The awkward part of a water fountain is rarely the fountain. Most cats want their water well away from both the food bowl and the litter tray, and in a typical kitchen that turns out to be the one corner with no socket within reach of the cable. Running on battery removes the constraint completely, so the bowl goes where the cat will actually use it rather than where the wiring allows.

There is no filter cartridge, which cuts both ways and is worth being straight about. It removes the recurring cost, and the moment weeks in when you discover the replacement pads ran out. But a filter is what catches hair and grit between cleans, so without one that job passes to you. In practice it means emptying the reservoir, rinsing the bowl and scrubbing out the pump housing noticeably more often than a filtered fountain would ask of you.

• 3L capacity for fewer refills
• Battery powered, so no trailing cable
• No filter cartridges to buy or replace
• Circulating water to encourage drinking
• Stainless steel bowl on some variants

Two things worth knowing. And filter-free means more cleaning rather than less, so if what appealed to you was low maintenance, a filtered fountain is honestly the easier machine to live with.

Who it's for: Cat owners with no socket where the water bowl needs to go, who are happy to clean a fountain properly by hand in exchange for never buying a cartridge.