PetSafe Simply Clean Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box, Automatic, Works with Clumping Cat Litter

The motor on my first one died just like others have reported, however i found a fix thats worked for almost a year and a half now.

I purchased one of those vacation electric outlet timers that you plug lights into for $5. Instead, i plugged the litter box into it, and set it to turn on twice a day for 1 hour each time. Why haven't they built this into the litter box! It extends the life of the motor since its only on 2 hours a day vs 24 hours a day. It's not wasting electricity endlessly spinning, and its not endlessly making noise (although this thing is pretty quiet)

I've tried a few other self cleaning litter boxes, and with my timer fix, this one is by far the best one. Highly recommend only if you use a timer.

I have had the Petsafe Simply Clean litter box for over a year. I purchased this product from the vendor vice Amazon.

How this is a game changer:
-Bottom line up front - I can't see myself with any other litter box. This is a great addition to our household. It does the job, and does it great!

-I use plastic grocery bags when I go grocery shopping, and save them for the container that deposits are dropped into. This is cheaper and easier than purchasing proprietary bags or containers sold by many other manufactures of automatic litter boxes.

-Because cleaning takes place on a regular basis (four times a day, for one hour - according to my timer presets), the litter contamination by deposits over a period of a month is significantly less than regular litter boxes. I find myself doing complete change-outs of the litter on a 45-60 day basis. I replenish on a weekly basis with just a little bit of litter and some Arm and Hammer Cat Litter Deodorizer with Baking Soda (available in your pet isle). This saves me money and time and makes the cats happy.

-I have gone on a 7 day cruise with my wife - which actually involved myself and my wife being away for nearly 10 days if you take into consideration transit time and hotel stays. I had a friend visit once to make sure cat food and water were well stocked for the cats. She didn't once need to check on the litter box - because it did it's job. Upon our return, the bag was full, but still had room for a day or two more. This box gives me the confidence to leave my cats alone for long periods of time with little supervision, cleanup, or maintenance of the litter box.

Maintenance, Nuances, and Customizations:
-The unit runs continuously. Fix: Purchase an electronic timer that you can purchase from your local Wal-Mart or Lowes. Make sure it's a sturdy unit so that the heave AC power adapter does not stress the timer and render it useless. This happened to me - so I bought a higher quality timer that is doing the job quite well.

-The unit operates based on three conditions: There is power, the conveyor cover is on, and the collection tub is in place. On occasion, I noticed that the lid would become dislodged and the unit would not operate. This would aggravate both my cats and I. Fix: I took the tip of a regular Bic pen and removed the thin sliver that is supposed to hang onto your clothes. I then placed said pen cap into the hole that has the switch that is normally pressed down by the conveyor cover. I trimmed it such that it was flush with the surface of the unit, and gorilla glued that bad boy right on in there. Finally, I trimmed the part of the conveyor cover that normally pressed in the switch. Now, the unit operates with the lid on, loose, or completely off.

-The unit will sometimes begin to squeak. Fix: I broke down the unit, carefully noting the location of gears, components, and enclosures and applied graphite lubricant liberally to the moving components (be careful this stuff is messy and hard to get off of carpets). The last time I did this was a year ago. The unit continues to run squeak free.

-As the unit rotates, and the cats bury their deposits, loose litter falls under the rotating unit. Fix: When I completely clean the litter out on a 45-60 day basis (as said above), I place a garbage bag on the ground, and tilt the unit such that the deposits fall into the bag.

-On two occasions, an extremely hard and dry clump of fecal matter got stuck between the conveyor unit and the conveyor frame as the unit was brushing the clump into the collection tub. This resulted in very loud clicks caused by the motor being unable to move conveyor unit. Fix: I unplugged the unit, and forced the clump out.

-The box is not deep enough to keep my cats from kicking litter out. Fix: I purchased a few rubber collection pads from Wal-Mart to have to keep from vacuuming often. Alternatively, you may extend the vertical reach of the "shield" that is affixed to the rotating tub with any material such as flexible plastic or a portion of a thick folder (as I did - and it worked).

-While large clumps of urine and fecal matter are collected with ease, there will be those smaller chunks that simply pass through the conveyor and go back "into rotation" with the rest of the clean litter. Fix: I clean the small chunks out with the "pooper scooper" when I replace the bag and add litter.

-The unit can and will get litter dust and, on a bad day, fecal matter on it. Fix: Clean it.

Conclusion:
All things taking into consideration, this is a fantastic unit that like all things mechanical and electronic in nature, require maintenance and modifications as you see fit. The customer service is fantastic. I had to have a replacement unit sent because the unit in the original failed. They did this without any questions after I described the symptoms. If you're tired of cleaning your litter box and you set aside a few hours to perform my suggestions and fixes above, I am confident that you won't regret this purchase.

I had a unit running since November 2009. the old 2009 product, I had to clean the rotation motor mount often with the old model or the gears would fill up with litter dust, it would pack in and cause trouble, I have one cat that is a digger and flings the litter over and out of the base I have 4 Cat's with two units. I have timers on both with them set to be (ON) for 1.5 hours and (OFF) for 1 hour continuously 365 days a year.

(The new 2013 version), they have added holes in the bottom base to allow the the litter to escape better. Also added rollers under the pan so it does not scrape on the bottom of the main unit. It seems the mount for the pan motor has been redesigned and I have not yet had the issue of the motor mount and gears being packed with litter and litter dust as before, Bat-Mite the Digger Cat is still flinging litter over the side and I have had no issue with the gears being clogged so far.

(The 2009 model) the conveyor motor finally gave out and just makes a grinding noise and does not turn the conveyor any more. I could have ordered a replacement motor but I wanted to check out the new design so I purchased the new redesigned model to see if maintenance was less and so far I am happy to say no issues so far.

The conveyor has also been redesigned. When the new one arrived I thought it was defective because it made a tick noise once at the same point in the conveyor rotation so, I returned it for a replacement unit. The replacement unit did the same thing and upon further inspection, I saw this was a normal function of the design of the new conveyor system. As the unit ran for several weeks, this once a minute tick got less and less until I no longer noticed it. Seems the action of the unit just needed time to break-in. With all versions I do have the issue of the conveyor cover being popped up deactivating the switch when a large clump of litter was moving up the conveyor and it would lift the cover enough to open the cover switch and the unit would stop. I was able to easily fix this by cutting a No. 2 pencil to about 1 inch long, placing it in the hole on the unit where the peg in the cover activates the switch allowing it to wedge itself in place by tilting sideways a little, this misalignment will hold the piece of pencil in place. (I then cut off the peg in the plastic cover with a razor knife) so the peg would not interfere with the 1 inch piece of pencil and the cover would install just fine.

Now when a large clump of litter lifted the conveyor cover up as it traveled up and then dropped in the hopper would not turn off the unit , the unit would keep operating and the cover will fall back into place after the clump drops into the hopper and all works just fine. Very happy with this unit.

Three years of use out of the old model before failure it very good. I ran the old model for 18 months without a timer so it may of lasted longer than 3 years if I had the timer installed on day one. as with anything it must be cleaned every week or so. All I do is remove the litter bowl and then dump off the litter that may be under the bowl into the bowl and then put it bowel back in place. I have never had to wash the conveyor, and so far with the new design I have had no problem with cat litter getting stuck to the bottom of the bowl like the old design.

I do change out the litter completely every 6 weeks to 2 months. I find that after a while, the fine clay in the litter that gets left behind after clumping will build up in the bowl. The ratio of clay and litter beads will not be correct and the clumping action of the litter will not be correct, thus allowing it to break into little pieces that will fall through the conveyor on the way to the hopper. Sometimes they are so small that these little clumps are the size of little beads, they stay on top of the litter and most hand litter scoops won't remove them either because they fall through the holes in the hand scoop as well. At this time it is time to change out the litter with fresh.

hope this long winded review helps. I would recommend this product.