Comments on: New Litter Robot accessories help keep your cat’s bathroom clean and uncluttered

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:26:13 +0000

Best reply is Michelle. I get free newspapers from my neighborhood which I cursed. I will now be using them under my 3 litter boxes (one traditional, 2 of the Omega Paw roll boxes (which I also love).

Biggest problem? Just doing it. Ugh. Not the scooping, but the cleaning up around. So hopefully Michelle’s idea will be my winner!

By: Litter Robot

Litter Robot — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:47:29 +0000

I think the bubble unit is a good idea, from what we read it wasn’t able to accommodate very big cats before, so hopefully this will help!

By: Cat Litter Boxes Site

Cat Litter Boxes Site — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:13:31 +0000

All sorts of weird and wonderful things are being done to improve the good old cat litter box

By: Me

Me — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:43:05 +0000

How do you change the litter? I honestly don’t see how you can change the litter.
How deep can the litter be in it?

By: RoaringSilence

RoaringSilence — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:44:50 +0000

You should declutter your post and remove some apostrophes! lol

(it’s cat owners, not “Cat owner’s”)

By: ga

ga — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Leanne: “I am so tired of the smelly cat box and litter.” Smelly cat box? Sounds like you haven’t tried World’s Best Cat Litter. I remember that smell, from the old days of sorbolite (clay) litter. I use World’s Best in a dishpan. When I empty it, I rake it smooth (like Japanese rock gardening), so I can tell at a glance when he has been in it. It’s so easy to scoop out the urine clump or feces. The box *never* smells. I empty it and wash it when I finish a bag of the litter—about once a month. It’s painless.

My cat’s litter box is immaculate, because when he pees or poops, he comes over and complains, “Clean my box.” People who let the box go must have more-laidback cats.

By: Shalin

Shalin — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:39:41 +0000

nifty product…somehow “poop pod” comes to mind. Does it come with a kitty astronaut suit?

Best,
Shalin

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:44:47 +0000

The accessories are a welcome addition. I have to tape a barrier across the lower half because one of my cats doesn’t always get in. The accessories will take care of that for me. For those of you who question a $300 cat box, I saved that much in two years in litter. (Have 3 cats.) It also prevents dog snacking, if you know what I mean. I do wish it were easier to clean, though.

By: knitwych

knitwych — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:03:48 +0000

I’ve considered the automated litter boxes, but I’ve never been able to justify the expense. Our cats need a very deep box or they fling litter all over the place. We just use a Sterlite storage bin minus the lid. It’s deep enough that the cats don’t fling litter (and deep enough to keep the dogs from trolling for what we refer to as ‘granola bars’), easy to clean, and cost about $6. We use clumping litter, and scoop out the clumps at least every other day. Works just dandy for our three cats.

By: Leanne

Leanne — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:28:37 +0000

Does anybody have any input on the “Cat Genie”?? I am so tired of the smelly cat box and litter. I spent $200+ for an automatic cleaning litter box 2 months ago and it’s already broken. I only have 2 cats…any input would be greatly appreciated …Thanks!

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:37:08 +0000

Uncluttered should include striving for less stuff. Simplify. No one needs a $300 litter box.

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:55:50 +0000

This is the product that should be promoted here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/

Effective AND economical. I’ve been using mine for a year.

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:51:37 +0000

I could never advise that someone actually buy one of these. The roll-and-dump litterboxes that you can find at Meijer now are incredible, and make cleaning up after kitty easier than ever.

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:15:09 +0000

I considered buying an automated litter box, but I couldn’t justify the expense and added electricity – especially when there was no guarantee the cat would like it.

I went the “roll and dump” route with flushable*, scoopable litter and it’s absolutely terrific. The litter is “green” and therefore horrendously expensive, but in the first month I’ve used only about half a bag.

It gets cleaned once a day at least; takes less than 5 minutes.

(Note: Yes, I know about cat poo and the ocean, but I am hundreds and hundreds of miles from any port.)

I wouldn’t call the Litter Robot any more of a unitasker than any other litterbox (ours definitely has one, dedicated purpose!) – but I do consider it a very expensive solution to a simple problem, and the additional energy use annoyed me.

By: PJ Doland

PJ Doland — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:53:37 +0000

@chrisisdebtfree – Individual parts are available from the company’s online store, so you can probably fix yours (or replace the broken part) without incurring the full cost of a replacement unit.

By: Beverly Williams

Beverly Williams — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:51:51 +0000

I have a roll and dump litter box from PetSmart. My biggest cat was afraid of the automatic Litter Maid (now used by my brother’s cat)so any kind of automatic litter box probably wouldn’t work for me. The roll and dump is BY FAR the easiest litter box I’ve ever had (I have five cats). I roll and dump the drawer twice a day and for over a year now, my cats and I have been very happy. I didn’t spend $300 either! Also, don’t need electricity or batteries to operate it.

By: Megan

Megan — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:41:36 +0000

I regularly clean my cat’s box and that system works okay. I’d be afraid one of my cats would be very scared of this thing, actually.

One big concern, pertinent to unclutterer- is the fact that this litter robot is HUGE and rather ugly, how to deal with this in a small apartment? I live in Seattle and have very limited space, we actually constructed a small cabinet with the litterbox inside and it works so well. It is hidden away, right in the middle of the living room, and hardly every smells.
http://mambinki.blogspot.com/2.....binet.html

By: chrisisdebtfree

chrisisdebtfree — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:35:50 +0000

This is a great device that works for some time. Sadly mine broke and i am not going to spend that much money again so its back to scooping for me. It really isn’t that much of a task.

By: Michele

Michele — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:12:27 +0000

I can solve all the same problems that this gadget solves with a litter box, six pieces of newspaper, a broom, a dustpan, and a regular maintenance schedule. I keep newspaper under and around the litter box. I sweep up every time I use the bathroom (the box sits in the back corner, between the toilet and the wall, and the bathroom floor itself measures only about 1 x 2 meters). I remove solid waste whenever I encounter it, and I change the litter and newspaper and disinfect the box about every 5 days.

Litter changing is a 10-minute task that I wouldn’t exchange $300 for. Back-of-the-envelope math: if the Litter Robot is guaranteed for 18 months, and I’d change the litter by hand about 100 times in 18 months, I still don’t see the value in “paying” the gadget to do the work for me, when I’d still need to thoroughly clean the box under the Litter Robot on a regular basis anyway. It looks to me that I save $3 per litter change, minus the cost of a few squirts of cleaning solution, if I don’t buy the Litter Robot. (For Tightwad Gazette fans: that’s an “hourly wage” of $180.) I honestly don’t see how spending this amount of money for a motorized gadget would unclutter my life.

I hesitated to hit “submit comment” because I know this site is about uncluttering, not about frugal living. But I think the two concepts can and should be related, and I think that for a lot of people — not just me — this gadget would not help a household reach its goal to unclutter their life.

By: Wayward

Wayward — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:02:56 +0000

I sooooo miss our Litter Robot. We had an LR1 for years and I loved it. At first I thought the price was exorbitant, but the more I thought about it the better it seemed. In addition so purchasing less litter, we also found we did not need to kennel the cats as often when we took out of town trips. We had kenneled the 2 cats before for a 5-day weekend getaway and it ran us $280! So the Litter Robot essentially paid for itself the very first time we went out of town and didn’t need to kennel the critters.

The little notches that the gear wheel fits into eventually started to crack (after about 4 years) and litter was pouring into the catcher every time it cycled. Unfortunately, Scoob purchased a new automatic litterbox without consulting me. He thought the $120 price tage would mean we would save money, but it uses a more expensive crystal type litter that needs to be completely changed out and replaced every 12 – 14 days, and it’s not as reliable. I’m not confident that we can leave the box for a few days and have it do its job. So we may need to start kenneling again. But this is what we have now.

I wait patiently for it to break. It would be such a shame if something were to accidentally (*cough*) happen to iy.