How to Clean Your CatGenie In 10 Easy Steps

How to Clean Your CatGenie In 10 Easy Steps

Need help cleaning your CatGenie? We created a step by step video to teach you how.

Your CatGenie is like any other cleaning appliance in your home, except instead of washing dirty dishes, it removes your cat’s poop. So it shouldn’t surprise you that it needs to be cleaned, manually (that means by you, by hand).  The good news is that we recommend our customers clean their unit only twice a year (at 15 minutes a cleaning, that’s only a half hour of your time every year!) In this video we demonstrate each part of the simple, 10 step process.  If you are able to go outside and clean your unit, great! If it is not a beautiful day or you don’t have access to a yard or outside water source, don’t panic.  These steps can also be preformed in your bathtub or shower.

The first part of the video shows you the best way to disassemble the CatGenie.  Be careful when removing the Genie Hand.  Make sure you retract and secure the arm into place. WARNING: failure to retract the arm when removing the brim can cause the arm to bend.  Also note that water can sometimes rest inside the drain hose after a cycle.  When you lift the hook from your toilet or the hose from your washing machine drain, keep it level to prevent any leftover water from spilling on to the floor.

Once outside, be careful to place your Genie Hand and scrubber out of the way so they do not accidentally get stepped on (This is the number 1 reason people call us in need of a new Genie Hand).  Also be sure when removing the hopper, that your red washer stays in place and does not go missing.

Why bleaching your CatGenie is a bad idea.

We recommend cleaning the CatGenie with a gloved hand, scrub brush or toilet brush (no wire bristle brush needed, this will only scratch the plastic) and a paper towel or rag. Plain old soap and water works best. We use dish soap but an all natural cleaner or just water works too.  Even if you see or smell cat poop do not freak out and go over board on the cleaner.  Caustic cleaners like bleach should not be used on the CatGenie. Caustic materials will damage the plastics of the unit.

Finally when you’re ready to reassemble your unit, make sure the scrubber is placed correctly (it should be placed loosely under the bowl, NOT around the rubber nipple in the middle.)

Remember to reprogram your unit after you have finished with assembly. And now you are done! Your CatGenie is good to go for 6 more months. Running a quarterly maintenance cycle is also recommended to prevent lime and grime deposits from forming.  But a maintenance cycle will NOT do the job of cleaning the entire CatGenie like an annual cleaning will.

Did we leave anything out? Have additional questions? Let us know in the comments below.

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19 Comments

  1. Long-haired cats pass hairballs frequently and the hopper needs to be cleaned out often, semi-annual cleaning is out of questions. My cat eats plastic stuff that gets caught in hairballs and wraps up the hopper, it has to be cleaned out frequently. I dissemble the machine part only to remove hopper and cut up pieces of hairballs, then assemble machine back together.. I pull out bowl with pellets and wash out the bowl like you instructed. It works really well this way. I kept reprogramming my 120 every time. It works. It set off alarm blaring when something happens to hopper. Keep eye on hopper all time, cats can pass through strange stuff and get caught in hopper which is #1 frequently.

    • Oh! I forgot to add some things… Be sure the drain hose is not clogged, you’ll end up with this more often than u think every 6 month… What pass through the hopper, can do get stuck in drain hose.. Thanks to my husband, he has air pressure.. He used it to unclog it, ( warning, do not attempt this yourself if you are not a professional, ) you can damage it, alternative method is what I used was water hose turned on and put in drain hose and It really clears out 🙂 yes it works backwards. And it can happen often too. Be prepared to do this often with hopper and drain hose.

  2. I really appreciate the video, I’m going to clean mine soon and I’m sure I refer to this video for guidance. Thank you!

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  4. will we ever see an unscented maintenance cartridge? as someone who is allergic to scents, i almost never run a maintenance cycle because it means committing to being sick for a day or two.

  5. Janet Martino

    For me, this is more like an every 2 month ritual, esp with long-haired cats. But, you forgot to clean the most sensitive part – the water sensor. It should be pulled out when you’re cleaning the hopper so you can scrub the tip clean.

    This would be a lot easier to do, esp indoors if the drain hose were removable from the base.

  6. I performed these actions about 3 months after purchasing my CatGenie 120. It was also the first time I replaced the washable granules.

    Now, when my CatGenie performs the “heated dry portion of a wash cycle, my apartment smells UNBEARABLY TERRIBLE. I have seen others complain of the same thing.

    Assuming I reassembled something wrong, I took the machine apart and cleaned it again. This time, I noticed a soupy poop liquid in the hopper. I have since determined that the CatGenie is not draining correctly and when the heating action takes place, it is heating this poop soup which is what smells so bad.

    Who else is experiencing this? I see other reviews of people explaining the same terrible smell. There is no blockage in the hose and at this point the whole device is as clean as the day I bought it.

    What am I missing here???

    • Hi Nick, we are so sorry to hear you’re having this problem with your CatGenie. Please call our customer service team at 888-735-3927 for help troubleshooting. We are available Monday through Friday from 9AM to 10PM EST and weekends from 10AM to 7PM.

    • I know this message is really old at this point, but mine has been like this since I bought it.

      I’m into home automation, so I actually have a power meter on ours that measures power consumption. When the CatGenie is about to run, it triggers an announcement to the Google Home’s that “The CatGenie is about to run, the door is open and the house is about to get stinky” so that we’ll have a few minutes warning to go close the door and it triggers the exhaust fan in that bathroom to turn on. When the CG stops running, it waits 10 minutes and then lets us know to open the door and will turn the fan off once the door has been open for another 10 minutes.

  7. I am at a stalemate with my 8 year old Russian Blue, Igee. She hates CatGenie for pooping. She has no problem peeing in it (thank God) but absolutely refuses to drop a single poop in there. The result is I’m glad I have laminate flooring everywhere because there’s a chore every couple of days of lysoling and collecting poopies she deposits just any old where she feels like on the floor, out in the open. Any where except in the CatGenie at all costs of course. My other older cat has no problem with it, and I have two CatGenies in totally different locations, both very clean and set to cat activation mode. Mind you, if I ever put down the old yucky traditional litter box, Igee has no problem pooping in that. But I refuse to do that! Whenever I put that thing down, both cats go in it like crazy until it’s a mess.
    Got any advice? I’ve already tried to try all the advice from owners that come with the owner’s manual. I say tried to try them because Igee just sees right through it from the outset and is having none of it!
    Thanks
    Dan

    • Hi Dan, I’m sorry to hear your having this issue. I’m sure it’s very frustrating. Have you tried adjusting the programming of one of your CatGenies to something other then Cat Activation? Do you use Cat Activation with a 30 minute delay? The 30 minutes usually works for two cats but you might want to try running it on the timer to see if that helps. Although with two, she should always have a clean box to use. You could also try putting a piece of her waste in the CatGenie to hint that’s where she should go. Finally, I’m sure you already know this, but make sure you are cleaning any waste spots VERY well. Once cats find a spot they like other then their cat box, even if we can’t smell any leftover waste, they have very strong noses and if they can smell it they will continue to go there instead.

      Please let us know if any of these suggestions helps. Unfortunately, although the majority of cats will use the CatGenie, some older cats can be stuck in their ways but I really hope she comes around. She’s peeing in it, which is a great sign!

  8. Thought I’d say something positive in contrast to the above comments. I have a Devon Rex cat and a new kitten. The Cat Genie has worked brilliantly for a year and I just needed to clean it out today. It’s not hard to clean. Yes, our cats don’t have long hair so bonus to us. We live in an apartment and the device has been brilliant.

  9. I think another important note to add to the video is that the feet of the scrubber need to face up. Yes, it’s visible in the video but it’s easily missed. The cat genie will sound like it’s breaking & won’t spin right if it’s not feet up.

  10. Does anyone know anything about “clean light guide” that always seems to come up for me? It pops on and off periodically and I haven’t found anything to indicate how to clean this.

  11. Bruce Markham

    One other important thing to clean which is completely missed in the video. The bowl that is laid on the toilet seat and forgotten while the rest of the unit is taken away to be cleaned. That bowl will more than likely have urine all along the inside at the top. That’s why you’ll see the liter sticking to it. Also, if you turn the bowl upside down you will see a filthy mess, as that’s where all of the urine and poop goes out of the genie. My suggestion: dump your liter in a bag and take the bowl with you outside to clean with the rest of the unit.

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