a little OT - Drinkwell fountain problem

I recently ordered the Drinkwell pet fountain from Petco.com and when I
opened the box, there were no instructions in it. Things like that
always make me wonder if it was something someone else opened, didn't
like it, returned it, and then Petco decides to just resell it. Or, it
could've just been that the manufacturer forgot to put the instructions
in it. Everything in the box looks ok, it doesn't look like it was
opened and used, all the warranty information is there and there is one
filter in the box.

I'm not sure what I should do at this point. Should I take it to my
local Petco for an exchange or call Petco and tell them there was no
instruction manual? I know I sound a bit paranoid but when I spend
money on something, I expect it to be new, in working order, and have
all it's parts. I don't like having to wonder if it's something that
someone else used and then returned.

Suddenly, without warning, Mike S. exclaimed (31-Dec-06 7:44 AM):
I recently ordered the Drinkwell pet fountain from Petco.com and when I
opened the box, there were no instructions in it. Things like that
always make me wonder if it was something someone else opened, didn't
like it, returned it, and then Petco decides to just resell it. Or, it
could've just been that the manufacturer forgot to put the instructions
in it. Everything in the box looks ok, it doesn't look like it was
opened and used, all the warranty information is there and there is one
filter in the box.

I'm not sure what I should do at this point. Should I take it to my
local Petco for an exchange or call Petco and tell them there was no
instruction manual? I know I sound a bit paranoid but when I spend
money on something, I expect it to be new, in working order, and have
all it's parts. I don't like having to wonder if it's something that
someone else used and then returned.


What is it you need to know? How to put it together?

- has no on/off switch, plug it in it starts up.
- don't plug it in until it's full of water
- fill the back up first, then the bowl, then start it
- they say clean every two weeks. I have to clean more if I'm using
straight, hard tap water, and less when I'm using water from the Britta
filter.
- Make sure you keep it full. Will wreck the motor if it runs dry. You
will know when it gets close, starts getting noisy.
- the little lever is for controlling the water flow.
- it's a bit of a pain to clean by hand, but pretty sure it's top-rack
diswasher safe ('cept for the motor)
- the filter sucks. Both the filters I tried actually made the water
more dirty than without them. Yes, I installed them correctly (but it's
been so long now, I have to look up "correctly").

My cat is oddly furtive about using it. I rarely-to-never see her
actually drink out of it, but can sort of tell by how fast the water
level goes down after a particular night.

jmc

In article . com,
"Mike S." wrote:

I recently ordered the Drinkwell pet fountain from Petco.com and when I
opened the box, there were no instructions in it. Things like that
always make me wonder if it was something someone else opened, didn't
like it, returned it, and then Petco decides to just resell it. Or, it
could've just been that the manufacturer forgot to put the instructions
in it. Everything in the box looks ok, it doesn't look like it was
opened and used, all the warranty information is there and there is one
filter in the box.

I'm not sure what I should do at this point. Should I take it to my
local Petco for an exchange or call Petco and tell them there was no
instruction manual? I know I sound a bit paranoid but when I spend
money on something, I expect it to be new, in working order, and have
all it's parts. I don't like having to wonder if it's something that
someone else used and then returned.

All five of our cats LOVE the Drinkwell. It's like little lions with
their own water hole. We bought ours almost two years ago.

I got the one with the large (70 oz) water container. The cats empty it
within a week and we keep three other water bowls around the house.

The company that makes the Drinkwell, Veterinary Ventures Inc (VVI), is
GREAT to deal with. The one time I needed parts (I broke the delicate
pump impeller blade), VVI was surprisingly responsive, e-mailing me a
personal message including a contact name and phone number if I needed
to call them. I swear, it was like they were concerned that my cats
would be deprived without their water fountain :-)

It was sweet. Now, how many companies make a customer say *that*?

You can reach Veterinary Ventures he

http://www.petfountain.com/

And at the website, there is a downloadable .pdf manual for your new pet
fountain.

You need the manual to familiarize yourself with the assembly and
disassembly and the proper cleaning and maintenance. Maintain this thing
properly and it will last forever.

One downside to our Drinkwell is the noise. It isn't nearly as loud as
most tower computers, but it is noticeable, especially if I installed
the pump wrong when re-assembling after cleaning. The company has since
changed the configuration to a new, submerged pump design that is
supposed to reduce the noise to barely audible. Is that the one you
bought at Petco?

The only other complaint I have is that the whole thing needs regular
disassembly for proper cleaning. OTOH, the only reason I complain about
that is because I'm a lazy bum. But it's for the pets, so what the heck,
I do it anyway. They sure like this thing.

In ups.com,
Mike S. purred:
I recently ordered the Drinkwell pet fountain from Petco.com and when
I opened the box, there were no instructions in it. Things like that
always make me wonder if it was something someone else opened, didn't
like it, returned it, and then Petco decides to just resell it. Or, it
could've just been that the manufacturer forgot to put the
instructions in it. Everything in the box looks ok, it doesn't look
like it was opened and used, all the warranty information is there
and there is one filter in the box.

I'm not sure what I should do at this point. Should I take it to my
local Petco for an exchange or call Petco and tell them there was no
instruction manual? I know I sound a bit paranoid but when I spend
money on something, I expect it to be new, in working order, and have
all it's parts. I don't like having to wonder if it's something that
someone else used and then returned.

Complete instructions can be found on their web site, and are in Adobe PDF
form:

http://www.petfountain.com/inc/MFountainInstr.pdf

In article ,
us says...
Suddenly, without warning, Mike S. exclaimed (31-Dec-06 7:44 AM):
I recently ordered the Drinkwell pet fountain from Petco.com and when I
opened the box, there were no instructions in it. Things like that
always make me wonder if it was something someone else opened, didn't
like it, returned it, and then Petco decides to just resell it. Or, it
could've just been that the manufacturer forgot to put the instructions
in it. Everything in the box looks ok, it doesn't look like it was
opened and used, all the warranty information is there and there is one
filter in the box.

I'm not sure what I should do at this point. Should I take it to my
local Petco for an exchange or call Petco and tell them there was no
instruction manual? I know I sound a bit paranoid but when I spend
money on something, I expect it to be new, in working order, and have
all it's parts. I don't like having to wonder if it's something that
someone else used and then returned.


What is it you need to know? How to put it together?

- has no on/off switch, plug it in it starts up.
- don't plug it in until it's full of water
- fill the back up first, then the bowl, then start it
- they say clean every two weeks. I have to clean more if I'm using
straight, hard tap water, and less when I'm using water from the Britta
filter.
- Make sure you keep it full. Will wreck the motor if it runs dry. You
will know when it gets close, starts getting noisy.
- the little lever is for controlling the water flow.
- it's a bit of a pain to clean by hand, but pretty sure it's top-rack
diswasher safe ('cept for the motor)
- the filter sucks. Both the filters I tried actually made the water
more dirty than without them. Yes, I installed them correctly (but it's
been so long now, I have to look up "correctly").

I run without the filter. The pump can be cleaned - the front half snaps
apart and then the casing over the impeller snaps out. I clean the one
on mine about every couple weeks because it gets clogged with cat hair.

I also removed the lever - it increases water flow by about 10% and
Randy loves it. He drinks it from the spout, very rarely from the bowl.