Automatic Litterbox Central

I have two LitterMaid litterboxes that both failed within a month of each other. What failed is a watch style coil spring that retracts the cable back into the unit. I contacted their parts site and phone and could only be told that that part is not on the spare parts list and that I would have to buy a new unit. This is really exasperating as I am willing to pay for the parts and do not want anything free. They also suggested that perhaps I could get the parts at a local hardware store. Believe me these are special parts made for LitterMaid and are not generally available.

I can't believe that someone could not go the extra mile for a customer and contact the factory to get me these parts.

I will never buy another LitterMaid product and have in fact ordered the Litter Robot.

What is really dissapointing to me is that I have two units that could be fixed very easily and now I must throw them away.

Has anyone else had these kinds of problem with LitterMaid?

Hi Kimmer,
I've only had my LitterMaid about a month, so I haven't had any problems to speak of,........BUT..... My first, original LitterMaid arrived not working. The sensor would not work, so I had to exchange it. I got a lot of experience in the process, on how they work.

I believe your cord retractor could be fixed with not too much trouble. However it would take someone who is mechanically inclined. I think the spring is similar to what is used in carpenter's tape measures. I do know that there is special spring steel one can buy in round or flat styles so you can "roll your own" spring. I have done that before working on firearms.

BTW How long have you had your 2 LitterMaids? And what model is it?

My worst problem so far in using it, is my oldest cat, who is 16, lets out a whole whole lot of water when she goes. A good 6 to 8 ozs.! Anyhow it is so much water that there is no way I can keep it from clogging my rake. I've tried Arm & Hammar and WBCL. I tried spraying the rake with Pam. Still I get a clogged rake wihen she goes. Although the WBCL does seem to do slightly better in resisting clogging with that much water. And it is lighter, making it easier for the rake to scoop through the litter without stopping. I like the A&H better by it not being strowed all over the carpet as bad as WBCL and it smells better.

Anyway you should try and find a '"fix-it-all" guy who would repair it for a small fee. Too much good left in them just to throw them away.

Cheers,
Mike

Mike,
I have actually had three littermaids. The first one was one of the smaller ones and broke within a year. The other two were approximately 12 & 18 months and were the Mega style. I will not bother fixing them because I wasn't all that satisfied with the things anyway. If I could have gotten the parts I would have salvaged them. The springs are very stiff and the ones I have seemed to be overly brittle. It could also be that the cats played with the exposed cable which could have caused premature failure I suppose.

The door doesn't seal tightly, they are hard to clean, and they don't sift but ram the waste through the litter often breaking it up.

I did make a platform that had a drawer under the waste receptacle that worked fairly well. I would only have to empty it weekly for 5 cats. (two littermaids) I cut the bottom out of the waste bin so it would fall into the drawer into a regular 10 gallon trash bag.

I have since received my first litter robot and have to say that it is an engineering marvel. It actually sifts the litter gently separating the clumps and then redistributes the litter evenly in the bottom. There is a decent animation on their website. Check it out.

I must report that after all of the emails, phonecalls and other negative conversations with LitterMaid, I received an unexpected package at the front door the other day. Totally unexpected was a brnad new deluxe version of their top-of-the-line litterboxes including the tent which I had never purchased before.
While I still think the quality of their products is questionable, this went a long way to satisfy my complaints. All they really had to do was send me a few parts and I would have paid for them.
Most likely it was cheaper for them to take care of the matter this way.
I thought it was unusual to receive something like that with no cover letter, apology, or anything.
Oh well. To be fair I wanted to pass this along so that others can take the same approach I did.

Hi,

We also have two Littermaid Megas, one of which suffered a broken spring. We just bought another one at the time and now after two + years it quit working and my wife bought a Perfoma. It didn't really perform very well so I was inspired to repair the Littermaids to reduce the drain on our budget for new boxes by returning the Performa.

Investigation of the newer one revealed that the switch for the the safety bar had somehow become mangled and was alwasy closed. This switch actually shorts the motor if it is running back toward the home position and causes the overload circuit to shut off the motor and reverse. So this one would go to the dump position and just stay there. I straitened the contacts out and then it worked OK.

Since the new box was now working I decided to repair the old one as a backup since with ten cats any interruption of litter service is a household crisis. Since the power cable to the rake was loose and hanging out it appeared that something was wrong with the retractor mechanism. I took the unit apart, which was easier on the old one because unlike the new one it had connectors in the cable to allow separation of the control unit from the box. When I got it open the problem was obvious. The tension spring was broken and so I called Fox-International to get a new one and they told me that internal parts have not been available for about a year.

I then decided that the spring was probably a standard part and did a search at the McMaster-Carr www site since they have just about everything mechanical. There I found a spring with the same exact dimensions as the old one. The rated life was 4000 cycles which at our house must work out to about a year or two. The part information is as follows:

http://www.mcmaster.com - search for page 3471

part # 9293K44 at $4.92 ea.

Constant force spring, .312 in wide, .005 in thick, 17 in. long,
tension 1.03 pounds, 4000 cycle life.

So if you want to revive your LitterMaids you should be able to get the part here.

Good luck.

As a distributor with years of experience in dealing with Applica (the manufacturer) and their outsource companies (they outsource ALL functions of the company), I agree that they need some basic lessons in Customer Service.

The problem is basic to most outsource situations. The contract with Littermaid.com (which is NOT the manufacturer, by the way), which is nothing more than a cubical farm with minimum-wage workers reading scripts. Turnover is high, and service varies from employee to employee. If you have an issue, hang up and call back. Different person will handle things often the opposite of another person. Welcome to the 21st Century.

Warranty Service is actually provided by Fox International, which is yet another outsource company. Many have success by skipping the troubleshooting number (littermaid.com - 1-800-litmaid) and calling the directly.

While Fox is more professional, there are infrequent issues there as well. This includes poor customer service, but also out of stock issues, which they try to pass off as normal delays.

MOST IMPORTANT - the $5-10 fee they try to charge is ILLEGAL. See Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. We have tons more info on our site here - http://www.debnroo.com/faq_littermaid.php

In general, keep a cool head, don't take no for an answer, and refer to our guide. They back down from all illegal practices when you mention Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. Demand no fees and prompt replacement, and you should be fine.

If you are out of the Warranty Service period (1 year), replacement parts are easy to obtain from Fox.

Cheers!

I purchased my first LM750 from a local pet store that had them on sale for 40% off, and, as usual, they were out of stock at the time of the sale. I received a raincheque and waited, and waited and waited.

FINALLY there were two in stock (and of course no phone call to tell me they were in. Why did they ask for my phone number anyway?!) and I was able to redeem my raincheque.

Got it home, and it sat in the box for a couple of weeks before I had time to unpack it and set it up.

I was so happy to unpack it and plug it in! Only to find out that the rake sensor never tripped! GRRRRRRR!

I tested it for 2 weeks before I called the 1-800 #, got the info for calling Applica, and then spoke with a nice lady who helped me figure out what model it was (how the heck did I know - I was at work!) and said it was still within the 30 days, did I want to return it to the store? No, it was hard enough to get this one, and I seriously doubted there would be a replacement waiting.

She switched into gear and arranged to ship me another one, if I would cut off the power cord for the power head, and mail it to them with details, a copy of the receipt and the case #. I sent it off the next week, and didn't actually think much of it, no less remember that I'd done it.

About a month later, on a bleary Saturday morning, I being out of the shower, wasn't well dressed at all, saw the UPS truck on the street, and the man was getting back in with a really big box!

Hey, Hey! Is that for Me? I'll be right down!

What could that be? I don't remember ordering anything. Signed for it (I put on my housecoat), and looked at the label. Yippeee - LitterMaid!

I got it in the house, and opened it right up - I wasn't going to have another dud! I looked at it, and looked at the box again. THIS wasn't the one I purchased for $125 CDN! THIS was the LM900! With a RUG! My original model didn't come with a rug! What the heck...a RAMP too?! Wow.

Best of all, the shipping invoice showed $0.00! No shipping, no handling.

Happily, mine has worked trouple-free for a year now.

I just wanted to point out that Applica has finally updated their written Warranty in 2005, and is now in compliance with the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act of 1975.

That is the good news.

The bad news is that the fee charged by Fox International for S&H can no longer be debated. If you are unlucky enough to have a defective unit, you will have to pay a fee to have the replacement shipped to you.

In addition, the Warranty now specifically excludes sales of units outside the country from which they are sold. For International customers who purchase the unit, you will end up running the risk of having to find a US supplier who will send replacement parts, or having to purchase entirely new units.

Andy Mowery
Co-Founder
debnroo, inc.

I am in the process of getting two of my units replaced, my shipping / handling fees were waived. You just have to be persistent!

Keep trying!

I just wanted to say thank you for all of the information given above. I had my LitterMaid LM750 go south on me and I was able to navagate my way to a replacement in less than a week. I had to send in my wire that runs from the rake to the box and the battery cover with copies of my emails and receipt. I got a box shipped via FedEx in less than a week from Fox International. I by passed going to the LitterMaid 1-800 number and to to Fox as suggested, I was persistent without being rude and they were very helpful. I also read all that could go wrong with my LitterMaid and parted out the spring, plastic rake, switches and other mechanical parts for spares. I also kept the bottom to the other box. I now rotate them out weekly and put the clean bottom in and wash the dirty one. It makes it easier to maintain and once a week I always have a thoroughly cleaned box.

Again thanks,

Vance