Cat Genie

I was initially REALLY impressed with the cat Genie. It appeared to do exactly what I wanted, no mess, no smells, no lugging heavy cat litter home.

However.. It's 2 years down the line and it's basic design faults really let it down to the point I must confess, it just isnt worth the money. It really doesn't solve any of the reasons why I bought it, and costs way more than a traditional offering.

No more litter box cleaning?!

Well, not exactly. Unless your cat does the perfect poo each and every time, it wont work as prescribed, if your cat's poo is anything less than perfect solidity, the scoop will smear it around the pan and over the scoop itself. Cleaning the Cat genie is far more involved than a normal tray, you have to dissemble it at least once a week (mainly to get the ******* cat genie litter out of the mechanism), if you dont the poo lines the scoop and back wall, which naturally will smell. A normal litter tray gets upturned into a bin and has a quick wash. 10 mins vs 30?

No more smells?

This is the worst bit. Should you cat have been slightly loose that particular day prepare to have your entire house gassed!

The cleaning cycle does not have any real options, it either goes or doesn't. So You cannot stop the drying mechanism as part of the cycle.

The scoop isn't great and 9 times out of 10 will smear or leave the poo in the tray. Once the drying cycle kicks off it's horrendous! I cant really describe how bad it is save to say, grab some cat poop and a blow dryer. Now dry to poo for 20 mins and see how your house smells....

I HATE cat Genie litter!!!!!

Ok, this will drive you nuts! The litter gets EVERYWHERE. I dont know how or why but it will stick to your cat and find it's way all over your house. It gets all over the carpet, in your kitchen (not nice!), in your bed. You name it, this stuff is designed to infiltrate every nook and cranny of your house. Be ready to hoover the entire house every time your cat uses the genie (yes... this is a pet peeve!)

Automation.

This is FAR too basic, and you can only really tell it how many times a day to run (1 through 4). This invariably means that it'll run sometime in the night. Which generally means that if the noise of the gears trying to force their way past the genie litter doesn't wake you, the stench of a cooking cat poo will! Should the Cat genie encounter a problem (which it will!) it'll beep and will not stop beeping. More than once have I been woken up to an error and have had to dismantle the thing and fix it in order to shut it up at 2am!

Build Quality.

Not very good for the money, it's loud, prone to failure. The bowl gets stuck and doesn't turn, the scoop decides to work, from what I can gather, based on the phases of the moon.

Return on Investment.

You have to bare in mind that Cat Genie's revenue stream is consumables, i.e litter and cleaner. so they want you to burn through these things. In the 2 years I've had this thing, i's cost me more in consumables than a traditional method yet NOT been any less work than a 99p plastic tray on the floor.

To summarise, I think they COULD have a great product on there hands, but because of the business model I cant see them changing this; which is why I wouldn't recommend it.

Buy one - Buy one now!

This is a wired in and plumbed in litter tray. You never need to touch litter again. It takes a bit of time to set up - but the team were great in helping me. I'll admit I spent 33 minutes watching it clean the first time!!!! (sad I know). It lifts the solids out, washes the plastic reusable litter, and then rise it. Claudia (my cat) then goes in and lies on the totally clean and now warm litter!!!

Theres an additive that cleans and disinfects and perfumes everything - so you need to buy this and keep topping up the plastic litter - but this is no more expense than litter

No more cleaning litter trays! No more smell! It's fantastic! Where's the 6 start button??????