It’s a shame they don’t come with nose plugs!
Written: Aug 27 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive, and easy to use.
Cons: Their purported odor control is very short-lived!
The Bottom Line: This cheap cat litter is exactly that -- cheap! Until you have to buy repeated boxes to make your litter box odor stay away.
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| BunnyJav's Full Review: Tidy Cats Immediate Odor Control |
Two cats + hot summer = lots of water consumed and many litter-box problems. This, essentially, has been the basic equation in my household for the past eight weeks. I have two longhaired cats that get quite overheated when it gets hot. As such, they drink a lot of water -- great for the cats, not so great for the person cleaning up the litter box after them! Having tried just about every litter variety on the market, I consider myself virtually an expert in the ways of the clay. I should have taken the lessons learned the last time I went shopping for a suitable scoopable litter and I would have avoided the whole mess that Tidy Cats Immediate Odor Control has put me through.
It has been about eight months since I last wrote something on Epinions. I was tired of the infighting, I was tired of the growing pettiness, and I was tired of the clique-ish fights that I saw breaking out. So I took a vacation from my favorite site. It took a cat litter this bad, this ineffective, to drag me back onto the site. I have written several other Epinions on topics more weighty, but none ever on a product so stinky!
How I Found Tidy Cats In The First Place
About a year ago, I switched from a traditional clumping litter to one of the “new and improved” crystal varieties. Although the odor control of the crystals was great, and it was terrific only having to worry about the litter box once a week, we wound up having a lot of problems with those types as well. We had quickly discovered that the crystals, which become like small pebbles all over the floor, should really be employed if you are a masochist who enjoys foot punctures. Additionally, my two cats seemed to also voice their displeasure with the texture of the litter by continually urinating on our couches, toys, and any clothes left on the floor (read: anything soft).
Having fallen out of love with the crystal variety, I decided to return to the old standby: clumping litter. Our local supermarket was having a sale on Tidy Cats litters, so I purchased two containers and headed home. I figured that I should give the Tidy Cats Immediate Odor Control a try, since it markets itself as the perfect litter for households with multiple cats. Well, I should have known better, and I should have taken their claims at face value. Had I remembered that I had a miserable time with Tidy Cats the last time I bought it (see my previous review, "It Still Stinks"), I would have known to avoid the brand altogether.
So How Is It?
1) Smelly
Well, as you might have been able to deduce from my previous paragraph, I have not had the best of times with Tidy Cat. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.
I found that the Tidy Cats Immediate Odor Control did exactly that – controlled odors immediately. However, the effect was very short-lived. My cats’ active use of the litter box over the past few weeks has proven to me that Tidy Cats is simply not up to the job.
I try to clean the litter box as often as I can, but the entire point of clumping litter is to allow you to remove the waste while leaving the untouched litter behind. Not so with Tidy Cats. What I found was that although the “short-term” odor problems were immediately neutralized, the litter that remained in the box built up a pretty overpowering ammonia smell rather quickly. After just three days in our bathroom (which, admittedly, does not have any open windows), the ammonia smell stung the insides of our noses as soon as we walked in. It was horrible. I even use a sprinkle-on odor reducer – which has worked wonders in the past – but it was to no avail. The ammonia stench became so overwhelming after just a few days that I had to dump all of the litter and start again. Not the most economical way to take care of your cats!
2. Expensive
The litter, like most other brands, is fairly expensive. Now, when you multiply the price of a box of litter by two (for the multiple litter boxes I have), and factor in the increased amount of times you wind up changing the entire litter box’s contents, you get a significantly increased price for litter over the long run. By way of comparison, I paid around $5 for this brand, compared with $10 for the Fresh Step Crystals that I have been using for the past year. Although it cost twice as much, the infrequency with which I had to replace the entire box’s worth of litter made it much more economical.
On average, Tidy Cats is less expensive than the other leading brands, but its inutility outstrips any bargain you may think you may be getting.
3. MESSY!
I thought that I had it bad with the crystals. I would get up in the middle of the night, only to step hard on a stray crystal that had been kicked out of the box. OUCH! But at least the crystals stayed in the same general region as the litter box (and in the bathroom).
Tidy Cats litter, I have found, scatters everywhere! There was litter tracked all across the bathroom, caught in my cats’ fur, across the carpets, and up the stairs. I could not find a single ten-square-foot space that did not have litter on the floor. I spent more time sweeping and cleaning than I ever had to with any other brand (namely, Fresh Step No-Track formulas), and I also found the granules of litter to be very difficult to sweep up due to their miniscule size.
Summary
I have read many glowing Epinions on this product. I don’t know if it is a function of my litter-box cleaning technique or of my cats, but either way, I would not recommend this product.
The inexpensive price of this brand will often lure unsuspecting consumers into purchasing it, but I have found that I have always wound up paying more in the long run.
My return to Epinions may not be on the most appealing of topics, but if I can convince even one consumer to avoid Tidy Cats (or, at the very least, to let them know how poorly their product performs outside of the lab), it will be worth it!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
BunnyJav
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Location: Minneapolos, MN
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 59 members
About Me:
"You're the true Lord of the Dance, no matter what those idiots at work say"
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