Automatic Litter Box - Making the Right Choice

Although automatic litter boxes may appear, at first sight, to need less work than having to manually scoop clumps out of traditional litter boxes, selecting the incorrect automatic cat litter box may bring you a lot more bother than you are prepared to take on. Badly designed tools can demand incessant human intervention to adjust, clean, or reset when gears and rakes become jammed in the cleaning cycle. The motor may cause enough noise to wake you from slumber in the middle of the night after your cat takes a dump. Pieces of feces might get flung outside of the litter box. Actually, in line with feed-back they leave on various websites, owners of certain badly-designed automatic litterboxes truly wished they had not gotten one.

However, not every automatic litter box have major design failings, and a lot consumers are happy they made the switch. Though almost every product has the potential of malfunctioning, some are less certain to cause pain for their owners than others. Based on my first-hand exposure to several brands of this type of contraption, along with lots of the client feedback I have read online, I found the following automatic litter boxes to be the best selection to choose from.

1) Litter Robot

The Litter Robot waits a few minutes after your cat has left the litter box, and then drops the waste into a plastic bag underneath. It is quiet when it operates, and contains odor comparatively well. One other big plus is that it doesn’t have a lot of ongoing costs. The only things that need to be replaced on an ongoing basis are premium clumping litter and plastic bags from any grocery store. While it comes with a rather heavy price-tag, the fact that the Litter Robot has minimum operating costs and that most consumers find it to require little maintenance makes it one of the best automatic kitty litter boxes currently on the market. Highly recommended!

2) Petsafe Simply Clean

Unlike the other automatic cat litter boxes, the Petsafe Simply Clean litter box not only goes through the cleaning cycle after a kitty leaves. It continuously moves and deposits clumps into a plastic bag. There is no likelihood of kitty getting its paws stuck in any moving parts because it isn’t subjected to any. Another benefit to the continuous cleaning is that smells are reduced to a minimum. The only regular costs are common plastic bags and premium clumping litter. Best of all, it comes with a good price tag. The only complaint from some consumers is that while the litter box is operating, the softer fecal material could break apart into pieces that are too small to get carried off by the conveyor, and end up remaining inside the box until they are manually removed. For this reason, I would not recommend that you go with Petsafe if your kitty has soft waste material. If this problem doesn’t apply to your cat, the Petsafe Simply Clean litterbox would make a great option by getting the job done at a relatively affordable price.

3) ScoopFree

ScoopFree has the usual design shared by many automated boxes, composed from a rake that drags waste to a throw-away tray after the cat leaves. There is though one thing about ScoopFree that makes it different from other litterboxes: instead of using clumping litter that needs to be replaced regularly, it makes use of litter crystals that may be utilized over and over again to take in moisture in the waste to reduce odors. Along with the low upkeep costs, this litterbox has a low upfront sales price. The only ongoing cost is for the dispensable tray, which needs to be replaced when it is full. Furthermore, this litterbox does not need much human intervention. The sole flaws are that some folks find the odor to be excessive, and / or that the motor is overly loud. All in all, though, I would still suggest this litter box as being one of the finest ones currently available.

4) Cat Genie

The Cat Genie has a particularly unique design, where it is hooked up to the home’s plumbing system and waste is mechanically mixed with a sani-solution before getting flushed down the toilet. Rather than normal cat litter, the box comes with granules that are permanent and requires no replacing. After the waste material is eliminated, the box would automatically wash and dry itself. The installation at the beginning may be more trouble than with other cat litter boxes, but the fact that it is self-cleaning and self-flushing more than compensates for the initial time investment. The major downside about this box are 1) the maintenance cost of the sani-solution can add up over time, and 2) some owners protest about dysfunctioning such as jams that would require untidy disassembly, disgusting manual cleansing of semi-dissolved waste, and reassembly. However , considering that almost all of the consumer feedback on this product has been good, this litter box is still recommended.

You are encouraged to do your own online research before making a buying decision. Just do not assume that any automatic cat litter box will perform more of the filthy work to make your life easier – some will, and some will not. The more research you do before purchasing, the less certain you will finish up with a huge mess on your hands and a bigger headache, not to mention a lighter wallet.

You are welcomed to go to AutomaticLitterBoxes.net to find out more about the hottest automatic litter boxes on the market today.