CatGenie: How To Use Less Water and Keep The Toilet Clean

If you have a CatGenie with the drain line connected to your laundry drain, I envy you. If contemplating a CatGenie, I strongly recommend connecting it in the laundry if you have the space.

If, like me, you haven't the room in the laundry then you'll have to connect the drain to the toilet, but this presents a problem: cleanliness and flushing. You have to flush the toilet after every cycle or the pureed poop/pee mixture will form a nasty crust. This uses a lot of water - or requires some heavy duty cleaning.

Fortunately, there is an alternative that both keeps the toilet sparkling clean and uses no additional water whatsoever.

NOTE: This modification assumes you can dedicate a toilet to this use. It will not be useable by humans in this configuration.

Step 1 Grab The Drain Hose

OK, well - I guess Step 1 should actually be "Clean The Toilet", but I figure you can handle that.

After that, grab the drain hose.

Straighten out the rubber end of the hose and hold it against the bottom of the bowl.

Comments

[TXTailGunner]

 So I have to choke the "human waste" passage, whose (let's face it) excreta is of a greater diameter than that of a domestic pet, possibly (if not certainly) causing plumbing problems...

What?  To some of you, this makes sense? 

[educlos]

if you actually read the article he states this is only for a dedicated cat toilet....

[reeja]

Hi - This sounds great. However, I do have one concern. How do I take out the hook once it is in, since the hook will be stuck inside. It is really a pain to clean the bowl everytime so this would really help! Thanks

[mamalang]

 Thanks, ScottSEA for another great instructable!  It works great...I'm on my way to an improved relationship with my CG!

[arrrghh]

From other boards I have read that the CatGenie produces really bad odors. Will this waste discharge technique eliminate the reported odors. I would like to give this a try.
We have two 15 pound Maine Coons. Does this product accommodate large cats?

[evkawi]

We used to have 2 cats that were trained to stand by the door when they wanted to go out to the backyard. Since our house was a construction site in progress, they used the big heaps of sand as bathrooms - we never had to deal with cat feces. By the time the sand was used for building everything was decomposed - no traces of poop.
Now, I wish we had a backyard. Living in a 3rd floor apartment. And I don't think we'll be getting a catgenie - sound like a lot of work and money for something that doesn't even work that great AND used power, water & chemicals. I can't stand even the regular perfumed litter...
Read funniest review on Amazon tap://www.amazon.com/review/R32RN0APNFZAUM/reef=cm_cr_rdp_perm
It's going to be wood pellets or sand.

[erick.mendes]

offtopic: Go greener. Let your cat do their needs on sand. It won't hurt you to keep a cat box clean... Automatic pet toilets uses water, electricity, chemical products, and don't forget the refills and it's package. With a cat box, you take a bigger responsibility over your's pet, so you will be more in contact with it. We already have a tremendous dependency on technology and energy and water, don't hook your pet on it too.

[usr817smith]

My spouse is taking chemotherapy. The convenience of having the waste collected and disposed of in a central location is a great convenience. It also keeps me from having to take the waste through the house to the garbage can and potentially spreading kitty germs.

[Madrigorne]

nope - its better to let this poo get into the sewage treatment facility rather than the landfill. Our sewage treatment facility uses the biomass gas to create energy for the city. Biomass energy is far greener than coal or oil. Hooray cat-genie! Now hack my solution cartridge and give me non scattering pellets and I will truly be a happy camper.

[erick.mendes]

Ok, you got a point on that one. I forgot that where you live the trash don`t go to a landfill, it`s used as biomass... But we may consider the places where it is not. And by the way, we could use the cat pooh as some biomass in a backyard organic garden... Well, at least may cats do the burying work for me already. :)

[proudsailor]

Can this be a temporary solution, such as when going on vacation? Looks to me like the hose could be un-installed from the potty, then reinstalled as necessary.

[Kayri]

I don't know enough about plumbing to have even tried this. I had the laundry hookup possibility at my last house & don't now. I was not looking forward to that toilet mess again, and I just happened to stumble upon this solution. Thank you for sharing this, and your other innovative CatGenie modifications.

[jongscx]

...this essentially renders the toilet unusable for..."non-fluid" matter. the CatGenie excretes liquid, right? couldn't you hook it up to a sink instead?

[mackannno]

Hooking it up to thesink would make a not so funny mess to clean. The catgenie pump the dirty water with strong force, so it would send waste all over the countertop, yikes! Perhaps you ment driving the waste hose down the sink, past the P-trap, but still, the hose would look kind of weird Genie_refiller's idea is genius!

[PKM]

Bathroom sinks usually drain into "grey water", because the worst that's meant to go down them is soapy water you washed your hands in, or toothpaste, not the output of your cat toilet. Kitchen sinks drain into "black water" because all sorts of nasty go down there, but I wouldn't want to combine my cat toilet and kitchen sink.

[2 stroke]

just make a 1.5 inch hole in the wall and run a 1.5 inch pipe to ur garden and drain your cat genie(s) into the pipe that way you dont have to sacrifice a toilet and you are good to ur garden

[jongscx]

...not really something I'd recommend. You don't really want to just pump liquefied fecal matter into your garden. Yes, they do use manure as fertilizer, but it's usually been composted. Also, they generally use high biomass manure, pretty much herbivore (horse, cattle) and not omni or carnivore (cat).

Think, herbivore poo = rotting plant matter... Carnivore poo = rotting meat.

[genie_refiller]

I cut my drain pipe and installed a dishwasher 'Y' fitting just over the P trap. I then fitted the catgenie hose with a collar on the Y fitting. Goes directly into the sewer. I can post pictures if needed.

[mamalang]

 Please post pictures!  I would love to see this solution.  Or do an Instructable?

[ScottSEA]

the CatGenie excretes a mix of pureed poo (yuck), pee, and water - you can hook it up to any drain line that goes to a sewer, but the two "default" hookups are to a toilet and washing machine drain. I have an extra bathroom, so this works best for us. I have heard of people hooking them up to dishwashers; you just have to be willing to do some plumbing.

[eight]

Personally.... I'd buy a dog.... or send my cat to the taxidermists. ;-) Nice I/S though !

[katerlyn]

I Have the FIRST version of the cat genie, it washes the granules...I had it hooked up by the furnace and thought the smell was going throughout the house, is that possible? I suppose! Do the supplies for the cat genie work with the old model?

[richms]

Could you put them into the basin drain line with one of those adaptors to hook a dishwasher up to the S bend? I'm glad my cats don't need a litter tray because I couldn't handle the cleaning of it and the automatic ones aren't sold here.

[paintandsoul]

I was told that yes you can pay around $4 for various little parts to hook the CatGenie up to a dishwasher, just call them and they'll walk you through what to buy and then you can call when you get the parts and they'll explain how to hook it up though it's pretty self-explanatory.

[ScottSEA]

I really couldn't say because I haven't seen that setup. You could try asking at Litterbox Central's CatGenie forum - a CatGenie representative weighs in there quite often, and would know whether or not it would work.

[h0tsauce]

This toilet gets normal human use as well, without problems? If so, I'll have to try this.

[ScottSEA]

I have modified the instructable to reflect that the toilet has to be dedicated to this purpose. Thanks again for this comment.

[ScottSEA]

Actually, no - the toilet is unusable by humans (at least in my case) because the drain line blocks a significant portion of the toilet drain. I suppose it would still work fine for #1, but a #2 would definitely get stuck. We have a dedicated bathroom for our CatGenies that we don't use for anything else.

[nemrut]

So once the hose is installed it's still safe to flush the toilet without it backing up?

[ScottSEA]

Yep. Flushes fine - as long as there's only water in it. :-)