Is the Litter-Robot really worth the price?

What is a Litter-Robot:
The Litter-Robot is an electronic litter box that is supposed to make life easier for those of us who hate scooping cat litter. A few minutes after your cat uses the box, it separates the clean litter from dirty while depositing the waste into a trash bag lined drawer underneath the unit. This drawer will need to be emptied once or twice a week, depending on how many cats are in your household.

When it does its job, it is an awesome piece of technology. And when it fails, the Litter-Robot can also be epic but not quite in the way that you would like. Read on for my unbiased experience with the Litter-Robot.

Lucy:
This is Lucy, and she’s my main reason for buying a Litter-Robot in the first place. I actually have two cats; one is a part Siamese named Samantha and my yellow tabby Lucy. I didn’t intend to have any pets as both of my kids have cat allergies, but we ended up with two cats who were rescues, and the allergies(pretty much) worked themselves out. Anyway, Lucy ended up being somewhat of a Diva. Her litter-box has to be completely clean at all times. Otherwise, everything and everyone around her will suffer, and it’s not good. Lucy’s only saving grace is that she’s so cute; otherwise, she’s pretty much a massive pain in the butt.

My Experience:
I purchased the Litter-Robot 3 Open Air. It’s a little larger and seems a better fit for my household because, at almost 13 pounds, Lucy is a pretty big girl. Right out of the box, everything was great. I found it to be easy to set up, and both of the cats took to it right away. Something I did notice is that if an extra-large clump of waste ends up in the waste drawer, the box won’t cycle because it thinks that the drawer is full, but this is easily solved by giving the drawer a shake.

For several months things continued nicely with me, checking on the box regularly to make sure that things continued to run smoothly. And then it happened. I came home one day to find out that the box had stalled mid-cycle, which means that the cats couldn’t go inside and use it. Well, you can pretty much figure out what happened next. Lucy won’t wait five minutes to use her litter box. If there’s a problem, she will simply find somewhere else to go. As a result, I can no longer trust the box and have resorted to manually running it a few times a day. It’s still easier than constantly scooping but, in my opinion, a little pricey for what it actually does.

Pros and Cons of the Litter-Robot:

Pros:

1. You no longer have to scoop litter multiple times a day.
2. It doesn’t use a lot of cat litter.
3. The litter box is cleaner.

Cons:

1. The price at $499 it’s a little pricey.
2. It’s harder to clean than a regular litter box.
3. The malfunctions, the risk of malfunction, means that you can’t leave it alone for extended periods of time.
4. The size, the Litter-Robot, which is relatively large, takes up a lot of space.

Overall I don’t regret my purchase, it still is pretty handy and does eliminate the need for scooping cat litter. But while the concept is good, I do think that it could be improved on because a product this expensive should not be so prone to malfunction.