Love the sound it makes. At first, I had similar issues related to water going everywhere after setting up. The solution I found was to keep the black foam-like material in place at each tier near the opening (how it was shipped), which did a better job of slowing down the water and providing the preferred waterfall-like experience vs. water pouring out everywhere. I do find that it needs to be filled more frequently than my other waterfountains but they don't have the same loud waterfall like sound that this one has.