power/homesafety.htm

The only effective charcoal filter is an inline filter. Inline filters are the only filters approved for use in hospitals, municipal water districts, automobiles and jet aircraft. Charcoal filters that simply sit inside a water container are worthless, ineffective and should insult the intelligence of the average person.

Copper pipes will leak copper into water which is dangerous. A recent study demonstrated the leaching and can be viewed at http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2005/Projects/J0522.pdf. The worldwide authority concerning water-safe products is the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) which tests, certifies and documents the safety issues with copper pipes.

Common sense and recent studies have documented that cats will drink much more water when the water level is near the top of the container. This requires a refill system that replaces water consumed or lost to evaporation. Cats will not put their head into a container that reduces their peripheral vision which is a valuable evolutionary adaptation to protect a cat from predators while the cat is drinking. Glacier Point is the only cat fountain that has a one gallon refill capacity using made-in-America glass bottles which can be easily cleaned and inexpensively replaced.

Glass refill bottles can be placed in the refrigerator so that cold water can be dispensed all day. If the cat parent has a busy schedule, one model from Sierra BioScience has a thermo electronic chiller (using the Peltier effect) that keeps the water cold.

Common sense and experience tell us that if the water is cold, water consumption can be normalized leading to a healthier cat.

The bottom line is that stylish water fountains from ceramic artisans can be a beautiful addition to any home that does not have pets. Pet fountains are actually a medical device that requires the scientific knowledge and expertise of a professional medical device inventor.

The Confusion Regarding Using Copper Tubing with Pet Fountains

The ceramic artisans who use copper tubing with pet watering devices conveniently ignore the information and warnings available online from public health experts regarding copper toxicity from copper tubing. The pet parent who is interested in science based information is invited to do a search on the Medical web sites such as “pubmed” using the search terms “copper toxicity” which will result in at least 1775 records. Perhaps one of the best scientific experts is “Dr. GL Brewer, MD” who is a genetics expert at the University of Michigan Medical School. If you cannot find the references, just contact Barry so he can email the studies to you.