Luuup Litter Box- yay or nay?

[Brian007]

Something fishy about this thread!  There are 36 new posters arguing for and against, back and forth.  There is a comparable number of posters with only two posts.  Being skeptical about advertising techniques, it's almost as though some sort of rival marketing battle is being played out.  I find this most odd indeed.  Most odd.  

 

[kirochka]

Nay from me. (Hi, btw... first post on The Cat Site!) I adopted two 9-week-old kittens in December and had gotten a couple of Luuup boxes in advance of their arrival at my condo - I can't stand the boxes, it turns out. It's way more effort to sift and clean using those than it is for me to scoop out of a regular box, and the kittens kicked litter out of them as well. I don't have a utility sink, so I ended up having to clean them in a bathtub. Ick. I've switched to a couple of deeper boxes with Nature's Miracle disposable boxes as liners, and just keep scooping morning and night as I ended up doing with the Luuups anyway. Much happier. An expensive lesson learned.

 

[Brian007]

 
An expensive lesson learned.

The first of many, no doubt 

  At least you've discovered this marvellous site, stuffed full of wise and friendly advisors, so hopefully you'll keep expensive lessons to a minimum.  But cats are contrary creatures and you're bound to end up with a cupboard full of food, toys, and assorted paraphernalia that they simply refuse to entertain!  

Hello, by the way 

 

 

[Margret]

 
Something fishy about this thread!  There are 36 new posters arguing for and against, back and forth.  There is a comparable number of posters with only two posts.  Being skeptical about advertising techniques, it's almost as though some sort of rival marketing battle is being played out.  I find this most odd indeed.  Most odd.  

Yes, but which rival litter box manufacturer would be attacking LUUP this way?

Alternative explanation:  The LUUP got a heck of a lot of sales, many to people who put money into their Kickstarter campaign, so there are a lot of dissatisfied customers looking for a place to voice their frustration.  And, perhaps, a few satisfied customers, as well, but I note that most of the posts in favor of the LUUP have emphasized the need to buy the "right" (i.e. expensive) kind of litter and basically said "Well, if you don't like it it's because you didn't follow instructions!"

ATTENTION NEW POSTERS in this thread -- Are you here to be part of this community, or are you here merely to voice your opinion on the LUUP Litter Box?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Margret

 

[Margret]

 
Nay from me. (Hi, btw... first post on The Cat Site!) I adopted two 9-week-old kittens in December and had gotten a couple of Luuup boxes in advance of their arrival at my condo - I can't stand the boxes, it turns out. It's way more effort to sift and clean using those than it is for me to scoop out of a regular box, and the kittens kicked litter out of them as well. I don't have a utility sink, so I ended up having to clean them in a bathtub. Ick. I've switched to a couple of deeper boxes with Nature's Miracle disposable boxes as liners, and just keep scooping morning and night as I ended up doing with the Luuups anyway. Much happier. An expensive lesson learned.

We're glad to have you here.  I hope you don't limit yourself to this thread; you'll find many cat lovers here who look forward to meeting your kittens and helping you with the problems that will inevitably arise.

Margret

 

[kirochka]

Thanks, y'all. This is my first time living with cats since the late 1980s, and a lot has changed in terms of what's available (understatement of all time). And I was a kid in 1974 when someone left our girl in our driveway: This is my first time being entirely responsible for them! I was sliding down the slippery slope to adoption by getting sucked into hours watching TinyKittens Livestreams and following various cat pages on Facebook, and then I stopped by an adoption event "just to look"... and the rest is now history. 

J&KFeb2017.jpg

• kirochka
• Feb 17, 2017

 

[saucey2]

I joined this site just to warn against this product and company. If you just look at their site or on FB every review is glowing -- but they delete EVERY negative comment/review. Literally anything even questioning the product -- not just bad reviews. They've deleted hundreds if not thousands of comments but have chosen to ignore our emails requesting a refund for an unopened box. We tried one of the two we got and it's a MESS. Litter sticks to the sides and inside the slots and we use the litter they recommend. You'd have to be able to clean it with water and scrub it down every time. It's a gross mess. I could deal with losing $100 it if they weren't such a shady company. Steer clear and stick with scooping. So much easier!

 

[Brian007]

I suspect them to be fairground fraudsters, peddling false hope, and ripping people off.  It's a ridiculous idea if you think it through, but with some smoke & mirror advertising it seems seductively simple, a miracle self-cleaning cat loo - just what we've always wanted!  But, what's the point of having at least one tray to clean a day, with fiddly, pee & poo attracting holes, when you can just scoop & go?  The perfectly formed pee clumps in the video magically disappear, whereas in reality someone would still have to empty them, and clean the tray before it can be restacked underneath.  It looks a lot more work than a daily litter shovel, then removing the whole lot in a liner to change.  And, surely it's heavy to lift?  Or is it filled so shallowly that a cat cannot dig & cover, and behave in a catlike manner?  Or is the LUUUP recommended litter actually fairy dust?  And, how would multi-cats take to this wafer thin litter layer with uncovered poo?  

That there are so many glowing newbie reviews, who write & run, never to be heard of again smells like pish.  And if it smells like pish, it is pish.  I challenge LUUUP to prove me otherwise.  The only place you can purchase is directly from LUUUP at a fixed price, and, as it's crowdfunded, there is a NO REFUND policy.  Hardly a healthy competitive market but a bottomless wishing well in which to toss your money. 

Theoretically a self-cleaning litter tray is a marvellous idea, but it cannot be self-cleaning by definition, as someone still has to lift, shake, empty, rotate, and restack.  Why not keep a pig who would gobble up all the stinky pee & poo?  I expect it would be cheaper & cleaner in the long run.  And what's so hard work about a normal tray, litter, and scoop?  Is it that we feel the need to shave off precious seconds of our day to spend glued to computer screens instead?

That is my honest, unbiased, review. 

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

 
I suspect them to be fairground fraudsters, peddling false hope, and ripping people off.  It's a ridiculous idea if you think it through, but with some smoke & mirror advertising it seems seductively simple, a miracle self-cleaning cat loo - just what we've always wanted!  But, what's the point of having at least one tray to clean a day, with fiddly, pee & poo attracting holes, when you can just scoop & go?  The perfectly formed pee clumps in the video magically disappear, whereas in reality someone would still have to empty them, and clean the tray before it can be restacked underneath.  It looks a lot more work than a daily litter shovel, then removing the whole lot in a liner to change.  And, surely it's heavy to lift?  Or is it filled so shallowly that a cat cannot dig & cover, and behave in a catlike manner?  Or is the LUUUP recommended litter actually fairy dust?  And, how would multi-cats take to this wafer thin litter layer with uncovered poo?  

That there are so many glowing newbie reviews, who write & run, never to be heard of again smells like pish.  And if it smells like pish, it is pish.  I challenge LUUUP to prove me otherwise.  The only place you can purchase is directly from LUUUP at a fixed price, and, as it's crowdfunded, there is a NO REFUND policy.  Hardly a healthy competitive market but a bottomless wishing well in which to toss your money. 

Theoretically a self-cleaning litter tray is a marvellous idea, but it cannot be self-cleaning by definition, as someone still has to lift, shake, empty, rotate, and restack.  Why not keep a pig who would gobble up all the stinky pee & poo?  I expect it would be cheaper & cleaner in the long run.  And what's so hard work about a normal tray, litter, and scoop?  Is it that we feel the need to shave off precious seconds of our day to spend glued to computer screens instead?

That is my honest, unbiased, review. 

I do wish you'd told us how you really felt.



.

 

[Brian007]

 
I do wish you'd told us how you really felt.



.

Teehee, well, ahem, yes.  Please excuse my dawn-chorus rant   

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

 
Teehee, well, ahem, yes.  Please excuse my dawn-chorus rant   

Not at all - it was more than worth the price of admission simply to hear the phrase, "dawn chorus," again.

.

 

[eunomia]

 In comparison to a rolling litter box  its bigger and to a normal scoop box its deeper. you save money on kitty litter because your not as wasteful and takes 3 min max.

Pros:

-quick 

-keeps my hands from accidentally touching poop (pooring is not a problem you are cleaning it less than once a day,don't need wide container, poor at corner)

- less messy (no longer have trouble with poop being dragged outside the box nor kitty litter everywhere)

Cons:

-sometimes urine clumps get stuck to the bottom (though i have 2 cats so it may contribute)

-mandatory 1 day cleaning (number of times a day per cats using it )

- keeping bottom grille clean is essential

tips:

-dont use a non stick spray to help, doesn't work

- fill i up so you have  only a finger length of white with the blue lid on. put a plastic tote lid under it while you adjust to the new system/ or if you're on carpet.

- pick up a metal flat spatula from your local dollar store and use that to push the urine clumps (easily) off of the bottom (sides) as well as clean the grille.

if you cat is a kicker of litter may not be for you yet, but they are working on  a covered version.

Overall it's better  in practice/long term price/ time management. clean it quartly, it's healthy for your cat and good for your  strainage.

With 2 large cats, I love it.

 

[marmoto]

I wanted to update my previous post. I decided to give it one more try after reading all the positive reviews on their website. I tried putting in a lot more litter and it made a huge difference. I do occasionally have something stick but it comes out easily with a wipe, chopstick if in the slats, or bang against the side of the wastebasket.  

 

[sneakking]

Purchased 3 recently on the buy 2 get one free deal.  I had seen the kickstarter and was excited by the product, but then forgot about it.  However, an ad popped up for the Luuup, so I went to the site and saw the 3 for 2 deal and went for it.

Usually I like to check reviews before making a purchase like that, but I had gotten to the point with my litter setup to want to try anything that would improve the situation.  I figured I would use the same litter (Scoop Away clay litter) and the Luuup would fix the rest.  

After making the purchase I decided to go back and check reviews and boy did that make me nervous.  This thread is one of the first to come up along with the one revolving around the kickstarter performance.  Well, the kickstarter gives it between 1 and 2 stars out of 5, but I thought that may have just been the kickstarter portion did not go well, while the actual product might still be ok.   Reading through this thread gave me a sinking feeling though.  I had just spent over 100 dollars on a product that was going to give me more stress than I already had with my litter set up.

I have one 11 pound female cat at my office and cleaning up after her wasn't too bad.  Her pee clumps were small and even though they stuck to the bottom with the Scoop Away, they weren't hard to deal with.  The main problem was the dust.  Basically anything in the room with her open litter box had a small layer of dust over it.  It was worse for my two male cats, who are both larger, at home.  They have two boxes and they love to dig and pee in corners and on the side.  Their pee is much larger and sticks like cement.  Their litter boxes are in a closet with an access and I had to add a damp rid pouch to keep the air dry.  The dust gets out into the adjoining room and they would track the clay litter all over the hardwood floors in my house.  The home litter situation was not ideal.

After reading through this thread I decided that using the same Scoop Away litter would be a bad idea.  The World's Best Litter sounded much better even if I wasn't using the Luuup.  I liked the idea of something with less dust for me and the cats that might track less or at least not be so coarse for my hardwood floors.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the combo of the Luuup and the new litter has worked so far.  I filled the boxes to within an inch of the bottom of the green edge lid and hoped for the best.  My girl has kicked a little out of the box, so I keep a dustpan nearby.  I was a little worried the first time I picked up the top tray as the litter did not come out immediately, but after a couple shakes it started to funnel out.  There was no noticeable dust and the pee clumps were smaller.  I used a thin piece of wood to move the couple off the side of the tray.  They stayed together and easily came off, unlike when scooping the Scoop Away wet cement.  

The two boys have kicked out a little more, but a small dustpan has done the trick.  Even though they pee on the side I used the end of a paint brush to knock the clumps off gently.  I dump the waste into a bagged 5 gallon bucket at home and a double grocery bag at work, just like I used to before.

Lining up the trays is easy, simply look at the tab on sides and face it the same direction as the top of the two remaining trays.

TLDR:

I would only recommend using the Luuup with World's Best Cat Litter.  In my experience it is healthier for me and my animals due to less dust and using corn instead of clay, emptying is easier and cleaner, and tracking is less noticeable although it still happens.  It remains to be seen if I'll end up spending more on litter even though WBCL is more efficient, but the benefits outweigh the cost difference there may be

 

[lucykitty]

DO NOT BUY IT IS A BIGGER MESS THAN A REGULAR LITTER BOX

 

[kitlit]

I love the Tidy Cat Litterbox System. I use Feline Pine or Exquisite Cat (from Petsmart) and newspaper in the drawer. I scoop and sift as needed and wash the whole unit twice a week, I clean out the drawer, wash it and replace the free newspaper daily. I like the fact that my cats are not standing or digging in a dirty litterbox. I have tried other pine litters including pine horse bedding, but they break down too quickly. I have used this unit for just over 18 months with high praise from myself and the 2 cats that use it.

 

[albusplusagatha]

Do not buy this box. I thought it was an awesome idea at first (now I'm questioning my logical reasoning). It's cute, I'll give it that. But it does not stop litter tracking at all. Smaller than I thought it was going to be. Cleaning is a pain. For one thing, who has time to take apart a litter box every day?! It's so much easier to scoop. And I wind up having to use a scoop anyway because litter sometimes slips through the cracks or gets stuck. Then if you turn it the wrong way, you'll end up with litter all over the floor. It's ridiculously pricey.

When I first got it, I really was happy, but I think it was the novelty of cleaning a box a different way. Just remember you can't use a liner, so cleaning is already harder, and you have 3 separate boxes to clean, not one.

It's just not worth it.

 

[TNCatguy]

THE FIX!!!! well.....so far.

Disclaimer-I made my account to share this info. I thought it might help folks.

So I was sitting there like many of you thinking, dadgum it I wasted my money. The problem is undoubtedly that the clumps stick to the sides and bottom. Then it hit me, I saw a viral video on Facebook about a waterproofing agent. I found it, and found out that rustoleum picked it up and it comes in a 2 step spray.

It is called Neverwet. Here is the link to what I bought on Amazon. Most of the negative reviews seem to be from folks who used it on something like clothing and were not happy with the texture it gave.

During some research, I read that it achieves it's waterproofing by creating a change in the texture of the surface, not by a chemical reaction with the water. That alleviated my concerns for the health of our 2 cats.

We set up our old litter box while I sprayed each "tray" as instructed, making sure to go over the grid on the bottom each time to get the cracks, and let it dry for the 12 hours they recommend. So far (a week of use) it has turned this litter box into the best litter box on the planet. It functions for me exactly like you hoped it would when you opened it the first time and found out it was one of the worst products ever.

I will post back after more extended use. I would imagine because this stuff works as a "texture", it will eventually wear off with time and require another coating. But if it continues to work this well, I will happily re-coat it once a year.

Hope this might help some of you who are still holding on to this. I hated this piece of junk when I bought it, and you shouldn't have to "fix" something this expensive, but if you are looking for a fix this worked for me and I freakin love it now.

 

[Ifi]

I would like to begin this review by stating that I joined the Catsite forum just to share this hopefully helpful review of the Luuup litter box.


I am a mom of 5 cats and 2 dogs, so my family has tried many, many litters and litter boxes. We also live in a small space so my cats unfortunately have to share their bathroom with their mom and dad’s exercise equipment. Because of that, our boxes have to fit certain criteria: they must be able to fit under the stairs and between the bikes; they must be easy for older cats to use; and they must be able to accommodate big bodied cats (our largest is 20 lbs). My other desires for a litter box are having high walls for the one cat who loves to kick litter and for the boxes to look good since they are in plain sight.


The boxes that worked well in the past are the IRIS Open Top cat litter box (). At that time we also used pine litter because it has less tracking and cheap price. However, the cats did not prefer that litter and they (or one of them) started peeing on the litter mat much to my horror. The box itself is ok. Solid. It is a great price and comes with a scooper. My high kicker still could manage to get litter out of the box. She loves to play with the litter…but that topic is neither here nor there. Also, even though I used liners, the boxes would get pretty gross and hard to clean. *Discloser: I’m lazy, very lazy. If I don’t have to clean the boxes every day, I don’t…I KNOW, I KNOW.

Anyhow, I found myself replacing the boxes and decided to try a new litter box system. BAD IDEA. I got the Arm & Hammer Hooded Cat Pan () from my local Pet Supplies Plus. They looked decent and Pet Supplies had them at a cheaper price. Also, they fit in our space. I thought, finally a solution to my problems! Unfortunately, the cats disagreed. Only one of the cats would go in it with the door down. The others began their war against the new boxes. Some one started throwing poop out of their boxes; another continued to pee on their litter mats. My husband and I were determined to make this work. We even thought about trying putting a camera in their room to find out who the criminal/s is/are. We still had the two of the old boxes out and the cats mainly used those. I read that some cats do not like the claustrophobic nature of the hooded boxes, so I flipped the doors of the boxes open. However after weeks of picking up poops and cleaning mats, I thought about changing our system again. I was (and still am) interested in the ModKat flip litter boxes (Flip Litter Box), but they were too expensive with the box and the purchase of their special liners. In the end, I broke down and brought out the Luuup box that my mom gave me.


The first time I tried the Luuup box, it just did not work with our pine litter. However, I was getting tired of the dust that the pine litter created after a while and the smell it created. After cat sitting my friend’s cats, I noticed her place was relatively litter-free and her boxes didn’t smell. She uses World’s Best, so I decided to switch back to that litter. After reading numerous reviews of the Luuup box(from their own site), I noticed World’s Best Cat Litter is their recommended litter. Also, I purchased new litter mats since the ones I used did not do a good job of trapping the litter and they smelled like pee. I now use iPrimio Cat Litter Trapper (), which is very expensive, but I can not recommend highly enough. It has large holes to trap the litter and you can put a pee pad under the first layer if you cat has taken to peeing on mats. So far, it’s MAGICAL.


The first few days with the Luuup boxes were disastrous. I completely forgot that you had to turn the trays the first time and then for a while after I discovered you have to clean the trays every time to shift the trays so the holes seal up correctly and you don’t get a slow but steady steam of precious litter escaping through the bottom. Also, the boxes did not work as advertised. A lot of the pee would cake on the bottom and I would have to use the scooper to scrap it off. Litter would get in between the holes, so I would have to pry it out. Now, I’m sure, Reader, you must be thinking, “This sounds like a nightmare and why would someone voluntary put themselves though this?!?!” Well, Reader, lo and behold, my precious jerk cats LOVE the damn box.

My current set up still consists on two of the Arm and Hammer boxes, one IRIS box, and two Luuup boxes.


Also, I noticed that cleaning the boxes is pretty easy. All I have to do is take a paper towel and wipe the trays. Thanks to this forum, I also discovered that using a chopstick to pry the litter in between the holes, is extremely helpful.


After reading all the reviews from this forum, I also learned I was putting too little litter in the boxes. While surfing the web, I stumbled upon The Wirecutter’s Best Cat Litter recommendation (The Best Cat Litter), Dr. Elsey’s Ultra and decided to give it a try. Thus began the Great Litter Box Experiment of 2017.


My not-so-scientific experiment was too fill both boxes with 4 inches of litter and one of the Luuup boxes with World Best Cat Litter and the other box with Dr. Elsey’s litter.

World’s Best

Dr. Elsey’s Ultra

Used boxes.


My conclusions showed that adding more litter definitely helped with less caking, however it did not eliminate it.

Putting 4 inches of Dr. Elsey, tuned out to be an awful lot of litter and it was super heavy. While, putting the same amount was lighter with World’s Best. They both caked, but with World’s Best, I just had to knock it in the trash bag and it all came out. I think with Dr. Elsey’s, I had to use the scooper.

Dr. Elsey’s. None of it caked at the bottom, which is great.

World’s Best. This did cake on the bottom, but didn’t have to use a chopstick to pry it out.

Easy clean with a paper towel.


So, while both did cake, it did not cake as much as before. World’s Best, in this trail seemed to work between for the Luuup boxes. The cats, however, preferred Dr. Elsey’s Ultra so I will continue to use it for other boxes.

The only other problem is with so much litter in the boxes, there was a fair amount of litter outside them. My amazing mats collected a lot of the litter, so there was not a lot outside the mats, but definitely enough to be annoying.

Irwin Peppermint admiring his work.

Litter every where.

More litter fun!


I think next time I will try using slightly less litter, maybe 3 inches and see if the results are similar.


Pros:

· With the added litter it makes the clean up faster than before

· My cats like it (big enough and low enough for them

· It’s a stylish box

· Trays are made out of easy to clean material

Cons:

· Uses a lot of litter

· Doesn’t work as advertised (still cakes)

· Litter everywhere

My rating for the Luuup box is 7/10 stars. It is not the perfect box, but I will buy more.