Customer Reviews

LitterMaid LM500 Automated Litter Box

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(31)
1 star:		(63)

 

 

i'm a cat lover of the first order, and presently own
4 Himalayan Seal Points.
this product is a dream come true.
with a little care and common sense, it does everything they say it does.

after years of digging and scratching around in litter
boxes myself, it's a joy to own something that brings the process into the 21st Century.

some thoughts:
use the premium litters they recommend. anything else, and you'll
be cleaning the rake and scraping the bottom of the tray more often than would be necessary.

spray the bottom of the tray with silicone from time to time.
it makes the operation much smoother.

don't overfill it. the cats will naturally form mounds in the litter, in the process of trying to "bury" their waste,
so smooth the litter around in the tray now and then, to keep it even.

keep the unit set on a piece of old carpet, and keep a hand-vac nearby. small granules make litter tracking a little more of an issue.

forget about the tent.
if you like to keep the box as clean as your cats probably like to have it, the tent makes the box impossible to get to, and work around in.

the disposable trays are very handy. they're stiff plastic. line them with a small garbage bag, or wash them out and reuse them. throwing them out every time is an expensive proposition.

keep your supply of litter next to the box. (i store it in one of
those plastic stackable bins.) as the volume of litter is reduced
just add more as needed. you'll be dumping the whole tray a lot less often.

with 4 cats, i clean the entire unit about once every two weeks.
i use a lot less litter, and spend almost no time dealing with the waste itself.
any issue with smell is easily dealt with by sprinkling a little
baking soda in the waste receptcle from time to time.

all in all it's a very fine product, that makes caring for your
pets much more efficient.

I've used the littermaid for several years and find it reliable and easy to use. With two indoor cats and a schedule that takes me away from home for several days at a time, the littermaid has saved me a lot of hassels. If one cat didn't clean up after himself the other cat may decide to use the bathtub or the floor next to the litterbox for it's toilet, this problem was solved by the regular raking of the littermaid.
It does require a thorough cleaning from time to time, but this mainly occurs when I'm not diligent about daily or subweekly checks. If there's too little litter the litter will not form an easily rakeable clump. The litter remains wet and will either cling to the rake or harden to the bottom of the box and require manual scraping to dislodge.
If there's too much litter, the rake cannot rake to the end and will cycle continuouly, creating a mound of litter or eventually stop until enough litter is removed and redistributed to work with only one cycle. It's difficult to know when it's too full, and I keep a plastic cup close by to remove excess litter when I overfill. By shutting off the switch and restaring the littermaid you can see if the rake cycles correctly (without waiting the 10 minutes it takes for it to automatically cycle.)

So, until they come up with something better I'll make the following suggestions: 1) use high quality clumping litter, 2)don't overfill 3)Make sure there's enough litter so your cat can't dig a hole that exposes or allows any liquid to reach the plastic bottom 4)keep a small vacuum cleaner (Dust Buster, Dirt Devil,etc.)nearby to vacuum any loose litter off the floor and the track path of the rake and 5)For economy and I find it easier, line the "disposable" collection trays with a 4 gallon garbage bag or small plastic shopping bag. When the tray is full, remove the bag for garbage disposal and reline the tray with another bag. (I've never had to buy additional trays in 7+ years.)

We have two young cats and the LitterMaid box worked well for us for approximately 3 or 4 months before extended kitty use took its devestating toll on it.

1. Cats scratch up the litter which then ends up in the tracks the cleaning comb moves in. Litter and other debris (you know what I mean :-) can gum up the tracks and prohibit the comb from sweeping all the way across the litter box. Fixing this requires a major, detailed cleaning which is hard to do well and not risk damaging the electronic components of the box. Aside from the "cleaning the box thoroughly" issue (see #2 below), prior to cleaning the product it will sometimes get stuck in this loop where it continually tries to keep push comb down the track, get jammed, detect this, and then retry only to fail again. It effectively prohibits the cats from using the litter box until you fix it by unplugging it and waiting a few seconds and plugging it back in. This is disasterous when it happens while you are not home for several hours -- say at work all day.

2. Cats often don't pee directly down into the litter. Our male cat hit the sensors, tracks, etc... There were two consequences: (a) you have to be very careful cleaning out the sensors and wiring to make sure the water doesn't damage the electronic components of the box -- this was a huge pain and very easy to screw up and (b) and in the end, even if you are diligent about trying to keep the electronics clean, dry and functioning, I don't think they are designed to handle long term exposure to the pee. In the end, all the sensors and electonics simply stopped functioning for us, making it a very expensive regular litter box which is hard to clean.

If you had asked me two years ago to rate this product, I would have given it 5 stars without a doubt. I bought a Littermaid Mega nine years ago and it worked flawlessly with 2 cats. One day last year, the motor gave out. Without hesitation I went out and spent another $90 on a new machine -- I got the LM500 because by now I had only 1 cat. Within 2 months, one of the wheels that guide the rake broke off. The company sent me a new one after I sent them $5 to cover the shipping. Four months later, a piece of the rake broke off. The company sent me a new one after I sent them $10 to cover the shipping. The third machine didn't work out of the box! For another $10, they would have sent me a new one but at this point I'm not wasting any more of my money. I don't know if they switched manufacturers or what but the current products are only cheap imitations of the original. It's a shame...Littermaids used to be great.

I highly recommend this product to anyone who is tired of cleaning litterboxes. I can just fill up the litter and forget about it. But don't throw out your old scoop, sometimes the clumps get stuck on the sifter. It says to use Premium Litter, but most of the ones on the list are commonly used brands anyway. I use Fresh Step. The waste recepticles are great, they are plastic containers that hold the litter inside, it says to change them everyday, but they are too expensive for me to do that. You can reuse them by dumping out the waste and cleaning them out, but this can get yucky, so what I do is I let them fill up to capacity and then throw the whole container away. I have one cat so this takes about a week, and it doesn't smell any more doing it this way. So instead I use one recepticle a week, so a refill box lasts me three months. So every Friday, which is trash day here, I remove the recepticle, throw it out and replace it with a new one. Then I add more litter up to the Full Line. I have been doing this for a while, and this system works for me. So no more smelly boxes, no more kitty walking through dirty litter, and no more scooping. It's a miracle. I waited until it was on sale in Target, since I am not rich. I got it for around $$$. It was expensive for me but it was definitely worth the money. I leave it plugged in (don't use batteries unless its only as a backup, they will waste pretty quickly), and I don't have to even think about the litter until Friday when I add litter and change the recepticle. I am happier, my cat is happier. Its healthier for my family and my cat. I think this is the best product I have ever bought, even if it was a little expensive. The motor is pretty loud, but the new models have quieter motors and there is an on/off switch so you can switch it off at night, when you turn it back on it starts cleaning again at once. I don't have to worry about this since my cat uses it in the garage, so I never hear it. It is definitely worth the money though.

Oh, yes, don't buy the Privacy Tent for it, it is greatly overpriced and cheaply made, my cat broke it by sitting on it, she's an average sized cat, (11 pounds), the litter box is worth the money but not the tent.

I read all the reviews saying this thing sucked, and I thought, Well I'm an engineer, I can handle it but I was Wrong. I even got the older model LM500 hoping that it would work, but it didn't.
In the automatic rake thing, there are several plastic parts put, not glued or secured together. The first couple of times the rake went offline (because of excessively large dump - this happened at least 4-5 times per day despite filling litter to lower than the mark and using premium litter etc), the little plastic parts would pop out and the rake would go offtrack. Once this started happening, the plastic pieces would pop off every time. I tried glueing it, rubberbands, etc. Nothing worked.
I feel really stupid for having read all the reviews and still buying it. Look at the content of the reviews. People describe intimately what is wrong with the product (rake broken, off track, etc) and how they tried to fix it. This should tell you how involved the owner got to try and get it to work. For me this meant getting cat piss all over myself, litter in my eyes, and messing with it everyday until the day, only three weeks after I got it, when it refused to work whatsoever.
Now I have this gigantic plastic piece of cat piss smelling garbage sitting around that I have to repackage and mail back. This is just not worth it. My brother has one, and it works, but it's just luck of the draw whether you get it to work or not. But judging from all the negative reviews, odds are against you.

The idea is fantastic--a litter box that empties itself. The design is well thought-out. The execution of the design is rather questionable. The design seems to have been sent to an offshore plastic molding firm and then shipped to the customer directly with only a little bit of testing. The screws in the rake assembly rust badly from cat urine. The waste tub doesn't easily install and the plastic tub lid doesn't really stay on the lid opener mechanism. The noise is quite loud--our cat took weeks to get used to it. We have used every kind of clumping cat litter and the rake still jams on clumped litter near the ramp on the third day. Removing the waste tub is so clumsy that when I pull the tub upwards, the lip catches on the rim and flings cat litter chunks into my face. Every time.

It still beats regular cat litter boxes. We are on our third unit--two have broken after one year of use by one cat but have always been replaced under warranty. The warranty policy is very good. All they want is the battery compartment cover for proof of ownership.

I read all the GREAT reviews here and laid out the money to purchase this item. It's been a little over a year now and I'm about to throw mine out.

The rake is a pain to clean ... especially if your pet ever has diarrhea (which mine did the first six months after we saved him from the pound). The rake also is super sensitive to overload and will go back and forth 3 or 4 times before giving up and flashing -- essentially jammed and unusable until you physically scoop the problem away, clean the rake and reset it. The sound of the rake going back and forth at all hours of the night is NOT a nice one and no matter what they say, this thing is STILL LOUD!

You have to be really carefully about how much litter you put in the box and if your cat is like my boy and has a good size bladder you're in trouble.

I purchased the tent to go with this, but didn't keep it on because it gets nasty too ... and I read that cats don't like to go to the bathroom in an enclosed space any more than we like porta potties!

The cost of the plastic containers is prohibitative but at least they can be used over again. I usually scooped my plastic container and left it in until I cleaned the entire box out -- about once a month.

If you have a small cat that is in perfect health and has nice neat tiddy excrement than maybe this product would work for you. As for me, I'm looking for a nice LARGE size old fashion litter box

Pros
When it's working, it does everything it's supposed to and my cats like it. Great idea in theory.

Cons
Requires a LOT of cleaning and maintenance and handling of poop... more than a normal litter box! All due to bad design.

The Bottom Line
Don't buy it! Save your money and spare yourself the frustration and filth! 2 stars instead of just 1, because it does work nicely SOME of the time.

At first I thought my Littermaid was fabulous, but now it drives me crazy with all the problems. When it's working, it's GREAT! But to keep it working you have to give a lot of maintenance, and it ends up being MORE trouble and mess than a traditional litter box. And even worse than the actual mess is the mental anguish it has caused! I have an irrational absolute hatred of this thing now!

Problems:
Litter pan is FAR too shallow, and too much litter will jam the rake (even well below the fill line). The poor cats have little room to dig and bury. This is the biggest problem, because it leads to most of the other problems!

Because the pan is so shallow, the clumps stick to the bottom of the pan and they jam the rake.

Clumps also stick to the rake itself, preventing it from raking and making an ugly mess. Cleaning the rake is a nastier job than cleaning out a normal litterbox.

When the rake jams, it backs up (a safety mechanism to prevent it from hitting your kitties) and starts over - and over and over several more times before giving up! In bed at night, I HATE to hear the motor jamming and trying again and again. And I hate to come home and find that little red light flashing, signaling a jam. Very frustrating!

Changing the waste receptacles is not as simple as it looks - it's impossible to do without little bits of dirty litter flying everywhere, including in your face, hair, floor...

A lot of litter and little clumps fall through gaps and end up on the floor

Sometimes the rake jams so badly that it comes off its tracks completely - with quite an EXPLOSION of nasty litter

Only the most expensive clumping litter can be used (like Arm & Hammer), and even that has to be changed frequently

The receptacles are expensive (but I reuse mine a few times or line them with plastic grocery bags)

The whole contraption needs regular thorough cleaning - every 3 weeks or so - to prevent jamming and sticky clumping. (The rake and pan are removeable so I put them in the shower and give a heavy scrubbing with dish detergent). A person less lazy than me might have better luck because I hate to clean the whole thing out. A friend of mine does this weekly and throws all the (expensive) litter away to start fresh. But then, this machine is MADE for lazy people who don't like touching litter, so what's the point?!?!

So that's it. In the end, my traditional litter box is easier to keep clean and doesn't give me the constant mental anguish of "What, it's jammed AGAIN? @*#%$@!" I think I'm going to just unplug the Littermaid and fill it up deeper to use as a normal litter box.
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Something new to add - the rake has just recently adopted a new trick - CATAPAULTING large clumps of poop across the kitchen floor! It's amazing how far those clumps can fly. When I was making a sandwich just now I found some small litter clumps that had landed on the kitchen counter. You never know when and where you'll find another nugget! Actually, you do know when: EVERY DAY. Why do I keep trying to use this thing? Did I mention that it's driven me insane?! I'd like to chuck the whole thing out the window or drive over it with my car! DISGUSTING!
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Update: I ditched the Littermaid and went back to just having two traditional litter boxes for my two cats. They are much easier and tidier to maintain, and don't infernally torment me. I thought about selling my used Littermaid, but I just couldn't do it. Even for such a pricey item, I just couldn't in good conscience take some eager person's money, knowing what agony it would cause them!

when i got it i loved it for about 3 days. then it began clogging up and getting disgustingly dirty. NO ONE i've ever met, and i do animal rescue work, has ever kept this and used it. want to get one that really works? go to http://litter-robot.com/ and check out the message board at http://www.litterbox-central.com this was a great resource for me. i was obsessed with fining a solution to the litterbox oder and time it took. litter robot has been a great product for me...for now nearly a year and on the litterbox central forum you can see testimonials from other users who are happy for longer. 3 weeks for this crummy littermaid or a 18mth warrenty and many happy users with the LITTER-ROBOT