I have been asked to collect opinions on the idea of using your dishwasher to wash a cat litter box.
Let’s assume the dishwasher is a good model that uses very hot water and is effective at removing dried food from dishes. Also that the type of litter used is not a factor, that you will dispose of it by dumping it in a garbage bag and there’s no chance it will clog up the plumbing, so the only thing the dishwasher has to deal with is residue - ‘matter’ of the sort one usually finds in a used cat box.
Who would do this? Who would find it unsavory? Your thoughts.
Ditto. Even if a team of scientists swore up and down that lab results proved nothing nasty would transfer to any of my plates or utensils, I couldn’t do it.
I would happily toss the cat box in the dishwasher, assuming that:
a). It was the only thing in the dishwasher, and
b). That I subsequently ran the empty dishwasher through another full cycle with a buttload of bleach.
However, if my wife caught me doing this she would tie one end of a chain to the dishwasher, the other end to the bumper of the car, and drive the dishwasher to the Gates of Hell. And I would never hear the end of it, much like the time she caught me washing old paint rags in the washing machine.
That’s gross. Cats piss and shit in those things, you know. I’d just as soon hand-wash dishes with the toilet brush. I’m as far from a germaphobe as they come, and I have very few hard and fast rules in life. But things contaminated with fecal matter DO NOT come in contact with anything remotely like a food prep surface.
+1. I find modern germophobia ridiculous (“I left an egg out of the refrigerator for two hours, is it safe to eat?!”, and I have travelled and eaten extensively in places where there is minimal hygiene, with few negative results.
But a cat box in the dishwasher? No fucking way. There’s always little traces and fragments of post-dish stuff floating around and caught in the filter. Even if it’s sterile, who wants to eat bits of shit? And can you guarantee that every single toxoplasma gondi has been zapped?
Do what I do: take it in the yard, hose it, scrub with bleach, leave for a while, hose it again to rinse and dry it with paper towels.
Cat boxes are fairly easy to clean out if you have a hose. I guess in a flat it could be a bit problematic. When I had a cat the biggest problem I had is the cat got all offended when you cleaned it out. I don’t mean scoop the litter but change it.
She’d be like, “That’s my box, leave it alone.” Then after she got it back she’s spend 15 minutes getting it “just so.”
A bucket of hot water (to clean with), a bucket of cold water (to rince with), 2 cups of chlorine bleach (added to the hot water). 1 disposable cellulose (sp?) sponge.
Let the bleach water sit in the pan awhile. 10 minutes to disinfect.
Disgusting. Along similar lines, a friend of mine once told me that his mother-in-law ran the toilet brush through the dishwasher. I don’t know how he ever managed to eat anything at their house. It makes me gag just thinking about it…
It’s hot water that runs down the drain. If a molecule of poop somehow managed to stay in the dishwasher and somehow managed to deposit itself on a plate and somehow managed to make its way from the plate to your mouth, what’s the big deal?
I agree with those who ask why you’d do it – but if you did, yikes, so what?
It would likely be a lot more than a molecule. I’ve fished fairly large bits of crud out of my dishwasher filter.
If you even have to ask this question, the extent of the gulf between your opinion and mine on this issue is so wide and deep that it shall never be bridged.
No–for the same reason I don’t relieve myself in the sink. Yes, theoretically it’s sanitary. But I’m civilized. So I keep my bodily wastes away from food preparation and eating areas. If I keep my wastes away, this would go doubly for pet waste.
Yuck, no. Not a big germophobe but at the very least, clumping cat litter bits might clog stuff up in there, and there’s the matter of what stays in the filter (and gets jostled back out on the next wash). That’s what a garden hose is for.
I applaud your desire to thoroughly clean the cat box, but I wouldn’t use the dishwasher either.
Cat boxes are kinda pricey though – they’re $10 at the local K-Mart. Ten bucks for a plastic box. I buy plastic storage boxes instead. They’re about half the price and they’re just as sturdy.
Or use a catbox liner.
If your cat’s deposits are on the sides of the box, and that’s what you’re concerned about cleaning, maybe the box is too small.