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The Cat Genie self-cleaning litter box is a no-scoop, no-smell solution for busy households with cats. Here’s my detailed review after owning a Cat Genie for 4+ years.
Don’t you wish you could come home to a house that doesn’t smell like a dirty litter box, without scooping and cleaning it multiple times each day?
The Cat Genie is a self-cleaning litter box that is no-touch for cat owners, from start to finish. No more scooping, no more smell, and kitty gets to use a clean litter box every time! It’s incredibly convenient, saves time and money, and keeps your house from smelling like dirty litter box.
I write a lot about cleaning tips for working women here on my blog. The Cat Genie is a perfect solution for working women who are also cat lovers!
We ordered a Cat Genie from Amazon over 4 years ago, and it’s been in use in our home ever since. It is amazing! It automatically scoops and washes itself, whisking waste away into a toilet or outgoing water line. All we have to do is flush!
It’s such a relief not having to worry about constantly scooping the litter box to eliminate odor and keep things fresh for our cats. They love the Cat Genie because it’s always clean and ready to use.
We’ve been happy Cat Genie owners for several years. As a result, I decided to share our experience with those who are thinking about investing in a one. You can also check out my list of 11 common Cat Genie questions to get even more information.
Who Cat Genie is For
My honest opinion? If you have a cat and scooping the litter box isn’t your favorite thing, then you need a Cat Genie! On a more specific level, Cat Genie is great for households where:
- Litter box odor is present
- Owners are too busy to scoop the litter box multiple times per day
- Litter box odor is embarrassing for owners
- Cats are picky about a clean litter box
- Owners don’t want to deal with the weight and buildup of clumping cat litter
This is our little guy Spiderman. He is a huge Cat Genie fan and uses his multiple times each day!
How Cat Genie Works
The Cat Genie is an automatic litter box that completely eliminates the need for scooping and sanitizing your cat’s litter box. You hook it up to a water supply, attach a hose to a toilet or drain, and plug it in. It’s virtually maintenance-free from here on out!
Here’s how it works:
- The Cat Genie uses an infrared eye to detect motion inside it. 10-30 minutes after motion is detected, its cleaning cycle begins.
- The Cat Genie has a revolving inner bowl and a scooping arm that lowers to scoop out solid waste.
- It then fills with water and cleaning solution from a replaceable cartridge, to wash the bowl and special plastic granules that take the place of traditional litter.
- The Cat Genie pulverizes solid waste, and expels all waste into your toilet via an outgoing hose.
- It blows itself dry with warm air.
Features
There are several features of this product that you should know about before you decide whether to buy.
Reusable Granules
Don’t you wish you could stop spending money on cat litter? The Cat Genie is your answer.
It doesn’t use traditional cat litter. Instead, it has special granules that are actually small plastic pellets. The pellets get washed and re-used. Over time, some pellets will be expelled into the toilet with waste, and your cat will track some out when he exits the litter box.
We probably go through 2 or 3 boxes per year, and we simply top the granules off at the fill line inside the unit about once per month.
Cleaning Cartridge
Wouldn’t it be nice if your litter box sanitized itself? Cat Genie does! It uses its own SaniSolution cleaning cartridges to wash and sanitize the inside of the bowl and granules as often as you’d like. This eliminates lingering odors from urine, and can keep cats happy with a fresh box every time.
One of our cats is very picky about having a clean box. She often sits and waits patiently until the cleaning cycle finishes so she can use a clean box.
It’s so nice not having to deal with the grimy, stuck-on gunk at the bottom of a traditional litter box. Cat Genie keeps itself clean, so there’s literally nothing you have to deal with.
A SaniSolution cleaning cartridge lasts for 120-240 cleaning cycles, according to the company. We replace ours every 6-8 weeks. They offer scented and unscented cartridges. We prefer the unscented, because many fragrances give me a headache.
Maintenance Cartridge
Cat Genie also uses maintenance cartridges to remove lime and other buildup every so often. As a result, it runs better and lasts longer. You replace the cleaning cartridge with a maintenance cartridge, and Cat Genie does the rest. So it’s not only self-cleaning, it’s self-maintaining!
One maintenance cartridge contains enough solution for 4 uses. We run a maintenance cycle on our unit about 4 times per year.
Automatic Cleaning Frequency Options
There are lots of options for how frequently Cat Genie cleans itself. You can choose:
- Cat start
- Auto start
- Push start
Here’s more information on how each option works.
Cat Start
Cat start is what I described above. An infrared eye senses motion inside the unit, and starts a cleaning cycle afterward.
You can choose to start a cleaning cycle 10 minutes after the last detection of motion, or 30 minutes after. We use cat start set for 30 minutes after motion. This allows us to get 2 uses before a cycle runs if another one of our kitties decides to hop in.
Another great thing about cat start is that you can set it to run 14 hours or 24 hours per day. This allows you to keep Cat Genie from running while you’re asleep – perfect for light sleepers.
Auto Start
Thinking it sounds costly to run water through the Cat Genie 8-10 times per day? It’s really not a big expense, based on our water bills over the years. But if you’d still like to cut down on the number of times your Cat Genie runs, you can program it to run 1, 2, 3, or 4 times per day.
We’ve never used this setting. The company says it reduces the number of uses you can get out of a SaniSolution cleaning cartridge from 240 uses (On cat start) to 120 uses (on auto start).
Push Start
If you want even more control over how often your Cat Genie runs, you can set it to start a cleaning cycle only when you push the start button. This might be a good option if you want to conserve water or eliminate the background noise if it running randomly.
Optional Privacy Dome
Cat Genie also offers an optional dome topper. It’s perfect for giving your cat some privacy, and also helps keep the granules inside when kitty is digging around in the box. We’ve had the dome from the start, and love it.
Pros
Want to hear it straight from me? Check out this short review video I did (with Spiderman!!) for Cat Genie. I received a free Cat Genie supply pack for sharing my thoughts on video, but all opinions are my own.
I love our Cat Genie, and our household would be stinky and more stressful without it! I’ve already mentioned some of the reasons I adore this product, but here’s a rundown of the pros.
No-Touch, Fully-Automatic Self-Cleaning
Once it’s set up, it’s completely no-touch scooping and cleaning, other than occasionally switching out cleaning cartridges and topping off granules.
No More Smell
Cat Genie does not smell at all once the cleaning cycle runs. Like any litter box, there is an odor immediately after use, but Cat Genie will have it gone in no time if it’s set on cat start.
No More Scooping
Because it’s self-cleaning, you no longer have to hunch over the litter box, gagging as you scoop out kitty’s little gifts. It scoops them out, pulverizes them, and banishes them to your toilet forever. All you have to do is flush the toilet occasionally.
No More Buying Litter
Cat Genie’s reusable granules replace traditional litter, and a single box lasts 2-4 months. So much better than paying $15.00-$25.00 every few weeks for a box of high-quality litter!
I’ll discuss costs down below in the Cons section. However, we’ve still found Cat Genie to be cheaper than the cost of buying litter for a traditional litter box.
Cats Get a Clean Litter Box
How would you like to use a toilet that hadn’t been flushed after 5 or 6 uses? Unfortunately, that’s what our cats experience when they have to use a dirty litter box. Cat Genie provides your felines with a clean box as often as you choose. As a result, your cats will be happier and healthier.
Fantastic Warranty and Customer Service
We’ve had to call Cat Genie’s customer service line about 4 times in the 4+ years that we’ve had our Cat Genie. They are absolutely fantastic. They’re friendly, great at troubleshooting, and many whom I’ve talked to are Cat Genie owners themselves!
Once, there was something seriously wrong with our unit. I called customer service, and the representative walked me through disassembling the unit to fix the problem.
It turned out that one of our cats had fished a piece of plastic out of the trash, ate it, and passed it. It ended up clogging our unit. The representative told me exactly how to fix it. He even stayed on the phone with me about 45 minutes past their business hours to help me solve the problem!
One Tip
When you receive your Cat Genie, write down the serial number on the bottom of the unit and keep it somewhere safe. Otherwise, you’ll have to lift it up to get the serial number from the bottom if you ever have to call customer service.
We have our serial number written on the instruction booklet, which we keep under the sink in the bathroom where our unit is.
Tells You When Something’s Wrong
If Cat Genie encounters a problem, it beeps to let you know. Troubleshoot it using the guide they include with purchase, or call up that fantastic customer service team for help.
Cons
Like any product, there are a few drawbacks. To me, the pros far outweigh the cons, but I wanted to mention them anyway, just so you’re aware.
It’s Loud
Cat Genie is a mechanical device, and naturally, it makes noise. It’s louder than a high-end dishwasher, but quieter than a washing machine. We’ve gotten used to the noise and usually tune it out. If it’s near your bedroom and you’re a light sleeper, it might wake you up.
There is an Ongoing Cost
Once you start using Cat Genie, there are some ongoing costs involved. Not only does it use water and electricity, you also have to buy granules, SaniSolution cartridges, and maintenance cartridges.
In terms of the granules and cartridges, I’d estimate that we spend about $150.00 per year. That sounds like a lot, but we used to go through a $23.00, 40-pound box of my favorite cat litter every month. That comes out to $276.00 per year. As a result, we’re saving about $125.00 in supplies alone by using Cat Genie.
In terms of water, we didn’t notice a significant increase in our bill when we started using our unit. The company states that using the unit is similar to a few extra toilet flushes per day.
It’s Fairly Big
The Cat Genie takes up about 18 square inches of floor space. Depending on the size of your bathroom, things might get cramped. Things are cozy in the bathroom where we keep ours, but it doesn’t prevent us from using the rest of the bathroom comfortably.
If Something Goes Seriously Wrong, it Can Be a Hassle
We’ve only had 1 incident where our Cat Genie had a major problem. It was the incident I mentioned above, when our unit got clogged by a piece of plastic that one of our cats ate. I had to disassemble the unit to clear the clog. It was disgusting, and one of the worst smells I’ve encountered in my life.
However, the customer service rep was compassionate and kept me focused so I could fix the problem as quickly as possible. Keep in mind, too, that we’ve only had that 1 major incident during the 4+ years we’ve owned our unit.
Cat Genie Review: Conclusion
Our lives and our cats’ lives are better because of our Cat Genie. There’s no gross, embarrassing litter box smell. We don’t have to deal with scooping and cleaning it, and our cats get to enjoy a clean litter box each time they use it.
Amazon has everything you need to get started:
If you hate litter box odor but also hate scooping the litter box multiple times per day, then this product is the perfect solution for you and your kitty. Ready to put an end to scooping and stinky smell? Grab your Cat Genie and put an end to stinky boxes and endless scooping. Not quite ready? Check out my Cat Genie FAQs first.
If this product isn’t up your alley, check out my tips on how to eliminate litter box odor in a traditional litter box.