CatGenie 120 Self-Washing Cat Litter Box
14 reviews
A fair investment for a product that conceptually is good however the smell is something to get use to and the tracking of granules all over the house is a nightmare.
Takes a while for cats to get used to it, but eventually they do. When the machine works - it is great and worthy of 5 stars compared to normal litter trays. But, the problem is that when it goes wrong…. 1) It’ll beep non stop unless you turn it off at the plug (this is very frustrating if it chooses to fail in the middle of the night) 2) No… Read more
matter if you use the maintenance cartridge or not, the error one will activate from time to time and no amount of cleaning of the sensor will get it to work again. I’ve had to purchase new sensors just to get the unit to work - and they are not cheap. 3) If you are ever unfortunate enough to get a ‘clogged’ error and have to clean the unit totally, well it’s simply disgusting and will have you puking. 4) Be prepared for cooked poos which will smell your house out like you cannot imagine. The design of the scoop doesn’t allow for smaller pieces to be scooped up, so they simply go round and round the bin during the wash phase, then get cooked during the drying process. 5) Use only in a very well ventilated room of you will get condensation on windows with every use leading to mould issues. 6) The supplies are very expensive. This could be an amazing unit if the water sensor wasn’t so ridiculously sensitive or the maintenance cartridge actually did what the manufacturer says it does, and the scoop design was changed to pick up finer pieces of poo. Oh, and get rid of the bloody continual beeping when an error throws up. Half a dozen and then stop is quite enough for me.
Horrible – Do not buy this product, we have tried every setting to stop the vile smell that comes from it . We have used 2-3 more solution . The toilet is in our garage, my wife is working upstairs and has opened the windows because of the smell Save your money
Best investment I've ever made - Game Changer – Do yourself a favour - buy a Cat Genie!! I thought about it for years, never quite had enough spare money, enough space etc. We bought one 6 months ago and its changed our lives. We've installed in our laundry and had no issues with the unit at all. It takes up floor space and the small litter does get tracked around the house a bit more than… Read more
regular litter, but these are small sacrifices. We are no longer slaves to buying, changing, smelling litter etc. It took my cats (who are 10 and 5 years old) a little while to work it out. I found they were scared of the cleaning action / noise, so I kept it on manual mode for a few months (switching it on after they used it for #2), but now they are used to it and fascinated with cleaning mode when its on. I switched to cat activation a few weeks ago and Ive hardly even thought of cat littler since.
Ok at first – This is a great idea in theory but after over a year this is a pain. We have 2 cats and 1 is scared of it so keep this in mind when buying. After 12mths it randomly beeps all night and no matter what you do to it the red light beeping comes back which scares 1 cat so it poos on the doona or floor... wonderful hey. Also the litter sticks to the… Read more
animal so you step on it everywhere. Normal litter does not seem such a hassle anymore as we have that set up again to account for the unreliableness of it.
Noisy, clunky & takes forever – The scooper has a ridged bottom that’s far too harsh and makes a racket when going in to clean & out to remove fecal matter with the idea being it shakes off excess granular but 9/10 it shakes off anything it scoops up. It’s not exactly a gentle “tap tap tap”, it can be heard from outside and freaks out the cats, dogs & anyone trying to sleep &… Read more
it’s 4 big rooms away from the bedrooms. The water draining is like 5 washing machines in a tunnel running rinse cycle at the same time. With cleaning cycles taking excess 30 minutes, we now find “presents” around if one couldn’t hold on waiting for the whole 30+ minute cycle to finish. Stick with a tray, container or whatever. It’s cheaper in the long run because you have to buy specific granules from cat genie & their scented wash solution otherwise this noisy f’er ain’t working.
I love technology, I hate this thing & if my wife wasn’t the one who bought it I’d smash it just for laughs. Mind you, she hates it too now.
Don’t buy it!! It is terrible – I have car genie for 5 years now. It never stop having issues. 1. When there are some poops are soft or smaller than the scooper, they stay in the machine and the Drying starts. The house smell horrible. 2. The machine can not add extra wash rounds. It have to follow wash + dry and if it is not clean, you will have to start another round after… Read more
drying. It cannot do wet + extra wash + dry. It is a waste of energy. 3. You have to take the machine to parts to clean it. I have been using the machine cleaning rounds regularly and still end up a 2-3 hours cleaning session.
It has been an ongoing struggle and stress in the past years. I am moving house now and it will go to the hard garbage!!!!
Would be ok if it picked up all the poo – This product has so much promise, but it under delivers. My two cats took to it really easily, within 1 day of getting the genie. I also purchased the higher sides and the hood, but only use the sides and the hood isn’t really necessary when the unit is consistently clean. The pros: When it does clean properly, it’s great. Washes away that pee… Read more
smell and no need to scoop the poo. The cats like it, and I’m not having to buy litter products all the time. The child lock feature is also great as one of my cats kept standing on the buttons on the top of the unit, singing the song of his people, and then watching it start. Has it made cat care easier? Yes.
The cons: Almost all of the time it doesn’t pick up all the poo, or if it does, the scoop arm is so violent with it that it flicks it back in the bowl. The well formed poo then breaks up small, and is too small to be scooped up again. So then what happens? Well then the unit washes the litter, with tiny little turds included, which then go on to get dried with the warm dryer filling your house with the smell of cooked crap, which you then need to fish out or else they’ll be stuck there indefinitely. It really is the pleasure you are imagining with your scrunched up nose right now.
Now I have noticed tonight that there’s also poo trapped in the hopper that hasn’t gone through to be pulverised. Oh yay! That means pulling it apart and cleaning it manually. I’ve only had it two months and it’s meant to need a clean twice per year so I was expecting another 4 months before needing to do this.
I have heard people rave about this appliance, but for the cost would I buy it again? Absolutely not. I’d be more inclined to get one with the robot arm that pushes the poo away and you empty the bag. Far cheaper and likely more reliable. Sadly wish it was better.
Recommended! – I installed this machine in late 2021. It works so well. A complete game changer from having to clean up after your cat. I have seen reviews saying their house smells like cat poop. This has happened once in over two years and the cause was a less than firm poop: this had become stuck to the scooper and was odorising the house as the hot air drier… Read more
was drying the pellets. It was actually helpful because we realised our cat unwell. Did it stink? It did. Other than that, maintenance is a cinch. Instructions are a breeze. I called the hotline once and they were super helpful. Ongoing costs are circa $250 per year. Still worth it! I would definitely recommend.
A thorn in my side – My brother bought this cat genie for my mom and it throws errors all the time. Its been down for over a week now with an eror 4 and we cannot get intouch with customer service. Y'all stink with customer service. We have been calling for over a week now...no response! We' ve emailed, no response. I will never own a cat genie!! Show details
Whole house smells like cat poop – The cat genie does self clean, and has made it so we don’t have to change cat litter. but i honestly would prefer to change cat litter rather than have our whole 3 bedroom house smell like baked cat poo every cleaning cycle. it is actually becoming intolerable. i have deep cleaned the unit and we have had it less than 3 months, no luck. the smell… Read more
remains.
I guess after spending all this money, and a physical litter box I changed once a week smelling far far less, I can’t really recommend the product
The CatGenie works fantastic! The best decision and money one can put on an automated kitty litter – Pros: The CatGenie works fantastic! The best decision and money one can put on an automated kitty litter, in my opinion. I have the sewer hose attached to the grey water along with the laundry hose and have never had to touch or think of kitty litter since. I have had the CatGenie for 11 months and have never had to clean the kitty litter or have… Read more
had the cat make any accidents. My at the time 7 month old kitten took to the genie easily. I followed the instruction of placing the genie beside the old litter box and stopped cleaning the old litter box. After 3 days, she started to use the genie, I left the old litter box 4 more days before getting ride of it and have not had a problem.
Sort of but not really cons: -while my 7 month old kitty was young, she would high tail it out of the genie, tracking the 'crystals' through the house. Buying a litter mat and an additional bathroom mat mostly stopped this problem. But by the age of 13 months, my cat does not sprint out of the genie anymore and she doesn't track it around the house, though I still need the litter mat and bathmat. -the motor did die just last week on the processing unit, but the CatGenie help line was awesome. I was on hold for less than 4 minutes, the assistant walked me through possible errors. He than concluded it was the processor and sent a new unit within 3 days to replace the old one, all within a 5 min conversation. 2 year warrant is great!
Cat relationship taken to next level – Best product you can offer to your cat or cats and to yourself. The cat genie 120 is taking care of everything, scooping, cleaning and sanitising and disposing the waste (the only one doing this) Its a bit of investment but well worth it As i am saving hours of daily labor of maintaining a cat litter Cat genie is available with afterpay to make it… Read more
less heavy on your budget Its works flawlessly, sturdy materials and components Dome and side wall/ pocket mat a must buy to keep everything tidy Zero regrets on my purchase, best investment of the year No more cleaning, no more smell It is Cat’revolution
A great idea with some major flaws – Cost of unit is about $600 that includes the dome which is not included with basic unit. Set up was not overly difficult until you come to problems such as outlet hose size of washing machine compared to adapter unit supplied. I have a Kleenmaid washing machine with a larger drainage pipe than the small adaptor could take. So now the washing… Read more
machine is draining straight into the actual sink, which is not ideal, to accommodate the Catgenie waste hose going directly into the sink drain outlet. There was no Teflon tape supplied to attach the brass water hose coupling of which two different sizes were supplied for the water intake. So off hunting again for a roll only to end up at the local hardware to get some. Everything now in place and plugged in ready to be used. Thumbs up! Next morning one cat has taken his morning dump in the unit. Hallelujah! (No, it wasn’t) as I went to investigate, the Genie hand was activated and coming down to scoop the well formed and slightly soft poop. I watched with a grimace as the Genie hand scooped up three of the 5 stools and squished the other two through its slats! The smell was something else but the best was yet to come. I gave it the benefit of the doubt as I knew it went through a few wash cycles before completing its cleanup. With its rotating clockwise and anti clockwise through the course of this cycle it created small plastic speckled crap balls which were too small to be caught in the Genie hand and tipped out. I then had to go on a treasure hunt sifting through to find them all as the drying cycle had begun and toasted turd balls have an aroma that imprints in your very psyche. I picked out as many as I could find and let the beast continue its cycle of torment to the end. After I had unloaded half a can of Glen20 through the house, I went back to run the evil Genie through another cycle as the plastic litter had now been washed with turd water and was blow dry crap coated. On completion of its second cycle things were improved and smelled floral fresh. In summary- The intended purpose of the very expensive unit was to make life easier. On the very first go this was not the case. (As stated, the cats poop was in no way runny, it was well formed so that wasn’t the problem) Considering it’s Cost I expected that I wouldn’t have had this many bad experiences from the start. I didn’t mention that the sink outlet adaptor had fallen apart either. I bought one of these for my elderly mother as well so I’m dreading this happening to her. It does have a return period so I will try it for a few more weeks as I really hope that this isn’t going to be a common experience. Time will tell. I wanted to add photos but can’t seem to get them to load. I’m rating it 3 stars as I’m a positive person and I’m hoping for the best here.
*** EDIT 3 weeks later*** I'm happier with it now seeing as I haven't had any further "Smooshing" episodes.
You do actually go through quite a bit of the plastic litter as it scatters and sticks to cats paws and tracks quite a distance. Sweeping it up, I've noticed it's a considerable amount. It also sticks to the poop and obviosly goes down the drain with it. So not only are you losing the litter substantially over time but also creating an environmental problem with plastic pieces floating around in the sewer and ultimately ending up causing porblems. Still seem to have an issue with smaller pieces poop not being able to be picked up so they just go through the cycle and end up baked poo pellets which means I need to go hunting for them by sifting through the litter. Both my cats took to the CatGenie 120 with no problems at all. It has stopped my girl cat peeing and pooping on the floor now. The smell of the sanitiser is quite good without it being overpowering. My boy cat really loves it. So much so that he deliberately hops in and out and waits for it to start so he can watch it! **** FOLLOWUP 6 MONTHS Still experiencing a lot of tracking of litter throughout the entire house. It gets into every nook and cranny you can think of. Extra cleaning of carpets and floors now even with trying a few different types of mats around unit.Which means you have a lot of loss and you can only use that specific litter in the unit. Still experiencing poop not being picked up by the hand or squished by it. The smell is intense when this happens and picking out the small pieces isn’t pleasant either. The actual time it takes to go through the cleaning process is quite long and I have now gone back to my female cat peeing on the floor again as she seems to always need to piddle or poop when it’s cleaning. I have gone through extra sanitary cleaner as my other cat is obsessed now with jumping in it as soon as it completes its cycle and sitting on the warm litter. I would say that you have to way up if it’s really worth it. You can only use the proprietary products for it. I’d also say that small plastic granules ending up in waste are not particularly environmentally friendly either. I personally don’t think I’d recommend this product as I really do believe the makers need to improve quite a few issues
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