Among my friends, I'm a cat expert. I've worked rescue and had up to 15 cats at a time, so I am a Litter Guru. I have a technical background, so to me every other automatic litter box had glaring flaws (the Litter Maid and its ilk try to duplicate a human action...wrong approach) or asks the cat to do something not in its instinctive repertoire (like whizzing on ceramic pellets.) Litter works in the first place because it duplicates loose earth, which cats use in the wild.
When a friend got two kittens, she came to me. Loved the cats, hated doing the litter. So she asked me what was the best solution, and I started researching. I found the Litter Robot, and one look at the website told me IT WOULD WORK.
I spoke to the famous Lauren in Customer Service, who answered all my questions, told me she had large cats who used it all the time, and there was a refurbished one in stock! I grabbed my Visa card and went for it right then and there. (There would be a great video moment if I had immortalized me coming into the living room to tell Dear Husband I had just bought an automatic litter box over the Internet.) Arrived in about a week. It comes with a thirty day guarantee. I figured I could persuade all three of them, the cats and the husband, in that time. (Other reviews have covered assembly and dimensions so well I won't go into that much here.)
There's some adjustments to be made to accommodate the LR. First of all, it's big. Imagine two ordinary litter boxes, side by side, to imagine the footprint...and then go up about thirty inches. There's no sliding this baby into a cabinet. However, it does operate within its own space, by which I mean if you can fit it somewhere, you don't need to give it extra space to operate, and the cat fits into it, so you don't need to worry about headroom for the cat. The main reason anyone hides a litter box is so people don't have to see a used box, and the LR takes care of that by having all the action inside of it, and by taking the clumps away seven minutes after use. So it effectively combines the litter box/cabinet arrangement by itself.
Our old box was an arrangement of three interlocking screens no bigger than an ordinary litter box. Lift the top one and it screens out the clumps. Then flip it around and put it back under, and the clean litter is still there for next time. It's more efficient than hunting around with a scoop, but if you fill it so the clumps don't clog up the screens, there's more litter on the floor. It would fit under the curve of our old fashioned tub, but because it was in the humid bathroom, litter on the floor turned into clumps that had to be scraped up. So it was a constant mess-in-the-making that took up a chunk of my time every day. But the LR wouldn't fit in the bathroom.
The only other room in our apartment with a tile floor was the kitchen, and Dear Husband had a natural objection to a litter box in the kitchen. Usually, so would I, but the self-enclosed system makes it a different proposition. Since the clumps are in the drawer in a plastic bag, and there's not much scatter from our two cats, the LR is no more objectionable than the lidded kitchen garbage can. Also, there was an outlet nearby, and the LR does need one.
It makes about as much noise as a microwave. Since our apartment is in an old house with wonky wiring, my husband was concerned about the power it would draw, but that, with some experimenting, turned out to be not much, so we eventually left it on all the time.
Our downstairs neighbor is a very nice, very DAY person, but once she knew what it was, it didn't bother her either. Our bedroom is right next to the kitchen, and they do trip it at night, but after the first night I don't hear it at all. (That first night I did lay there, thinking...Gee, that's the sound of me NOT scooping litter. It was very Zen, and I went right back to sleep.)
I think a nice innovation would be a mode that would allow for manual operation while it's still plugged in, and a button to activate it. This would cover its use by kittens and other cats too small to easily trip the switch. Ours was set by the factory to a five pound limit, which fits our smaller cat, so we haven't changed it, but users can adjust the sensitivity if needed.
It was a very easy assembly, just plug in the base, put the ball on top and line it up, and then pour in the litter. That first evening we just left it sitting there, and both cats would come to me and stare at me, and then we would all go into the kitchen, I'd do my little spiel (The litter will always be clean! We will all be so happy!) and they would go off and brood and come back to ask again, what the heck is this thing?
Smokepuff is timid and dim. (We love him dearly. That's just the facts.) I knew he wouldn't use the new box while the old box was still around. So I took away the old litter box and cleaned it up, and then put it in front of the LR with old soda bottles and catalogs in it (things that must not be whizzed on!) and when Smokepuff went in search of his litter box, things fell into place in his single-synapse head. Since he only weighs 5 pounds, he went in the LR, found it roomy and nice, and used it. (Any mother seeing the first token in the potty chair knows how I felt spying the first clump inside! For this first few days I would trip it manually, so Smokepuff wouldn't know that it worked without me being there.)
James Bond is a 15 pound Norwegian Forest Cat, and that was a different story. He's smart, and knew I wanted him to use it, but Caution is his middle name. The LR bore a suspicious resemblance, with its blinking lights and black plastic body, to stereo equipment, and he knew he wasn't supposed to whiz in the stereo. Also, he's a percher. At his size, there isn't room for his usual upright posture inside the dome. I spent most of a day luring him into it with treats, (you can stick your hand into the LR through one of the litter pouring holes, and hold it suspended inside the dome,) but he would turn around, give me a plaintive look and come out. Then he started pawing at the houseplants with significant looks on his face (don't make me do this...) so I broke down and put the old litter box back into place. Smokepuff didn't backtrack...he liked the always clean litter and the privacy in the LR.
As the thirty day deadline approached, Mr. Bond was still not using it. But since my litter chores had been cut in half (Dear Husband has an auto-immune illness that precludes him doing litter duty) I decided to keep it, since any new cats would learn from scratch, and if all else failed, we could teach Mr. Bond to use the toilet.
We had actually bought a bowl that would fit in the toilet...when I spied Mr. Bond using the LR! He'd figured out that if he sticks his head out the door it would work for him. He had been lured in by the same things that kept Smokepuff using it...the constantly-clean litter...the privacy...and the apparent safety, since Smokepuff hadn't been whirled around, eaten, or had his limbs exchanged with fly parts.
We also gradually switched over to leaving it on all the time. Once the cat exits the LR, by stepping on the broad ledge one pulls out to get at the litter drawer, a red light goes on to show it is in the seven minute countdown. If another cat enters during that time, it resets to countdown again. When the time is up, it goes through its rolling, sifting routine and comes back to base.
Mr. Bond is very interested in technology, and early in the process he came to us and wanted us to study the LR. DH and Mr. Bond and I stared at it, until I said, "He's noticed the green light is on, even when we're not here."
DH said, "Oh, come on. He's keeping track of the lights?"
I said, "Watch." I unplugged the LR, the light went off, and Mr. Bond went into the litter. We discreetly withdrew to the hallway.
I said, "So we have to explain the way the lights work."
DH said, "I suppose I could stick some electrical tape over the lights..."
I said, "And you think he won't notice that, too? He'll think we're up to something." When Mr. Bond rejoined us in the hallway, we all went into the kitchen, and I showed him, "Look, the red light is on now. That means it's going to clean it up, watch." And we did stand there and watch. "See, now it's all cleaned up again. Isn't that great?"
Mr. Bond was reassured. Even Smokepuff has completely acclimated to the LR's action. We've seen him stop it during the rolling action, by putting his front paws on the step, and then reach in to cover the clumps that have become visible by the LR's cleaning cycle. He eventually realized that if he's patient, the LR will take his carefully covered clumps away by itself.
We have all been very pleased ever since. It's the cleanest option I've ever had: much less scatter, NO odor, a few minutes to change bags twice a week, dump the mat in front, and add a bit of litter. The drawer is designed to use 13 gallon trash bags, so it's cheap to maintain and offers a good-sized capacity, another advantage over competing systems. I haven't had any problems with the dome getting dirty, so I just go over it with some dilute cleaner now and then. The black plastic does show the dust from the litter more than the bone color would.
We've also cut our litter purchases almost in half, since only the clumps get discarded, and the screening action in the LR doesn't break them up. I've settled on the Arm & Hammer, unscented, for consistent good performance. When I go away, Dear Husband can change the bags without touching the dirty litter. And guests love to see it in action, so it is also a conversation piece.
My friend took my alternative, cheaper suggestion...she bought an Omega Paw (flip an enclosed box over, flip it back, empty the drawer) for a tenth of the price. Which worked fine...until it broke. It's over a year later and I'm still Spartacus! (Freed from litter slavery.)
The only possible reason someone might hesitate is the price. Here's the way I look at it: a very conservative estimate, with two cats, would peg the LR's life at five years. I have good reason to believe that's a low estimate: the machine's motor doesn't get overloaded by grinding away at stuck clumps, you take the dome off for cleaning so the electrical components don't get wet, and the type of plastic is a non-brittle, heavy duty element that doesn't get stressed. (All parts that break in other types of automatic litter devices.) Add in the considerable litter savings.
That's less than $5 a month for all of us to have a constantly clean, odor free, discreet litter box with a minimum of cleanup by humans.
Would you pay someone $5 a month to come in and clean your litter box every time the cat used it?
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