Pioneer Pet Vortex Drinking Dog & Cat Fountain, Gray, Medium

I really liked the idea of the fountain because the vortex is supposed to pull anything that falls in the water, like dead bugs, away from what your pet in drinking. However 1) the vortex action is interrupted as soon as your pet drinks and does not resume after, so the water just sort of swirls around on top. It’s not replaced by cleaner water from the bottom. 2) After about a day and a half the fountain gets really noisy. And I mean you can hear it in the next room and there is no way to fix it. I tried replacing the water, rinsing the filter, cleaning the entire fountain. Until you replace the filter it will be loud and replacing the filter doesn’t always help. It was loud enough to scare my cat. 3) Cleaning. The elbow piece in the top bowl actually does come out to make cleaning easier but there is nothing in the instructions to tell you that. And the piece fits tight. I actually called Chewy and asked them when gunk was building up under this piece and they couldn’t find it. They were kind and sent me a free replacement fountain but the second one had the same noise and lack of actual vortex action that the first did. I finally called Pioneer Pet to find out that that little elbow piece comes out. That is way too much hassle to figure out how to clean a fountain that doesn’t even work well. I’m disappointed because I have really liked Pioneer Pet products in the past but I think I will be looking for a different fountain from a different company.