Automatic Litterbox Central

The CatGenie 120 is advertised as coming with one, but they are not available for ordering (neither from vendors nor catgenie.com).

Anyone know the story on this?

I got one with my 120, so I assume they will be listed soon.

I noticed on the COSTCO website they switched from the Maintenance "packs" to the cartridge with the new units a few months ago. I have been checking the Catgenie site waiting for them to come out as well... thew "pack" is a bit of a pain in the "ass".

I think that cartridge is just vaporware. I'm flabbergasted that some of you say you got the cartridge with your 120. The instructions on the "pack" are ludicrous (I wrote a whole rant about it once but I lost it in some browser glitch). Mostly what I remember is the 170°F water...where do you get that? Water is too hot to put your finger in at 130, and boiling is apparently too hot for the Genie, so just how do you know when the water is 170? Most people I know don't have a thermometer for that. Also, it's one thing to dump a pot of boiling pasta water from the stove into the sink next to it, it's another thing to carry gallons of scalding water across your house to your cat genie and aim it right to pour in the hopper. At any rate, after reading over the instructions on the "pack" I decided it was just unworkable and I would wait until the cartridge came out...still waiting.

I did a pouch clean this weekend.... it does do a good job cleaning out the unit.. BUT it is a pain in the ass.... and I have to cats sitting there looking at the unit for 2 hours wondering what is going on! I also add a couple scoops of Oxi Clean every now and again to the clean cycle. It seems to help keep the unit fresh and clean.

Just and FYI... I just called Cat Genie and they do have the maintenance cartridges in stock! They are $19.99 plus $5 shipping. Limit ONE per customer for now.

They said you use it ever 2 months and it will last 8 months.

Hmmph, and I just ordered some cartridges...well, I guess someday they will put the cleaner cartridges on the web store.

Setec Astronomy wrote:I think that cartridge is just vaporware.

Nope, it's not. I've got one right here:

Well, it's not real to me until I can order it online How about a pic of the directions?

I wonder if this cartridge works with all CG120 boxes, because it arrived on the market almost a year after the first CG120 boxes came out.

Obviously the box must run a different program for this cartridge, if only for the amount of cleaning fluid released. The cartridge contains 450 ml, just like a standard cartridge, but it's good for only 4 runs. It's not hard to reduce the counters in the RFID tags down to 4 to limit the number of cycles down to four. But the a regular cartridge disposes 450/60=7.5ml per cycle, where the maintenance cartridge contains enough for 450/4=112.5ml per cycle.

I also think this fluid is more aggressive - and hence more toxic - than the standard fluid. So I think it wouldn't be wise to dispose a little of this stuff into the bowl after the cycle has completed. So it's safe to assume that this cartridge requires the box to run an alternative washing program. Did anybody notice this?

MindBender wrote:Obviously the box must run a different program for this cartridge... So it's safe to assume that this cartridge requires the box to run an alternative washing program. Did anybody notice this?

I always realized that the program would have to be different, and thought that was the benefit of the RFID that allowed them to do that (thinking about it now, I'm not sure how accurate that is). If anyone has read the directions on the cleaner packets, the cleaner cartridge must be a much longer cycle with a dwell (unless it's very different from the packets, which I think required a 2-hour soak). Hope the kitties can hold it that long.

Setec Astronomy wrote:I always realized that the program would have to be different

Me too (see earlier posts), but I have taken a close look at the contents of the RFID chip of the regular cartridges and I can find no evidence of an identifier telling the box what cartridge it is. I will check the contents of the Maintenance Cartridge RFID chip this weekend.

Setec Astronomy wrote:...the benefit of the RFID that allowed them to do that

The CatGenius firmware can run a whole washing program from a RFID chip. Looking at the contents of a regular cartridge's RFID chip, the original firmware doesn't, so at least the regular washing program is build-into the firmware. I think the Maintenance washing program is built-in as well.

Setec Astronomy wrote:If anyone has read the directions on the cleaner packets, the cleaner cartridge must be a much longer cycle with a dwell (unless it's very different from the packets, which I think required a 2-hour soak). Hope the kitties can hold it that long.

I have those cleaner packets too. I will post the direction on both later today.

Here's the left side of the cartridge:

And here's the right side of the cartridge:

Ok, it's on the website now (part of a whole site revamp, BTW) http://www.catgenie.com/supplies/catgen ... -cartridge

Finally! :p