Porch Potty Standard Dog Grass Pad - Indoor Dog Potty with Artificial Grass & Self-Draining Tray - Reusable Dog Potty for Apartments & Balconies

This product is awesome! Reduces odours because it drains well, and is easy to clean Mine didnt come with a fire hydrant though so my boy dog has nowhere to aim and ends up peeing off the edge half the time

Would be fantastic if the hose that connects actually was threaded properly. Very lose and let’s you screw twice before stripping and just leaks creating a mess.

This was a HUGE disappointment. Externally, it looks very nice and the frame is solid. Functionally, a COMPLETE failure. If you just want a place for your pet to go and don't mind urine getting on your patio then this will work for you. If you don't want urine on your patio don't buy this product, it leaks no matter what you do. They offer two modes of operation -- with a hose, or with a collection pan underneath - both methods leak no matter what you do. I REALLY wanted this to work and did everything possible to make it work but it is impossible. First, with the hose. The poor quality of the hose, drainage pan and connecting adaptors guarantees leakage. The connection of the hose to the pan is with a plastic connector that does not tighten enough to prevent leakage. It tightens to some point and then screws through the tight spot and goes around again. You can tighten forever. Further, the hole in the pan does not match the hose so leakage is again guaranteed. The hose is of course round, but the hole in the drainage pan is oval - poor quality control in the pan. So even if the washer/connector tightened enough it would leak where the oval hole exceeds the parameters of the round hose. Plus, the hose is a small thin plastic hose of poor quality that would crack pretty quickly in the heat where I am -- southern Arizona -- or in brittle cold winter weather. I was so determined to make it work that I took the whole assembly - hose, drain pan and washer/connector to a plumbing supply house to get help. Three old guys, with 40 years experience each, looked at it, tried to troubleshoot it, etc. and the end result was that "it can't be done." They even thought about rounding out the oval hole and getting a slightly larger hose, but the way the pan is designed this won't work. There are a couple of step-downs in the pan going to the hole. Enlarging the hole will take away too much of the plastic so that there's no way to then attach the hose. Can't be done. Second, with the collection pan. Not what I wanted but there was no other choice. Well, this doesn't work either. It works fine until you try to empty the collection pan. The DRAINAGE pan is grooved to direct the urine toward the hole and into the collection pan. The problem is that the urine doesn't drain completely when the pet pees. So, to be able to reach under the frame and pull out the COLLECTION pan, you have to lift the frame the height of your pan, and then lower it back to the ground while you go empty the collection pan. You have to do this again to put the collection pan back in place. When you do all this lifting and lowering, the urine left in the grooves of the drainage pan is disturbed and will then flow out -- leaking onto the patio. Great idea but doesn't work. Design of the functional aspects needs improvement. The quality of the functional pieces needs a lot of improvement. If I was OK with urine on my patio I would not have bought this. With NO WAY TO MAKE IT WORK I wasn't about to let them keep my money so back it went. Save yourself the aggravation, keep looking.

Kind of ridiculous that you have to make so many upgrades to what is an already expensive product to avoid dog waste trauma, but it ultimately gets you to where you need to be and it has dramatically improved our lives in its current modified form. Some notes: - There do seem to be QC issues (one of our legs was short, and another reviewer had an uneven drilled hole), so make sure to inspect it when you get it, and pour some clean water into it before use to make sure everything is working properly. - You can get other 2' x 4' artificial turfs, but the native one is quite nicer than the cheaper ones we've used before. It is low pile and easier to clean solid waste off of, meaning you don't have to scrub dog waste off of what is effectively an artificial shag carpet. - It is kind of small for our huge labrador, but this is remedied with training, and if it were any bigger it would really restrict the use of our balcony. There have been no weight issues with him being on it, and he isn't distressed by it in any way. The comments on Amazon were super helpful in making this a more usable product for our apartment situation, so to pass it forward, here are the upgrades we made: 1. Tank -- CHAPIN 78005 LOW PROFILE 12 QUART OIL DRAIN PAN The most important upgrade (props to the reviewer who suggested this). This is by far the least heinous way to collect waste, especially if you do not have anywhere to run the hose off. There are two limitations with the porch potty when it comes to the type of oil change pan you can use. One, there are horizontal steel beams as support, meaning you need to fit the pan only in the center (smaller than the full length of the porch potty). Second, you need something low profile or you will need to add risers, making it higher for your dog and a little more unsightly. Also remember that liquid can be heavy, so the 12 qt worked out to be a great size to address these three issues. 12 quarts lasts us about 1-2 weeks with our 60+ lbs labrador, and the oil change pan is super easy to empty. You have two plugs that you put over the center drain hole and the corner vent, and then you can carry it to the bathroom and use the top to empty it. There are handles on the top and one on the bottom for tilting it. The oil drain pan also has little indents on top to store the plugs when it is collecting waste and an angled center to catch drips in case the porch potty leaks (which it does). 2. Drain -- SILICONE TAPE, WASHER, BARB (added to native hose) The 1/2" hose's diameter is a bit too big to go straight into the oil change pan hole, so I stuck an EASYEAH 1/2" 5/16" ID Silicone Rubber Grommet into the end of it, along with a 8mm brass hose barb. There was also leaking at the joint of the hose, so I wrapped it with self-sticking silicone tape, which seemed to address that issue. 3. Prop -- LISLE 45900 HOOD PROP This makes it so you don't have to hold the lid up while you empty the tank, which is nice because the lid can be quite heavy. 4. Floor -- POTTY PADS AND 36"x48" CHAIR MAT (optional) We put this under the porch potty more as an insurance than anything. It really hasn't needed to come into use, but it is a nice way to avoid frustration in case of any failures. 5. Odor Control -- CAMCO TST PRO RV TOILET TREATMENT, PURENESS F6 ZEOLITE AIR FILTER We dump the RV toilet treatment into the tank to help keep it smell nice when in use during the week and be less gross when emptying. We then put the little packets of Zeolite over the vent holes so that it can still vent but the Zeolite absorbs any ammonium that might leak out into the air (note, this is not pictured in photo of setup so you can see the hose connection). 6. Routine Cleaning -- WATERING CAN (rinse), PORTABLE BIDET (pressure wash), NATURE'S MIRACLE (enzyme cleaner), REScue Wipes (disinfectant) For more routine and spot cleaning, we have a Qilebi 2 gallon watering can. It has a nice spray feature and a good capacity. You can use it to rinse the potty during the week, which can help prevent smells in the summer. If you need higher pressure (e.g., for diarrhea), you can use something like the Bidet Buddy CubeJet, which I use as a tiny power washer. We also use a hand spray enzyme cleaner on top of the turf as needed (Nature's Miracle), followed by REScue disinfectant (good for killing Giardia), and a water rinse. We don't want the disinfectant to kill the enzyme cleaner, so we always use it in that sequence. REScue offers both liquid and wipe formats. 7. Deep Cleaning -- ECO STRONG OUTDOOR ODOR ELIMINATOR (gallon with sprayer), REScue DISINFECTANT Once a week I empty the pan into the toilet and do a deeper clean. Here are the steps I take: a) Tilt tray side to side -- This makes sure everything drains into the tank (hole is small so sometimes it does it slowly or sometimes there's not enough liquid for it to drain completely). If you don't do it, it might spill off the side. b) Empty pan -- Lift tray, seal oil change pan, and empty tank into toilet. Reconnect empty pan to hosing for cleaning. c) Deodorize grass -- I use the Eco Strong enzyme cleaner, which has a sprayer to attach to a garden hose. If you have an aerator faucet, you can install a garden hose adapter and an expanding hose to the sprayer. If you do not, they have this pour bottle you can use. d) Sanitize system -- I use liquid REScue on the top and wipes for the outside of the oil change pan and the tubing (and any other hard surface that could use it). e) Water Rinse -- I give everything a thorough rinse with water using our hose or the watering can, depending on my mood. f) Reset -- Empty tank again of cleaning fluids and reassemble. Pour in the RV fluid and place the Zeolite packets on top for another week. It does sound like a lot of steps, but I am pretty OCD (so you could probably get away with less), and it actually is quite quick, because most of this is dumping liquids. Hope this helps others! It definitely is a much better and hygienic option than the ones that have a tray with potty pads. Those would take us multiple trash bags to clean up, and was exceptionally gross and unwieldy. Our solution now is a dramatic improvement.

Game changer! I had spinal surgery last October and had a setup for my dogs that was the standard turf on potty pads - it was still quite a bit of work frequently changing out the pads. This setup is pricy but SO very worth it with the built in drainage! I had to have another spine surgery and this go around cleanup is a breeze!