Automatic Litterbox Central

I bought the LitteFree for my wife for her birthday. Granted, it's not romantic, but the idea of giving her the gift of never taking poop out of a box of dirt is pretty darn good.

We got it, set it up. The connector did not work with our toilet, so I had to use the lines to the bathroom sink, with some modifications. Works fine though.

Pros:
The box is super easy to clean. Simply hit the button and it's clean (for the most part).

The cats will use it, although they might crap on the floor a few times. Make sure you don't leave any clothes or other things they can do business on. Be supportive of their efforts. DO NOT force them to use it, or they will hate you for it. Cats are smarter than humans in some ways, and they are really good at holding grudges. Watch for their desire to evacuate, and then gently lead them without touching them to the box. Make noise in the litter with your hand, or a tool. It will remind them of the noise of scraping litter. Give them lots and lots of love after they make some business, especially a poo. Imagine making a poo on a toilet made of sharp plastic. Not an easy task, and it takes some practice.

The design is pretty good. Very rugged, nice-looking, compact. Even the pump assembly stays fairly clean. Watch for your cat urinating in and around the air pump area. This may be a design flaw that affects some cat owners.

The cleaning action is very good. It's powerful and seems to do a very good job.

Cons:
Cat-hair from the feces is left in the box. No big deal, just scoop every few days with a scooper and you're good.

It's frickin' noisy. I can't stress how loud it actually is. People say it's loud, but it's louder than can be expressed with words. When it is in the bathroom, the sound is increased due to resonance of the small room. We keep our's inside the extra tub that we don't use which really give an echo.

It gives errors sometimes, with no indication of what they mean, and there does not appear to be a reset button. It must be unplugged and then restarted.

There is no instruction manual. What the hell?

The litter either hurts the cat's feet, or the urine under the litter bothers them. Nothing gets soaked up, so the urine just lays at the bottom of the box.

It stinks like "piss on sauna rocks" when the dryer goes on. Turn the fan on and shut the door if possible.

Things that could be improved:

The litter needs to be improved tremendously. An aquarium gravel type o f shape would be much better for the cat. I don't know if it is possible to use aquarium gravel, but if someone wants to try, please post the results here. I'm not responsible for damage javascript:emoticon(':?') Obviously the manufacture of such a thing is not an easy task, which is probably why the litterfree people use the cut plastic beads.

The noise needs to be fixed. Another difficult task, but a thicker, insulated box might help.

There needs to be more control over the system. A 'dry-only' button would be nice. An 'error reset' button would be good. A 'rinse-only' button would come in handy.

Overall, I am happy with the product. It better work for at least 3 years to make it worth the money though. Otherwise, LitterFree will get a call from me complaining.[/b]

catdad wrote:Cons:
Cat-hair from the feces is left in the box. No big deal, just scoop every few days with a scooper and you're good.

It's frickin' noisy. I can't stress how loud it actually is. People say it's loud, but it's louder than can be expressed with words.

It gives errors sometimes

It stinks like "piss on sauna rocks" when the dryer goes on. Turn the fan on and shut the door if possible.

There needs to be more control over the system. A 'dry-only' button would be nice. An 'error reset' button would be good. A 'rinse-only' button would come in handy.

Cat hair is sometimes left behind, but it hasn't been too bad for us. Once a month or so I'll dab the clumps of hair with a moist paper towel and thus gather them and fluch them down the toilet. I've noticed that the clumps are often sent to the toilet on their own, too.

Ours seems to be a lot quieter than yours. It's loud when it's churning the litter, but it's not too bad. About as loud as our 10 year old washing machine.

We've never had an error. I see that other's have reported an occasional error, but none here (we bought it in January, so 8 months experience, 2 cats using it (out of 3)).

Ah, yes, it sometimes smells like piss on sauna rocks (well, what I expect that would smell like <grin>). This happens when your cat shoots it's pee up the fan vents and onto the heater elements. In 8 months this has happened to us 3 times, and in each case I've used a squirt bottle filled with water to squirt up those same vents and rinse the vents and cool elements. This seems to occur when she (always that same cat) jumps into the box for a pee while the heater is going. I make sure not to cycle the box for ~8 hours to allow air drying of the elements as otherwise the water may cause thermal difference damage.

My only change would be, as you've suggested, a rinse-only button. Sometimes it's obvious they've merely pissed, and a full 4 wash/rinse cycle is a real waste. But we're also very happy with the unit.

[quote="catdad"]
Cats are smarter than humans in some ways, and they are really good at holding grudges. Watch for their desire to evacuate, and then gently lead them without touching them to the box. Make noise in the litter with your hand, or a tool. It will remind them of the noise of scraping litter.

Throwing granules back into the box gets them in there using it, for some reason...

I'll second the mention that it's not really as loud as many have said. Now, I have mine in the garage and the cats have always gone to do their business through a cat flap and to the box, so I'm sure that if I had it in the house, it would be more bothersome, but I still don't think it's all THAT loud.