Does anyone have any experience with self-cleaning cat litter boxes? I’m curious if any particular model of self-cleaning litter box is any good. We now have 4 cats and it would be nice to not have to clean litter boxes manually 1-2 times every day.
Do they separate pee/poop from litter well? Are cats afraid to use them? Do they stink more than regular litter boxes because pee/poop are in them for longer periods? Are they a hassle to clean? Do you have to buy propietary supplies (custom litter? special trays?)?
Thanks for your input.
I have a Litter Robot (that’s the actual brand name) and it’s worth the money. Completely eliminates smell other than right when they do the deed. Incredibly easy and clean to empty, but that’s all besides the point. They ha e the BEST customer service ever. I’ve had parts replaced for free, experts on the phone guide me step by step on how to fix it if it malfunctions, and once they even replaced the entire dome for free (plus shipping). I’ve had this for several years and it’s amazing. Truly.
I’ve had other automatic litter boxes too but none of them have been as durable, clean smelling, or easy to use as this. Plus I get phone notifications when it’s full and it won’t cycle anymore so I can change it.
My cats took a week to get used to it but now they love it. They offer their own litter but you can buy your own as well. There are certain restrictions on litter type though, check that out before you buy litter.
It separates the waste well, and there is hardly any wasted clean litter in the waste bag when I take it out.
And it actually stinks LESS than a regular box because of how it stores the waste and the fact that it seals it away a few minutes after cats go, using a weight sensor to tell when a cat has left the box.
Edit: reading this sounds like an advertisement, but I swear I’m just a dude who loves my litter box a whole lot.
I have one arriving today. Fingers crossed that my scaredy cat will be able to make the change.
Our scardy cat was fascinated by ours. Would haul ass from across the house just to watch it cycle.
My friends bought me a litter robot, too. I have mixed feelings. I seem to have to reset and fiddle with the thing too often, but when it works, it’s really good for keeping the smell down. My guys use it more often than the other two old school boxes, so I guess two paws up from them?
Sounds like it needs a cleaning. Also update the firmware just in case. Customer service can help if you need help figuring out how to clean it or if a motor goes bad or something. They’ve replaced motors and stuff for me a few times for free. When one of the sensors broke or was damaged, it was finicky for me too. Sometimes worked sometimes didn’t. Replacing it fixed it instantly. Though the same happens if a sensor needs to be cleaned.
What a future world we live in; firmware updates on a litter box.
Mine was like that, make sure you check for firmware updates.
This sounded fantastic until I looked it up and it’s A THOUSAND DOLLARS???
I love my cat and I hate scooping litter, but definitely not a grand worth of either…
Hey now, it’s only $700 where I am.
The amount of money people will spend for convenience is indefinable.
Time is money
Second the litter robot. I had a pet safe automatic litterbox for years and this one blows that out of the water.
Can vouch they are good. We have two. They are expensive though.
So freaking expensive. But honestly I love mine. Sometimes I travel for work and I’m gone all week. Come home and there’s still no smell. Worth it.
How’d you get your cat to try it? We’re struggling to get ours to even look at it, any pointers would be appreciated!
I put the old litter box next to the litter robot and let the old litter box get super gross and didn’t scoop it at all for over a week. Once it got gross they opted for the clean litter robot. I then removed the old litter box and now they just use the robot.
This is exactly what we did with our cat and it worked like a charm. We tried leaving a path of treats into it before that, but she just ate the treats and then walked away. We didn’t want to just shove her in there because we were afraid she would associate the trauma with the Litter Robot.
I would pick them up and just put them inside it. After a day or so of that over and over they started using it but it took them a while to not be scared of it when it moves.
My mom has one of these and she loves it.
Only weird bit was when I was staying at her house and didn’t realize it was a thing, only to have it go through a cycle at 4am and not knowing what the cyborg sound was.
Nah my gf just got one and she loves it too.
This is going to sound like hyperbole, but this thing changed my life and I always love it when I get a chance to share it with somebody. It requires no electricity, it has no moving parts and in the 11 years I’ve been using one, it’s never broken. I give you: Omega Paw.
It requires clumping cat litter, so if you use that you’re golden. When it’s time to clean, you roll it - and as you roll, the loose litter flows through a grate, but the clumps and waste stay on top of the grate. As you continue to roll it, the waste falls to the ceiling. When you roll it back, the waste all falls into the drawer, which you pull out and dump. Cleaning the litter box takes literally 10 seconds. It’s awesome.
And what happens with the cat?
It learns after the first time or two
I thought it was pretty cool.
We stopped using it because one cat was sick and suffered from diarrhea from cancer. And the clump litter couldnt clump enough, leading to diarrhea wetness when we rolled. That lead to diarrhea on the top part. And the other cats were not happy.
Had to switch to open air litter boxes to meet all their fickle demands. But it was great while it lasted.
Can vouch for these. I have two of the large size, one per cat. They’re a game-changer.
Omg thank you for this! I have to go over to my mom’s to clean her litter box all the time. With this she’ll be able to do it herself!
Bought a litter robot 4, wouldn’t do it again for the price. It’s a pain to clean and the cats are always peeing/pooping on the sides. It constantly stopped it cleaning cycle, and ended up growing a ton of bugs inside because the design had some cat poop inside the machine where I couldn’t get to it. I had to dismantle the entire thing taking out every screw to clean it. It’s currently sitting in my basement. I left a similar review on their website and they decided not to post it, I guess they don’t like unfavorable reviews.
100%
We have 7 cats and 2x Litter Robot 3, and they’re a life saver. I only have to empty the bags every 2ish days, and litter lasts longer since they’re not digging in clumped waste.
They are a bit of a hassle to clean if you don’t keep up with it, though. A full breakdown of the sphere will take a few hours of work. But, if you wipe it out every time you change litter, you will only need to do it every 3-6 months.
3 cats with a litter robot 3 after 3 years. It’s great, easy to repair and parts are available. Save your money and buy a litter bot 3. The 4 has some improvements (it’s quieter) but has some new flaws and a pretty stiff price increase.
Also check out one man six cats on YouTube who has been doing a litter bot mega test of all kinds of brands/styles with his 7 (yes 7) cats.
3 cats, two little robots. They’re a hassle to get calibrated right but once you do get them set up they are great. I would buy them again, can’t imagine going back to scooping every day.
wait, you have robots?
*Litter Robots™ probably
Yes, they’re quite small.
I agree with this.
I also agree, we’ve had one for years and even if it breaks they are easy to repair.
This, plus we’ve gotten a couple replacements from the manufacturer
I had a Cat Genie for years and loved it. Like others, they’re a bit of a pain to take apart and clean when you need to.
It also had a draw back of sometimes missing a small piece, washing it, then blowing hot air on it to stink up the whole place.
But overall I was happy with it. The only reason I don’t have one now is my living situation changed and I don’t have room for it (requires water hookup and a drain).
Yes what I mentioned may sound annoying but consider this: we had ours hooked up to a laundry drain and had to do no scooping. Ever. We didn’t even have to flush the toilet. Every once in a while we’d plug in a special cartridge to do a self clean cycle, and once a year we’d take it apart to clean the internal section (but honestly it didn’t need this except once due to hard water buildup).
You don’t have to do anything and it always had washed and clean litter. Every once in a while it got a little stinky but what litterbox doesn’t?!
Seriously, highly recommend.
I’ll go against the grain here and say that no, I don’t think they’re worth it. The litter that automatic litter boxes have to use doesn’t clump and isn’t as effective. Tried it for about a year and then went back to low-tech.
It seems the newer ones do allow more varieties of litter these days but that’s a good reminder not all do.
Those were 1st gen, we’re way past that now.
Your information is fucked up. You’re specifically supposed to use clumping. It’s no wonder you had problems rofl
Some people are saying that the tech has changed, but maybe 4-ish(?) years ago when I got it, they forbade clumping litter because it was hard for the machine to filter.
I had a litter robot 3 for a couple years. The internals corroded and stopped working shortly after the warranty period expired. Bought a popur and it’s been a dream ever since.
Cat Genie.
Bit expensive and you need to connect to water and a drain. Either toilet or near washing machine works.
It worked for us for about 4 years. Works very well and washes the litter each use.
I just bought a Litter Robot 4 and in the one week I’ve had it, I just emptied the bag for the first time. No scooping or anything! You can use regular 10-gallon trash bags in the compartment. No proprietary bags required, although they do sell them. The pee/poop get dropped into a compartment below the area where your kitty does its business, so there isn’t any smell.
I’d like to go on record and state my opinion that the old school manual scoop method is the best and easiest if you do it twice a day. Takes no more than 30 seconds each time and gives you the added benefit of actively monitoring your cat’s waste for any warning signs of digestive or urinary issues.
Having a dedicated garbage pail for litter purposes only right next to the box makes things super easy and dirt cheap.
I use a pet safe brand autoscooping litter box. It has disposable litter containers and reusable ones. It’s hella expensive, but worth it cause one pack of litter lasts 2-3 weeks for me. I’m also lazy, and it eliminates daily scooping.
I also have the pet safe for about 2 years, it’s been great so far. Definitely recommend the reusable tray if you want to keep costs down, the disposal trays are pretty pricey. I just dump the tray every 40-50 uses and it’s good to go. You have to use crystal litter though and that’s more expensive than clay stuff.
I got the reusable tray recently and it’s been great. I save like $30/month using it. A lot of people think I’m crazy for shelling out so much on a litter box, but it’s totally worth it. It’s so easy.
Litter robot is pretty good. I have 3 of them, and while the new ones look nicer, my older ones work better imo. You have to use a good brand of clumping litter, or it won’t work at all.
There is also Cat genie, which requires a waterline, and it uses reusable little balls instead of litter. After your cat goes to the bathroom, it self cleans the balls and flushes out the poo and pee, and then it dries itself with hot air. I would love to get one of these but they are fairly big and I just don’t have the space for it.
Squeeze your cat like a tube of toothpaste into your back garden.
i have like 9 cats using a single catlink space ship looking thing and it is a miracle basically. use clumping litter and check the tray at some regular interval depending on how many cats you have.
Can you share the product? Every single one I used was hot garbage with just two cats.
you don’t need anything fancy, but you want this general orb design. you need to get cat litter that clumps, and has pieces small enough that dry litter passes through the sieve thing. the clumping property is the key to piss.
if you have a shitload of cats, check the tray once a day. if you have one cat, maybe once a week. if your wife yells at you, just look at her sideways and then unplug it and plug it back in so that it cycles once.
