Forgive me if this is not appropriate discussion here, but the description says discussion is allowed so here goes:

After some research and online discussion we decided to upgrade our cat’s bathroom equipment from a regular litter box to a fancy expensive FurryTail automatic litter box. I am happy to report that generally we are very happy with it, the cats seem to love it, and overall it works great.

The only problem we’re trying to figure out, is that it stinks worse than the regular cat box we used to have. I’m talking about right after use, not really “ambient” odor, but when the one cat uses it, the entire first floor of our home is eye-wateringly stinky. We never noticed this happen before. With the old analog cat box we almost never had odor problems. I suspect it has something to do with the cats burrying it before and now the machine “unburies” it while it’s “fresh” and puts it in a bag that does not contain the evil… that’s the only thing I can think of. The situation also puzzles us. This is a tiny monster, pooing in a nearly completely enclosed barrel, that is closed INSIDE an unused shower, in a tiny side bathroom. There are multiple layers of containment and it still manages to permeate the whole house. On top of that, while it seems like it’s really just right after they use it, we’re assuming we’re getting nose blind and probably the whole house stinks more than we think, all the time.

I’ve been using activated charcoal in the receptacle and shower area. We also use the Arm and Hammer deodorizing powder in the litter itself. I’m wondering what else I can do? (besides go back to the old cat box.)

here’s a cat tax photo of the poo poo monster just because:

        • psx_crab@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          Wow, didn’t know that exists. Can it detect poop smell? I got an exhaust fan rigged to a smart relay and only use it as a timer, and sometime the outside air can be pretty bad so i can’t switch on sometime.

          • Serinus@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            I’m sure VOCs spike. My “air quality good” is just checking radon and CO2. It’s not directly related to this.

            https://a.co/d/559c5eD for the airthings quality monitor.

            https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/ for the HA stuff. Everything you need for HA is about $160 if you go with their packaged stuff, a Home Assistant Green and a ZBT-1 USB stick. You can do it cheaper if you want to set up your own RaspPi and MicroSD and format it yourself (though their case and heatsink and whatnot seems nice.)

            I can talk more about Home Assistant. Everything is going to Matter and Thread likely in the next year. You probably already have a Thread router in your house. Hue just came out with their thread bulbs. IKEA will release their matter/thread lineup between now and January.

            Then there’s my whole solar setup, which I have a post about here somewhere.

            • psx_crab@lemmy.zip
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              17 hours ago

              Thanks! Right now i don’t have any hub or router, i just use the thing that connect to my wifi, one is Tapo light bulb from TPLink, and another is Sonoff relay which I connected to an exhaust fan, both on different app and i checked tapo isn’t on HA list(i use tapo robot vacuum). I’m still figuring out what’s this thread and matter and zigbee thing though, it’s a bit confusing to me so i’m just gonna take thing slowly.