Customer Reviews

LitterMaid Elite Mega Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(90)

 

 

We have three cats and four litter boxes--this one makes five--so I know a thing or two about scooping. I've been intrigued by the idea of these self-cleaning boxes for some time, especially since my significant other can't seem to clean the litter boxes with any regularity if I'm out of town. More recently, one cat's sudden penchant for peeing in inappropriate places for no apparent reason has inspired me to explore new approaches to the feline toilette. (And yes, she's been to the vet multiple times, and they can't find anything wrong.)

This is basically a good idea that could use some refinement. The unit was a little confusing to assemble, mainly because the instructions weren't great. But I eventually figured it out. It does perform mostly as advertised, but I have two main gripes with it. First, as other reviewers have noted, it makes a bloody racket when it's raking the detritus into the receptacle. The first few times, I thought someone was shredding a document, as it sounds almost exactly like a paper shredder, only the growling/whining noise goes on considerably longer. Fortunately, it's located clear across the house, but for people who keep the litter box in the bathroom near the bedroom, it's really a problem. Second, the unit is designed with thin disposable plastic receptacles and air cleaners that cost a fortune for what they are and don't hold very much. The box comes with four of each, and while I'll probably get some more because there's really no choice if I want to keep using the box, the pricing is outrageous. (I'm reminded of the old Gillette marketing strategy, where they were more focused on selling razor blades than razors. Same thing here, I fear.) A more minor issue is that the unit seems fairly flimsy, but only time will tell if that's actually a problem. Also, the rake mechanism speared a clump on one of the passes, and I'm not sure why, as the litter level seemed okay. Be forewarned that the tolerances for the litter levels are fairly narrow, and if you fill it too full, it sweeps perfectly good litter into the receptacle, wasting litter and precious space.

Of the three cats, only one seems to be using it. She is on medication for some digestive issues and drinks huge amounts of water, which then comes out the other end with more frequency than normal. So she's been generating a lot of clumps in the litter box, and these have nearly filled the receptacle in just one day. The other two cats have been freaked when the rake motor does its thing and have continued to use the other boxes. I don't know if they'll overcome their fear and start to use it or not.

We have also noticed a stronger than usual urine smell in the room where we keep the litter boxes, and this may be from the accumulation of clumps in the receptacle. I've emptied it, but it really smelled worse than if I'd just skipped a day of scooping all the litter boxes. So time will tell about that as well.

Before buying this, you should carefully check the dimensions because the whole unit takes up a lot of space, especially with the ramp. If I decide to keep using it, I may get the cover, as all our cats prefer covered litter boxes. I'm also hoping that just maybe it will cut down on the noise a bit.

I had seen these fancy litter boxes before but had resisted because of the high price tag and the uncertainty of whether they would work. When this litter box was offered as part of the Vine program, I jumped at it.

The litter box is a lot larger than I had anticipated (I hadn't actually measured out the dimensions given on the item description). The assembly took about 20 minutes. The manual says to use "premium" scoopable litter; I filled it with Tidy Cats scoopable.

When the unit was powered on, it made its first pass. My younger cat got in, sniffed around, and exited. I knew that would trip the motion sensor, so I waited 10 minutes for the scoop cycle. Unfortunately, the rake moved to the dump position, then stopped. Following the troubleshooting directions, I couldn't get it to work. I cringed as I realized I would have to call the 800-number for help. After about 5 minutes on hold, I was connected with an agent with a firm command of the English language. She was able to give me an alternate fix, and the unit worked again.

The noise of the unit sounds like an electric can opener. My cats (age 9 months and 2.5 years) do not seem to be afraid of it. In fact, the younger one comes running when he hears it start so that he can watch the rake.

I have been impressed with the overall performance of the unit. After reading the previous review where the unit did not scoop anything, I was worried. The rake is able to scoop and dump all but the smallest of clumps (the ones that are so small they fit between the tines of the rake). I add a little bit more litter every couple of days to keep it filled to the right level.

A few negative things (that keep it from getting a five-star review):
-The waste receptacle fills up about every two days with two cats. Replacing them will get expensive, so I am hoping that I can empty a receptacle and reuse it at least once.
-The unit is noisy when in cleaning mode. I have activated the 8-hour sleep timer, but if you're trying to get some extra sleep in the morning when the 8 hours is up, you'll probably hear the motor.
-The price of the unit. The standard recommendation for the number of litter boxes in your home is the number of cats plus one (meaning I need 3 litter boxes). While I like this litter box, there is no way I could afford to have 3 of them, so I have to stick with my existing standard boxes.

Overall, I am more impressed than I thought I would be. Each time I check on the box, I am relieved that it has been scooped without me having to do the dirty work. If anything changes, I will update the review.

I keep several old-fashioned litter boxes for our 3 cats (4, counting one we're catsitting for a couple months) and all the felines have their own preferences and styles. We have, with our guest cat, the requisite five boxes - one per cat plus 'one for the pot' as it were. Two cats, bless 'em, use pine litter in their boxes. The others get clumping Tidy Cat since it isn't gaggingly full of perfume and works fairly well.

And then came the LitterMaid LME9000MB Self Cleaning Elite Mega Ultimate Edition. The name scares me for some reason. Kind of sounds like the title of a Sci Fi Channel original horror movie or something.

I read the directions and eventually cobbled the box together correctly, then left it empty and went to buy Scoop Away, one of the 'hard clumping' brands they recommend you use.

While I was out, one of the cats peed in the empty box. A peculiar, but good sign. I mopped that up to keep my review fair, then added the Scoop Away. After the perfumy powder settled and I stopped coughing and swearing, we were good to go. Also in interest of reviewing, I set the box up in the foyer leading into the living room. We could not only watch TV, we could watch cats use their toilet. Wheee!

The noise and movement absolutely terrified Elliott -- he used it once, then returned to the 'normal' boxes in other rooms. Every time the box starts cleaning, depending on where he is, Elliott either climbs my husband's back, eliciting screams of pain that cover up the noise, or runs into the kitchen and cowers on top of the refrigerator. Elliott, seven, is a bit high strung. He gives the box negative-1 star.

Ricky, on the other hand, thinks the new box is great in every way. He's 11 years old and has always considered the Dust Buster to be the height of feline entertainment. Until now. With this box, he can not only use it, he can then sit and wait for it, head cocked like the old RCA Victrola dog, until it begins to growl and move. Then, watch out - Ricky's on the attack, completely wired, slapping and jumping and pyloerecting his tail like a kitten. Ricky would give the box 6 stars if he could type.

Youthful Japanese bobtail Billy, also loves the box. But his play methods involve flinging sand out of the box behind the tines as they move forward. He likes pine litter, but will occasionally use this box, too -- He never uses the regular Tidy Cat box, so I think he uses this one to set it off. So, he gives it 5 stars. He nicknamed the Mega Ultra Elite yada yada the "Poop and Play." Bobtails are wicked-smart.

And then there's Henry. He's three and the cat Edgar Allen Poe warned you about. He thinks the box is pretty good -- he uses it, but he's a powerful beastie and still buries his leavings, sometimes with extreme prejudice -- that means he tosses sand all over the floor about half the time. He's doing it far more than usual though -- I think it's because the box is cleaner. Henry may have his faults, but he doesn't play with dirty sand. I think he gives it 4 stars.

Me? When the box starts cleaning, the TV volume is turned up. It's annoying, but then, it's no big deal. The box is also wonderful because things are whisked away, never to be smelled again. I mean, I've got this thing in sight of the living area and it's not causing us a problem except for the cats who like to throw sand, but the Dust Buster takes care of that and makes Ricky twice as happy.

Drawbacks - the cost of the refill bags. Will I keep using it? I'm going to move it out of the living area, back with a couple of other boxes, and we'll see how it goes. If they start using it more and more and I have less box-work to do, the cost may be worth it. Or not. I'm sticking with three stars for now since I'm not at all sure it can stand up to all the work it has to do - but if it does, I'll gleefully up the rating.

I'll start out by saying that I love LitterMaid and over the years when one has broken I have bought a replacement immediately. It makes life a lot simpler, espeically when you have a couple of fat cats as I do.

This is by far the best looking and most advanced model out there. It has a timer and sleep settings and odor control ionizer. However, this is the first model that I can recall having to assemble. It feels a little flimsy compared to the other models as well. Also, it does not rake the waste quite as well as the 900 model. I have them running side by side right now and you can clearly see that difference. Usually there is no debris left at all in my 900 mega model.

So, I think when choosing your littermaid, you should decide which factors are most important to you. If it's features and appearance, choose this 9000 model. If it's easy out of the box usage, virtually no scooping at all, and sturdiness, I would choose the 900 model (it definitely feels like it is more durable and like it would last longer; the motor seems to be stronger as well). Know this, if you are sick of scooping all the time, you will quickly learn that having a littermaid becomes a necessity in your life.

UPDATE: Okay, I've been using this for a few months now and it just isn't nearly as good as the "lesser" model. It just doesn't scrape well enough and I find myself hoping the cats won't use this one as much as the older one because I don't want to scoop. I'm thinking of just putting this one away permanently.

I am extremely disappointed with this litter box. I had the second generation Littermaid, with the plastic rake, about 4 or 5 years ago and would have given that one at least 3 or 4 stars. This one has too many curves so every time the rake goes through a cycle, litter gets everywhere. Also, because the rake is detachable, litter rests behind it. If urine is sprayed in that direction, it solidifies behind the rake. It is actually more work than a regular box. I am using the very expensive, recommended premium clumping litter as well. I had to the return the first one shipped because it was DOA. This one at least "works" but is a horrible design. I will be returning this one as well, and trying an option not made by Littermaid.

DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY ON THIS INFERNAL MACHINE. I had an older Littermaid, not sure of the model, but it lasted several years with no problems at all. Naturally, when it died I had no concerns replacing it with a new Littermaid - oh how I regret that decision.
First off, this thing is LOUD. Want to know what it sounds like? Grab a healthy handful of nuts and bolts and throw them down your garbage disposal and turn it on. That's what it sounds like every time - nice, huh?
Now you might expect it to be powerful, what with all the racket it makes, right? Not so fast Bucko - one too many grains of litter or the most insignificant cat turd brings the machine to an agonized sounding halt. It will then reverse direction back to the start position and try again. And again. And again. At 117 decibels. At 3:12 am. It will eventually give up and become the most expensive not-automatic litter box on the market.
Finally, somehow it manages to deposit more clean litter into the collection tray than waste. Every time it fills up, I find about half waste, half clean litter. Do I throw away perfectly good litter, or sift the waste from the still good stuff (Didn't I buy this thing to avoid sifting crap?). I realize Littermaids' bread & butter is selling cat litter, but this is just ridiculous.
I'm not sure which chap in the marketing dept over at Littermaid decided to name their worst hunk of garbage the "Elite Mega" and charge MORE for it, but I'd like to personally thank them with a baseball bat.

I purchased this new and improved Litter Maid self-cleaning litter box, thinking I would get an upgraded product. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the thing had more power it would work great, but for the most part it doesn't have enough oomph to scrape out the kitty debris without pulling the motor down to where it reverses itself and eventually turns itself off, with the mess still in the box. I don't recommend.

So many confusing reviews, I waited and studied up on these units over a year before buying one to try. I have 2 of the original design and they are still working fine. But I have 3 cats. It was taking an hour twice a week to clean the old ones. I bought one of these Elite Ultimate to test out. The feature I cannot live without now is the Ionizer! It works sooo great! No smell whatsoever! And I now spend maybe 15 minutes to tidy one up, if necessary. I am so amazed at how little maintenance it takes, and the included forked-edge-scooper is just perfect to quickly clean the tines of the rake. None of the reviews seem to be accurate in describing how well-made and wonderful this littermaid is; I hope this review helps set the record straight. I loved this so much, I moved the 2 old units to the garage, and I bought 2 more to add to this one for my cats to use in the house. So I now have 3 perfectly working units, with so little maintenance that I can't believe it!! It doesn't hurt to check them every couple days and just tidy up a bit, but there is no major cleaning or worry. And the Ionizer keeps the rooms completely fresh. I had one shipment from Amazon where the Ionizer stopped working after a week; I called Littermaid. We tried the reset button on the bottom front track, but it did not restart, so they sent me a new one. All 3 that I have are working fine. It is really freeing and my cats just love them. I prefer them with the wonderful cabana top that you can quickly lift off and put back on. I keep the shiny slick bottom free of debris, and avoid scratching it, and that seems to help keep everything working smoothly...nothing sticking or getting gummed up. These units are wonderful. Do not hesitate to get one and try it...the black one is the Ultimate version with the Ionizer. I have only found it online; I have not found it in the stores. I am soo glad I got this particular unit and am soo happy with all 3 that I have! Best purchase I have ever made! Sorry it took so long :)

Length:: 0:38 Mins

Three of my six cats have been using the LitterMaid LME9000MB Self Cleaning Edition.

Aside from it being somewhat loud, both my cats and myself are not put off by the murmur when the litter is being sifted clean. In fact my cats love the litter box so clean and fresh.

It does use LitterMaid litter and other more expensive brands of high clumping litter. The litter I'm currently using for this is Arm & Hammer Super Scoop, which is more than I pay for my regular litter, but since only half of my cats use this box, it lasts pretty well.

I recommend this to anyone needing or wanting a little break in cleaning their cats' litter box.

When I first received this product I would easily give it a 4 star... But not anymore... Below is my original review, along with my revision and current thoughts and feelings on this product.

********ORIGINAL REVIEW********
I have 2 cats and my roommate has 1... Before this I had 2 big litter boxes and my roommate had a tiny one. Her cat kept using my boxes so eventually we went down to two boxes. Then I bought this and I tossed one of those boxes... I kept the other box for several weeks and eventually tossed it. Now I have 3 cats on this one Littermaid box.

The positives:
- Duh, no scooping!
- 9 hour sleep timer.
- Fairly easy maintenance.

The negatives:
- It's loud... I mean very loud. The sleep timer is a necessity because it would wake you up even 2 rooms over. My timer is set from 1am-10am and if I happen to still be asleep at 10am, this thing will definitely wake me.
- The ionic air thing doesn't seem to do anything. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't... But I find the more productive approach to smell is to keep the litter fresh, keep the receptacle empty, and keep the box in it's own closet with an air freshener.
- If you have a digger of a cat, the rake will often get stuck... I try to keep the litter at the max level I can because I have a digging cat. If it's at max then it's too much trouble for her to dig all the way to the bottom, but when it gets lower and she digs to the bottom, it sticks to the plastic and the rake will get stuck. Again, not a big deal... Manually scooping a couple hours of backed up waste every couple days is still way better then manually scooping waste in 2-3 boxes once or twice a day.

Other thoughts:
- Purchase the Ultimate Accessories Kit from wherever you can (it's not on Amazon). I got it for $40 at drsfosterandsmith.com and it comes with a matching BLACK canopy (which seemed to be hard to find otherwise), a large under the box no-slip carpet, and extra waste receptacles and carbon filters.
- Don't toss out your waste receptacles so easily... It can be expensive. Since I purchased this unit around 6 months ago, I have only used 10 or so in all. I put grocery bags in them and empty them out every 2 days or so. I only toss the receptacles when they are getting real bent up or when I'm doing a full cleaning of the box.
- Get a metal scooper... The provided one is great if your pet pees on the rake and it gets stuck... But if you have a digger, you will also want another spare metal one for scraping off the bottom. It can REALLY get stuck to the plastic hard.


********UPDATE July 26th, 2011********
I have some additional thoughts and a lower rating of 2 stars to give this unit.

- Terribly short life span w/ multiple cats -
I have had 2 replace this unit because it crapped out within the 1-year warranty range. The replacement is now crapping out within 1-year of that too. This is likely due to excess use from multiple cats, but still... At the price, I'd expect more.

- NOOOOOISE -
The motor slowly craps out on you and when it starts to go, it starts having trouble scooping and will take up to 5 attempts before giving up. So you get that same noise as I mentioned above, but for 3-5x longer depending on how much difficulty the unit is having. When you are really nearing the death of the box, you get a nice clicking and breaking sound as the gears start spinning and skipping.

- Warranty -
Exchanging the product was simple and easy. However, the company doesn't always keep this unit in stock. It appears that it's only offered at select retailers and the company doesn't even have it listed on their own website. In place of this one, they will attempt to send you a cheaper model. They did this to me at first, without warning. When I received it I complained and they quoted the warranty saying that they will send a comparable unit. I fought and argued saying that a unit that's $50 cheaper (25-40%) is not comparable and I refuse. So I had to wait for them to get this unit in, which took 2-3 months.

- Daily scooping nearing the end of life -
Towards the end, the motor has more and more trouble pushing the litter. The longer you have it, the more you will find yourself scooping daily because the rake couldn't push the litter all the way. Near the end of it's 8-10 month life span, you will end up using the loud motor sound as a reminder to go manually scoop the litter because it won't be able to.

In the end, this is not worth it. I just went back to a manual scoop by purchasing Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter Box, Large, Green and Beige instead. If I'm going to have to manually deal with litter anyway, it may as well be a box that will last me forever and doesn't cost a lot.