I like it. Cat shit can really sometimes smell... like shit, yeah even if you clean it every day, depending on how air flows in your house and whatnot (I like saying whatnot). I mean I don't have cats myself, but if I did have an animal that I allowed to crap indoors, I'd probably be interested in making an exhaust system for that. It just makes logical sense.

equazcion

This is one of those "just because I can" hacks isn't it.

jupiterthunder

Just clean the box every day like you're supposed to, toss out the old litter and replace it with fresh once a week, and it won't smell. Unless you're trying to convince multiple cats to use one little litterbox like that, of course.

infmom

Finally, a decent use for a mac!

/flameon

timefalls

Oh boy, even though we clean ours every day one of our cats is quite large, 20+ lbs. and can make a large mess quickly.

Even with daily cleaning there's still usually an unpleasant event sometime during the day.

earlycj5

i had my litter box beside the furnace. everytime the a/c kicked on i got to smell what i had for dinner. the cat's litter box was on the other wall...

MuglyTheWorm

Everyday? Thanks to our cat, Mr. Toxic Tail, I have to clean it immediately if I'm home ! We don't have a garage. This is a great idea. Now which wall to drill though...

Fitwit

@Hands: Like I said, it has something to do with the specific way air flows in a person's house. In one house I'm occasionally in, they sometimes need to scoop it up as soon as the cat drops one off, cause the smell wafts into the hallway right away.

And maybe some people are lazy about cleaning it out and tend to skip a day here and there; I'm sure many people are like that. I know I'd not be in such a big rush to clean out a bin that some animal uses as a toilet every day. Yeah I could see myself putting that off occasionally. I have a feeling this vent would make sense for lots of similar people.

equazcion

@mdevens: Oops, meant that as a reply to Hands but I wasn't logged in, and when it logged me back in it made my reply a new post.

mdevens

You ask first time visitors to your house if they can smell your litterbox? Do they come back a second time?

mdevens

@equazcion: It only makes logical sense if you don't clean the box. As infmom says, clean it daily, replace the litter when necessary and no smell.

I have four cats, two litter boxes {I probably should have three or four but for six years it's never been a problem} and I ask every new person who comes into my house if they can smell it. No one has ever said yes.

A self venting litterbox is fun but it's a case of "just because you can doesn't mean you should."

Hands

@Hands: I should do this. I clean the litter box every other day (two boxes for one cat), the smell is never a problem, except when my cat has just done his business, then half of the house stinks (he's healthy, eats good food, and not much people food) for about half an hour.

Duane

if/
smell for catshite
Catshite=stink proceed to 1
Catshite=notstink proceed to 1
1 start fan
2. if/chatshite=no stink proceed to

darkdantedevil

If I did that to my cat's litter box, she would just start shitting in my bed.

oboreruhito

Poor cat... after 5 minutes kitten looks like Elvis :-o

Marco

Having a system like this would take care of that just after smell - which is what it seems like it was designed for, since it only runs for 15 mintues, just after the cat leaves. I honestly don't see any place that they say this is used in place of scooping regularly.

Duane

@infmom: It actually smells awful right after they go and for about 20 minutes afterwards.

Ajh

@MuglyTheWorm: I just wanted to acknowledge that a joke was said here, and that it was sort of funny, if you took the time to think about it.

equazcion

@infmom: Believe me, my girlfriend's cat's litter box stinks like death and taxes as soon as the cat shits once. This would be a nice thing to have.

Eris

I don't have a cat, but to paraphrase Mark Twain, "Relatives are like fish; after three days they start to smell." This has stimulated some ideas. Thanks for the post.

SnickerHaHa

Now that... that... is smart. I mean, even with a brand-spanking fresh never-used litter box, there will be smell (and that dust) for a while after. (Anyone who claims that there isn't a smell for a while right after their cat goes is either in denial or has just become accustomed to it.) I don't have cats right now, but I'll be looking to figure out something like this if I ever do again!

witeowl

An old programmers rule says: garbage in, garbage out.
I discovered, that this rule also applies to cat food.
Just quit feeding canned food, but instead switch to high quality complete pallet food. It's better for the kittens kidneys, and believe me; the smell will be greatly reduced.

Stortebeker

This is a great idea, but who has their litter box in the garage?

aka_bigred

@timefalls:

That's right. You wouldn't want to trust litter duty to an unreliable Windows box - you might get BSOD'd ... (Blue Stench of Death)

WoogleMuffin

@timefalls:

Totally Agreed.

NilzXX

My kitty's shit don't stink. I mean I wouldn't put her litter box under the dining room table or anything, but I don't feel the need to build a robot army to clean up after her either. Poor Wall-e.

zoomZAP

I built a similar thing for my cat box years ago when living in a dowtown apt. It used a tiny 12v graphics card fan, a junked plugin charger, and a smaller diameter vent hose. It wasn't automated and ran constantly, but was so low powered and quite that my cats didn't mind and it helped dry out the clumps too. Now I just scoop it out everyday and I don't need it anymore...

phrancis

Wow...that's a fair amount of work to just get rid of the initial aftersmell. I've had one of these litter boxes for about 5 years and it does an okay job:
[www.smarthome.com]

I've also been looking at this one:
[www.smarthome.com]

but it has to be connected to water and has to drain.

Yep, they are pricey, but i guess it depends on how much our time is worth for a weekend project (which I've spent my fair share of weekend hack projects, but I tend to not want to spend them on Cat litter projects).

:-)

aerialsoul

A lot of new covered catboxes have charcoal filters that neutralize most of the smell.

SamburgerHandwich

$20-30 buys you a litter box with a front lid and HEPA filter attached ...

yazan

From what I hear of corn cob litter, it's supposed to do wonder voodoo magic for controlling odors.

Ortzinator

@earlycj5: We have a 24-pound monster kitty. As long as he manages to get his butt in the cat box, all is well. We must be feeding him right.

infmom

@Eris: The cat must not cover after he uses the box. Not much can be done about that. Wafting the air around just spreads the smell.

The usual cat box problem is ammonia from a box that doesn't get cleaned often enough. We have friends whose house REEKS.

infmom

Even better - with less maintenance.....

squishyalt

@equazcion:

I wish my "kitty mess" smelled like Pizza and McDonalds :(

thisisasignin

@squishyalt:

iz on ur islandz, burin mai pewp.

thisisasignin

I fixed my cat odor problems with an ax at the end of the field...
yeee-aaah.

lifeh4xor

You don't have a cat litter tray in the house, right?
You have a cat litter tray in the garage, right?
Why have a litter tray at all?

here's a hack:
Buy a cat flap. Let it shit outdoors.

muddypaws

Finally an article with substance I hate cats but if I had one give me........ .say for Christmas or because I did something wrong I would defiantly build one of these it is much more humane than garage enema's or pre-deodorized cat food..

rtipping

We have a Littermaid for 2 cats right now and it works out fine as long as the collection tray is changed regularly. The only time we really have an odor problem is right after they use it. Unfortunately for us, the only good place for the box is in the vicinity of our A/C intake vent. Once in a while the cats will time it just right...

JayDeEm

@timefalls: Finally another reason not to have a cat.

homerjay

@homerjay: There are no reasons not to have cats; only reasons not to have children.

speed1961

Perhaps in a few thousand years--when dogs evolve in their intelligence to equal that of today's cats--they too will be able to poop in a litter box and this project will become even more relevant ;-)

speed1961

I simply stopped feeding my cat. Problem solved. Much cheaper, too.

(Note to PETA: The above statement was a joke. I don't really have a cat.)

nobodyzhome

Let's see I've a large covered box with lid that includes two HEPA filters that I bought for $23.

How is something a hack when it turns a $15 litter box into a $40 piece of technological wonder just because someone is too lazy to actually scoop the box out on regular basis?

SirSmiley

@nobodyzhome: Of course you don't have a cat, you didn't feed it. ;)

Duane

I really hate the smell of litter boxes. I know this is a pricey solution, but it really works [www.catgenie.com]

parabola101

KISS--- Just use an old PC fan powered by one of those leftover AC adapters you have in the closet.

SamidhaTaygete

Fancy, but not required. A container of baking soda will do amazing, miraculous things, simple as it may be. We've had astounding success with it, and there's nearly zero maintenance to boot!

AnnLabeo

I would love to hear other cat smell negating hacks. My cats refuse to use covered litterboxes, so this wouldn't work. My husband's love of cats and my love of a stink free home is one of the ONLY arguments we have. :(

karindalziel

How many times has the cat gotten sucked up in it? lol. MEEEOW!

iNomad

You could try toilet training your cat's. It's supposedly easy and you can even go a step further and teach them how to flush.

My aversion to toilet training w/flushing is that my cat's would be flushing the toilet constantly just to watch the water go down the drain.

SirSmiley

I prefer the 19th century solution: Taxidermy:

No muss, no fuss, and you save on cat food.

DoctorNine

@Duane: I can be standing in the litter box room when one of mine does his business and not smell it because they're all good about covering up.

I didn't find that true with my first batch of cats {25 years ago - the current batch is my second} and the big difference is their diet. Then it was Friskies, now it's premium food - Iams, Science Diet, et al. Altho they can eat as much as they like, they don't and none of them are fat; all of them are muscular. I've always felt the type of food they eat determines how smelly their boxes are.

Hands

@speed1961: Oh I disagree. There are just as many reasons not to have cats as there are not to have children. Funny thing is that most of those reasons are the same.

homerjay

@AnnLabeo:

Agreed. As the owner of two large felines, Mr. Guiness (18 lbs.) and Mr. Jameson (16 lbs.), baking soda has been a blessing.

dialmelo

@jupiterthunder: Yeah--it's like the better mousetrap, except that the better mousetrap has its own computer. The technical term is kludge. This site is full of them. But at least it's not linked to a Popular Mechnics article telling you that anti-gravity boots or flying cars are just around the corner, any day now....

DangerousLiberal

Littermaid is totally the way to go. Bought a refurbished one on Ebay five years ago and never looked back. If it died today, I'd be at the pet store tonight buying a new one. I use a plastic grocery sack as a liner for the littermaid liners, which means I'm not even spending much money on consumables (other than fresh litter and cat food, naturally.)

Prest0

I'm surprised no one has brought up "Crystals" litter yet. Not the blend, the pure stuff. I have used it for seven years now, and unless you're right next to the box when kitty does his/her business - there is zero odor.

And no, I'm not in denial - many people (including a realtor) have told me they don't "smell cat".

memoryinmotion

Is it any wonder that the poor buggers in the middle east can't wait to blow our frickin' buildings up, when Americans devote so much time, energy, money and effort, to cleaning up catsh!t? If we even spent 10% of this on solving some of the world's problems (global warming, aids in africa, darfur, civil rights in china and its annexes), we could go a long way to avoiding the frickin' Jihad we have invoked.

Seriously, if anyone has enough time to robot-mod their kitty box, they're spending too much time indoors and really need to get out more.

virgilstar

@infmom: Who wrote those rules? If you get a big box put enough litter in there you don't have to clean it out more than once or twice a week. A box of matches next to it is also considerate...

abhowell

Easier solution - gid rid of the damn cat!

MosesBabawaba

@karindalziel:

I have one of those self-cleaning litter boxes.... Gotta say... It may be expensive, but I swear by it. It scoops every time my cat goes in the box, and it scoops right into a covered container. The only time there's a smell is if the dirty litter receptacle is over-full. Clear out the little bin every 5 days or so and there's never a smell! Not bad, eh?

AimeeGee

Daily litter box changes, and Glade air freshers are all you need for smell.

cincyunixguy

@virgilstar: While there may be some priority problems in the US, I don't really think that people putting fans on cat litter boxes is part of the problem.

mwb1100

@Hands: Yikes! Iams and Science Diet are definitely not 'premium' food... If you want premium, try something like Natural Balance. It's all digestible food in there. No fillers. The plus to feeding your pet premium food is that a higher percentage of the waste is digested. Meaning, less and smaller poops. Innova and Felidae are also high quality foods, but you can only find them at boutique pet stores, while Petco carries Natural Balance.

HeffeD

Has anyone forwarded this to Sigfried and Roy yet?

wyrless2002

@HeffeD: I'm familiar with it but my cats won't eat it. If their poops are any indication, my guys are pretty healthy.

Hands

it's past time for house designers to start including infrastructure to accommodate pets

EstaAntheia

Why not go to the source and just get rid of the cat. I'm sure you would be doing your neighbors next to the "vent" a favor.

SanchaliJagabat

damn a mac mini is super over kill if this is all its doing! you could do the same thing with $40 woth of components using the arduino (www.arduino.cc) as a brain. much less power

CollierXuthus

This is very fun. I would really like to do something like that this. Our cat takes some nasty ones when he's home alone all day and it stinks the basement up, this would be a cool way to get rid of that smell. Now only if there was a way to add a RJ-45 Jack so you can make this a network device and it can update on it status. haha. Just a thought?

SatyaLabadoozie