Last Updated on January 7, 2020

Meet Bongo, the monkey that smells like cat pee.

Bongo the monkey lives in a tree
The happiest monkey you’ll ever see
In his spare time he plays the guitar
One of these days he will be a big star!

But for now he just smells like pee.

Bongo’s had it pretty easy. Excepting the one time his Beanie Baby tag was wrenched from his ear, the last couple of decades were filled with peace and happy banana munching.

Almost ten years after the tag incident, Bongo ran into trouble again. The big orange cat was inadvertently locked away from his litter box. And so the foul yellow rains tinkled down onto poor old Bongo.

Bongo felt glum. Would he ever regain his fresh monkey scent? He knew that he was a fragile monkey meant only to be surface-cleaned, but this strong cat pee smell certainly wasn’t going away without a serious soak. The future looked hopeless.

And so Bongo lived with the pungent, clinging odor, ashamed to show his face and hiding when strangers came near. He supposed he was cursed to live out the rest of his beanie life in this stinky way.

One day, Bongo heard about Live Pee Free!—an ion-based odor eliminator and his life changed.

“Hey, Bongo. We just found out about an experimental treatment. There’s no guarantee that it’s going to work, but there’s no real risk involved either. Do you want to give it a try?”

Duh. Bongo was ecstatic to hear that there might be a solution that could eliminate the lingering odor.

“It’s called Live Pee Free! and it’s an ion-based odor eliminator. According to the company, it uses positive ions to cancel out negative ions which cause bad odors. I just need to spray you down really well, and we’ll see what happens.”

Spritz spritz spritz. The odor was reduced instantly. Bongo was nearly saturated, but the long-lasting pee smell was gone. Bongo wanted to whoop for joy.

“We need to let you dry out and wait a few days to see if symptoms recur…” She sounded hesitant, but there was no hiding the excitement in her eyes.

The smell didn’t come back. Bongo is no longer a sad monkey. He has more energy than ever before, and is now happily swinging through the house living PEE FREE!

Yep. That’s exactly what happened. Almost.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Live Pee Free! is not the odor eliminator you’re used to.

The first time I heard about Live Pee Free! I was at a trade show and happened to stop by yet another pet urine eliminator booth. The brand name with its exclamation point struck me as humorous and I was happy to learn more about the product. It was different from most urine eliminators—neither a surfactant or enzymatic cleaner.

If your cat has ever urinated outside of the litter box, you’re probably not a stranger to the perplexing and painful persistence of cat urine odor. That’s due in part to the high concentration of uric acid in cat urine. Uric acid forms almost insoluble crystals. These pungent crystals linger for a long time after the stain and other odor-causing elements of the urine are washed away—and can even lay dormant for a while before the odor reappears when the air gets humid. That’s why we usually only recommend enzymatic cleaners for cat urine stains. Enzymatic cleaners contain living organisms which break down and consume the uric acid. Enzymatic odor eliminators are not 100% effective, though. The power of an enzymatic cleaner lies in living enzymes—so if the cleaner has been sitting on the shelf for a long time, it might not work. If there’s another effective cat urine odor eliminator out there, of course I’m happy to learn about it.

Live Pee Free! utilizes a different sort of odor elimination method—the first new odor technology in 25 years, according to their parent company’s website.  This technology is based on the interaction of positive and negative ions. As stated by Live Pee Free!, unpleasant odors are made up of negative ions, and the liquid positive ions present in Live Pee Free! cancel out those negative ions.

Live Pee Free! gave me an impressive demonstration.

The people behind Live Pee Free! asked me if I would like a demonstration of the product. …Of course. They sprayed a bit of an ammonia-based urine simulator onto a paper towel and asked me to smell it. Naturally, it smelled pungent and awful. After a couple of spritzes of Live Pee Free!, I was asked to smell it again. Nothing.

The ammonia smell was gone. I seriously considered that there may have been a quick change of hands or something because this stuff got rid of the odor so quickly. Yes, I’ll gladly take a bottle and test it out at home for a review. Absolutely!

Sure, the quick demo was impressive, but would it actually work to neutralize uric acid odors and get rid of actual cat pee smell? I hate to admit that there are items in the house which are actually hanging out smelling like cat pee (like poor Bongo). Unfortunately, accidents can happen and most of us probably have something that the cat peed on that we would like to smell fresh again.

Does your cat pee outside of the litter box? Check out our article: How to Stop Your Cat From Peeing Outside the Litter Box.

Before we dive into the details of our experience, let’s learn a little more about the Live Pee Free! brand. Click here to go straight to the review.

Who is behind Live Pee Free!?

Live Pee Free! is a retail-level subsidiary brand of Zavada Scientific—the company behind the innovative Noble Ion® Liquid Positive Ion­­™ odor elimination technology. Noble Ion odor elimination is used across a number of industries—commercial cleaning, dumpster deodorizing, and property management.

It’s also part of what makes sWheat Scoop Litter a strong player in the odor control department.

In addition to specific solutions for cat and dog urine, Live Pee Free! offers odor eliminators for use on synthetic turf, potty pads, concrete and outdoor surfaces, as well as a leather and fabric-safe spray for inside the car.  

Live Pee Free! Odor Eliminator for Pets Review.

Disclosure: “Wildernesscat received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. Although the product was gratis, all opinions in this review remain my own and I was in no way influenced by the company.”

What exactly is Live Pee Free! made of?

Live Pee Free! has been working in their Texas-based lab for the past seven years to develop their pet urine eliminator. This odor eliminator works by canceling out the negative ions in odors with positive ions and leaving you with a neutrally scented space. Live Pee Free! contains no enzymes, fragrances (this stuff is seriously fragrance-free), surfactants, or harmful chemicals.

Here’s the list of ingredients:

Purified Water, Liquid Positive Ion™ Odor Technology, Malic Acid, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Pectin Extract.

That’s water, apples… and the, frankly, vague ion blend. As far as we know, though, it’s completely non-toxic and safe for use around cats and people. Live Pee Free! also doesn’t stain—but I would check in an inconspicuous area before applying it to anything just to be sure.

How do I use Live Pee Free! Odor Eliminator?

Live Pee Free! suggests using their product to eliminate cat urine odors throughout your home. It’s not just for carpet stains or a smelly sofa cushion. Live Pee Free! also works to reduce litter box odors and keep litter smelling fresh longer.

There are two strengths of Live Pee Free! available on their website—regular strength and a 2x strength solution, which is recommended for use in multiple cat homes. We tried the 2x strength solution.

Live Pee Free! comes in three sizes. It’s available in a 16 oz spray bottle, and 64 oz and gallon jugs.

You’ll find detailed instructions on how to use Live Pee Free! for different applications on their store detail page.  

Our experience with Live Pee Free!

Sadly, a couple of months ago, Bongo got peed on. We didn’t toss him into the washing machine for fear of damaging his sensitive fabric, and the smell wasn’t going anywhere. He just stayed out of the way and I tried to forget about it.

Then we got a sample of Live Pee Free!. He was the perfect subject to try this stuff out on. I sprayed him down pretty well, and the nasty odor was instantly diminished. I really appreciate that Live Pee Free! is also fragrance-free. It’s nice being able to tell whether or not the odor is really gone, or if it’s just temporarily masked by a stronger fragrance.

Alright… the odor is reduced…. but it’s not gone. It was time for Bongo to take a long soak. The spray may have covered his fur, but it definitely didn’t saturate his beanie innards.

Bongo soaked in the Live Pee Free! for approximately one hour. By the time he came out, he didn’t smell like pee anymore. So far, so good. Is the urine odor going to come back? We hope not, but can’t be certain of the longevity of the odor removal yet. If the urine odor comes back sometime down the line, we’ll come back and update this post for everyone!

Live Pee Free! also works around the litter box.

I hate walking into the area where the litter boxes are kept and feeling like I want to choke or gag. Okay, that doesn’t happen very often since we scoop the litter box and the litter does a decent job of covering odors. It’s not a smell I’d like to foist upon any guests, though.

I tried spraying a light mist over the litter box after scooping and misting the air in the litter box room as recommended. All odors were reduced—think live pee and poop free. If you absolutely hate the nasty odors your litter box is emitting, use this stuff daily and I think you’ll be a happy camper.

And if your litter box really smells THAT bad, you may want to confirm that your cat is in ideal health and reassess their diet as well. A healthy cat’s waste shouldn’t smell so bad that you’re hurling every time you scoop.

Our final assessment.

Live Pee Free! and ion-based odor elimination, in general, is a fascinating development in the odor control space. It works quickly and is very effective for the applications I used it for. The product is great for people and cats with sensitive respiratory systems who can’t handle strong fragrances.

If you haven’t had any luck with other odor removers, or are looking for a daily product which does more than temporarily cover up smells like Febreze, I highly recommend trying Live Pee Free!.

Where can I buy Live Pee Free!?

If you make your purchase of Live Pee Free! through our links, Wildernesscat will receive a percentage of the sale. It doesn’t cost any extra but helps us to continue sharing the radical cat parenting message. Thank you for your support!

Live Pee Free! is available in a variety of sizes on the Live Pee Free! website—and if you use the coupon code PEE FREE! at the checkout, you will get 20% off any size bottle.  

If you prefer to shop on Amazon.com, Live Pee Free! has you covered. Click the photo to see what the price is on Amazon now.