Best reasonably-priced self cleaning litterbox?

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/3610354

Looking to pick up a self cleaning litterbox but there are a lot of options. The coolest one I've seen by far is the CatGenie Automatic Cat Box, but it's nearly $500 and seems a little overkill.
I've also seen that the PetSafe Litterbox is a very popular choice, but it uses proprietary litter refills and crystal litter when I'd prefer clay litter.
I've been getting away with a $15 do-it-yourself litterbox just fine for a while, but I think I (and my cat) would appreciate something that doesn't require daily maintenance. Something as simple as an automatic rake would be interesting.
My main goals are:
Requires as little maintenance as possible while keeping my cat happy and the smell under control
No proprietary lock-in (I can use my own litter)
Doesn't break the bank
Built well, won't break / easy to fix / good warranty / cheap enough that I can just buy a new one if it breaks
While I am looking for budget friendly options, I'm also curious on the more expensive options. I can't imagine what justifies spending $700 on a Litter-Robot when emptying a litterbox manually isn't that bad and the CatGenie is $500 and promises zero-maintenance. Have you had good luck with premium options like that?

17 comments

I looked into robots but decided to try a low-tech solution first. I got an Arm & Hammer brand sifting litter box for $20. I can clean the entire litter box in about 15 seconds.
I have no need for a robotic litter box anymore.
- What type of litter do you use with that box?
  
  Whatever Costco has. I think it's a clumping clay.

I have two Litter Robots (3rd gen) and I love them. They aren’t perfect but they are really good. My cat box maintenance is weekly and it takes 5 minutes to do both of them.
Cleaning them is a pain but you don’t have to do it super often.
No proprietary consumables. I’ve used four or five types of clumping litter, no issues. I use standard kitchen garbage bags in the catch pan.
They are expensive but after I bought the first and my cats got used to it I had to buy another. My cats walk on (comparatively) clean litter every time, which is a great benefit. And the time savings is huge.
- Exact same situation here, two 3rd gens.
  We did the same type of research you did OP, and honestly you have three options:
  get a low cost 'automatic rake' box, which will break in a month if your pet has a bad day on the potty. Or worse, everything will get stuck to the rake and it'll be worse to clean than scooping the box.
  you go with something proprietary like the crystal litter solutions.
  or you get an expensive box like the litter machine.
  Its certainly unfortunate that there aren't better options for cheaper, but I do think that it's the right choice in most cases. I have 4 cats and 2 litter boxes, and I empty them about once a week with a deep clean every 3 months or so. We do have one non automated box because sometimes they prefer that, but overwhelmingly they prefer the litter machines.
  
  Yeah that's rough, especially when you start factoring in multiple litterboxes. $1k+ on litterboxes is a hard pill to swallow.
- I also have the litter robot, latest gen. Very quiet and my cat loves having a clean litterbox all the time.
- I recently did much of the same research and ended up just buying a LitterBot 4. Not perfect and the cat begrudgingly uses it, but it does mean I don't have to scoop the litter tray twice a day (or more) which is worth the outlay. The cheaper ones just seem to come with even more down sides.
- I wish our cats would use our Litter Robot again. It was great for around a year, then they just stopped using it. I think I'll try cleaning it thoroughly and see if that helps.

I tried one years ago and it was a miserable experience.
First, you can't just put it where you want it, it has to be within reach of an electrical outlet.
Second, the noise scared the cats, they hated it.
Third, there wasn't enough time between the cat leaving the box and the motor running, so the scooper would trail through wet clumping litter that hadn't had enough time to clump, clogging the scooper and making it so you had to clean it all the time, completely defeating the purpose.

I'm curious how well these things keep the smell under control. Especially since cats have a better sense of smell than humans. For us it maybe clean but for them?

I use the PetSafe automatic box, but instead of the proprietary trays, I picked up a "Forever Tray" and you can then use any non-clumping crystal litter.
The biggest challenge I've had with it is that it turns into a big mess if your cat ever has soft poos, and one of my cats has IBS, so that happens more often than I'd like.
How old is your cat? How set in their ways are they? My cats have taken to the automatic box without any trouble, but my friend's cat completely lost his mind when she introduced the Litter Robot and he started peeing on laundry, etc. instead. She ended up getting rid of it, and 6 months later, he's still afraid to go in the room where the Litter Robot was.
- That's very tempting, thank you! I think I might try that out.
  My cat is 7+. She's used to automatic litterboxes from previous homes. Not sure how she'd react to a litter robot though, those are intimidating 😹
  
  To be on the safe side with whatever automatic box you end up buying, I suggest leaving it unplugged for a few days while she gets used to the new box & litter. Once she's using the box consistently, plug it in and press the button to manually run the rake when she's nearby to see/hear it. If she seems stressed by it, unplug it and stick to manually running the rake until she's no longer stressed by it.
  
  Oh! And as much as I hate cleaning up after those soft poos, I would never get one of the automatic boxes that totally disposes of the waste via toilet or whatever.
  Unusual eliminations are often the first sign that your cat isn't feeling well. If you never see their poo, you might miss the early signs that they need to see a vet.
  Sewage (and commercial composting) treatment processes in many cities are not designed to handle the microbes found in cat (and dog) poop, so their waste products should not go down the toilet or into your green waste bin unless you confirm that your city's processes are equiped to properly treat it.

We have two cats and two of the Pet Zone ones. We've been pretty happy with them but when one breaks if it's anything more than an easy motor repair I'm upgrading to the Litter Robot.

Ehm, I thought we went overboard with the surefeeds we have for the cats (4) as one of the previous set needed special feed and buying 4 of those was cheaper then feeding all cats the same very expensive food. This proved a good investment, as shortly after a 2nd cat needed special feed and now one needs medicine trough the feed. But that's the other end of the process.
Here we have 4 cats and 6 litterboxes which get scooped daily. With the general rule of thumb of 1 box per cat and 1 extra worked well here with the clumping litter we use (wood based). 3 litterboxes are on the groundfloor (hallway), livingroom on the 1st floor, 2 boxes on the 2nd floor (hallway and a separate room accessible via a cat flap) and 1 on the attic. It takes me about 5 min to scoop the 3 on the ground floor, my wife needs a few min more as there are more stairs involved and the cats use those more since we use the same litter in all boxes (they went downstairs for the clay based grit, now they just go to the closest free one when they are in the bedroom).
I'd almost advice to try an extra litterbox 1st and don't place them in the livingroom. (when I saw the picture of those automated boxes they were situated in livingrooms) We humans have our toilet somewhere else as well. (you could try to teach the cat to use the toilet)
However, I'm curious about the automated boxes advised here.

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