CatGenie ™ Self-Wash Litter Box

[Silvercore Cats]

We just purchased and installed the CatGenie™. We will update this review as the weeks go by, if the product lasts that long here.

Pros: This litter box is really meant for people who have very limited disposal options, say, you have many cats and trash pick up only comes once a week. (Like us). This product removes and cleans waste from the CatGenie™ litter pan into the toilet. Also, if you do not like lugging litter around, this might be the product for you.
The 3 cats we bought it for took to it pretty quickly, but that is as far as we go with the "Pros".

Cons: You really do need to think about your set up before buying this product. It isn't very space friendly, and the plumbing isn't exactly eye candy.

If you do have many cats, then it will only alleviate the problem of disposal with two or three cats. If you have the patience, then buy more than one unit for multiple areas, but buy more only if you have the water supply and electrical outlet to connect it to.

A reminder to potential buyers: This product must be plugged in, so when planning out where to put it, consider the outlet to be used.

The bowl does have drainage slits at the bottom so that urine can be stored below the bottom, but the odor can be terrible if you don't buy the cover. The litter does not absorb odor, so there is no odor control.

The unit has to be turned on at least once a day, but we do not recommend leaving it plugged in if you have cats who like to sit on top of things. 6 hours after we put it together and had 3 cats using it, our beautiful Bengal cat Majestic Storm turned it on, terrifying herself and the 2 other cats into hiding. They now refuse to come anywhere near the unit. We had planned to lock the cats out of the room when manually running the unit, but Majestic beat us to the punch.

If there is any feces at all left in the bowl, the drying cycle causes a reeking odor. This can be countered by spraying our favorite odor control product into the litter as it is drying, so that is not a big deal, but still a con.

Another con is that the unit will not operate if you do not have a cartridge inserted into the machine. You can only buy those cartridges from CatGenie™, and they can not be refilled.

Over all, believe it or not, we think we could like this product despite all of the problems, if it actually worked. (can't keep it plugged in, no odor control, plumbing cords, baked poop smell if you don’t spray the litter), because it's easier than lugging heavy litter around and frees up space in the trash bin.

For those that have read glowing reviews let me tell you this:

The odor issue is something you can not escape. It just stinks. If you want to counter that, then you must stand over the box while it is cleaning to make sure no poop...and we mean NO poop is stuck to the litter. Can you imagine if you had a cat with even a hint of loose stools?
You need to spray the litter while it is drying. You also have to put up with urine odors until you need to clean it again, unless you buy the cover, but that only helps and doesn't end the problem.
There is no escaping it. There is no "maybe it won't happen with my unit." It will happen.

Edit: We used the CatGenie a total of 3 times since we got it. On the 3rd time, we scooped out the poop and put it and the "toilet safe" pellets into the toilet to avoid the clogging problems you read about in other reviews. Well, the CatGenie clogged anyway, and we had to take it apart to pour the bowl of bowel soup down the toilet. When we poured it in, some came up over the top and got all over the floor. We're sending it back. It's just not worth it.


Do we recommend it? We can't say we do, not for 300 bucks.