Litter Robot LRII Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box, Black
November 20, 2009 by Jessica Lee
Filed under For Pets, Neat Freak, over $100
The Litter Robot is the automatic, self cleaning litter box ‘that really works’. When your cat enters the litter chamber (globe) a weight activated sensor detects the presence of your cat. After 7 minutes a clean cycle starts with the slow rotation of the globe in a counter-clockwise direction. The rotation of the globe sifts and separates clumps from the clean litter (clumping litter) and deposits all waste in the large capacity drawer lined with a standard kitchen garbage b (more…)
I’ve been a cat mom for over 20 years and have worked in animal rescue almost as long. This thing does exactly what it says it does. No hype. When I downsized into a 300 square ft condo so I could work and go to school full time, I needed a miracle. Four geriatric kitties and a mostly absent mom in such a small space… I needed some help with the cat box. I tried the competition–Littermaid Mega–for a month with poor results. No odor control (despite their glowing claims of an automatic ionic air cleaner and carbon filters), constant clogging of the rake, and numerous yucky bits left behind. I was constantly coming home between work and school to disasters, spills, you name it. Littermaid Mega was less effective than a regular litter box.
Money is very tight, but I recklessly splurged on the Litter Robot when a neighbor complained of the smell from an open window (next to the cat box). It is hands down the BEST money I have ever spent and all my issues with regular boxes and the Littermaid Mega are solved!
– No more tiny litter granules in my bed because Litter Robot lets me use the alternative types of litter like Swheat Scoop.
– No lingering odor because waste is deposited in a truly sealed container *** hint: using odor fighting trash bags make things even better ***
– No more being a constant slave to the litterbox. I can empty the tray every 3 days if I need to (great during term paper crunch times) and fresh litter gets added every other day without problems.
– Hooray, washing and sanitizing is a breeze! Out back with a hose, the inside is easily power washed. Since most of the litter area is lined in heavy duty rubber, even the gooiest blobs don’t stick and hang around to smell up the house.
– Simplicity of design and operation means nothing to clog or get stuck or break off. I expect this baby will work forever as long as I don’t do something stupid and fry the circuit board.
– Best of all, I barely had it out of the box and one of my cats was already trying to climb inside. All 4 were using it in less than 5 minutes after I set it up and have had no complaints or fussiness from them. And they are usually little grouchy fuss buckets (at least the 2 part Siamese are). Ms tuck in my paws and call me a beach ball has no fit issues with the generously sized interior. Even my Bengal who is bigger than a Maine Coon and is convinced he’s not a cat at all, had no issues with the Litter Robot. He’d make the thing his favorite hangout if the other cats would let him, it’s so clean on a daily basis.
If a poor back to college woman making less than $10/hr says the price tag on the Litter Robot is totally worth it, well, that’s saying something. Try it. You will be won over the first day.
I knew that I needed to replace our second Litter Maid. Both of the ones we have had lasted years, but I had enough complaints that I decided to check on what was new and different. I was really thinking that Litter Maid might have made improvements. At first, I was appalled at the idea of spending $300 on a litter box, no matter how wonderful. The more I read about this one, though, the more I decided that it would save money in the long run.
Now that I have owned it for a couple of months, I can’t imagine ever, ever, going back to anything else. We are only a one cat household at the moment. I am just sorry that we lost our old guy back in January, and that he didn’t get to have this,
The assembly was easy. The cat took to it right away (I did sprinkle a little of her old, scooped, but used, litter in for a day or two). I also would place a small piece of paper inside, where I could see it because it stayed so clean, I wanted confirmation that she was using it and not rebelling elsewhere. I emptied it after a week, no smell with the drawer closed or open. It really didn’t need to be emptied, but it was my first time, so I did. So easy! I bundled the old Litter Maid into a trash bag and said ‘bye! The next time I waited two weeks, still no smell. Still not full, still easy. My husband is now much happier about my occasional week/two week trip away from home, and so am I because he never did take care of the litter situation up to my standards.
Perhaps I have an extraordinary cat, but she doesn’t throw litter out, or deposit stuff on the outside. That was a problem with the Litter Maid and conventional boxes. Certainly the smells are contained. I would imagine that strangers would not notice that we had a cat. The cat doesn’t seem at all bothered by the noise. She likes to watch it, but doesn’t worry about it. Much as I like her, I don’t really think that she is out of the ordinary smart or capable. This is a great machine.
I bought the black one, which does show dust, Not worth counting off for though.
A number of reviewers have complained about the noise. Mine lives behind my open laundry room door. I can hear it from the kitchen and family room, but it just makes me happy, knowing that it is chugging along making my life much better. I think that it is probably the kind of noise that you stop hearing after a while.
If you are hesitating because of the price, don’t. You can use whatever litter you like, yes even some of the ones that don’t (gasp) cost that much. I would say that you definitely need one of the hard clumping ones. I use plain old 13 gallon trash bags in my kitchen anyway. I haven’t tried those plastic grocery sacks. I think that they might work, but would take a bit longer to get installed evenly, and when we are thinking about almost decadent ease of use, why bother?
In the end, I like this thing so much that I came back to review it, something I rarely take the time to do. Assuming that it’s continued performance goes on steadily for a few years to come, I can’t imagine life without it. I am considering buying another for my parents’ house, because my cat visits there often.
I read many glowing reviews on this product before purchasing and in fact was impressed with the way it did work. Unfortunately it kept getting stuck which defeated the purpose of a device that functioned without constant intervention. I would come home from a day’s 12 hour shift and find the unit non-functional and my cats with their legs crossed. I do have 2 cats and they tended to trigger it frequently in play. I ended up sending it back and did get a full refund after trying it for 6 weeks.