CatGenie A.I.

I suck at scooping! I’ve wanted this litter box forever. Oct 2022 I finally paid the almost $500 for the Cat Genie A.I. I call it my Bougie Litter Box. I have two cats. One deaf & one hearing. The Cat Genie is loud when it runs it’s cycle. My deaf cat thought this machine was her new BFF full of water, movement, and shaking! It is the best toy ever for her! She knows if she gets in, it will start moving 5 min later. She waits. Eager for it to start moving. My hearing cat on the other hand, was kind of freaked out with this machine at first. He’s still not fully sold on it. He pees in it, but doesn’t want to poop in it for some reason. My other cat loves it. Uses it with zero problems. TIPS AND TRICKS 1. Do not use cat activation at first - do manual - and close the door so the cat(s) can’t see the machine run at first. Let them get used to the noise behind a closed door. I did this for a few weeks before I let the machine run a cycle in front of the cats. Minus the first day I set it up and my curious deaf cat accidentally started a cycle. See next tip… 2. Lock the buttons on the machine. I didn’t realize u could lock it. My cat climbed on top and pressed the “start cycle” button w her cute little toe beans right after I hooked it up. (Video attached) Whoopsie! Found the lock options in the app after this. 3. My cats both finally began peeing in the box regularly, but nobody was pooping in it. They pooped in my regular litter box (out next to the cat genie). One day, a cat pooped on the floor. I took the poop from the floor and put it in the box. I let it cycle. Hoping the scent of poop in the box (even washed) attracted them to poop in the box. It did! That got at least one cat to poop in the litter box. 4. Read the acclimation directions and follow them. Go slowly. I’m using cat activation now (3 months later), but literally just switched from manual this month. My hearing cat needed a decent amount of time due to the loud noises of the cycle. He’s still not a big fan of the noises. 5. Keep the old litter box for as long as u feel u need to. I just shut off access to my old litter box to see what would happen. Not sure if it’ll be permanent or not. My older kitty poops in clay litter or sometimes on the floor but not in this box for some reason. Thankful he is peeing in the cat genie though. For this reason, I may always have one clay litter box w/the cat genie. Not sure yet. Easy to set up. I did it by myself fairly quickly. Smell: Yes, the smell of the scented solution is distinct. It’s not horrible. Kind of smells like port-a-potty juice, ha! I ended up moving my litter box to the basement bathroom, so it’s far enough away that the scent isn’t something that bothers me. Smells so much better than my unscooped litter boxes. Value for the $: Still not thrilled about the price. Only 3 stars for value. I don’t love that we have to use only cat genie solution, etc. Overall, even w/one kitty not pooping in this box, I’m happy w/ this purchase. The house smells better. I’m not scooping. It’s lovely!

I waited until I had the machine for a while before writing this review. I purchased the cat genie about a month ago and I love it so do my cats I have three cats two of them are over twelve pounds and boys which in my opinion means they stink more. I kept a regular cat box in use while using the cat genie in case the cats didn’t like it. Two of my cats took to it right away as in play in it just to watch it clean it is their entertainment but after a week they started actually using it and of course they still play in it sometimes. I decided to purchase a second one in hopes of giving the first a little break. It was super easy to hook up and connect to the internet and I have had no problems with it at all. Every once in awhile it will kinda smell when it cleans itself but only for about ten minutes then no smell at all. I haven’t taken it apart yet to clean it but when I put my head in the doorway of it it doesn’t smell so not gonna clean it yet. So about a month of cleaning and haven’t had to replace the litter or the solution yet I am so happy that I don’t have to scoop the box anymore and the cats love the clean box

First, let me start with a history. We had a cat genie given to us as a gift with our first cat. We loved it. Loved how it worked and the convenience. When we lost our cat, we gifted our genie to another friend who had several cats and continued to use and love it for several more years. We liked it so much, we also purchased our parents one for their two cats. We then got the third unit about 7-8 years ago and had limited problems with it until in 2020, when the bowl got a warp and broke while we were out of town. Having a history with the product line spanning over 10years and 3 units, we were immediately on the look for a new one. Fast forward to this review. We purchased the new AI unit in April 2020 and it worked as advertised and expected for about a year. Then in 2021, we started having issues. We first noticed the problem when my little 10-lb cat crawled into my lap with wet feet. We checked the unit and everything looked fine, but on deeper inspection the granules were not dry. A call placed into customer service advised us that the AI reported no issues and we must have a damp area where the unit was stored. We explained it was in an open room with no dampness and the rep advised to run an extra drying cycle to dry it out. Over the course of the next 6 months and a total of 3 emails, 8 phone calls and the 2-year warranty expiring in the process. We were told countless times that the AI unit was reporting to them that there were no issues. But non-dry granules is an issue and caused our cat to at one point stop wanting to use the box and develop a bladder infection because she was holding it in too long. Vet recommended to get her another litter box to see if the problem stopped and low and behold no issues or infections. We were told by one rep after another that there was nothing wrong with their machine, the issues were we weren't cleaning it often enough, the water sensor was dirty, we must have a clog in the line, etc. etc. etc. All I can tell you is my poor husband had to tear up the unit every 2-3 weeks due to wet granules with no help from Cat Genie. We finally got frustrated this last week as the unit has been spic and span clean for over a month since the cat won't use it. It runs a normal daily clean cycle even though it hasn't been used and leaves wet granules in the unit. My $500 piece of decoration got pulled and it going to the dump. So is my 10+ year relationship with the Cat Genie line of products. Recommendation: AVOID this unit at all costs. It has issues and all you will get from custom service is that the AI unit is telling them on their end that the unit is working normally and not reporting any issues. NOT WORTH the money and the effort.

OK, so here are the pros: 1. It actually works as described. We have two kittens and it only took them a day to migrate from a traditional box to the CatGenie. The kitties eat and poop a lot and I love the fact that the box cleans itself 30 minutes after they crap in the box. I can set the box to run as little as 5 minutes after the box has been used but the kitties seem to be pretty much on the same poop schedule and when one goes the other one usually decides to use it within 15 minutes. It takes about 42 minutes for the complete cycle to run. Here is a video I shot showing a complete cycle https://youtu.be/YPiEzga1HB8 (oh the things we find to do during the pandemic). You can also set the box to run on manual mode or on a timed schedule. 2. You can easily hook it up to the drain for your washing machine or have it send the waste directly into the toilet. Right now we have it in a bathroom and it was dumping into the toilet which worked fine. You just have to remember to manually flush the toilet. Last night I was bored so I decided to plumb it directly to the drain under the bathroom sink (photo 1). This was not that hard to do but did require me to purchase about $10 worth of plumbing stuff. I have included a photo. Eventually, the unit will be moved into the laundry room and the waste will be sent down the drain pipe that the washing machine uses. Since I am paranoid about water leaks I have a cheap water alarm that will beep if there is ever a water leak. You can get these on AMAZON for about $5. 3. You can configure the app so that you are notified on your smartphone and smartwatch every time a cat uses the box. In the days of Covid, it takes very little to amuse oneself. Here are the cons: 1. When I connected the water supply to the CatGenie there was a VERY slow leak. Fortunately, I had a cheap $5 water detector / alarm which went off so no water damage was done. I tried all kind of various levels of tightness and could never get it to stop leaking. I eventually went and replaced the gasket with a garden hose gasket. The gasket was slightly too large but I got it to work. When I first contacted CatGenie support they suggested I go to a hardware store and find a gasket that was close and to try that. Like seriously? I just spent $400 on your litter box and you are not willing to mail me the correct gasket? After some more rounds with them they eventually agreed to send me a replacement gasket. I have received it but I have not tried it yet. After looking at other reviews I see I am not the only person to have this issue so make sure you have a towel or something after you connect the water supply to make sure you have no leaks. This problem along with the run around I got from their customer service is why this is not a 5 star review. 2. I currently have the CatGenie in the spare bathroom. Eventually, we will move it to the laundry room. Anyway, the hardware that CatGenie supplies for the toilet style hook-up is designed to connect to the water supply at the base of the floor. This is fine unless you have a house which has a non removable toilet hose (see photo 2). If you have one of these you need to rip out your existing water shut-off valve and go to the hardware store and buy a replacement. Our house is 9 years old and I suspect a lot of newer houses are using this kind of a valve. A better design would be to have the CatGenie connect to the other end of the toilet supply hose (photo 3). The end that connects right at the base of the toilet water holding tank. This would eliminate the need for replacing existing shut-off valves. Replacing the existing valve was not all that difficult (after watching some YouTube videos) but it added about $30 to the cost plus the hassle of going to the hardware store. 3. The instructions provided with the CatGenie state that you can adjust the sensitivity for detecting a cat using the CatGenie App. This is incorrect. I confirmed with CatGenie support that you cannot do this via the app. 4. The unit requires one to use cartridges which have the cleaning solution in them. If the cartridge runs out the CatGenie will not operate so be sure to always have an extra one on hand. You can only buy these from CatGenie. If CatGenie goes out of business your $400 litter box will turn into a $5 litter box. If you buy the cartridges in bulk (6 at a time) the cost per clean is about $.09 if the unit is in cat activation mode. It will be $.18 in the other modes (because other modes use double the amount of soap). A lot of people complain about the cost of the cartridge, but honestly, paying less than a dime to have the litter box cleaned seems like a pretty good deal to me. CatGenie has gone to great lengths to not allow the cartridges to be re-used. I suspect that CatGenie does not make that much money on the unit itself. The money is in the cartridges (similar to the computer printer market (printer is cheap, ink is expensive)). One nice thing about the app is that it tells you exactly how many washes are left in the cartridge so there is no excuse to not have one on hand when the current cartridge is empty. 5. In addition to the cartridges you will need to purchase the washable litter from CatGenie. Some of the granules get flushed every time the unit cleans so you will have to periodically add their special litter to the unit. Not a huge deal, just something you should be aware of. Your kitty will also track some litter out of the box. We have a plastic mat that catches the litter and I just dump it back into the unit. 6. The unit takes 42 minutes to do a clean. While it is cleaning the box cannot be used. If you have multiple cats who are not willing to wait, well, that could be a problem. Fortunately, our two kitties usually like to go within 15 minutes of each other and we have the CatGenie set to not run until 30 minutes after the last cat has used it. It would be nice to have the CatGenie be able to do a quick and dirty cycle (i.e., gather the poo and send it down the drain but not do the full litter wash) and then only do the full 42 minute cycle once a day or on a schedule that you can pick. It would be nice if you could tell the litter box to do a quick clean (e.g., scoop out the turds, grind them up, and flush them but do not do a full blown clean on the granules). 7. If during the scoop cycle the CatGenie does not get ALL the poop then you will have a Poo-B-Que on your hands. This has only happened once so far and it was a very small turd. However, it did really stink during the drying cycle. Cat Genie says their new A.I. unit has a fan which greatly reduces the odor during a Poo-B-Que. Well, I can’t speak for the other style of unit but I can tell you that it still really stinks on the rare occasion that this happens. 8. Our kitties really enjoy having a nice clean litter box. They have started to play in it (photo 4) and also enjoy the nice warm litter to take a nap in right after it has cleaned itself. The CatGenie detects this as a visit and once the kitties quit playing in it or wakeup after their nap the unit thinks it has been used and does a pointless clean. Fortunately, at least for now, they are are not doing it a lot. If they do we will need to go to scheduled cleanings. 9. The CatGenie comes with a 90 day money back guarantee. However they do not offer free return shipping even if you purchase it in their AMAZON store. We have been using the CatGenie for over a month now. I will try to remember to post an update after a few more weeks. UPDATE ON 1/27/21 Have been using it for almost 3 months. There is an option to lock the panel on top of the Genie so if your cat happens to walk on it they can't accidentally start it. Ok, that is great. However, last Sunday (1/24/21) the Cat Genie servers went down and if that happens you cannot control it on your smart phone. In addition, the secret code they have on their web site and in their printed manual to unlock the console DOES NOT WORK!!!! Therefore, if you have the Cat Genie in manual mode you are totally screwed. The Cat Genie is basically a brick. The same thing if for some reason you lose Internet. I called them on Monday and they said do the following to unlock the console. Ummm, it would REALLY have been useful if you put this information on your website or out an addendum that ships with the box with this information. Here is how you unlock the box if you have the console locked Here are the instructions they sent. "First Press both buttons until you hear panel lock. as soon as the unit says "panel lock" you want to lift up your finger from the left button and tap the button on the left, but keep your finger pressed on the button on the right. " I am seriously thinking about reducing the ratings to 3 stars because of this.

Who wants to pay $500 for a cat litter? No one. Who wants to scoop litter? No one. This wins out by far without regrets. How to get the most out of this: I connected it under the sink with a laundry connection so that it's directly plumbed into the drain. I purchased the hood, door, and mat. All of those are very worthwhile accessories. They fit well and actually improve the functionality of the machine. I found this before a two week vacation where I couldn't find a cat watcher, and we have 3 cats. We have an auto feeder that lasts a month, auto filling water fountain, but the last thing we needed was an autocleaning litter box. Unfortunately we only had less than a week to acclimate the cats to this. One cat loved it and immediately took to it, the 2nd was skeptical but used it as we removed the other litter boxes, our 3rd cat was ok until she observed the cleaning cycle and seemed worried that would happen while she was in there. But was very curious about it. We setup a video camera so we could watch them while we were gone and it was very interesting to see their interest in this. We did have a few accidents but that was because we didn't have the time to properly introduce them to it. Mainly the 3rd cat. After returning there haven't been any issues. 3 cats is the limit for the newest version of this. We're going to purchase another when the new house is ready. There's just not enough space and for another one. The main issue is that it takes 38 minutes for a cleaning cycle. I have it set to start 20 minutes after a visit. That allows two cats to use before a cycle. I learned that they tend to go behind each other. I learned that watching their habits on the video. However, another would ensure one was ready to go at all times. I've learned there's a cult like following for this and I completely understand why. You do have to purchase the sanitizer every few months and replace the washable litter because some of it sticks to the feces and a bit of it gets tracked out. However, the mat collects most that the cats track out. It's much more convenient to refill with a pancake box of litter, and sanitizer than the heavy cat litter.

When I set it on cat automatic, little did I know how much fun it was to watch the water swirl around the litter. I took it off cat automatic after it ran 4 times back to back. That can get expensive. She needs to go watch the fireplace instead. I can't find a way to differentiate between which cat is using the litter box at which time. So I find it useless to put your cat's info into the app. I'm sure that I will remember which cat is which without help from an app. At least for a few more years. Other than the app not performing as I thought it would (and that might be my mistake since I shopped for days, so much so my eyes were bleeding by the time I pulled the trigger on this one), the litter box itself is a gem. Works as advertised and my cats took to it easily. I put it in the same spot as one of their old ones. After a couple of days, I blocked off the other litter box so they had to use the new one. Piece of cake. And no kitty treats for the dogs!

We went from the older model to this new one when the old one finally died, after quite a few years. (Mum killed it with regular litter while feeding the cats while we were on vacation. Eep.) Ours is in the basement, hooked to the utility sink. It's pretty much an ideal situation. (I'd probably end up buying a 'smart toilet' if I had to worry about manually flushing every so often, if I had to use the toilet hookup.) Husband was the one to put it together, but I don't think he had to do much since we were replacing an old model. It's been so long since we first installed our original. Anyway, it's pricy but it's worth it. It takes care of everything once it's set up, and it's pretty much worry free. Just replace cartridges, run a maintenance now and then, and refill granules as needed. A note on the granules - do yourself a favor and get one of the mats that collects granules that fall out. We got a big one and cut it sort of like a toilet contour rug. Even with that, though, they track a bit. (The CatGenie brand mat doesn't give a lot of coverage to the sides, which is why we did our own thing.) Also, yes, the app is pretty neat. It tells you when your cat uses it and when it goes through a cleaning cycle. The only downside is that it's easy to accidentally switch from "cat activation" to "manual." I did that once without noticing and didn't realize for three days. Yeah, my cats were not amused. We haven't had to deal with customer service or tech support in a few years, but when we did, they were super helpful. Also, we live in western Pennsylvania, and everything we order from the company through Amazon comes super quickly. In fact, the AI came in only a day or so after I ordered, and it was on ground shipping! So, if you've got the cats and the means, (and the means to continue to buy cartridges) the CatGenie is basically the best thing ever.

I decided to wait a few months of use before I left my review since there were a bit of mixed reviews and many fake or paid reviews on here. I have been using this for 4 months now. I have 2 older cats that have always had 2 litter boxes and i only have 1 Cat Genie box now. I also have the cover for this and I recommend that you get this as it does help with the granules getting everywhere (my cats like to fling their litter). When I first got this box, it was really amazing! I have it hooked up in my laundry room so it drains in the wall (which is 2-3 feet higher than the box). I love the fact I do not have to scoop litter anymore. It is a bit noisy but not any more noisy than a washing machine. When it's new, it has a pleasant scent after it has cleaned the litter. The cleaning process is around 1 hour for my model (the latest at this time). I do have an issue with the cats doing their business on the floor when this is cleaning. May consider another box if this keeps happening... I also have a roomba and have learned the hard-way to check the laundry room before it runs to ensure there's nothing left on the floor. Cleaning poop out of the roomba was not something I want to do again... Overall, this product is very nice but it is not perfect. Poop will sometimes give out a horrendous stench while it is cleaning but it does go away once the cycle is complete (mostly, sometimes it lingers for another hour). This should be expected as wet poop will naturally smell. I really wish that they had a bowl concept (like a toilet) to help with this in the drain where the poop goes. Perhaps a later model could implement this as this would cut down on that drastically. Really, that is the worst part about this. The odor can travel pretty far in your household and it really stinks up over half my house when this happens. This really is a problem when I let it run at night, I have since turned it off at night as my bedroom is across the hall from the laundry room and this smell has made me almost throw up since sometimes the odor is so strong. (not too often but enough to warrant turning it off at night with their do not disturb setting in the app). I think if they had a bowl with water concept for the scooping section, that would solve this problem. The smell is the worst part of this. Any review saying there is no odor or the cover hides over 90% of the odor is fake or are being paid. The smell will happen, it's natural for wet poop to smell. Naturally, the cat's diet plays a part into this as well but poop will always smell when wet, it's only a factor of how bad i will smell. Even with the odor, I still recommend this. The odor only lasts for the cleaning cycle and sometimes longer but it does leave. The smell is worst than the litter box smell but having to never deal with the litter is still a good payoff. With my 2 cats, I didn't need to add any granules to the box until almost 4 months mark. I decided to clean the box at this time too as keeping this box clean will extend it's life (common sense with systems like this). I took the system outside and power washed it with bleach. It all cleaned out well but it is a bit to clean, especially the scooping and pump sections. I didn't notice any buildup that couldn't be removed with the power washer. I will continue to clean it this way as it still looks brand new after the cleaning is done. The most noticeable annoyance (asides the smell) is that the granules will get everywhere (mats don't help at all). To be honest, this isn't really a big deal for me. This is 100x's better than having litter everywhere. I no longer have litter in my bed at night and sometimes I do have these granules but these are much cleaner than litter and they are bigger so it's typically like 3-5 at most. They are much easier to wipe out of the bed and can be done while laying down in the bed. The granules are all over the house but with the roomba, that's not too big an issue and really not even a problem if you set it to vacuum every day in the room with this box it in. I do plan to try using other granules as I have read that others work better and have less issues with tracking. Again, I have 6 boxes of the granules so I will test this after to see if there are any improvements. I will update this review then. I have read many complaints about smaller particles not being cleaned out of the granules, this is true. To be upset by this is baffling as this is the exact same thing that happens even when you scoop your litterbox. There is nothing wrong with this product, it is a fact of scooping that this will happen. The drying can exacerbate the smell as it's cooking these but again, this is the same issue as the oder when cleaning. Wet poop will naturally smell and when it's drying, it's going to smell too. I haven't had too many issues with this and normally using a scooper to get these isn't a big deal. Yes, you should check on this box and clean these out when you see them. It's not all the time, at least for me, but it is something you should expect. (you already have this exact same issue with litter boxes anyways) With my 4 months of usage, I have had no issues with this machine yet. I strongly recommend it and it really is nice to have. I do plan to update this again in 6 months - 1 year. Overall I am really impressed with this and feel it was money well spent. I really do enjoy having this. Yes, it's not perfect but it's so much better than having a standard litterbox. I have tried most automatic litterboxes out there and nothing is as good as this product. UPDATE: 1 Year mark: After 1 year of usage, I still am enjoying purchasing this. My above review still holds true. I have been powerwashing this to clean it and it's still looking as good as the day I unboxed it. This is one of the best purchases I have made. I have a septic system and this works great! The granulars are easy to fix, just buy third-party. (machine washable plastic pellets work for me, way less mess). Now that I have had this for a year, there are some issues with this that I must state... The Bad: - The refills for the cleaning solution is extremely wasteful. I wanted to look into the hack to use my own solution (it's only tossed in during the drying cycle) but it doesn't work for the A.I. model. DRM for this is insane and is a bad business model that only benefits the company, the consumer is the one being ripped off and the environment is heavily impacted by the extreme waste this product produces. Why there isn't any laws preventing the waste from something like this baffles me, this is not good for anyone but Cat Genie. They charge way too much for a cleaning solution that costs them $1 to product in volume (most likely less) and this is just wasteful. This is very similar to printer cartridges (pretty much the same scam). - The A.I. app is useless and I never use it. I would prefer this not to be connected to the Internet. The refill cartridge is the biggest concern I have. It can get costly too. I am hopeful someone will come out with a hack to bypass this but technical analysis so far seems to recommend a firmware replacement as there is a lot of code to go through. So far, I haven't seen anything for this yet. With that said, I still give this 4 stars. I absolutely love this. I just wish they didn't do the DRM crap with the cartridges as this is the highest cost to this and is the most wasteful part. This is the only real issue with this product that I have noticed. UPDATE: 2 Year and 4 months mark: Overall, I still am happy with this product by very annoyed with it. The DRM and the wasteful practices of using Cat Genie are the biggest concern. Still no luck with a hack to bypass this pointless DRM system. The fact that the litter box is useless if the cleaning solution (which is not a valid name for it, it is a deodorizer only) is not replaced really makes this experience go down drastically. This should still work even if there is no "cleaning solution" as this is only added at the end of the cycle (hence deodorizer as a cleaning solution would be in when the water goes in). I did experience a single leak from the water line. I just took it apart and cleaned it to fix the issue. I also recommend to get a dog crate pan for this to prevent the water from getting on the floor (I have wood flooring). I used the 30 inch dog pan for crates and it fits perfectly. I have just now started to notice issues where it will not use water in some cleaning cycles. I assume this is a sign the pump is starting to go. 2 year and 4 months isn't bad for the product so far but I don't think I would buy this again due to the DRM issue and the completely wasteful practices this forces the user to go through. There is zero reason that a product you own cannot be used without their "cleaning solution" as it has zero effect on the cleaning of the litter. It's literally just put in to force you to keep buying it. It would work just fine without it. For that, I am changing my review to 2 stars. The longer you have this product, you will realize the scam the DRM for it is. You truly do not own this product, Cat Genie does. I don't support that.