I’ve been looking at these on eBay…the 600 model runs about $40. Is it worthwhile?
I used to have one and I found emptying the little tray more trouble than it was worth. I always wound up spilling stuff. Plus, it was pretty hard to clean thoroughly. If you cat has a movement that is less than “firm” the little tines get all gunky and gross.
I finally threw it away and just got a big, extra deep cheap plastic box that I scoop out religiously everyday when I walk in the door from work. It’s a lot easier and cheaper.
But I do have a friend who swears by her Littermaid (although she’s really bad about emptying the collector so it always spills over which I think is grosser than just scooping the litter box) so your experience might be different.
A friend of mine has one. or should I say four, since the first 3 broke down before the 1 year warranty was up, so he’s on his 4th. If you like shipping large objects back to the company 3 times a year, go ahead.
They really don’t stand up to their intended use from what I can see (he has 2 smallish cats, and a regular litterbox in addition to the littermaid)
I should have probably mentioned that I have multiple cats. Multiple, multiple cats. Eight or so.
I don’t know if that makes much difference or not…
I threw mine out. My kitties had the aforementioned not-so-firm problem and I had to remove and hand clean the rake about once a week. HAving eight cats, I would certainly discourage you from this product. With two I almost went crazy with the noise and had to unplug it at night. You also have to buy the ultra-premium litter if you want it to work right.
Wow, it sounds like I’m not the only one who had to deal with the horrible task of trying to clean the gummed-up rake! My cat had the amazing ability to aim her urine stream right into the rake, so the litter would clump up in the rake and jam. I gave up and took the thing back.
As far as the loose-stools problem some of you describe, that’s easily resolved by feeding a higher-quality dry food, such as Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba, etc. Better for your cat, too. Unfortunately, doesn’t solve the peeing-into-the-rake problem.
I’ve had mine for 3 years and love it. The only thing I don’t like is that there’s no way to seal the join between the collector bin and the litter tray, so there’s always a little bit of litter on the floor under the bin after the scooper has done its thing. You wouldn’t want to put it on anything but a hard surface or a really low-pile rug. Mine’s in the kitchen and I keep my Dustbuster next to it so I can vacuum the area whenever I empty the bin, once or twice a week. There’s no cat or litterbox smell in my apartment unless it’s the time between the cat having a particularly smelly movement and the scooper kicking in. Once it’s in the bin, it’s stink-free. With eight cats, you’d have to empty it every day, but if you have cats who will go elsewhere if the litterbox is messy, it’s really helpful.
tremorviolet is right about the tines getting gunky if the “deposit” is soft or really wet, but I use a good (not premium) clumping litter and feed my cat high quality dry food, so I don’t have much of a problem with this. Also, BottledBlondJeanie is right about it being noisy, but mine is in the kitchen, right across from my bedroom door, and it never wakes me up at night. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it, but I don’t even notice it anymore. Obviously YMMV, but mine is fantastic.
Everyone in my family owns one, and none of us has ever had a problem. They are amazing. I seriously wouldn’t have a cat without one. In fact, we are getting ready to adopt another cat and we wouldn’t even think about it if we didn’t have the Littermaid.
Having gone through three Littermaids, each of which was susceptible to gunky rakes, sludgy trays, and eventually self-destructing, we did a little research and found these. Expensive, yes, but I and my cats have never been happier. Its design addresses the annoying, eventually fatal design flaws I found in the Littermaids, and besides, it looks cool.
If you do decide to go ahead with the Littermaid, try to keep the rake clean and the bottom of the tray un-sludged; easier said than done with one of my cats, who enjoyed peeing as far back in the box as possible, directly on the rake, thus ensuring that the tines would cake up nicely. Thanks, Ditto . . .
I had one for about a year until it broke. It was OK for what it did but if I had another one I would plug it into a timer. It made a lot of noise. Imagine a tiny little table saw going off in the middle of the night.
And you’d think the cats would get use to it. Every time it went off they would creep up and observe it as if it was the first time they saw it. Maybe they thought it was some kind of toilet deity. Don’t know.
Now that I think of it, for the amount of maintenance required you might as well get a nice box with a hood and clean it regularly.
About the loose stools, I do use a good quality food–IAMS but F.lea Bailey has wet poop–always has and always will. It’s not such a problem with regular clumping litter that you scoop every day, but it is when you use the machines.
Anyone have that litter washing machine thing?
My littermaid was given to me by a friend, whose cat preferred the great outdoors. I have had it for about 4 months, and quite enjoy it, although my single cat may not be so thrilled.
It’s been great for comic relief, though. She’s grown more accustomed to it now, but at first, she watched it very nervously / suspiciously, as if it was going to get her too - or was “stealing” her deposit. I was frequently helpless with laughter over her expression.
I did turn mine off at night at first, as it is fairly loud, but I’ve noticed that Climber has worked her “schedule” around so that when I do forget to turn it off (frequently) I still get undisturbed sleep. Thoughtful cat.
I want one of those cool robotic litter boxes! As soon as I can afford the $329 they cost, I’m going to get one. Both my cats might be dead by then, though.
Someone mentioned the litter-washing-machine thingy … is that the one that you hook up to the toilet water intake and outflow, and use special non-dissolving litter, and the device flows water through the litterbox, dissolves everything, and rinses it all away, leaving the permanent litter substrate behind?
Wish I had one of those. I saw it online somewhere, but the product was discontinued. Somebody please link if it’s for sale somewhere.
We now present Tentacle Monster’s Mental Image Theatre…
The scene: tremorviolet’s dwelling. It’s been a long day at work, and she’s just kicked off her shoes and is wanting to relax… but there’s something that needs to be done.
She goes to a small, ornate chest and opens it. She removes three white candles, a cone of incense, a white Hefty trash bag, and a slotted scoop.
She then walks to the big, cheap plastic litterbox. It is surrounded by three candlesticks and a brass incense burner. She places the candles and incense, lights them, and then reverently takes the scoop into her hand. She proceeds to clean the catbox:
“Our Father scoop, who art in Heaven scrape, hallowed be Thy Name splut…”
This has been Tentacle Monster’s Mental Image Theatre. Brought to you by …things you’d probably rather not know about.
I just use a high sided tray roughly 1’x1’x2’ and use the clumping cat litter. That way there is no spill, no smell, it’s easy to remove the waste and easy to clean.
We tossed our Littermaid, too, for most of the same reasons others have mentioned here - one cat peeing on the rake, one scared of the noise. (The third cat never seems to be bothered by anything, so her opinion doesn’t count.) We also had a problem occasionally where, if one of the cats had rearranged the litter in a certain way, the damn rake would go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth for HOURS (well, not hours, but until whenever one of us heard it going back and forth and back and forth, and finally went and shut the sucker off.) And we found that if there was a tiny bit too much or too little litter in the box, the rake would perform its trick endlessly too.
I had one - it broke. Replaced it - and the morning I first plugged it in, it got stuck right before I left for work. It heated up - and I smelled the heated up (clean, luckily) litter. Unplugged - sent back to the company - did not replace. Seemed like too much of a fire hazard.
Susan
Of course, if someone wanted to buy me one of those cool robot litter things, I wouldn’t say no…
We bought a Littermaid, but my conclusion is that it might work for a smaller number of cats than the three we now have. As stated by others, the rake clumps and jams, and just stops working. It might work for 2 cats, but any more than that, and you’re pushing your luck.
Since I posted a reply, I feel somewhat justified in hijacking: does anyone have one of those Litter Robots that was mentioned above? Do they have multiple cats? How satisfied are you with its performance? I don’t want to spend that kind of money unless I know ahead of time it’ll work!