Automatic Litterbox Central

Browsing the web I’ve found a wealth of information regarding the use and care of a Litter-Robot, along with many mostly glowing reviews. This post recaps issues that have interested me, and certainly isn't meant to cover all issues a Litter Robot owner may encounter. So, here is some of what I’ve found on this and other sites:

Quick Issues
1. Compared to a regular litter box, it’s large. - True, but mostly with regards to height. If you’re not sure if it will fit in your home, get the dimensions from their web site. (http://www.litter-robot.com)
2. It’s loud. - Not true in my opinion, but it does make some noise. After all, it has an electric motor.
3. What color of Litter Robot should I get? - Several people noted that the black color quickly shows litter dust and looks dirty. So unless you’re a Goth and really really want the pretty black one, you may want to consider another color.

Getting Rid of Bad Odors
Several posters have complained that their Litter-Robots developed terrible odors that could not be removed. If you have a similar problem, try a weekly wiping of the globe interior with a pet-approved anti-bacterial wipe, along with a twice-per-year globe scrubbing (or use a self-service car-wash power sprayer). Never submerge the base in water, as the circuit board and the electric motor may be immediately destroyed. If after a thorough cleaning, your robot still has odor problems read the rest of this section, along with the next one, ‘Preventing Bad Odors’.

Note: I’ve read many reports that one of the active ingredients in Lysol is very toxic to cats. I was not able to verify this claim, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk of using a Lysol product in the Litter Robot. What good is using a very good anti-bacterial product on a litter box, when it kills your cat?

Suggestion: When performing a thorough cleaning of the globe, try to dislodge all the stubborn clumps by spraying a strong stream of water into every nook and cranny of the globe interior, including the litter reservoir behind the sifting screen. There are reports that sometimes litter gets caked into the far reaches of the litter reservoir and any remaining clumps will harbor urine and bacteria, resulting in bad odors.

Personal Experience:
I took ownership of a second-hand Litter-Robot that had been sitting on a porch for an extended period of time and smelled like a stagnant swamp. It also had putrid smelling liquid in the base. I suspect a neighborhood dog had taken offense to the kitty bathroom and expressed his disdain by repeatedly relieving himself all over the device.

After three days, and three globe scrubbings with soapy Clorox water along with an extended soaking, the odor had ‘mostly’ dissipated. And after several careful wipe-downs with the same mixture, the odor in the interior of the base had ‘mostly’ dissipated.

The ‘mostly’ part still wasn’t quite good enough. I wanted to make sure the odor was gone, to make it more likely my cat would use the Robot. After some quick web research, I found several posts saying that ‘Simple Solution’ got rid of odors that ‘Nature’s Miracle’ could not. Taking those cues, I liberally sprayed the interior of the globe with Simple Solution and let it dry for 2 days – and the odor was gone! If this product could get rid of the embedded odors in my Robot, I have to believe it can get rid of any odors caused by normal use.

Preventing Bad Odors
As others have posted elsewhere, it’s true that what you feed your cat will affect the odor of what ends up in the litter box. I’ve had cats for most of my adult life and can tell you from experience – if your cat is odiferous, take him/her/it to the vet and if there are no other problems – change the food!

Personal Experiences:
Right out of college my roommate moved out and left me with a 6-month old kitten. At the time I could barely afford to feed myself, so the kitten was fed the cheapest wet food I could find. That kitten was my first confirmation that cats pass gas. That cute little thing could fit in the palm of my hand, but with no notification whatsoever she could clear a room! However, within a few months I was able to change her over to a quality dry food, ending her room-clearing exercises and making her litter box immensely more tolerable.

My current furry friend came from the local animal shelter. When I first brought him home, his litter box was a nose-curling nightmare. But after getting him neutered and eventually changing his food to ‘Purina One Special Care Urinary Tract Health Formula’ dry food, I can rarely detect odors coming from his litter box - even when cleaning it out.

Now to the point – Garbage in, garbage out!

What Kind Of Litter Should Be Used?
Clumping litter must be used. I’ve read posts where people complained that the Litter Robot made a goopy clay mess. With close to 100% certainty, I’m guessing they used non-clumping litter. Getting past that issue if you have a cat, you know that not all cat litter is the same. Some works better than others. I read several comments saying the ‘World’s Best Cat Litter’ worked beautifully in the Robot. I’ve found that ‘Scoop Away’ brand works great in a normal litter box, and now seems to work very well in the Litter Robot. (More importantly, my cat prefers this brand!) I’ve read conflicting reports on how well the various non-clay clumping litters work in the Robot so if that interests you, you’ll have to do your own research.

Important Note: If you use a clay litter that does not clump hard, you can guess how it will work in the Litter Robot. Since it will be nothing more than loose, wet clay it will not form a hard clump and will fall apart – mixing in with the dry litter and entering the litter reservoir when the waste is emptied. (The litter reservoir is what holds the clean litter when the waste is sifted out.) The urine-soaked litter that remains with the dry litter will foster bacteria and develop odors. Wet clay that enters the reservoir and gets stuck in the far reaches could be even worse. So if you’re tempted to use non-clumping litter – Just Don’t Do It! And if your litter isn’t holding a clump until it hits the waste drawer, you need to try a different brand of litter.

The Litter Robot Dumps A Lot of Clean Litter Into the Waste Drawer
I saw several posts stating that their Litter Robot wasted a lot of litter. Their problem most likely was that they were overfilling their Robot. The LR takes much less litter than you would pour into a normal litter box. All litter added to the Robot that is above its maximum capacity will immediately be dumped into the waste drawer. The LRII has a fill line to show you the maximum amount of litter to place in the machine

The LRI does not have a fill line. My machine is a LRI and I added 1.5 gallons of litter as the instructions stated. I still lost 2-3 cups of clean litter during the first handful of operations.

So if clean litter is finding its way into the waste drawer, it’s probably due to overfilling. However, I did read one post describing how the indentations in the globe where the motor engages had worn badly, to the point there was a small hole that allowed clean litter to drop into the waste drawer. The person that posted that issue patched the hole and then everything was fine.

Anti Pinch Cable
The anti pinch cable is stretched across the top opening of the base, attached to a switch under the lip.

This cable raised lots of questions for me. What in the world could its purpose be? I asked that question when corresponding with Customer Service. Their response was that it’s supposed to keep a pet from getting pinched (i.e.smashed, mangled) if they stick a part of their body through the waste openings when the Robot is operational.

Ok. But if you follow directions and don’t let a pet lighter than 5 pounds in the device, and then properly adjust the ‘Cat Sensor’, nobody’s getting pinched anyway. And if the motor detects an excessive load, it will stop and back up slightly.

My guess is that this switch was added as more of a lawsuit preventer than as a ‘pinch’ preventer! Hey, the lawyers had to get their 2 cents in, didn’t they? (We should be thankful the globe exterior isn’t completely covered with legal warnings!) Anyway, some people have disconnected this cable and removed it – with no adverse consequences. In the posts I’ve read, it was removed to accommodate modifications that increase the waste capacity. (See below.)

Protect the Circuit Board!
Many circuit boards seem to get ruined due to the cat not turning around when they enter the Robot. That is, they step in, face away from the opening and wind up streaming urine down the front of the Litter-Robot. Since the buttons coming from the circuit board stick through the side of the base and are covered with nothing more than a sticky decal, it’s only a matter of time before the urine seeps behind the decal and onto the circuit board. Not long after, the board will be fried.

If your cat is showing this type of disrespect to the world’s best litter box, there are two things you can do; both are cheap and relatively easy. First, cover the control panel decal with clear plastic, sealing the edges of the clear plastic against the base with tape. That’s the quick and easy fix to protect the circuit board. But you still have to keep cleaning up urine from the cat peeing down the front of the Robot. So, the next thing you need to do is to install a short barrier in the globe entrance. (See the next section.)

Litter Getting Thrown Out of the Litter-Robot
Many folks complain their cat(s) kick lots of litter out of the globe when burying the stinky food their owners feed them. Unless you have a bobcat, or a severely obese housecat, the answer is to add a short barrier to the inside of the globe opening, covering no more than 1/3 of the lower part of the opening. I suspect that in most cases, for cats that don’t turn around when entering the globe, this will also keep their urine inside the globe. There are no commercial products for this purpose – you have to make your own.

My cat loves to sling litter around, so I made a short barrier from the side of a plastic litter bucket. I’m still trying to get him acclimated to his newly revived Robot so it’s not permanently installed yet. It fits against the inside of the bottom of the globe opening, extending past the opening by about an inch on the left, right and bottom. Small ‘tabs’ were cut from the plastic bucket and glued to the barrier using Goop adhesive. Heavy gauge wire is attached to holes cut into the tabs. The other end of the wires wrap around the lip of the opening. The heavy gauge wire and the position of the tabs keeps the barrier from moving around. Easy to make, and easy to install or remove!

This thread contains some examples of what one of these homemade barriers may look like:
http://www.litterbox-central.com/litter-box/litter-robot/topic2702.html#p14848

In an email from Customer Service, the rep provided the following description of a different type of litter barrier that someone made: (I don't have permission, so won't mention the rep's name.)
(1.) trace a wash cloth in the shape of the cat’s entrance – hang it over the entrance and cut it in strips
(2.) take a piece of plastic and cut it in one (1) inch strips – hang them over the cat’s entrance and attach a penny to the bottom of each one for a weight. They now had flaps.

Waste Is Smeared Around The Globe Exterior
Several people have written posts about how disgusting this is and what an ordeal it is to clean out the small indentations where the globe engages the motor. One person wrote that their Litter-Robot was returned for a refund because it did this. This is not the fault of the Robot! It’s caused by not emptying the waste drawer often enough. When the drawer fills up, the waste forms a mound that eventually makes contact with the bottom of the globe – resulting in a brownish-colored foul-smelling globe.

To prevent the brown globe syndrome, simply empty the drawer more often. How often you need to empty the drawer depends on your cat(s). If your schedule prevents you from emptying the waste drawer on a regular schedule, you may want to consider increasing the waste capacity. (See the next section.)

Increasing the Waste Capacity
Just as folks figured out a way to increase the waste capacity of the Littermaid litter box, they have also figured out a way to increase the waste capacity of the Litter Robot. The most basic of instructions is to cut a 9 or 10 inch hole through the drawer bottom and then through the bottom of the base. Elevate the Litter Robot so that waste is dropped through the tray, through the base and then into some sort of collector – usually a large bag.

Note1: I read one post claiming that by cutting a hole through the drawer, the Cat Sensor would not work and the Litter Robot would not empty itself. That claim is erroneous. The Cat sensor is a simple open or closed circuit. When a cat enters the globe, his weight opens the circuit. When leaving the globe, the extra weight is removed, the circuit is closed again and the countdown to emptying the globe begins. The person who posted this information probably did not have the Cat Sensor properly adjusted to begin with.

Note2: Cutting holes in the drawer and in the base of the Litter Robot will void your warranty.

Note3: If at some point you want to revert to drawer collection, replacement drawers for the LRII can be ordered from the mfr. (http://www.litter-robot.com)

Check out these threads for examples of how people increased the waste capacity:
http://www.litterbox-central.com/litter-box/litter-robot/topic450.html
http://www.hudson2001.com/tom/projects/litterrobot/

Fantastic Customer Service
The manufacturer of the Litter Robot is ‘Automated Pet Care Products’, and their website is http://www.litter-robot.com/. Of the web posts I’ve read, I have yet to find a post that says anything negative about the customer service provided by Automated Pet Care Products. They seem to bend over backwards to help their customers, even selling replacement parts and providing instructions for installing them. Need troubleshooting assistance? They’ll walk you through the troubleshooting via phone or e-mail. Excellent products! Excellent and friendly service! Highly recommended!