Customer Reviews

Litter Robot LRII Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box, Black

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

All cat lovers have that dream... that somehow they can have cats without always cleaning the litter. Now you can make that dream happen. Get a Litter Robot.

Okay, it's kinda big and needs an outlet. There is some noise when it works, about as much as a microwave. There's sometimes litter scatter that needs to be swept up, and with two cats I change the bag twice a week. And that's all there is to it! I can't emphasize this enough: the Litter Robot really works.

Seven minutes after the cat has "left the building," the automatic timer kicks in, but only if it detects no cat presence. Even if the cats come to look at it and put their paws on the step, it will stop. So there isn't much chance of the cat getting caught in it and swearing out a vendetta. If the coast is clear, the Robot turns its dome to sift down to just clumps (you need clumping litter) and dumps only the clumps in the waste drawer. This turning action does two wonderful things; it allows the motor to need only a little power, so it can't get stuck and burn out, and it also "breads" the clumps with litter so even cats who don't cover will get their stuff automatically covered and dumped. Then it comes back to base, evening out the litter as it does so, and turns itself off, leaving completely clean litter in the dome that doesn't smell and is ready for the next time.

And I haven't done a thing.

Depending on your cat size and number, you will need to change the bag periodically. I use the cheapest 13-gallon bags I can find, since you won't be filling up the bag, just the bottom of it. (And really, who wants to live with 13 gallons of litter?) And I save on litter, too, because only the dirty stuff gets discarded. Very occasionally I need to knock a clump off the screen or vacuum out the bottom, but the rest of the time I just go over it with some cleaner. And I'm done.

Sound good to you? Then get one. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot more expensive than the dishpan and scoop you've been using. But you know what?

It's. Not. The. Same. Thing.

Suppose my Robot lasts me five years. Without even considering the litter savings, it costs me $5 a month to have my litter box cleaned every time the cats use it.

It's worth it.

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.

We purchased our black Litter Robot last November. There is a little learning curve - once we are use to how it functions, we can't imagine life without it.

Advantage:

- One cat, we clean once a week. With two cats, we empty the box every 3 days.

- It eliminates odor pretty well. A spray of Lysol Neutra Air inside the globe would take out the remaining of the odor.

- One of our cat is a clean freak and would not poo into any stinky litter. Once we get the Litter Robot, she stopped pooing outside the box.

- We can use regular garbage bag for it

Disadvantage:

- Don't be surprised if you find "gold" around the globe. The disposal doors sometime chop off a part of a clump litter or poo and drags it around exterior of the globe.

- May be cats at Litter Robot's lab has higher IQ. My cats are just not smart enough to always remember only way they can properly release is when facing outside the box. Couple times my cats had her butt sticking out and ended up made a nasty stinky mess all over.

- Black is cool but high maintenance. Exterior of black color globe requires special cleaning. White clay stick to the exterior of the globe and looks quite nasty. Only way to clean it off is to use rubbing alcohol + toothbrush and wipe clean with wet towel.

I'll agree that this is pretty pricey for a litter box, BUT it works. I needed 2 Littermaids to keep up with my 2 cats and they would break once a year. I was spending $200 a year just in litter boxes! The rakes would always clog and jam, and cleaning the poop out was just plain gross. The Litter Robot has changed all of that. I have one Litter Robot for (now) three cats and they are all happy with that. The litter box is ALWAYS clean; there aren't any broken up bits of waste or clumped litter in their litter box anymore, the Litter Robot removes ALL of it. The waste drawer is large, so I don't need more than one unit to keep up with their "output". I line the drawer with a plastic grocery bag and empty it once a week. Every few days I add a scoop or two of fresh litter. My cats are happy, I'm happy, the unit is good as new at 6 months and I anticipate it will last much longer than the Littermaid. It only needs to survive 1.5 years to make it equal to the cost of a Littermaid. Anything over that (and I expect it to last longer) is gravy. Fantastic purchase! I am thrilled and can't say enough good things about it. If you're on the fence, just get it. You won't regret it.

I have been a fairly happy owner of the littermaid for about 6 years. Now over this time I replaced it a few times when the odor just could not be removed from it. It was time to buy a new one and I saw the reviews for the latest models saying they had ruined a pretty good product. But I saw some nice comments about the Litter-robot so I decided it give it a try.

I don't know what I have done all these years but I wish I had known about this cat box before. I am not one to sit and write reviews for products I buy but this one compelled me to tell you about how great a catbox this is and that all the other reviews are not overblown hyperbole. This thing does what it says it does. It has no smell and it is so easy to get rid of the poop-filled bags. I went to the store and bought a box of 13 gallon wastepaper bags for $2.39 and I am now set for half a year of baggie supplies. Soooo much cheaper than those plastic boxes of the littermaid. And it seems to use much less litter (I use Nature's Miracle).

Now I have to admit that one of my cats took a few days to get used to it and after a couple of accidents I was thinking about sending it back. But I just put his "accident" in the box and he got the message and used it the next time (ok, so I did set up a chair next to the box and coaxed him along). But everyone is happy now and the house smells great. This is a solid machine that looks like it could last for years and is well worth the money.

We've used another automatic litter box for years, and when it broke this last time, we bit the bullet and paid extra for the Litter Robot.

It took our cat a little while to get used to it, as she's never used a covered litter box before.

I can't get over how clean it is, how easy it is to empty, and most important: how much it controls odor! The difference is phenomenal. Plus, it's just really cool to look at. Wish I'd purchased it months ago when I'd first read about it. It's SO worth the extra cash if you hate litter box duty and litter box smell. (Who doesn't?)

My 17 year old cat has kidney disease and drinks a TON of water and thus, pees a lot. I bought this to help reduce the amount of times I'd change her litter (every 4 days or so.) I also got it to help reduce tracking. It works well, well enough that I'd buy it again. It's not perfect, however. Here's some highlights:

TRACKING
- Tracking is greatly reduced, but far from completely gone.
- I recommend using World's Best Cat Litter (34-lb bag) if you have problems with tracking
- I recommend getting a textured bathroom rug to help with tracking

QUIRKS
- My cat sometimes pees on the sides (with her butt sticking out of the door)
- Somehow, my cat's pee sometimes manages to bypass the litter and go into the tub below
- The Empty cycle isn't efficient. I have to push the litter around to get it to go down.

I recently went on a trip and returned 5 days later. My house still smelled pretty fresh! You couldn't tell I had a cat. Very impressive.

My expectations were high based on the many raves this has received, so I wasn't wowed, but I wasn't disappointed either. My cat isn't transitioning as well as I expected--she reluctantly uses it and hasn't peed elsewhere, for which I am grateful, but she continues to pitifully beg for her old litter box. I hope this doesn't go on much longer or she may wear me down (it's only been 2 days though). The only reason I'm writing is to point out something that I didn't think of when choosing the color--litter and its dust shows up a great deal on the black model. Perhaps it would as well on the beige--I don't know--but it's something that I didn't think of when weighing my options.
Update
It's now December 2009 and the litter robot is still going strong. It hasn't had any significant problems, and the kitty eventually took to it just fine. I wouldn't want to have a cat without one of these.