Fresh water every refill. Never recycled.
My cat is fascinated by his new water station! He took to it the first day. I’m still working out how much H2O to put in the main container and setting the time for it to refill. Got is on 9 hrs now cause 6 was too frequent and had to refill often. My order did not include the hydrated cat book. Love the mat cause it’s saved my hard wood floors, especially when I changing out water bins. So far, so good!