Litter Box Air Filter

Litter box odor was never a problem in our home … until we began fostering cats. We have a separate foster room (12′ x 12′) where we keep the momma cat and her kittens (anywhere from 4-6). With three large litter boxes (changed multiple times a day), it can still get pretty smelly in there at times.

We were introduced to a product called the Purrified Air litter box air filter (photo below) and jumped at the opportunity to try it out. This product was purpose designed to eliminate pet smells, allergens and pet dander using a replaceable activated carbon filter that also reduces allergies, bacteria, and viruses in the air (lasts 4-7 months).

This litter box air filter sits on a covered litter box and filters air through the top vents. They offer adapters so it works just as well with uncovered litter boxes and domed-shaped covered boxes.

We spoke with the product designer who has a background in air filtration. He explained how the amount of filter media a filter uses, and the amount of air forced through the media have a direct bearing on how well the filter removes odor from air. If the air flow is too slow or too fast, not enough air gets “scrubbed” by the filter media.

The Purrified Air filter uses a proprietary blend of over two pounds of activated carbon, zeolite, negative-ion ceramic balls, and catechin. These are the premier odor-removing compounds used in a variety of air filtration environments from homes, buildings and hospitals to laboratories, factories and chemical plants.

If you’re curious, we recommend Googling “catechin air filtration.” Catechin is a crystalline compound that has antiviral and antibacterial properties — it’s infused into every molecule of these filters, enabling them to strip the passing air of odor-causing pollutants such as tobacco smoke and pet smells. It’s amazing stuff.

We tested the filter in our foster room and were very impressed with the results. In less than an hour a formerly ‘stinky room’ was odor free. Impressive. We decided to toke it a step further and did another experiment using a high walled litter box, some cardboard and an exacto knife. We cut out a hole for the filter to sit in and filled the litter box with cat poop! We then placed the apparatus in a small closed bathroom to see if it could purify the air coming from the box and leave the room odor free. It worked!

The Purrified Air filter uses an ultra quiet 4.5 inch fan that is powerful enough to pull 30 cubic feet of air per minute, at a steady three miles per hour through the 2 inch-thick media bed. In a typical bedroom, this is enough to filter all the air in the room three times in an hour, a respectable figure for a room air filter.

In a typical covered litter box of about three cubic feet, that’s ten times a minute. The unit is designed with an ‘always on’ mode to ensure continuous clean air.

In addition to filtering cat and ferret cage waste odor at orders of magnitude better than the competition (per the manufacturer), this unit also provides great adaptability. They offer adapters for dome-shaped litter box covers and even a wall mount bracket in order to mount the filter about 18” above an open litter box.

For many cat owners it can be an ordeal finding the right litter box and this product is designed to allow users to use their existing litter box. The wall mount bracket doubles as a table-top holder in case you want to use the filter in a bathroom, kitchen, or any other room.