3 Best Ceramic Cat Fountains For 2024 -

We say the ‘3 best ceramic cat fountains for 2024’ for very good reasons. It’s easy to call something ‘the best’ with no grounds whatsoever for doing so. Anybody can do it. We encounter it with most google searches – just type in ‘cat fountains’ and you’ll find endless claims for which brands are the best. Based on what?, one wonders. Over 90% of those stated as ‘the best’ are made of plastic which is universally known to be bad for your cats. Almost all of them are difficult to clean, most of them don’t last and many are not food safe. So really, what should the criteria be for ‘The Best’?

How about:

• quality Materials
• quality construction
• food safe
• easy to keep clean
• easy to clean
• durable
• attractive to cats
  Some will want to add:

• fair price
• attractive in your home

These are all reasonable criteria for determining ‘ The Best” and are the criteria we used in choosing the 3 best ceramic cat fountains for 2022.

But what about Ceramic cat fountains? Being ceramic they should all be quite safe, yes? Easily among ‘the best? As a matter of fact, No, and here’s why. Virtually All Commercial Ceramic Cat Fountains will absorb water and generate slime just as plastic cat fountains do. How can that be?

Variables of Ceramics

Because ceramics can vary greatly in its composition and characteristics and the clays and glazes used in the creation of essentially all commercially made, ceramic cat fountains are the lowest density possible: Earthenware.

Low quality clay is less expensive. It is porous, not dense, and it fires to a low temperature. (Which saves a great deal in fuel costs and time).It has air pockets between the molecules so absorbs water. If you fill one of these bisque fired but unglazed vessels with water you will see the water absorb into the clay. But what about with glaze? Definitely less absorbent, but completely impervious? Hardly. A fountain made such as this will never be one of 3 best ceramic cat fountains.

Low Density Clay

Because the clay is low-fire, the glaze is also low-fire (again, saves on fuel costs) and does not achieve the vitreous (non-absorbent) state that high-fire clay and glaze does. It is a glass, but a more vulnerable one.  After a time these fountains become as slimy as plastic cat fountains and according to consumers the slime cannot be removed. That is the effect of being made of low density clay with low-fire glazes both of which are porous. (All those you see in the grouping of five fountain images, above the three, are of this category.)

So when it comes to determining ‘the best’ we can throw out all the ceramic cat fountains you’ll find on Amazon and Chewy – they are not and will never be among the best. How do we know?

Testing & Research

In the studios of ThirstyCats we are constantly researching and testing every aspect of cat fountains from pumps to plugs. We have tested most of the major brands of ceramic cat fountains as well as lesser known brands. We have tested them for everything a cat owner cares about (mentioned above), by running them, examining them in all their details, cleaning them putting them together and taking them apart and by conducting material analyses. 

Our findings show that all of the foreign made and one of the American made ceramic cat fountains are made from low density materials; Earthenware and low fire glazes.

3 Best Ceramic Cat Fountains for 2022

But there are three American made ceramic cat fountains which are of stoneware or high-fire clay and possess the necessary attributes. Among these three there are considerable differences, primarily in appearance and to a degree, in functionality and price. Here are our selections for the 3 best ceramic cat fountains for 2022 and what about them makes them the best.