6 ms·

"Every once in a while, when the scoop misses a giant cat poop the drying cycle cooks it. It gets dried out like a little raunchy piece of beef jerky. It ends u

by donutz 12y ago

"Every once in a while, when the scoop misses a giant cat poop the drying cycle cooks it. It gets dried out like a little raunchy piece of beef jerky. It ends up stinking the apartment up worse than one could imagine. It’s rare, happening maybe once every week or two" Thanks for striking this off my list of "things I think might be useful." I don't need the odor of fresh-baked cat poop wafting through my house. I'll stick with the freshly-poop cat poop smell that concentrates itself fairly well to the room the litterbox is in.

abhorrence 12y ago
For what it's worth, I think it depends mostly on your cats and the quality of cat food you're feeding them. I've had the baked poop happen only twice in about eight months. However, without knowing upfront how your cat's poop and the machine will get along, it's totally reasonable to not want to find out.
phil21 12y ago
I wouldn't write it off that quickly. This thing is life changing. As in it's one of those devices like Tivo you get and then realize you will never live like a heathen ever again. The baked-poo stuff happens occasionally. If your cat has solid/large... waste products, it will almost never be a problem. The problem is when you get "rabbit pellet" style poo, and it slips between the cracks of the scooper. There is also a small dead zone in the center sometimes - but you can usually resolve this by removing/adding pellets. I have a couple friends who have been using it for years, and I finally "upgraded" 3-4 months ago. Even if you have to replace it every 2 years, it's still a great deal. The DRM in it is indeed bullshit, but for one cat the cost is low enough to not making hacking it worth my time. Perhaps if I get really bored one day.
- mkoryak 12y ago
  > This thing is life changing. not having to clean your cats poop once a day is "life changing" ?!
  - scrollaway 12y ago
    I think you are under-estimating how life-changing removing an unenjoyable activity from your daily routine is.
  - madeofpalk 12y ago
    I'm never getting a cat.
    - stoolpigeon 12y ago
      I'm with you. I had a friend that had cats. His home smelled. I had to get all the hair off myself when I went home. And the cats didn't seem to like the owners. I know there are lots of cat lovers out there but I confess I just don't get it. Thankfully it's a completely voluntary thing - the owning of cats.
      - GFischer 12y ago
        I used to have dogs, I love dogs, but I moved to a small apartment and I didn't want to get a dog. My girlfriend likes cats, so we picked up a stray from a local shelter. And she is a lot more affectionate than I had been led to believe cats were. Hair IS a big problem though. Smell is much less of a problem than a small dog in an apartment (I might be biased, but I haven't had anybody tell me anything about smell. I should double-check with people I trust though).
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - tripzilch 12y ago
    The main reason I've been holding off getting a dog or a cat (current preference is cat, but that has and could change again), is that I'd have to clean, handle and take care of disposing their faeces[0]. It's not that I'm grossed out by the idea--not at all, I'm not very squicky when it comes to this matter. But it's the principle of it. It's probably also a rather silly idea, so bear with me for a bit :) The idea is most illustrative with dogs, I'll argue it can be extended to cats later. When you have a dog, you're supposed to be its boss, right? This is healthy for the dog because it's a pack animal (unlike a cat), it'll behave better and feel more comfortable if it has a stable place in the social hierarchy, etc. But humans, primates are social animals too. And as it so happens, one common way of signalling social pecking order among primates is flinging poop at each other. Now of course modern humans don't (usually) do this any more. And I'm sure I'm over-thinking this. Which is what modern humans (can) do, unlike other primates (I think). But the brain circuitry for this social pecking order pack hierarchy behaviour are still there. And I have an idea of this sad and confused primate ghost functioning somewhere in the back of my primitive brain circuits, wondering why it's handling the poop of another pack member that is clearly so very much of lower status than itself. And that is why this idea (silly as it may be) would also extend to cats, even if they are not pack animals, the human cleaning their poop still is. Maybe even more strongly so, as dogs clearly display their relative social status to their bosses in a variety of other ways, while cats are usually lovingly described by their owners as having their very individualistic, charmingly alien, ideas on the matter of status. So I don't know anything about pets or cats or dogs. I expect you to tell me this :) And I suppose my opinion on these matters will change quite a bit if/when I ever adopt one. Still, having a robot (or robot toilet) take care of my cat's droppings would pretty much solve the whole débâcle. And yeah I can imagine how it could be "life-changing" in a similar manner as getting a dishwasher machine would be (given one does a lot of home cooking). I do wonder what a similar robot for dogs would look like, though. Because if it would walk your dog for you that's taking away part of the bonding and fun of having a dog in the first place. So maybe you'd just have to walk both your dog and POOPBOT 9000 at the same time, or something. The three of us could even play fetch together, maybe. [0] I'm sure there are similar rules in the US but to be clear, in the Netherlands you are required by law to scoop your dogs droppings as you walk it outside. As a non dog-owner, and judging what the few exempt areas[1] look like, I'm quite happy with this rule. [1] Quick bit of side-info about spatial planning in the Netherlands, contrasting with (say) the US or Germany: There exists no empty space in the Netherlands. None. Not between roads, plots of land, fields/plains/forests/nature, industry sites, anywhere. It's all accounted for, zoned and planned down to the square metre. Land is very expensive, and even the trimmings are zoned as "rest space" so they can be tracked.
DEinspanjer 12y ago
This and the other things I mentioned in my response to that article ( https://medium.com/@deinspanjer/the-catgenie-doesnt-eliminate-nasty-cat-liter-cleaning-chores-it-just-defers-them-37ee67f6d4ce https://medium.com/@deinspanjer/the-catgenie-doesnt-eliminat... ) could certainly turn some people off of the idea of using the machine entirely. That said, it all depends on your situation and how much you enjoy having cats and how much you hate regularly cleaning out the liter tray.

by donutz 12y ago

abhorrence 12y ago

For what it's worth, I think it depends mostly on your cats and the quality of cat food you're feeding them. I've had the baked poop happen only twice in about eight months. However, without knowing upfront how your cat's poop and the machine will get along, it's totally reasonable to not want to find out.

phil21 12y ago

I wouldn't write it off that quickly. This thing is life changing. As in it's one of those devices like Tivo you get and then realize you will never live like a heathen ever again. The baked-poo stuff happens occasionally. If your cat has solid/large... waste products, it will almost never be a problem. The problem is when you get "rabbit pellet" style poo, and it slips between the cracks of the scooper. There is also a small dead zone in the center sometimes - but you can usually resolve this by removing/adding pellets. I have a couple friends who have been using it for years, and I finally "upgraded" 3-4 months ago. Even if you have to replace it every 2 years, it's still a great deal. The DRM in it is indeed bullshit, but for one cat the cost is low enough to not making hacking it worth my time. Perhaps if I get really bored one day.

mkoryak 12y ago
> This thing is life changing. not having to clean your cats poop once a day is "life changing" ?!
- scrollaway 12y ago
  I think you are under-estimating how life-changing removing an unenjoyable activity from your daily routine is.
- madeofpalk 12y ago
  I'm never getting a cat.
  - stoolpigeon 12y ago
    I'm with you. I had a friend that had cats. His home smelled. I had to get all the hair off myself when I went home. And the cats didn't seem to like the owners. I know there are lots of cat lovers out there but I confess I just don't get it. Thankfully it's a completely voluntary thing - the owning of cats.
    - GFischer 12y ago
      I used to have dogs, I love dogs, but I moved to a small apartment and I didn't want to get a dog. My girlfriend likes cats, so we picked up a stray from a local shelter. And she is a lot more affectionate than I had been led to believe cats were. Hair IS a big problem though. Smell is much less of a problem than a small dog in an apartment (I might be biased, but I haven't had anybody tell me anything about smell. I should double-check with people I trust though).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- tripzilch 12y ago
  The main reason I've been holding off getting a dog or a cat (current preference is cat, but that has and could change again), is that I'd have to clean, handle and take care of disposing their faeces[0]. It's not that I'm grossed out by the idea--not at all, I'm not very squicky when it comes to this matter. But it's the principle of it. It's probably also a rather silly idea, so bear with me for a bit :) The idea is most illustrative with dogs, I'll argue it can be extended to cats later. When you have a dog, you're supposed to be its boss, right? This is healthy for the dog because it's a pack animal (unlike a cat), it'll behave better and feel more comfortable if it has a stable place in the social hierarchy, etc. But humans, primates are social animals too. And as it so happens, one common way of signalling social pecking order among primates is flinging poop at each other. Now of course modern humans don't (usually) do this any more. And I'm sure I'm over-thinking this. Which is what modern humans (can) do, unlike other primates (I think). But the brain circuitry for this social pecking order pack hierarchy behaviour are still there. And I have an idea of this sad and confused primate ghost functioning somewhere in the back of my primitive brain circuits, wondering why it's handling the poop of another pack member that is clearly so very much of lower status than itself. And that is why this idea (silly as it may be) would also extend to cats, even if they are not pack animals, the human cleaning their poop still is. Maybe even more strongly so, as dogs clearly display their relative social status to their bosses in a variety of other ways, while cats are usually lovingly described by their owners as having their very individualistic, charmingly alien, ideas on the matter of status. So I don't know anything about pets or cats or dogs. I expect you to tell me this :) And I suppose my opinion on these matters will change quite a bit if/when I ever adopt one. Still, having a robot (or robot toilet) take care of my cat's droppings would pretty much solve the whole débâcle. And yeah I can imagine how it could be "life-changing" in a similar manner as getting a dishwasher machine would be (given one does a lot of home cooking). I do wonder what a similar robot for dogs would look like, though. Because if it would walk your dog for you that's taking away part of the bonding and fun of having a dog in the first place. So maybe you'd just have to walk both your dog and POOPBOT 9000 at the same time, or something. The three of us could even play fetch together, maybe. [0] I'm sure there are similar rules in the US but to be clear, in the Netherlands you are required by law to scoop your dogs droppings as you walk it outside. As a non dog-owner, and judging what the few exempt areas[1] look like, I'm quite happy with this rule. [1] Quick bit of side-info about spatial planning in the Netherlands, contrasting with (say) the US or Germany: There exists no empty space in the Netherlands. None. Not between roads, plots of land, fields/plains/forests/nature, industry sites, anywhere. It's all accounted for, zoned and planned down to the square metre. Land is very expensive, and even the trimmings are zoned as "rest space" so they can be tracked.

DEinspanjer 12y ago

This and the other things I mentioned in my response to that article ( https://medium.com/@deinspanjer/the-catgenie-doesnt-eliminate-nasty-cat-liter-cleaning-chores-it-just-defers-them-37ee67f6d4ce https://medium.com/@deinspanjer/the-catgenie-doesnt-eliminat... ) could certainly turn some people off of the idea of using the machine entirely. That said, it all depends on your situation and how much you enjoy having cats and how much you hate regularly cleaning out the liter tray.