Last week, I told you about our cool new PETLIBRO One RFID automated cat feeders that are helping us keep our cats on the right diets. I left out one part when I explained that you could buy them individually or in bundles. When we received the order confirmation on the pair as a bundle, we got a shipping notice for a bonus extra prize — an automated water fountain. Turns out it’s part of the bundle, but you can buy one individually if you like.
The fountain they sent us is called the Capsule Dog Fountain, and it retails for $60, but there’s a 15% off coupon right now, bringing the price down to $51. They say it’s for dogs, but we’ve found that our cats consider all water to be theirs, so my review will be for the entire menagerie’s benefit. Before we got this device, the cats had an elevated water bowl of their own, but they often drank out of Kepler’s taller elevated bowl.
The Problem to be Solved
We didn’t start with a problem to be solved, since this device just dropped into our laps, but I can back into the problems it does solve.
First of all, our pets’ water bowls are swimming with bits of random debris within hours of us rinsing them out. The cats manage to track cat litter to the water bowls, leaving little bits to be rinsed out daily. I’m not sure where Kepler gets all of the dirt he gets into his bowl, but it’s a lot.
Where Tesla (the best dog in the world) was capable of drinking water without spilling so much as a drop, Kepler is a complete slob. I swear he leaves his mouth open, half full of water, as he walks away from the bowl. I’ve seen water still dripping out of his mouth as he walks a good six feet away from the bowl!
The Capsule
Let’s see how the Capsule Dog Fountain has changed our lives. If it’s ok with you, I’m just going to call it the Capsule from here on out. To be fair, I’m going to call it the Capsule whether or not it’s ok with you.
The basic idea of the Capsule is that it’s a large, 2.1-gallon translucent tank that’s shaped like a stadium (round at both ends with two flat sides). It’s 13.3″ wide, 10″ deep, and the back slopes up from 7.3″ tall in the front to 9.7″ high in the back.
The way I’ve described it so far, it sounds like a giant bucket of water, but there’s so much more to it. Sitting on a ledge on the tank is what they call the Serving Tray Base, which is a sloped plastic piece with a hole in the middle. In the center of the hole, you put a plastic piece that holds a water filter (which we’ll get back to in a bit).
On top of that, you place another conical plastic piece called the Serving Tray. The water comes out of a recessed spout on one edge of the Serving Tray, causing a whirlpool-type action as the water drains down a hole in the center of the Tray.
When the animals drink from the fancy-sounding Serving tray, water slops out of the Serving Tray and into the Serving Tray Base, which also flows back down into the tank.
The alert amongst you will realize that I haven’t explained what makes water actually flow in the Capsule. It’s actually quite clever, and took us by surprise. It was a surprise because we didn’t read the manual; we just guessed at how the pieces fit together.
There’s a small submersible pump that you place into a little indentation on the bottom of the tank, and then there’s a silicone rubber pipe with little fins on it that you stick on top of the pump. There’s a sealed USB-A cable coming out of the pump that goes up and out of an obvious hole above the water line at the back of the tank.
After we put the pump at the bottom of the tank, but before we plugged it into power or assembled the rest of it, we started pouring water into the tank, and the pump started to squirt water out of the silicone pipe! That’s when we learned that the pump is battery-powered and water-activated. That’s genius because if a pump runs when the water is gone, it would burn out.
We assumed the pump would only work via USB power, but they designed it so it still operates if the power goes out. More genius. We haven’t tested it, but PETLIBRO says that the battery will run for 16 hours! If the Capsule lost power, the water wouldn’t just get stale, it would actually drain out of the Serving Tray leaving them nothing at all to drink. Obviously, having this backup battery is critical to keeping the animals alive. It’s another reason to make sure someone checks on them when we’re away.
Once the Serving Tray Base was in place, the filter holder was connected to the bottom of the Serving Tray, and the Serving Tray was placed on top, the water flowed beautifully up and into the Serving Tray to the delight of all three of the animals.
Steve took the pump’s cover off at one point to show me that it’s an impeller, which sucks the water into the pump and then up and out of the pipe above. And for the nerds amongst you who appreciate that description, there’s an image in the shownotes.
We didn’t know the Capsule was intended for dogs when we received it, so I was surprised to see in the online description that is intended for dogs taller than 10.6″. Other than some slight trepidation early on by scaredy cat Grace, the cats have zero problems drinking from the Capsule. I used my pull-out rule to measure Grace, and she’s 13″ tall, so I guess that’s why it works for her.
PETLIBRO also says the pump is “whisper quiet” at 28 decibels. I have not measured it, though I guess I could with my phone or maybe my watch, but I can tell you that we can’t hear the pump at all. We do hear a slight sound from the water itself moving but that’s it.
But does it solve the problems I described?
As far as Kepler’s poor table manners are concerned, we still have to keep a rag in front of the Capsule for some drippage, with the large tank around the Serving Tray and the lip in the front, it seems to catch the vast majority of the initial drools and dribbles as Kepler departs. No longer are we mopping half of the kitchen floor after he drinks.
During the ten days or so between cleanings, we can see when the water level is getting low because the tank is translucent. Steve says he just uses a pitcher to pour more water in every few days. This is a lot less work than cleaning the cat and dog bowls every single day, and uses a lot less water.
More importantly, the water stays clean and clear of debris for a very long time. I’m not in charge of water maintenance for the menagerie, but Steve reports that he changes out the water every 10 days or so. He lifts the Serving Tray assembly out of the tank, pulls the pieces apart, and rinses out the filter. I don’t want to gross anyone out, but I put a picture in the shownotes of the filter after 10 days, and now I know where most of the detritus goes!
PETLIBRO says that the magic is in those 5-layer filters. We were skeptical about needing to replace them since rinsing them seems to work pretty well, but after seeing how little maintenance the Capsule is vs. what we were dealing with before with three animals, we gladly bought a four-pack of filters for $11. Steve replaced the filter after 3 weeks, and said that it definitely needed to be replaced.
PETLIBRO has other fountains that are super cool and fancy, like the Dockstream 2 Smart Cordless Fountain, and they’re probably awesome too.
Bottom Line
All I can say is that the PETLIBRO Capsule Fountain was a surprise to get in the mail, it was a delight to assemble, it’s easy to maintain, it keeps the water clean, and its magical powers somehow minimize the water pouring out of Kepler’s mouth. I’ll call that a win across the board.
As I was completing this write-up, I found out that PETLIBRO has a very generous referral program. If you use my referral code, not only do I get 30% off, you get 30% off whatever you buy. Can you guess what referral link is? If you heard me saying, “Everything good starts with podfeet.com”, then you got it. The referral link is podfeet.com/petlibro.
If you’ve dogs or even cats, I can highly recommend the PETLIBRO Capsule Fountain. Especially for 30% off!
