Automatic Litterbox Central

So,

I was browsing at the local petsmart today and noticed a new litterbox. It's call the Litter Roundup and sells for 60 bucks. It has a round litter box that holds the clumping cat litter and, when you press a button, a rake moves around the circle "pushing the clumps towards the center" at which point the rake (which looks a little like a pitchfork without the sharp ends) lifts the clumps up and deposits them in a covered receptable that accepts little plastic bags (which petsmart also sold.. 3 or 4 for 7 bucks).

So,

a few questions..

anyone else seen this? a relatively extensive websearch revealed absolutely nothing.

http://www.stylette.com/index.shtml

seems to be the company making it, but their website doesn't have anything.

Does anyone happen to have one of these? Does it work? Does it work well?

Does the rake perform a cycle when first plugged in? If so, I was thinking that maybe I could put the thing on a timer and just have it go off 3 or 4 times a day and simulate one of the more expensive boxes (that never seems to work right)

Anyway, I was really excited to see this at petsmart, only to discover that it is apparently too new for anyone to actually know anything about it.

So... anyone?

Went back to petsmart today to pick up some other stuff and wandered back to where the Litter Roundup was at and did a bit more investigating.. The box was something like 29x20x9 inches. I asked the store manager if i could look at the manual, and he said "sure".

So, I cut the tape on one end, and opened her up.

The round "litter box" is about 15.5 inches across. It would appear that the round part slowly spins around while the rake stays stationary. The rake then lifts up and dumps the clumps in the receptacle.

From reading the manual, it definitely appears that the unit does NOT cycle when it first receives power. So, my idea for that was thwarted.

End result, I walked out of the store without one. It just doesn't seem to have enough of a delta above a standard litter box to make it worth the 60 bucks. It might work wonderfully. I just don't think I'm going to be the one to find out.

If anyone out there ends up getting one, be sure to post here and let us know how well it works!

Kirby

I just saw this tonight. My Petsmart had two models, marketed as the Littersweep & the Littersweep Ultra by Stylette. The Ultra has motion sensors on it, and runs $79. It's certainly better looking than the Littermaid, but there seems to be no information about it on the Internet right now. It's not even on the Petsmart website.

I emailed Stylette about it, if I hear anything I'll post back. At any rate, we may take Petsmart up on their unconditional guarantee and give it a test spin.

blanko wrote:I just saw this tonight. My Petsmart had two models, marketed as the Littersweep & the Littersweep Ultra by Stylette. The Ultra has motion sensors on it, and runs $79. It's certainly better looking than the Littermaid, but there seems to be no information about it on the Internet right now. It's not even on the Petsmart website.

I emailed Stylette about it, if I hear anything I'll post back. At any rate, we may take Petsmart up on their unconditional guarantee and give it a test spin.

Very interesting. motion sensors are a good thing. The only thing that concerns me about it is the size. 15.5 inches isn't leaving much spare room for my, ahem, fat cat. And, unless the target cat is only 7 inches long, it certainly won't be going in the center of the circle, so hopefully the thing does a good job of picking up the clumps around the edges. Oh well, we'll see, I suppose.

I just purchased the Littersweep Ultra tonight. I'll be setting it up over the next couple of days and let you know how it goes.

Just some history, My wife and I rescue in the Houston area so we currently have around 25 cats in the house and another batch in our garage. I've tried the Littermaid and Litter Toilet and haven't been pleased with either product. I've been wanting to try the Litter Robot but the price has held me back. I figured this one was cheap enough that I'd toss my hat back in the automated ring again and see what it's like. I don't have high expectations because I think you typically get what you pay for but I'm an optimist, what can I say

ps. I tried to figure out what the difference was between the Ultra and the regular one, there aren't any markings on the box that specify the difference. The clerk told me he thought it might have a stronger motor in the Ultra but really he didn't know.

My 2 cents: Litter + rake = poopie rake that you have to clean

I purchased one of these today. So far, so good.

Things I've noticed.. it is noticeably louder than the Littermaid. And the raking cycle takes longer. But it seems to work well enough that it's a fair trade off.

I do like the fact that it waits half an hour before raking. With the Littermaid, it was either 10 or 15.. and to me, that didn't seem long enough to let the pee clumps really solidify.

Since the rake is stationary (the litter pan rotates), I'm hoping that I won't have the same problem I always had with Littermaid -- the rake getting bogged down in the litter if it's pushed into a pile.

Now, to figure out a way to make my own disposal bags. They're $6.99 for 12. With four cats, that could get expensive.

Will post more after I've had it a few days.

Alright, we've had the Littersweep Ultra (bought to replace a Littermaid) up and running for nearly a week. For reference, we're using Tidy Cat Red clumping litter. Here's my impressions:

Waste retrieval: Cats go in, do their business. Thirty minutes later, the litter pan starts spinning, and a rake moves across and scoops up the clumps before lifting them into a waste bin. The motor is really strong. The problem here is that the force of the litter rotating tends to break up the clumps before they can get dumped into the containment bin. You end up having this neat little zen garden of animal waste as the rake moves back into position.

Containment: A plus. The waste compartment does a much better job than the Littermaid of keeping all the nasties contained in one spot. They offer proprietary bin liners, but we found them to be quite flimsy. We just used a standard cat pan liner, which is cheaper and stronger.

Sound: As the previous poster noted, it's fairly loud. About the same volume as our 3-year old Littermaid, but the cycle lasts about 3 times as long.

Looks: Best-looking automatic litterbox on the market.

Cleaning: Awesome! All the components can be easily removed and reassembled without tools, making for easy cleaning.

Price: At $79 for a motion-activated litterbox, it's quite inexpensive.

Bottom Line: The LitterSweep is a nifty concept, but like the Littermaid the application falls a bit short. For all it's pluses, it has one significant problem: It doesn't keep the litterbox clean. The thing breaks apart dirty clumps and distributes them evenly over the entire surface of the litterbox. After a few days, our cats stopped using it and went back to the Littermaid.

I'd also like to mention customer service. I emailed Stylette on Dec. 20th with a few questions about their litterbox, and have yet to hear back from them. I emailed the Litter Robot people some questions and heard back from them within hours.

Oh, thanks for posting this. I saw that litter box today in PetSmart and was eyeing it.

Bought a new top-entry box for the time-being, though, as I'm saving up for a litter robot.

As mentioned, you do get what you pay for.

While the litter robot is quite expensive, I think a bit too expensive, I did buy one and love it. I don't think any rake system is ever going to work well enough. The LR and Omega Paws (human powered) are the best concept ones out there.

If you can afford the price and the space it takes up, I believe the LR is the most bang for your buck.

Take care,
Marc

waffull wrote:As mentioned, you do get what you pay for.

While the litter robot is quite expensive, I think a bit too expensive, I did buy one and love it. I don't think any rake system is ever going to work well enough. The LR and Omega Paws (human powered) are the best concept ones out there.

If you can afford the price and the space it takes up, I believe the LR is the most bang for your buck.

Take care,
Marc

and if your cat will use it. I've got one that won't (tried for a good six months) so I'm still looking for a non robot solution.

I got an Evaporator litter box for Christmas and have had it out for a couple of days now. The cats seem to have taken to it with no problem, but its effectiveness remains to be seen.

Kirby

Since the price is SO right on this new automatic, I'm thinking I'd like to give it a try, if there's a way to fix the break-up problem mentioned below. Do you think using a extra-super-hard-clumping litter might do the trick?

-Karen

blanko wrote:The thing breaks apart dirty clumps and distributes them evenly over the entire surface of the litterbox.

I purchased a Litter Sweep from Pet Smart on 1/14/05 and my cats are using it fine. I see the problem with the break up. I am wondering also about the hard clumping litter. Let me know if it works. I had a LitterMaid for 11 months and it broke two days ago. The rake bar locked up over the receptacle and I can't budge it. I am planning to send it back since it is still under warranty. Has anyone sent one back for replacement? If so what was the reply? I would love to try the litter robot too but the price is definately holding me back. What about the Purrforma, how does it measure up?

Was looking for information on the Littersweep/Roundup, and came across this listing on ebay that includes a photo...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29853&item=4351531526&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Good Morning,

Allow me a space in your forum to give my two cents regarding this new Automatic Litterbox Cleaner...."The LitterSweep Ultra". I too was hesitant about purchasing this new item. No one at Petsmart could give me any information about it or the difference between the Litter Roundup or Littersweep Ultra. The only answer I received was the "Ultra" probably has a bigger/stronger motor. I originally went into Petsmart to purchase the Littermaid, but when I noticed the difference in price. The Littersweep being around $80 cheaper. I thought I would give it a try especially since I have 3 cats and have been "sifting for gold" for many years. So I bought the "Littersweep Ultra". Here are the things negative/positive I have noticed in the last week after my purchase:

1) The Motor is loud when it is cleaning, scares one of my cats everytime it runs.
2) Hint: as indicated in the instructions, to avoid nasties stinking to the rake, spray some nonstick cooking spray lightly on the rake. It also recommends spaying the bottom of the pan. I will try that when I dump the whole box in the future for a full cleaning.
3) For someone like me upgrading from a manual cleaning to an automatic litterbox cleaner this item is absolutely fabulous!! I would rate it an 8 out of 10. It does all the hard work for me, raking all the big clumps and moving them to a sealed container. It does leave some of the smaller bits for me to manually clean (sometimes). This is nothing compared to what I had to do before I invested in this item.
4) Also again the price $79.99 is a plus. Littermaid is still around $159 and some of the others on the market are even a higher price. The Littersweep Ultra is cheaper and from talking to other cat owners who have bought the Littermaid, it does the same job for almost 1/2 the cost.
5) One negative thing I noticed is if your cat does not cover it's business properly the red sensor light stays on and the rake will not clean the box in the 30 min. This only occured a couple of times requiring a manual cover-up with my scooper till the red light is unilluminated. Once the red light is out the 30 min start. A small defect in my opinion. My cats just need to learn to cover their own mess.
6) The stinky litter box smell is gone. This alone makes me so happy
Be sure to buy premimum clumping litter, I use "Scoop Away Clean". It seems to do the job just fine.
7) The replacement 12 bags, Item #2681 from Stylette concerns me. They are suppose to be available on their website, http://www.stylette.com.
I do not see them there. I did purchase a few boxes at Petsmart. If anyone one knows where else I can purchase replacement ones, please let me know.


Regards
Heidi


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