Litter-Robot automated kitty litter cleaner

We all know the future isn't really about technology; in the end it's all about spandex, automation, white bulbous plastic, and a few whooshing noises here or there. Well, along those lines we have the Litter-Robot, an automated litter sifter that disposes of the "clumps" 7 minutes after your cat does its business and leaves. It works by rotating the round part of the unit until everything is separated by the sifting screen, allowing the colored golf balls kitty doo-doo to land nice and neat into a garbage bag that sits in a drawer in the bottom, leaving the kitty litter clean and you labor free. We just hope your cat doesn't fall prey to the belief that her litter box could turn into a swirling vortex of doom at any time and end up avoiding the place altogether.

[wtf @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

uhm, vaguely familiar? http://www.littermaid.com/

[dreampc @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Hmmm...

Just guessing here, but I'd say that cat needs to lay off the Skittles.

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Dude,

Where do you think Skittles COME FROM????

[michael @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

re #1: Yes, the littermaid is a competitior but if you've ever owned a littermaid you'd know they simply don't work (unless your idea of fun is cleaning cat feces off a plastic rake). According to the forums I've read, there are plenty of former littermaid (and other automated litter system) users who are very happy with this .

I just won't be one anytime soon, since I bought my (no longer used) littermaid for $60 and this one goes for about $350, available direct from manufacturer only...

It is a technical innovation, btw - it works on a completely different principal than all the other automated cleaners out there - one that seems infinitely easier to automate...

[ButchCivic @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

This is very, VERY old news. I've been in the pet industry for ten years. I saw it in a magazine about four or five years ago. The Littermaid is better and less expensive.

[Nintendo Gal @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

No, this is no where near the quality of the Littermaid. Litter Robot has been around for awhile and is much higher quality.

[Tim Bird @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

How do you train the cat in the first place? and what if he starts sh*tting in the washing machine by mistake?!

[jr @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

IMHO automated litter machines will never work. Might get rid of poop, but the clumping litter will gunk up the machine eventually.

Regardless of what we've tried - my cat pees on the walls of the device, and the litter starts to clump and stick to the device. Eventually clogging it up and creating a difficult (and disgusting) mess to clean. I'd much rather just do it the old fashioned way and clean the box regularly...

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

The Littermaid is great if your cats aren't retarded. I had a LitterMaid and two cats (lost them in a custody battle) and here are the problems:

1. Cats were terrified of the front of the LM so they jumped out of it, causing a huge mess of kitty litter around the unit.

2. It's SO LOUD and it's also underpowered so you can really hear the motor strain and the excessive gear lash of the bar as it churns through the litter.

3. Unless your cat pees in the center of the litter you will be cleaning crusted pee off the sides of the pan because the bar can't reach the extreme left or right side walls.

4. When the cats bury their litter, if they dig towards the front it goes between the lid and the top of the "poo hopper" and when the hopper tips up, a pile of litter starts to form in front of the machine.

5. Having a battery compartment is a joke because $10 worth of D cell batteries will last a couple days, tops. This thing needs a car battery attached to it.

6. It always sounds like it's going to break down any second because of the straining, whining and scraping noises it makes - even when brand new. You can barely hear it when there is no litter in the pan to provide resistance but as soon as litter (and doo) is put in - you know when it's been 10 minutes after the last visit!

I will say that it did its job and did it fairly well though. After a month or two we barely paid any attention to it except to clean it regularly and un-jam it on occasion.

This litter box seems to be the same thing as the (much cheaper) "roll it over and the poo gets trapped in a hopper" kind but it does it automatically. I don't know that I would buy another electric litterbox but I would definitely check this one out because it seems a little less prone to my above points.

[TankSlappa @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Just install a cat-flap and teach moggy to cr*p in next door's garden. An age old solution, tried and tested.

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Not to sound too much like a marketing flack, but I've owned one for about 3 months now and it works great -- just empty it out every few days. No problems with clogging, etc. The only issues are 1) it's a bit noisy -- you don't want it in the next room at 2 am -- and 2) one of my cats really, really wants to get in it while it's upside down. An auto-shutoff senses her weight, though, and stops its rotation.

[gadgeTT @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Put me down as another gadget freak who is a happy owner of the Litter Robot and a convert from the Littermaid. The comment above about Littermaid owners having to clean dried cat poo off plastic rakes is sooo true! In the 3 months we used the Littermaid, the rake continuously got stuck in its side tracks and slingshot cat poo across the room. We've owned the LitterRobot for about 6 months and have had absolutely zero issues with it. It just works. Well worth the price difference- especially for those of us on the bleeding edge(tm) anyway.

[icerabbit @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Having owned a littermaid because we were going on a trip: it doesn't work the way it should. It is underpowered to rake stuff out, should be quieter, but worst of all that rake frequently clogs. Cleaning the rake is a true dirty job as it doesn't detach :( Maybe if it would rake after a half hour or an hour at least, it could avoid most of that mess on the rake. Ditto on the cats jumping out - not walking out :)

[Hummeriah @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

HERE IT IS:

The solution to the littermaid/litter-robot conundrum is...

Get a dog!

[PixelBrat.com @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I agree that these are very much old news. If you want a cheaper alternative to one of these but similar concept you should try the Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter Box. (do a search on Amazon) Now, admittedly, these are not "self-cleaning" in the sense that they are automated like the Littermaid as they do require you to manually roll the unit over to extract the clumps. However, they work 10 times better and for much less dough! I've owned and trashed several Littermaids and currently have the Petmate Purrforma Plus and they both suck!

The Omega is a fraction of the cost at about $45 (for the large) and requires no de-pooping of grates like the others. You just manually roll it over and the good litter is sifted while the clumps are caught in a drawer. You empty the drawer and your done. Best litter boxes I've ever owned. And no, I don't work for them or own any stock, just a satisfied customer of theirs. Again, I realize these are not robotically automated but after scraping poop off of the grates of the automated kind a few thousand times, you begin to see that sometimes a simple design is sometimes better.

[Aaron Sher @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Yes, not even vaguely new, but...

I've had several LitterMaids, and now I've got a Litter Robot. There's no comparison. LitterMaid is crap (so to speak :-)), they don't work well even when they're new, and they die quickly. The Litter Robot is pretty nearly infallible and it's very robust.

The problem with the LitterMaid (other than the cheap construction and lousy design) is that the mechanism is in the same space as the litter and the cat waste, so naturally it gets all crusted up and stops working. The Litter Robot puts the mechanism *outside* the ball, so it doesn't have that kind of problem.

Bottom line - expensive, but worth it.

[robotrock @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

You can always get a manually operated version for 25 bucks..

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441775494&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302033739&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023690&bmUID=1128520602052

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

pixelbrat - I suppose you could purchase a small robot to turn over the litter box on schedule.

[DG @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

My girlfriend is somewhat successfully training our cat to use the toilet. So far, he'll pee and poop on a bowl inside of the commode, which is just a quick dumb down the drain. The cat is surprisingly agreeable to this, but still paws at the seat to "bury" his mess. I'd recommend this solution over $350 super-litter-box.

[Bootes @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Tim Bird so far with the 3 cats I've had you don't. Just show them the litter box, and they'll use it from then on.

[Tucker @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

DG - I'd be kind of worried about the "somewhat" there... What happens on the occasions when the cat ISN'T successful? And is the next step teaching the cat to flush, like in Meet The Parents?

[mike c @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I bought a Littermaid and ended up returning it after a few weeks. The rake was always getting full of dried clumps and if there was too much it wouldn't work until I cleaned it. It also threw litter & clumps outside the box. With two cats I still had to clean it every day, and emptying the waste container was more messy than cleaning a regular litterbox.

Worst of all, one of my cats was *still* pooping outside it, which is why I tried it in the first place.

[fusion75 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I have a litermaid and it works great. Just make sure you dont overfill it you only have to put 2 cups of litter in when ever its running low. Also I set mine on top of a box and put a waste basket with a garbage bag in it to catch the poop makes clean up really quick.

[Ryan gardner @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Does this look like the escape pod to a space ship to anyone else?

[thaibruin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I bought a littermaid that worked great for about 3 months then the rake just STOPPED raking. It would get 2/10s of the way across, then stop for no reason and return back to it's normal position. I ended up having to hand rake my cat's poop 75% of the time.

Then I found a person selling his litterrobot on craigslist for $150 and bought it immediately knowing how much I'm saving and how much people loved it. And after having it for 6 months now... it's honestly a Godsend. IT's worked flawlessly and my cat (1.5yrs old) took to it rather quickly.

He was very startled at first, but as long as you mix in the litter from the old box in, he'll know what it's for. If you have the money and you hate poop, BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT.

[Jon Bardin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I can't be the only one who thought of Schr?ger's cat...

[Steve @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

$150 is a little pricey, but a new one is $329!!!

I spent $35 six years ago for a very large box and scooper and my cats are more than happy with me scooping about every 5-6 days. I can't image why I'd want to spend over $300 more for something that scoops for me, unless it would also flush it down the toilet automatically -- that would be worth it.

[Ali @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

FYI, I've been reading a lot lately about the Litter Robot; also came across another new product in this same vein, the "Litter Revolution" - http://litterrevolution.com/products.html#

[Andrew @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I have had one of these for a few months and it works great. It is certainly more expensive that the Littermaid, which I had, but it works far better. I have 3 cats so a regular litter box would have to be cleaned every other day, and the LM is just not robust enough to do the job, and their game is to get you to buy those refills (which crack and break anyway). This uses plastic grocery bags, which you probably own a ton of like I do. Thumbs up. -e.

[tracy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

my cat is too fat to fit in there

[Oolon Coluphid @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

#1: Litter Maids suck! They always get stuck on something and end up not working at all

[PiratePete @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

LOL OMG I can't believe I'm going to talk about my Littermaid experiences..
Well I can say that it truly does not work as well as indicated. The thing was so loud when it raked the litter. Wouldn't you know too my cat actually liked watch it go back and forth and quickly found out that it would run soon after coming out of it. He would sit there watch it move back and fourth and then get back in and out again (doing nothing) just to watch it move again. IT DROVE THE FAMILY CRAZY!! Had to power it off, just turning it on when the litter needed to be raked.
The rake would also jam constantly and when it did it would just keep going back and forth over and over again until it just errored out.
There was no way to control the delay time when it raked. The clumps would still be wet and if he did a wet #2 it would just crush it up and make a nasty, sticky, stinky mess. It flung litter all over the place and the refill trays cost $42 bucks (CAD) a box!!
I still don't get how the litter robot works :( It spins and the clumps just drop into the tray? Doesn't a lot of the litter fall out into the tray too?

[nonstatic @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

another very satisfied customer here. i pushed for this when i moved in w/ my gf whose own place always smelled like cat piss. i think it saved our relationship. her cat started using it right away.

we have had issues with it stopping midway through the cycle but i pinned the problem down to having a crooked floor. once i put some cardboard under one of the legs, smooth sailing. we don't have to touch that thing for a week at a time. best invention evar.

[Jolly Roger @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Yeah, I'm another ex-LitterMaid current LitterRobot owner.

I have two cats, and they always use the same corner. This lead to the Littermaid totally filling up one corner of the waste bin and then the lid wouldn't close. Or the rake skewering a catpoop and using it as a brown crayola along the bottom of the tray. Nasty!

The LitterRobot is a nifty design, but horribly cheap construction. Lots of exposed rivets on the inside, and you can't easily disassemble the dome to clean.

My main complaints are that it doesn't hold very much litter, and that since my cats still prefer only one corner, the waste bin fills up in one spot. The problem is that when it gets high enough, the solids-dumping door then tries to slice through the tall pile of waste in the bin. If it fails, the door stays stuck open with waste while it rotates back; if it succeeds, the freshly decapitated waste pile then draws a stinky stripe all the way around the dome.

The rounded profile means that if the litter level gets low, pee backsplatter is guaranteed to hit your cats' foot. In clumping litter. There have been a couple nights where I was visited in the bed by the gritty kitty nutty-footed popsicle. Ick.

In other words, it punishes you severely if you neglect it. Cleaning it is horrible.

It works well if you religiously empty the bin, and its nice that it uses any old plastic bag - we use grocery bags from the supermarket, a little small, but they work fine.

Recommended, but there's lots of room for improvement.

[Sevil Natas @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

THIS IS ALL AMETUER CRAP COMPARED TO THE LITTER FREE SYSTEM. I can't beleive no one has mentioned this yet, but I own the worlds most advanced litter disposal system in the world. So ground breaking the secret world government had it shut down.Picture this. A standard looking enclosed style litter box. Maybe just slightly larger than your average litterbox. Cat enters uses the box as usual, scratches around, nothing new here. BUTTTT(cat butt) suddenly upto three times a day (scheduled to the minute) the litter box fills with water. What is this, won't hte litter get drenched? NO The litter is small glazed ceramivc pellets. Anyway, the box fills up the litter starts vortexing, pulverizing anything solid into a nothing. It then drains out into the toilet bowl through a ? shaped flat tube sitting under the toilet seat.

Thats not all. It does this three times until the dirtiest of litter is producing crystal clear out put into the toilet. On the final rinse a deoderizer is injected into the mix and 15 min.s of warm air is blown over the litter, drying it to nice pleasantly smelling get away.

I am so happy with this marvel of modern science (I've had it three years now, have not had to change a single box of litter since) I eded up talking to a guy at bar, a drunk of a pet store owner, and he told me he had one sitting around the store with some of the supplies. I bought it for parts just in case I ever have a problem in the future. This thing changed my life. Now I just need a hairless cat and my life would be perfect....

[james @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

i had a littermaid for 3 cats and it worked great long as you do a few things:
--keep the litter at the proper height, let it go too low and yes it doesnt scoop well anymore and pee will splash
--use good litter! Cant stress this enough: you must use good clumping litter, the cheap stuff does not clump well and WILL clog the machine!
--Use AC adaptor not batteries, not enough power with batteries
--dont have a retarded cat that jumps in ever 10 minutes to see the machine run
--dont put it right next to the bed and try to sleep next to it because it is not quiet

also if you cut out the bottom of the plastic collection tray and put a small box lined with a plastic shopping bag it works GREAT as a collection area and it's FREE.

I've heard of the LitterFree system but it has problems:
http://www.epinions.com/content_105573355140
and I've read it sounds like a dishwasher with the door open.

It's only $100 and available EVERYWHERE vs $330+ available only online. What happens when ur $330 toy stops spinning or washing? Mail it back?

[Pamela M. @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I'm the happy owner of a Litter Robot for a year now, and it is fantastic. The little cat took to it right away, my big 15 pounder was a slower learner, it took a while for him to figure out that he could get in it, turn around, stick his head out and use it, so we had the old box next to it for a while, but the ALWAYS CLEAN litter in the Robot coverted him and I've been one happy woman ever since.

WIth two cats I change the bag a couple of times a week and that's it...as quick as emptying the bathroom garbage, so to speak. It's about as loud as a microwave, so we actually don't leave it plugged in, just run it 2-3 times a day since we have electrical issues, and we just know it will start running when we have the coffee pot on while the fridge kicks in...but we have a 100 year old house with equivalent wiring.

The floor around it is much cleaner of litter, we put in a mat in front and that catches almost all of it. Also, it doesn't use nearly as much litter, since only the clumps fall into the bag, unless you over fill it, and it doesn't self destruct, just wastes litter, so it's easy to know when you need to fill it again.

Sure it's expensive, but it works! How much would you pay to have someone come over to your house and clean the litter every day? If this thing lasts five years (and that's probably conservative) and I'm buying litter at almost half the rate I used to...I figure it costs me $5 a month to just empty the drawer.

$5 a month.

It is so worth it.