I have been a CatGenie automatic litter box owner for about 6 months now and it is one of my favorite high tech home purchases. One of my gripes about the CatGenie, however, is that the plastic granules they use for litter get all over the house. The granules are bigger than regular litter and bounce and skitter across my hardwood floors like nobody’s business. I find them all over my house and they can be quite painful to step on with bare feet. I went online to search for a solution and saw these sidewalls for sale for $20. I thought perhaps a taller side to the CatGenie would help prevent the errant litter escaping the box – but it has not.
What is a CatGenie
To understand what the sidewalls do you need to know about the CatGenie. I have reviewed the CatGenie in greater detail here but here is a high level overview. The CatGenie is an automatic litter box, which flushes the cat waste down your toilet. It hooks up to the plumbing of either your toilet or your washer machine and uses your water to wash the bowl of the litter box. It also uses water to liquefy the solid waste from your pet. It then flushes the liquid waste into your toilet or the drain from your laundry hookup.
What are the sidewalls
The sidewalls come in two pieces that are shaped to fit on top of the existing sides to the Cat Genie. At the tallest point the sidewalls add 4 inches in height to the sides. The walls taper down in the front and only add about an inch or less at the front. This does allow easy entry for your cat so it should not hinder a cat who had troubles jumping from getting in the box. The sidewalls are a solid plastic material and are very easy to clean. The color is the same shade of gray/tan as the CatGenie and when installed they look as if they came with the unit.
The sidewalls before installation
Installation
Installation is extremely simple. As I mentioned the walls come in two pieces, a right and left side. The two pieces gently lock together and you sit them on top of the CatGenie. Like everything with CatGenie the parts just sit on top of each other. It is very easy to lift the walls off for cleaning, but at the same time they seem very sturdy on the unit. The walls will not fall off from the cat bumping them or scratching at them.
Does it work?
Unfortunately, the walls do not work for my intended use – keeping litter in the box. Maybe it helps keep some litter in the box but I have come to realize most of the litter is escaping either attached to my cats feet or it is flying in the air when she takes a giant, spastic leap from the box. There is nothing the walls could do about either problem. I could see the walls being useful if you had a cat that lifted his leg or was quite large and tended to squat his backend out of the box. I will still give kudos to CatGenie for making a solid easy to clean and use product.
CatGenie without the sidewalls
CatGenie with the sidewalls installed
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