Customer Reviews

LitterMaid Cat Privacy Tent

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(56)

 

 

I agree completely with the other reviewers regarding the flimsy quality of the support posts for the tent. In addition, our zipper broke, and as the tent itself is plastic there was no easy way to simply replace the zipper without tearing up the tent itself.

I do disagree with those who say the tent is useless. Once you've gotten a feel for how much litter is "too much", you rarely have to actually see into the tent itself for anything other than adding litter. The only problems I've ever encountered were that our cat had decided to "prefer" one side over the other, resulting in a mountain of litter in one half of the box that the motor for the scoop just couldn't handle. After 3 or 4 retries, it just stops and waits for the next cycle. Such problems are easily resolved by taking our "old-fashoned" litter scoop and shoving the litter around, then switching the unit off and on again and seeing if the rake makes it through the cycle. None of this is impaired by the presence of the tent. Adding litter is a bit of a pain - it would help if there was a snapping flap of some sort on the top.

Meanwhile, the tent really does signifigantly improve the odor situation. But the most important thing, at least for our cat, is that without the tent she tends to ignore the ramp and jump out of the box directly, leading to litter all over the vicinity. The tent prevents this, and the carpeted ramp does a pretty good job of preventing litter from going everywhere.

We haven't found a good replacement for the tent yet, and I'm loathe to spend 30 bucks for such poor quality. But as I noted in my title, this is not a review of the actual littermaid system - We got ours almost 3 years ago and (tent issues aside) it's worked great! I'd hate to go back to scooping. One recomendation - use a plastic grocery store bag as a liner for the little plastic container, then just throw away the liner and stop buying new containers!

We love the LitterMaid litterbox but the tent is beyond bad. Everything about it is of poor quality. The zipper breaks easily and is difficult to zip up because the plastic tent is slightly undersized for the tent structure formed by cheap plastic rods... Flimsy to the core, the plastic rods met their death when our average sized 10 lb cat decided to explore the universe from the top of the tent.

The concept is great -- privacy for the cats, spares us of seeing them do their thing, and it helps with the odor. ...

OK, I know that's a non sequitur, but that should give you an idea of how useless this product is. I got this tent free when I bought the mega Littermaid litter box (which, despite some problems, I love). The tent comes with no instructions but the plastic pieces that support the tent fit together like Tinker Toys. (I'm not mechanical at all, but figured it out.) Once you get the plastic frame together, though, getting the tent over it is no easy task; the tent seems to be just a tad too small to fit well over the frame. I was frustrated enough at this, but once I figured I would have to remove the tent every time I wanted to change the plastic waste container in the Littermaid, I gave up entirely. The tent is currently taking up space in my garage. I ended up buying a custom-built plywood carpet-covered container that's big enough for both the Littermaid and the ramp. It has a lift-off lid and an opening for my two kitties, and it keeps virtually everything (including odor) contained -- I would recommend a unit like that over this flimsy tent.

The first time I assembled this, my cat jumped on top of it and the whole thing collapsed. I took it apart and discovered that one of the CHEAP plastic corner connectors had snapped. It's now held together with duct tape. Does Littermaid expect that cat's won't jump up on something like this that's flat on top and begs to be explored? If they do, then why is the frame made out of such fragile and flimsy plastic?

the privacy tent is a very clever item.
well made, out of good materials, but highly impractical.

the privacy issue with your cat is much less an issue than
being able to keep the electronic cat box clean and working
properly.
this tent makes it virtually impossible to see what's happened
in the box, and to smooth the litter around now and then.
this is something you'll need to be able to do.

i bought it, but wound up lining the bottom with a blanket, and a few toys.
my cats sleep and play in it.

I love cats but my wife is a clean freak..... This little thing solved her problem with regard to "litter kicking" as all the litter that gets thrown outside the litter box accumulates on the bottom of the tent. About once a week, I simply pick up the tent and give it a good shake outside. It totally solved that particular problem. As for "tracking" we put a small section of "astro turf" in front of the litter box and the cat's paws are cleaned of litter as he walks out. This in combination with the Litter Locker Plus removes all litter problems.

Now some people have commented on the frame calling it "flimsy". This is true in the literal sense as it is indeed made of tubular plastic that "joins" together (ideally they would have designed it with two cross-bars on top as opposed to just one).

Nevertheless, I think it would be near impossible for the frame to get broken by even the largest cat jumping on top of it. Our cat is 15+ pounds and he sleeps on it quite often! He also jumps onto it sometimes from the window ledge and it has not broken. Regarding the zipper, once assembled I've never used the zipper again and am unsure why anyone would want to (to clean the inside of the tent?).

In summary, this is a great product for the money.
Yes the tent could have been made with aircraft titanium poles for the frame, reinforced Kevlar fabric for the tent itself, and YYZ zippers guaranteed to last a lifetime, but for its primary purpose -- to contain the spillage -- this is a GREAT value.

The cat seems to enjoy it too. :)

I bought the littermaid tent about a month after I bought my littermaid. I've never had any problems with the littermaid and am happy with the product. The tent on the other had is very poorly made!! It's supported with a series of plastic tubes which is very easy to assemble, but I had to move last week and when I CAREFULLY took the tent apart 3 of the pegs connecting the tubes broke off. I used tape to put it the frame back in place I had to try and zip and re-zip the tent b/c the zipper kept breaking and opening. It finally came back together after about 20 minutes of zipping and rezipping.

The tent does help with keeping the litter in b/c my cat really likes to dig, but obviously this product wasn't designed very well b/c even with both flaps wide open...the waste tray doesn't come out nicely and yes refilling the litter would be easier if you could pour it in on top and see what you were doing.

I'm not very happy with the tent, but am happy with the littermaid. I just wish there was a better quality product out there.

I bought this product from Amazon on 2/4/2004. The product is a piece of crap. I followed the instruction and tried to put it together. But the plastic tent is not the right size, and I can't zip the two pieces together. I called Littermaid's 1-800 number on 2/17/2004, the customer services rep (Carrie Murray, ext 3123) told me that they are just distributor and they are not responsible for any return. She even told me that it's Amazon's responsibility, not Littermaid's. After arguing for a while, I faxed my invoice over and she promised me they will take care of it. I haven't heard back from her since then. I wasted $25 on this junk. And I'm very upset at Littermaid being so irresponsible. So my advise is: DON¡ŠT BUY IT.

Nice concept, poorly executed. The support structure to hold the tent in place is of the lowest quality plastic out there. The frame didn't last 2 months before it started cracking at places (and I have a little kitten weighing less than 9lbs). If I were you, I would save my money and look elsewhere.

I bought this product at the store ... and I still think it was well worth it. Yes, as described in other reviews, it's somewhat flimsy and it is HUGE, but it's a tent for a cat litter box. I don't pull on it, jump on it or sit on it, (neither does my cat) so the fact that it's made of a cheaper plastic product doesn't really mean anything. It certainly seems strong enough to last, as long as you handle it with care. It helps tremendously with odor and cat litter on the floor. I am thrilled with this product - both the littermaid and the tent...