This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I use and love, or that I would recommend to my mom or best friend. Please see the disclosure statement for additional information.
Looking for a self-cleaning litter box? These Cat Genie questions and answers will help you decide if the Cat Genie is right for your household.
At a price tag of over $200.00, a Cat Genie self-cleaning litter box is an investment for most households. As a result, it’s important that you make an informed decision about whether the Cat Genie is right for you.
We’ve happily owned a Cat Genie for over 4 years. I keep getting the same questions from family and friends who are also cat owners, and are interested in the Cat Genie. Because of this, I thought it might be helpful to answer those questions here, for anyone else who is considering this awesome product.
Top 11 Cat Genie Questions
Here are the 11 most common Cat Genie questions I get. If you want more specific information about the product, you can read my full review.
How does the Cat Genie work?
The Cat Genie is a fully-automated, self-scooping and self-cleaning litter box. In order to operate, it needs access to a water line, and to a toilet or drain. The unit’s incoming water line hooks fastens onto the toilet water line using a special T-shaped valve. The outgoing waste line hooks over the rim of your toilet, expelling waste directly into the bowl.
Here’s how the cleaning cycle works, when it’s set on cat start – the setting we use.
- An infrared eye to detects motion inside the unit. 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.
Here’s a video from the manufacturer that explains how the unit works:
Will my cat use the Cat Genie?
More than likely! All 3 of our cats started using the Cat Genie eventually. The Cat Genie comes with tips on getting your cat to use it successfully, and transitioning to it full-time.
Is the Cat Genie good for multiple cats?
It’s awesome for multiple cats! Because it’s self-cleaning, it takes the work and hassle out of scooping daily or multiple times per day. Plus, your kitties can have a clean litter box each time they go, which is probably a cat’s dream.
Will the Cat Genie fit in my bathroom or laundry room?
The Cat Genie is about 18 inches wide by 24 inches deep (Including room for hoses to attach to the back). It’s about 20 inches high at its highest point. Both of the bathrooms we’ve had it in are deep and narrow. It does take up some space, but not to the extent that it’s a big problem for us.
Here’s a picture of our Cat Genie in its current location. You can see the shadow of the toilet on the right side of the picture.
Is it difficult to hook up to a water supply?
Not really. Cat Genie comes with instructions on hooking up to a toilet water line or washing machine water line. I’ve done it by myself multiple times between moving, replacing water lines, etc… but then again, I’m fairly handy.
Are any special tools needed to set up the Cat Genie?
Nope. I used an adjustable crescent wrench to hook up the water line. That’s the kind that looks similar to a lobster claw.
Is the Cat Genie loud?
The Cat Genie is fairly loud during its cleaning cycle. If you’re a light sleeper, it will wake you if it’s near your bedroom. But, you can program it to run for 14 hours per day instead of 24 hours per day. As a result, it won’t run while you’re asleep.
Is there a warranty?
Yes! It comes with a 2-year limited warranty. If you do buy a Cat Genie, be sure to register the warranty and write the serial number down in a safe place (The serial number on ours was located on the bottom – not easy to get to).
A part went bad on our unit within the warranty period. We called support, and they got the replacement part shipped to us right away.
Is the customer service decent?
The customer service is excellent. We’ve had to call their customer service number about 4 times in the 4+ years we’ve had our Cat Genie. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and many are Cat Genie owners themselves.
Once, our Cat Genie became clogged after one of our cats ate and passed a piece of plastic that she’d fished out of the trash. I called support, and he walked me through every step of disassembling the unit and removing the block. He stayed on the phone with me 45 minutes past their business hours to help me get it fixed.
As I stated above, write down your Cat Genie’s serial number and keep it where you’ll be able to easily find it. Otherwise, you have to access the underside of your Cat Genie to get the serial number, which you’ll need to provide if you have to call in to their customer service. Not an easy task if your unit is clogged and full of kitty waste water.
What supplies are needed besides the Cat Genie unit?
The Cat Genie is completely different from other litter boxes, and it uses its own special supplies.
First, it uses small plastic pellets, called granules, instead of traditional cat litter. The granules are washed along with the Cat Genie bowl during the cleaning cycle, so you only need to replace them as they become depleted over time. Depletion occurs when your cat tracks the granules outside of the box, and to a small extent, when the unit flushes waste material into the toilet or drain.
Second, it uses special SaniSolution cleaning cartridges. When the bowl fills with water, the unit adds some cleaning solution. As a result, the bowl and pellets are cleaned and sanitized.
According to the manufacturer, each SaniSolution cartridge lasts for 120-240 cleaning cycles, depending on how frequently you set it to run a cycle. We change out cartridges every 6 weeks or so.
Finally, the Cat Genie uses special maintenance cartridges. They’re designed to remove lime scale and other buildup, and keep the unit running smoothly. Each cartridge contains enough solution for 4 maintenance cycles. We run maintenance cycles every 3 months.
Can I transition to using the Cat Genie only and drop traditional litter boxes altogether?
You can. For about a year after we got the Cat Genie, it was the only litter box we had.
When we bought our house, we decided to add a traditional litter box as a backup on the main floor of our home. Our cats are older, and we don’t want them to have to travel up a flight of stairs each time they need to use the litter box. The only reason we didn’t get a second Cat Genie is because there wasn’t a practical place to hook it up to a water supply on the main floor of our home.
That being said, the Cat Genie still gets used 8-10 times per day between our 3 cats. This is our little guy Spiderman in the picture below. He is a raving fan of his Cat Genie, and the most frequent user among our 3 cats!
Cat Genie Questions: Conclusion
I hope this list of my top 11 most-asked Cat Genie questions has cleared up some issues you were wondering about. If you want more specific information about this awesome product, check out my full review.
If you’re ready to buy, here’s everything you need, right on Amazon:
If you’re not quite ready to take the leap, check out my post on how to eliminate litter box odor. It’ll help get you by until the Cat Genie is right for you.