No Littermaid thread would be complete without a link to The Great Shit Toss.
About the Litter Robot – I posted the link to it above, we’ve had one for over six months now and I love it. So does Ditto. We became a one-cat household while it was being shipped (sniff) so I can’t speak to how well it performs in a multi-cat environment, but can’t imagine it would have a problem.
It’s quieter by far than the Littermaid, and it’s much more thrifty with its litter usage. Those of you with Littermaids will recognize what I mean when I say that when the Littermaid’s rake gets a clump stuck to it, it pushes quite a bit of clean, unused litter along with it and it goes straight into the bin, or onto the floor around the box. We got some pretty sizeable sand dunes this way. Not so with the Robot; only the bad stuff gets dumped. I only have to put new litter in once a week, a few coffee-mugs or so. You only need an inch and a half in the bottom of the ball part of the Robot.
With the one cat, the drawer in the Robot only has to be emptied once a week (mucho convenient), and once in the middle of the week I go down, pull open the drawer, and move the clumpies “forward” in the drawer, otherwise they tend to collect in the back and can spill over into the base. No big deal to clean up, but nicer if they don’t.
The truly sweet thing is that the ball where the litter is and the cat does his business is entirely washable – you can literally take the ball off the base, dump out the litter, and hose the thing off inside and out, no damage done. The base doesn’t really get dirty except the drawer, which you can pull all the way out and wash same as the ball.
It was a budgetary stretch for us, too, since it seemed like so much money, but I can honestly say I have no regrets. We love it.
dear Og… another literalist. nice to know i’m not married to the only one around. and remind me to never, NEVER say the phrase “do something religiously” around my husband.
and yes, i was sputtering with laughter all the while i read it. thank goodness i’d already swallowed my chai tea.
We’ve had our Littermaid since Christmas, and so far so good. Cleaning the cat box was one of Joel’s least favorite chores, and it has cut his work way down. The cats aren’t scared of it, and while the noise still startles me sometimes (I’m jumpy and kind of dumb; sometimes when it starts up I still wonder “what the hell is that,” til I remember “oh yeah, catbox,” even now, 4 months later), it doesn’t wake me up at night.
Shucks, I thought these things looked ingenious when I first saw them. Haven’t owned a cat in ages, so I don’t know how well they actually work, but they’re a lot cheaper than the robotic alternatives.
speaking from semi-experience, Max, they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
i have a slightly different model, one that’s somewhat pie-shaped, designed to reside in a corner. since the entrance is on the semi-curved side (directly opposite the angle that fits into the corner), this means you get a longer-than-average diagonal measure. that, combined with the full-cover upper portion, means a bit less kitty sand gets kicked/dug out while In Use. (also makes it much harder for them to accidently overshoot the sides of the pan when making deposits.)
the down side? same as noted with the LitterMaid, apparently. my 2 kitties do some heavy-duty peeing at times. even using clumping litter, sometimes the wetness gets all the way down to the grid level, and clumps onto it. so not only do you need to do the “sift” portion, but you also may need to do the ol’ “scrape it off” as well. it got to be too much of a bother, going through both maneuvers after a while. i just took out the sifting grid and went back to plain old manual scooping.
“Open the poop bay doors, Hal.” 
That is what i have, works quite well in a 3 cat home=)
It needs the very good quality clumping litter, and has to be done irreligiously every day [ha!] biut is simple=) the only thing is it needs to be washed off periodically because if the cats decide to eat something small, furry and wet/crunchy they get the shits and if they aim at the sidewalls they need washing off=)
Oh, and don’t ever get the flushable litter if you have a septic tank system instead of a town type sewer system…trust me=)
We had a Littermaid before our cat passed on to the great litterbox in the sky last year… It didn’t only improve our life, it entertained the cat…
Every time the rake would start to move, the cat would run from wherever he was in the house and start attacking it… Wherever you were in the house you’d hear, “whirr, bang, bang, bang, whirr, whirr, bang, bang, bang, whirrrr”… then silence again…
It seemed to work even with a cat attacking it 
Inspired! And now that we’ve christened the robot Hal, you can tell everyone that you have a feline litterbox appliance for a godchild. No duties involved, unless the idea of a ceremonial emptying of the drawer appeals to you. 