Automatic Litterbox Central

The following are various things I've divined from my limited ownership of an LS ultra (2 weeks), and from browsing various reviews at many web sites (including this one). I do try to clarify my own experiences and opinions from those gathered from other sites.

At the moment, we are still acclimating two kittens to our household ( and teaching our three small children not to terrorize the kittens ), so the unit is in the master bedroom, by the bed.

Cat Weight:
The LS Ultra uses sensor(s) triggered by weight to determine whether a cat is currently in the unit. This means that kittens may not be heavy enough to trigger the sensors, meaning the unit could theoretically start while the cat is in it.

In fairness, the manual does mention that the unit is unsuitable for kittens, but I did not see any kind of mention on the exterior or the box.

Being owned by two kittens and zero cats, I was initially dismayed. However, the kittens use the box just fine, and one of them apparently just triggers the weight threshold to encourage the box to work properly.

Cat Preferences:
This will make a big difference in owner experience. The LM is really designed for cats that (1) don't dig deep before creating waste, and (2) at least attempt to cover their waste.

If your cat is a "digger", there's not enough depth in the unit to give them freedom to do so, and they will eliminate on the bare floor of the unit, not in the litter. This makes it difficult/nearly impossible for the rake to operate properly and you end up with a nasty accumlated mess of litter and waste smeared to the bottom.

(A previous cat, when I made a LitterMaid attempt, was a "digger", and as a result I returned the unit, along with other LM complaints ).

Reported by others is that if the cat leaves the litter area unbalanced (e.g. piles large litter piles on one side of the pan, leaving gaps on the other side ), the unit may false-detect that the cat is still in there, even after it has left.

With my two kittens, it is my hope that having them transition to the LS so early in life will train them not be be "diggers" or "pilers", and so far I have had no troubles.

Waste Receptacle Size:
The unit has a good-sized bin to contain waste, but the design of the unit requires plenty of space in the bin for the automated rake/scoop to drop the waste into the bit through a "flick" type motion. As a result, I would estimate that at most 25% of the waste bin is actually useable to contain waste.

With two kittens, my experience is that it is wise to empty the waste bin at least every two days to ensure that there is plenty of space for new waste. When the kittens grow, it will not surprise me (assuming I keep only one litter box) if the waste bin would need to be emptied daily.

Noise:
As mentioned pretty much everywhere, the unit creates a fair amount of noise (estimate about at loud as a running Microwave Oven) when running. Originally, I used an "appliance timer" from Home Depot which would turn the unit off at 10PM and on at 6AM with reasonable success. (More about this below).

Overall, I have fewer complaints about noise than others: my three kids generate so much noise in our household that I don't give the LS a second thought. And neither do the kittens.

Litter:
The manual (IIRC) recommends "premium clumping litter". Unfortunately, at the time I visited PetSmart, over half the clumping litters they had for sale were "premium clumping litter". As a result, I chose the generic PetSmart litter ( 40lb box ), and the results have been reasonable.

The 30min delay timer before the box scoops seems more than adequate for urine to clump, and things generally get picked up by the automatic scooper as I could do quickly with a traditional litter scoop.

However, if the automatic scoop doesn't pick up everything, the movement action as it attempts to put the scoop back into position after dumping the clumps it could tend to break up urine clumps, as the scoop is moving backwards through the rotating set, and the clumps can get pinned between the walls and the scoop.

As a result, if the unit does not run frequently enough to pick up all or nearly all clumps each time, then you get detritus scattered through your remaining litter, which may not be good for odor and reduces how long you can go without a complete litter-change.

Compounding the issue is the fact that auto-litter-boxes like the LS -- since they only detects cat entry/exit and not presense of waste -- can't detect that waste is still present in the box and run again to remove what it can, since it will wait until after the next cat entry/exit.

My conclusion is that the LS is not a particularly good choice for houses with large numbers of cats, as it may not be able to keep up with the incoming waste flow per scoop, meaning that you will have excess waste breakage and odor.

Because of this "overflow issue", I ended up removing the appliance timer from the unit, and let it trigger at night as necessary to keep the box reasonably clean. It was easier than dealing with two much waste in the LS in the morning and its feeble attempts to catch up.

Litter Quantity:
The unit has a clearly marked "fill line" for a recommended maximum amount of litter. Since many other review have mentioned problems with overfilling ( including stripping the plastic gears in the unit, making it unuseable ), I have kept the litter approximately 1/4" below the fill line.

This seems to be low enough that I haven't had any problems with false cat detections or grinding gears. On the minus side, this also means less diggable litter for the kittens, but they have reacted well.

Accessories:
I bought the LS Ultra, the hood, the ramp, and the litter mat at the same time and have used them together. The hood does a good job of minimizing litter scatter, and the mat is reasonably effective and preventing tracking (although I wish it were a little sturdier for the expense).

The surprise to me was the ramp is surprisingly good. Since the waste bin opens out when the unit picks up waste, any litter scattered on top of the waste bin (which is the entry/exit to the hooded area) will get dumped. Since the ramp is located at the dumping point, and has a grate on top, the litter is nicely deposited into the ramp, through the grate, and into a storage area at the bottom. Very nice.

Summary/Overall:
I am reasonably pleased with the LS, particularly after comparing price for it with accessories against other available options.

Had I expected it to provide carefree-maintenance of the litter box (e.g. start it, check back every half-week or so just to empty the waste cannister), I would probably be unsatisfied.

But since my goal was to keep a clean litter box for the cats to (1) reduce odor, (2) make the cats happy, and (3) encourage the cats not to find new places to eliminate, I am happy with the end result to date.

I probably spend as much time over the course of a week dealing with the LS as I would just scooping the litter box once daily, but the net result is nicer (and my attitude less nasty) than if I were doing it all by hand.