AutoCleaning litter boxes

[spudsmom]

We are contemplating buying a automatic cleaning litter box. Curious to hear others experiences!?!
Thai is an only cat these days, so is the only one using the boxes these days. He is VERY good about doing his business where it needs to be done....no problems there at all.
I guess we are the lazy ones trying to make it easier on ourselves. lol! Anyway, Thai is a very skitty kitty. I worry that the noise of the box pushing the waste to the receptacle might put him off the box. On the other hand, I have done some research and see that some boxes can be regulated as to the time it cleans.
Does anyone use one?

My daughter uses one that she has had for years, her kitty grew up with it. Just wondering if a 3 yr old kitty can adjust to it?

 

[stephanietx]

I had one and grew to hate it! You can only use certain types of litter and you have to continue buying the urine/poop collectors and those things are not cheap. Also, it's hard to clean if you've got a kitty that likes to pee in the corner or along the side of the box. The pee would get up on the track of the rake and make the whole thing stink because it was so difficult to clean. I wouldn't waste my money on another one.

 

[ducman69]

The majority of automatic litterboxes are of inferior design with low user satisfaction rates by and large.

The exception to the rule though is one very pricey, but also very well received litterbox, called the Litter Robot LR2:
http://www.amazon.com/Litter-Robot-A...1312292&sr=1-1

It is quite large and very noisy if you watch the youtube videos. I had considered it, but since I have two cats I should ideally have a second one in another location as backup, but I was unwilling to spend nearly $700. Last I checked they are risk-free though, and they pay return shipping.

I did manual scooping for a while, but frankly, I detest it and don't enjoy spending time sifting again and again through litter digging for poop and pee clumps, so I got the half-manual litterbox called the Omega Paw:
http://www.amazon.com/Omega-Paw-Self..._ob_hg_title_1

Its not that big, so you definitely need the large size, but it works great with Swheat Scoop Multicat (available cheapest in 40lb bags at Petsmart) litter. I liked it so much, I ended up buying four total, two each in two closets.

This video demonstrates how you simply pull it forward and roll it. I have a scoop for the rare occasions a pee ball sticks to the bottom, and that can be reached without removing the top: