Automatic Litterbox Central

I asked them for an update:

Thank you for your interest in the Litter Revolution. The retail price
will be between $229 and $249. They are not yet available to the public,
but we are hoping to have them for purchase to all by early 2006. The
waste receptacle is large enough to hold the waste of 1 cat for 5-7
days. Obviously it will need to be changed more often with more cats. It
is very simple to change the bag and replace it with a new one. There is
no mess involved as long as the bag is not allowed to overflow it's
capacity! The smell is reduced greatly since all waste is corralled into
a bag and the litter itself is kept very clean by the screen mechanism
used.

The drum is 22" in diameter and the cat has the majority o that interior
space to move in. The screen takes up a small portion of the drum and is
only 4" wide. The footprint of the unit will be less than 24"x23"x19".

The Litter Revolution may appear similar to the Litter Robot but it is
quite different in it's functionality. The screen rotates around the
drum and drops the waste into the bag at the back of the unit. There is
no drawer to pull out, nothing to get stuck, etc. The unit is also
completely different in functionality than the Littermaid. It was the
inventors own personal experiences with a Littermaid that prompted him
to develop the Litter Revolution. There is no "rake" in the Litter
Revolution and it does not work in any way close to the Littermaid.

The whole unit is easily cleaned as well as the drum can be removed from
the base and washed in a bathtub or with a hose every 3-6 months. New
litter does not often need to be added as the litter bed is kept quite
clean by the screen.

We realize there is limited information on our website at this time and
that has been done purposefully. When we are closer to the release date,
we will provide much more information on the website as well as details
on warranties, customer service, etc.

We will keep your name and email on file for future updates. If you have
any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Linda Shriftman
Litter Revolution, Inc.
579 Echo Ridge Court
Reno, Nevada 89511
775-851-7781 Phone
775-851-7782 Fax
http://www.litterrevolution.com

My comment: I hope the motor that rotates the screen is powerful enough to do the job.

sharonemery1 wrote:The screen rotates around the drum and drops the waste into the bag at the back of the unit.

This is what I don't get. It seemed like the drum rotated and relied on dependable gravity to pass the litter through the screen like the LR. This hints that screen moves inside the drum and has to pass through the litter to clean it. Since that's how the Littermaid fails, I hope this is wrong.

Scott Larson wrote:

sharonemery1 wrote:The screen rotates around the drum and drops the waste into the bag at the back of the unit.

This is what I don't get. It seemed like the drum rotated and relied on dependable gravity to pass the litter through the screen like the LR. This hints that screen moves inside the drum and has to pass through the litter to clean it. Since that's how the Littermaid fails, I hope this is wrong.

Well, I agree with you here. The amount of force needed to push a screen into a (clumped) pile of sand and out the other side is going to be great. That leads to loudness, screen failure, etc. I hope this is wrong too. I like my LRobot, but I need a larger version. This one doesn't look like it yet.

It seems like there should be a way to design a LItter Robot that screens the litter by rotating once in one direction. Then you wouldn't need the large litter storage area in the globe, it would work faster because it wouldn't have to rotate backwards to get the litter back out of it (screening it twice for no reason), and could probably use a smaller quieter motor since it wouldn't have to lift all the litter as it rotates.

I sent them an email asking for clarification, but apparently they're just using a cookie-cutter response email to questions. I got the same email in response, although they did add to it a little:

"The screen rotates around the drum (as it is attached to the drum) and drops the waste into the bag at the back of the unit after sifting or screening through all of the litter."

So I'm still not sure if the drum itself is stationary and the screen moves independently, or if the screen is stationary and it moves through the litter as the drum rotates.

I've asked for further clarification.

Victoria wrote:"The screen rotates around the drum (as it is attached to the drum)..."

I hope whoever designed it didn't write this since that description contradicts itself.

So my guess now is that the drum rotates and takes the screen around with it. This makes the most sense to me.