07/11/2021 3months after I purchased it… today i tried to clean the unit and the birdbath. After cleaning was done, I added water and placed the fountain on the bath, just as what I had done in the past few months. What… no water from the fountain, even with full sun! I shook the unit. Put it back on the bath. Still not water fountain. Very disappointed. It will be put into recycle bin. Disappointed. DON’T BUY. NOT RECOMMENDED. Junk… ???? 05/06/2021 1 month after I deployed it, today, as a routine, I took the fountain aside and I used bare hands to wash the birdbath. Then I noticed the solar surface looked unusual… there were dark and shiny areas on the Matt grey surface. I took a closer look… the Matt grey color was actually a coating on the surface of the solar cells. Some of this coating had become loose. I moved my bare hand over the spot… wow… the grey coating came off. See for yourself… This was totally unexpected. Thus far, this issue does not seem to stop the fountain from working under the sun. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I hope the manufacturer can respond to this issue. Until I am satisfied with the remendy, I am changing the ratings to 3 stars. NOT RECOMMENDED ————————————————————————————————————————————————— I looked at a number of similar products on the Amazon site. Majority of them fail in a fairly short time. I was a bit put off by this. But in the back of my mind, I wonder why so many fail. Then a few days ago... an idea came... water left under the sun will start to grow all kinds of things... slime and dirt and what not. People left it under the sun , not doing regular maintenance - like changing water with fresh ones frequently, washing off any dirt and grime. So I deduced that in time, the pump mechanism sucks up enough dirts and grime, will clog up and stop working. As if Amazon knew what I was thinking, the next day, I received an email from Amazon suggesting this particular make. After looking into it in greater details, I realized that this is a better product, designed to perform better - that it has a foam piece material in the suction to minimize dirts from being sucked up and create blockage. I have been using it for a couple of days. I wash the bird bath every morning, clearing all residues from the dish, and refill with fresh water. So far so good. However, I am bothered by the fact the the bird bath quickly loses water... I already chose a low spray but the wind blows the sprays to the side and loses water. So in half a day, the spray diminishes to a tiny flow. Today, following other reviewers, I removed the spray nozzle. Just let water flow freely from the open top. This far, it has retained enough water to keep the water flowing in decent quantity. I don’t know how long it will last. My 1st experience about such product. Hence the 4 stars for now. Come winter time, when I remove it for the cold weather... if it still works, I shall change it to 5 stars.
