My cats have a ceramic water fountain that is cleaned often. I’ve had a lot of fountains and it’s my favorite for easy cleaning. I found that hard water stains the stainless steel over time, but your mileage may vary. Thankfully mine drink a LOT of water. They will still drink from the dirty birdbath bowl on the porch, because it’s in the wild even with clean water inside! 😂 they play in it sometimes, so I’ll drop ice cubes in it for them to play with sometimes, but watch, that will dirty the water more quickly. I also put it in the bottom of the kitchen pantry so they can look out and feel safe when they drink. I do have a second regular bowl elsewhere just in case.
I've had ceramic and stainless fountains for many years. I clean weekly if not more often. Soaking the hard water spots in vinegar will dissolve the hard water calcification, then wash well. To encourage drinking, I make chicken broth using only chicken thighs and water: no salt, no spices. Onion and garlic are bad for feline kidneys.
