Wirecutter says automated litter trays are all not worth it

[Margot Lane]

Was just reading in The NY Times that not one automated self cleaning kitty litter tray is worth buying! Usually they at least recommend one or two. There go my fantasies of never having to scoop again! O well.

 

[qtpidani]

I have a Litter Robot that I got in Sept 2020. In Oct 2020 I bought a second one because it was a game changer for me. The 2nd one I got was refurbished so I saved $50'ish, but it does get a pinch error fairly regularly. I need to reach out to the company about it, but I'm just lazy.

Honestly, after having even just 1 Litter Robot, I couldn't imagine ever going back to not having one. I currently have 4 cats and 2 Litter Robots, but I do keep 2 "backup" boxes for when we travel. I am caring for a stray and if I can bring her in (need to convince the hubs but it will be a tough sell), I will invest in a 3rd, that's how much I love mine

 

[vansX2]

Was just reading in The NY Times that not one automated self cleaning kitty litter tray is worth buying! Usually they at least recommend one or two. There go my fantasies of never having to scoop again! O well.

I had once considered a self cleaning Litter Box. But I felt they were just too expensive. I still have 2 functional hands to scoop poop. LoL

 

[Margot Lane]

I have a Litter Robot that I got in Sept 2020. In Oct 2020 I bought a second one because it was a game changer for me. The 2nd one I got was refurbished so I saved $50'ish, but it does get a pinch error fairly regularly. I need to reach out to the company about it, but I'm just lazy.

Honestly, after having even just 1 Litter Robot, I couldn't imagine ever going back to not having one. I currently have 4 cats and 2 Litter Robots, but I do keep 2 "backup" boxes for when we travel. I am caring for a stray and if I can bring her in (need to convince the hubs but it will be a tough sell), I will invest in a 3rd, that's how much I love mine

Wow, really! That’s good intel too! Maybe you should write to Wirecutter and let them know! Perhaps they missed reviewing one. I think I’ll go on scooping, just b/c my old cat totally snubbed his catnip banana and water fountain. If he snubbed his expensive poop robot, I don’t think I could live w/ myself.

 

[Willowy]

I can see why they don't review well. They have their problems, yeah. But I bought a couple of Littermaids during the Christmas sales and I (and the cats) enjoy them so far. They aren't the only litterboxes, of course, but the cats like having a couple that are always freshly scooped. I put a grocery bag in the containers so I don't use very many of those (replace them once a week), and change it every night. So. . .they aren't perfect. But I like mine.

 

[Maurey]

I like my litter systems (similar to Purina tidycats breeze). My cats wee more than poo, so it’s a lot less upkeep while being cheaper than both clumping litter, in general, and an automated litter system. Also let’s me keep track of litterbox health in a more feasible way than an autobox ever would. I feel like all the time you save scooping a box with something like the litter robot you’d later spend on cleaning it, to boot.

 

[Willowy]

I don't know about the Litter Robot, but Littermaid seems fairly straightforward. I haven't fully dismantled them for a full cleaning, but the tray part detaches and is as easily washed as any litterbox.

I bought a Cat Genie off Marketplace a couple years ago but because it needs to be hooked up to plumbing I haven't attempted it yet and it's still in storage .

 

[daftcat75]

I had an early Littermaid and then refreshed it a number of years ago. They didn’t learn their lesson between models. There were seams between the top and bottom half of the box that somehow always attracted cat pee leaking out of the box. The scooping mechanism kicked up at least as much as the cat. The receptacle didn’t catch all the shoveled waste. The pan was too small and shallow for the cat. The cat (Cabbie and/or Krista—had it for two different cats with same issues) would walk in and pee out the front because she didn’t have room enough to turn around or squat down in a corner (preferred mode for both cats) in such a small pan. There are after market hacks like a pee guard that the cat had to step over to get into the box. And yes, the entire box including both pee soaked seams and the bottom had to be taken apart and cleaned regularly. After all, the box often sat in pee soaked pee pads trading one problem for another. One week while Krista was in the hospital for teeth, ears, and gut (a doozy of a stay!), I finally got rid of the Littermaid and bought two standard large size boxes to make it easier for my now wobbly cat when she came home. It’s been sooo much easier simply to scoop often than to bother with all the Littermaid flaws and hassles. I find the Litter Genie (an “airtight” waste sausage maker) makes frequent scooping a breeze as it doesn’t mean frequent trips to the dumpster. And when it comes time to give the litter tray a good cleaning, I have duplicates of my trays so I can fill and deploy a fresh clean box in an instant and clean the old box on my own time. Cat’s bathroom is never out of service. At the end of the day, I spend far less time and hassle with low tech redundancy and a Litter Genie than the Littermaids ever saved me.

I do have a large litterbox enclosure. But I took the front maintenance door off it a long time ago. It’s much bigger than a hooded litterbox and lets me store cat stuff on top of it like litter and barf vacuums and extra litter.

 

[Margot Lane]

This is all good intel, thank you all! At least we have (self cleaning) cats that are tidy enough in of themselves that they want to go somewhere, not anywhere!

 

[ladytimedramon]

I have 2 of the Petsafe Scoopfree litterboxes and I love them. My back, hips, and knees are having problems and bending to scoop daily is even a lot. Every 2 weeks I change out the litter trays (when I had 1 cat and 1 box I could do 3 weeks). If I want to check for #2 issues I can lift up the lid at the end to see if it hasn't scooped. To clean I flip the unit up, wipe the inside and the rake (sometimes I pretreat while I'm doing the rest), close the old tray and dump, put down new tray, put the unit back on top. I haven't timed it.

This works for me, especially since one of my kitties had paw chewing issues on other litters. When I switched her to the crystal litter in the scoopfree, her paw chewing went down.

The biggest problem is the cost of the litter. I watch for when places have 20-25% off discounts, which helps. Yes I could get a reusable tray and use a cheaper crystal litter, but a big part of this for me is the ability to just close the box and toss it. Plus Delilah isn't chewing her paws so much that you could see the inflammation by how pink they were under her white fur. 2 big pluses for me

 

[Margot Lane]

I’d be willing to be that the Wirecutter review person was young and limber, too. Sure am learning a lot here.

 

[Mikewith3cats]

We have been using our litter robot for about a year and we love it. We have three indoor-only cats and were previously maintaining two regular litter pans a couple times a day. They all adapted to the robot within a week, and life has been good. It has to be emptied about every four or five days, and not having any odors was a surprise bonus.

 

[vansX2]

We have been using our litter robot for about a year and we love it. We have three indoor-only cats and were previously maintaining two regular litter pans a couple times a day. They all adapted to the robot within a week, and life has been good. It has to be emptied about every four or five days, and not having any odors was a surprise bonus.

What brand are you using?

 

[Willowy]

Litter Robot is a brand .

Litter-Robot 3 Connect

 

[Mikewith3cats]

We are using a Litter-Robot 3 connect. We had tried a litter-maid a couple of years ago, but we still had to empty it daily or more. When it broke, we went back to regular litter-pans. I had some doubts about getting another automatic litter box, but I'm glad we did.

 

[vansX2]

Litter Robot is a brand .

Litter-Robot 3 Connect

This is a little pricey. $549. Plus $32.99 for 50 liners and $50.00 for a 3yr. Extended warranty. Actually the warranty isn't a bad deal.

 

[Mikewith3cats]

This is a little pricey. $549. Plus $32.99 for 50 liners and $50.00 for a 3yr. Extended warranty. Actually the warranty isn't a bad deal.

Yeah, the price tag was definitely a long discussion between me and my wife. Especially after the bitter memories of the litter-maid. I took some convincing, and definitely got the extended warranty. The two rolls of liners probably won't be a repeat purchase, (I'm certain that there is a value brand that will work), but we still have quite a few to go.

 

[vansX2]

Yeah, the price tag was definitely a long discussion between me and my wife. Especially after the bitter memories of the litter-maid. I took some convincing, and definitely got the extended warranty. The two rolls of liners probably won't be a repeat purchase, (I'm certain that there is a value brand that will work), but we still have quite a few to go.

If I did do such a purchase, I probably wouldn't discuss it with the wife. As she won't clean the Litter boxes anyway. I'm the one whom literally pays for all the Cat supplies anyway. I'll do some thorough research before making any decision.

 

[Meowmee]

I had a litter robot, the early one, but it had its problems. It was good at first- I bought it for my Wizard because he peed a lot I didn’t need to monitor his peeing because I already knew that. You can still monitor though because you’re cleaning out the tray with all the poop and pee.

I have a lot of back problems and chronic pain so it is really hard on me doing a lot of scooping etc.

But it kept getting dirty and then it would get stuck and it would have all sorts of problems and I had to clean it I didn’t like emptying the tray out it was very smelly at one point they actually replaced the entire thing for me I think because it had computer problems.

I heard the newer one is better so I am thinking about it again now maybe I don’t know.

Then I tried the Cat Genie and Wizard adapted to it pretty well I think he liked it better than the Litter Robot. It did have some problems getting clogged up and somehow we worked those out but what I ended up doing was I scooped out the poop and let it just take care of the P.
Then Wizard passed away and eventually I adopted Quinn six months later. Sybil never really used Cat Genie very much and she had her own box upstairs.

Quinn had a regular box in my bedroom and he was too young to use the CG at first so I set up a regular box for him in the garage eventually. In order to get him to use the CG I had to take away the other box though.

Fast forward I took Merlin in and he needed a regular litter box for quite a while in the studio. Eventually I set up a box in the garage when he came into the house and I had hoped to get him and Quinn to use the CG eventually but a lot of other stuff happened and I never did that.

Quinn stopped using the CG and started using Merlin’s box. I am not sure how to get them to use the CG. I’m afraid to take the other box away completely because they may have accidents and I could have a revolt on my hands etc.

Now there is another box with clay litter which I am allergic to in the studio for Xena. The studio door cat door is open now and they are all coming in and out and all three cats are using Zena’s box in the studio.

I have never seen this before with three cats use the same box- usually I would have at least two or three. Sybil liked to use her own box and she would only use it for poop and she had to have wee pads in multiple boxes all over the house for p.

I don’t know why they are all using the same box is this some type of a dominance thing?

Anyway the best situation was the CG. I didn’t have to constantly scoop the pee anymore, it cleaned itself and I just scooped the poop and flushed it down the toilet. I just had to keep an eye on it and clean it out properly with the special cartridge to make sure it would have no clogs/ blockages in the tubes etc.

The new design of that one is much better because if you get a blockage you can detach the hose from the cat litter portion part which you can’t do on mine which makes it almost impossible to clean out the hose if clogged.

I was on the phone with CG company a lot though and it was kind of a pain in the neck but otherwise it really did help my back problems so I hope to try it again one day even if we still have a regular box but it seems like I have to get rid of the regular one in order to really get them to use it again. One woman working their was awful but there were others who were helpful. I think they replaced the computer part of mine too because I eventually proved to them there was some type of computer error going on.

When Angie was a kitten I tried to train her to use the toilet and I got her up to the point where there was a hole in the part on the toilet but she just got so worried about pooping so I just let her go back to using the box instead.

I had hoped to train Quinn but it was really hard with everything going on in our household. I tried for a couple of weeks with the city kitty this time but people kept closing the door etc. I think he could probably do it because he shows a lot of interest in the toilet.

Another thing I started using is the litter genie. This really helped me a lot- you just scoop the poop and pee, put it into the Litter Genie and you can leave it there for like a week and empty it to put it right in the garbage outside.

It keeps the odor down because everything is enclosed in a plastic bag. Eventually I got the diaper genie pail because it had a foot step to open it which was easier for me. It’s pretty good and the bags inside are perfumed which I normally do not like but they do help to conceal any odor that builds up, it’s totally enclosed as well.

The drawback is that it’s heavy- the bag with all the poop and pee etc., it is some work, and you have to clean it out a bit when you do it. But you don’t have to go outside several times a day to bring poop and pee out to the garbage etc. I have never had much luck with flushing Litter down the toilet but I used to flush the poop down.