Ok, so I've had this for approx. 5-6 months and I purchased a P*t'smart; although I noticed they no longer carry this exact fountain, at least at my local store. I initially thought this fountain was truly a God send to my finicky, scared to loud noisy appliances and in need of water intake and finicky to the type of flow & the way the water flows out. After a ton of research & relentless searching & trials with other main brands, off brands & even no one heard of brands, this seemed to seriously have the features my cat would more than likely, if ever going to like a fountain, this would be the one. First b/c it touted quietness & the P*tsmart reviews seemed to confirm that and once home I can definitely say that feature was spot on. This is by far the quietest fountain I have ever tried and I've tried countless over the years and even some twice and all were not quiet by my standards or anyone's for that matter; but more importantly, freaked my cat out & she would dart past it despite all the little tips & tricks out there. Trust me, if it's a fountain, I feel like I'm the closest thing to an desired customer expert at this point sadly. So I can say it's definitely quiet, IF and I say IF YOU FOLLOW THE OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS & MAINTAIN IT AS SPECIFIED ON TIME W/OUT FUDGING, at least in my case over consistent use over the last 5-6 months. I can tell if I fudge a day on changing the water, you can tell the motor starts to expend more energy & bog down trying to work through the unseen gunk & food/hair debris, but even then it still was not near as noisy as other fountains during normal use. I have yet to ever hear it be what I'd call truly loud or ever obtrusive. The water level must be kept at an appropriately level or it will, again cause the motor to assumably work harder causing a subtle, ever slight noticeable increase in noise output. If you have the water intake at the highest level, you will hear water flowing like you would standing next to a bubbling brook or creek bed, but NOT the motor itself. The motor is attached inside under the casing w/suction cups and I do recommend paying a little more attention when securing this after a routine cleaning in making sure you secure the suction cups fully, w/a good full contact push for a thorough, full contact intact seal of every cup on the motor (just like you would w/any suction cup anywhere else, ie. shower, window, windshield, mirror). Often it's in the initial 'contact' that causes subsequent failure & in this case causes the vibration on the porous plastic service to be poor & rattle when initial thorough contact is not successful. This has happened to me once with me not paying attention and just quickly slopping it back together w/out a ton of thought. Now I clean the contact surface & dry them on both the fountain & the cups, & make the re-seal of motor to fountain w/clean, dry contact making sure full, even contact is made w/decent pressure held for a good 10-15 seconds and release, then recheck by gently, (as to not break the seal I just created) tugging at each corner of the motor and you can tell if one corner is not sealed fully or made reliable complete contact; if so re-do it starting fresh. (Again, just like elsewhere in suction cup uses, you can't explain it really, but you know when you've half-***ed it & hung a suction cup by not really ensuring a good hold & seal or not cleaned the surface first & you find it soon thereafter, a few days later or immediately after, half hanging off or completely fallen). Short cuts never seem to work in this area. Getting all four suction cups sealed w/one press in my experience has caused me no rattling or vibrations. Another point about this fountain, that also ties into reasons you could hear rattling, is about the water everywhere issue or 'leaking' claims; which is the spout itself & it's location. Initially, one of the main draws for me to buy it b/c it more than any other fountain, it mimicked the stream of water I get & more importantly my cat likes from using the bathroom faucet and it being on the side was more accessible and thus more natural action of licking w/out reaching & awkwardly leaning over to the center of a fountain, consequently it not being the most natural, easy or desirable angle to get a good long extending drink, which most cats naturally do, opposed to other pets, which have lengthy, long tongues & snouts to easily & readily reach just about any size fountain stream. Cats are more clean conscious, guarded of making any perceived 'vulnerable' moves or actions by instinct to not invite predators to more readily attack. So the side stream is a major plus, if ONLY by doing so it didn't cause the stream to consequently splatter & spill out everywhere but seemingly back inside the pool of the fountain water during kitties extended seconds of lapping midstream! My cat & I'm sure many others attempted ingeniously really to solve this problem on their own by changing where they introduce their tongue into the stream, smartly attempting lappage from the base of the stream where it meets the ramp right before it creates & adds to the pool. This however, also yielded undesirable affects, as to reach the stream w/a short cat tongue, even completely extended, does not surpass the length of a cat's nose as it has to curl up to scoop the water, simply creating a waterfall stream that now fully blasts off the naturally water-repelling feline fur atop of the cat's perfectly angled head, almost right between the eyes causing an even worse catapult of water now expelling at a perfect 360 degree circumference everywhere. I had to w/out question place a flat tray under the fountain & add a basic extra water bowl next to it to constantly replenish the water spillage every time she drank. W/out it, well, you mine as well stand over your floor and gleefully pour a good fourth of a cup to half-cup of water directly onto your floor every time your cat drinks. Then have a second cup to refill your first cup you just spilled out. What a mess, & I totally see why most people think it's gotta leak. I thought the same thing b/c of the shear amount of water so quickly all over the floor & out of the fountain was anything I've ever seen out of the multitude of fountains I've tried. Not even the messiest of slobbering hound dogs could have created such spillage! Back to my secondary point about rattling, the tray coupled w/constant saturation & a good half centimeter of water itself, can sometimes cause the fountain sitting atop it to make a rattling noise, as the water somehow can create I imagine similar to bouncy affect & thus the movement of the fountain holding the motor. That being said, my cat still likes this darn thing and does go to it often, as long as i change the water (not including the adding of water 1-3x daily) at minimum 2x a week & clean it good once a week. I changed the filter faithfully every 2 weeks but this last round I decided to do the rinsing thing and see if it made a difference to my cat. IT DID! the same filter has been in now for 3.7 wks, nearly 4 and I've rinsed it thoroughly 2x a week and she has slowly stopped seeking the fountain for a wk over that duration, despite changing the water. Now, I'm using tap water and let the tap run for at least 30 seconds to clear out the initial buildup & concentration of chemical/mineral (that bad taste you get if you immediately drink from a just turned on faucet-YUCK!) Just fyi- science backs up the reason & justification for letting the water run a bit before drinking or using and they do recommend such in humans & pets if you did not already know. The first water through the pipes is the first to flow through the sitting pipes & it allows the gunk & other mineral build up & buildup of chemicals & water additives in the first pressure release to flow out & flush out until you get to the middle, sustained pressure & therefore cleaner flowing water & the dry pipes have been prope
