We have from two to four cats at a time in our home, and managing the litter box is something we want to be as easy as possible. This LitterMaid LM500 Automated Litter Box was the first automated solution we tried. I'm afraid it wasn't our last, as it had numerous problems.

First, the tines would get clumped full of stuff and it would get caked solid rather quickly. I'll note that we didn't even try having this be the "only" litter box in our home! We had two others there too. We just wanted to see how well this worked. The storage container would get jammed in the open position, so that it did not do a good job of managing stench.

However, we could have dealt with those issues. We could have cleaned the tines daily, and pushed down the lid ourselves regularly. The real problem was far more serious.

First, understand how this works. The system sense motion and then X minutes after the cat has left the area, the tines move across, dragging any solids and clumps with it, pushing those items into the receptacle plastic box at the far end. Then the tines return to their original position and wait for a new visit.

What happened with our unit would be that the tines would decide that they were ALWAYS ON and would keep going back and forth, back and forth, driving the poor kitties to distraction. There was no way they were going to jump in there and try to do their business while a set of metal tines was growling towards them!

We tried several times to fix this, but it really just wasn't worth it. We moved on to other options and found a GREAT one. This one went in the trash as we couldn't even imagine subjecting any other cat owner to it. A large waste of money.

Not well recommended.

I'll give it 2/5 stars on the assumption that some units do NOT do that random motion thing - but it would only take one fritz in a lifetime to really demolish a cat's desire to ever use the unit again

This unit is known as the Littersweep Ultra or the Petmate Litter RoundUp One Touch. We bought this after our horrendous experience with the LitterMaid LM500 and figured nothing could be worse than the LitterMaid. We were wrong



The idea with this one is sort of neat. The unit "bin" spins in a circle and the arm just stays still, collecting the clumps. Then at the end the arm only has to swivel 90 degrees to dump the stuff into the waiting receptacle. In fact you can just put plastic bags into that receptacle so you're not even stuck buying 'their bins' or such. It seemed the perfect idea.

However, in reality it was a nightmare. The tines would get really nasty really quickly, all clumped with material. You had to clean them up constantly. The tines would get stuck and not move all the way forward or backwards. The grey "ring" around the top of the bin would get knocked off by the cats. The cats have to jump on and off the receptacle cover to get in and out of the litter box and litter goes EVERYWHERE. It was a giant mess and stopped working rather quickly.

Looking through Amazon, the reviews for this unit are simply awful. It appears pretty much everybody hates it.

Definitely avoid this one. Luckily through trial and error we did finally find a solution that worked well for us!

We tried two different automated litter boxes before trying this one, and were honestly ready to give up on any automated box ever working. The two previous ones we tried were AWFUL. When we decided to give this ScoopFree one a shot.



We have two cats right now and one of them is 18 pounds, so rather large. We were just not happy with the litter box situation and wanted something that pretty much self maintained. I have to say after two months we are SO happy with this unit! It is head and shoulders above anything else we've tried.

First, it is a GREAT size. Even large cats can fit easily into here and not feel cramped. We have the cover unit for this and the cat fits in there fine. It's plug-in so yes you need it near an outlet or at least have an extension cord

The tines move across smoothly, taking in any poops. The pee just gets absorbed by the crystals and really it doesn't smell at all. We have this in our kitchen bathroom and it's no problem at all. I am very impressed. You just clean out the receptacle occasionally for the poop, and then every week or two give the crystals a swirl. We've never had any problems with the tines clogging, which was a real issue with previous machines. I really think the crystals are the answer here.

The only real downside with this unit is that they want you to buy THEIR replacement crystal / cardboard box combination every month or so to replace it all. That can get really expensive. There is a cheap solution! Take a regular lacquer spray like you find at Michael's and spray the cardboard box with it a few times. That puts a nice seal on the box itself. Hardly any liquid gets that far anyway - it's all caught by the crystals - but it's good to have that extra layer of protection. Then buy regular cat crystals at the store. We've been doing that and it's been working perfectly! So that's a super cheap solution to your litter replacement. Email me if you have any questions about how this works.

Other than that, I really love this unit. Quiet, odor-free, easy, perfect.

Do you buy the crystals blend, or just the crystals? And I agree with the littermaid. We have had a couple versions and they all get caked and stop working. There is a new one with metal washable tines but I am not going to even try with it.

I am pretty sure it is just crystals but I'll ask Bob when he wakes up, he's actually the mechanic behind all of that

Bob says it was just straight store-brand crystals