I have two of them. My crew are litter throwers and, since one box is in the bathroom, it keeps the smell down. The one in the bathroom makes a dandy seat, for Rowdy and Buddy to "supervise" from, too.
And I would not want to have one that is not hooded, both for the odour, and since Pollýanna is so obsessive, and has to have ALL the sand over her pee (and some of the wooden floor as well, preferable), so if I have an open box I have sand all over the place. A new positive thing is that my son doesn´t pay much attention to it (apart from a little toy that is trown in there every now and then
). Open box would brobably want him to play in this nice sand.
I have nothing but hooded pans. I have a lot of high kickers and pee-ers in the household. I have only one cat that isn't fond of them (Tigger), but he's adapted and sticks his head out the opening when he goes. Tried to keep one open one for him but the others would splash out of that pan.
I have 2 hooded litter pans. I had to switch to hooded once we got Sasha. He throws litter all over the place. Hooded pans are GREAT! Even if they didnt kick litter, I would still use them now. They just seem more sanitary having the "stuff" partially covered and out of sight.