Automatic Litterbox Central

Hi, I've been reading about all your great ideas, but there's one thing I'm trying to ascertain that I just couldn't be sure of - do any of your designs have poop trays that lift out for dumping? It's very hard for me to lift the lid of my system because I have it in very tight corners and being able to just lift it out instead would be great.

Thanks for any advice.

Well..........a couple of us (me included) have been toying with the idea of a separate removable poop compartment. Unfortunately (for me at least) it looks like a rather (too much) involved re-engineering of the Scoop Free to get something that both works reliably and is still cost effective at the same time.

That being said, there's a company called LitterWorks (http://www.litterworks.com), who have developed a cabinet for the Littermaid system which I think might be adaptable to Scoop Free. (It's worth a visit to their site just to see how it works). You might want to contact them directly to see if they have any plans to make something for Scoop Free -- it doesn't seem to me that it'd be that much more difficult for them to engineer. The downside is that it's a pretty big piece of furniture -- and not cheap, either.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. There may be others here at LBC who have some other ideas to share.........

Best of luck!

No actually you were a big help. you answered my question. Thanks!

Ummmm, I hate to bother you again, but I've been trying off and on to find one of your forever trays on Ebay w/o luck. Did you put a sudden end to your entrepreneurship? I hope not!!! Thanks for any info.

Hi,

During the month of October the trays weren't posted until the very end, as my PVC supplier basically sent me a bunch of junk that I refused to use..........

So things are back on track once more, except I'll be out of town until the 11th (I volunteer each year with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk in San Diego). At that point I'll have more trays posted.

Sorry for the inconvenience -- please do keep in touch and we'll get you taken care of. You can also check at the site for periodic updates as well.

Oh, yay! I was going to buy one, too.

Sorry to tell you -- but I screwed up on the timing for posting more trays!

My wife and I will be out of town through the Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll be posting more trays FOR SURE on Monday the 26th. I've had a lot of inquiries -- I'm so sorry -- and hope you can hold out until that time.

are the PermaScoops

http://www.permascoop.com/

the same thing? i know that forever trays have a different address

http://www.foreverlittertrays.com/

but does anyone have any experience with the other kind of permanent trays?

Jack 'n Stans Dad wrote:Sorry to tell you -- but I screwed up on the timing for posting more trays!

My wife and I will be out of town through the Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll be posting more trays FOR SURE on Monday the 26th. I've had a lot of inquiries -- I'm so sorry -- and hope you can hold out until that time.

Thanks for letting me know. If I send you my email address can you reserve one for me, or is that just unallowed favoritism? (I wouldn't blame you, I know EVERYBODY wants one).

Two replies in one here -- first to Achilles regarding the question on Permascoop and the Forever trays. We are in fact two completely different entities, each approaching the problem from a slightly different perspective.

And to pv&Ys mom -- that's no problem. I'm happy to drop you a note when they're posted on Ebay. However just fyi for planning purposes
what I'm going to do is post them on Ebay on Friday the 23rd, with a planned ship date of Monday the 26th. That way folks can actually get them a few days sooner (as opposed to posting on the 26th and not shipping until after that date).

Hope this works for you!

all the best for a happy and safe holiday,

r.

I've tried both the Permascoop and the Forever Tray. The Forever Tray works very well, and I also like the clear removable trap. On the other hand, my experience with the Permascoop wass just terrible.

I was only able to use the Permascoop for about 15 minutes, because at that point I observed that when the rake operates, solid waste gets trapped on top of the slanted end of the receptacle and then flipped over the rake. I tried multiple times before giving up and replacing it with a disposable cartridge. I don't know if the slanted end is to blame or if the receptacle is too long, but the thing just doesn't work correctly.

I also found a layer of crystals stuck to the sealant along the corners. I don't have access to an outside tap, and I'd rather eat the $35 I'd get back ($50-$15 estimated shipping) than risk sending that stuff down the drain so I can return a clean tray. I'm also skeptical that a return would even work, because when I attempted to contact them to ask about late shipping (several business days instead of the stated two), their email bounced and there was no reply on the webform. I suppose I could try to phone them, but at this point I'm fed up with the sloppiness, so I'm not going to bother. However, I did want to warn others of my experiences, so I'm posting here.

Hi!
I too, have tried both PermaScoop and The Forever boxes (I inherited the latter with a ScoopFree) and my experience has been JUST THE OPPOSITE of Bette's!!!

First, I have 3 indoor-only Maine Coons, so I know about litter (LOL)

Second, I bought a PermaScoop to replace the Forever because of TWO major reasons:

1) The Forever detached lid makes cleanout much harder if you don't want to spill all over the floor...at least for me. And depending upon type of crystal, some of them ALWAYS crust and stick to the corners--I just use a wet paper towel and ALL comes off easily. The PermaScoop is sealed with Silicone, which doesn't let ANYTHING stick to it...

2) The Forever tray is made out of ****PVC**** A VERY TOXIC PLASTIC!!!!!!!!

My oldest female started to get skin lesions about 3 months after I bought a PVC-made (same type of PVC as in the Forever box--hard, white--actually from the same manufacturer--Simona--as I found out later) cat tree-base/litter enclosure made by a pet store here in Cleveland Hts. My vet bills ran to $1500.00!!! And you know what--it was the PVC I brought into the house! I blame myself, because I am a GreenPeace supporter and they have warnings about PVC in the house for Children and PETS. Seems that not only does PVC give off CHLORINE GAS, but also things called "phatlates" which are very poison plasticizers, along with DIOXIN, CADMIUM, and other goodies..no way to stop them--they leech out to the surface and get all over the litter. The lab tests my girl went through showed 20 times more "phalates"(sp?) than is allowed by EPA, and heavy metal poisoning, which I then had to pay for chelation treatments to get out of her system--I am now thinking of suing Simona and the pet store.

RE: Bette's problems

I don't know what Bette's problem exactly is (all ScoopFrees will dump *some* of the bigger poops back over the rake-even with the cardboard cartridge-unless you have a "rabbit-pellet" cat--like my first Persian--and also-I ordered another PermaScoop later, which got lost in UPS, and called PermaScoop and they shipped out immediately without waiting for UPS to prove the loss--pretty good I'd say!) After Bette's comments, I also measured the slanted end of the PermaScoop and it EXACTLY mirrors the cardboard trays...

But why not just give them a call?? Maybe they won't require the send-back, or even if they do--*I* wouldn't JUST EAT the $35.00??##?? I know they are having problems with their email, cause I talked to Jane or Jeanne at PermaScoop and she told me Verizon has really screwed up their email, and they are getting their own server ASAP. She even sent out a cat toy for my sick girl-kitty without asking, so it's not like you can't reach them or they don't get back to you by phn...How hard is it to find out?

Just my 2 cnts and personal experience...I wouldn't have the Forever PVC in my house again--it's proven poison to cats!

Kevin R-Ohio

Wow thats really scary sounding but so many people use the perma tray and their cats don't get sick. Also the man who sells them seems like he really loves animals and I can't see him selling them if they caused these kinds of problems.

Wow I spent a few minutes looking it up, he's right. Its highly toxic.
It's hard to know what to do in this world, so many confusing issues to deal with!

Hi!
Well, I wasn't trying to start a "poison" topic out of this, and I don't personally know either entity, but I DO know that my cat got VERY sick from +++PVC+++! The vet actually took blood and tissue specimens to Kent State vet school and had a spectrographic analysis done on the poisons in her blood/tissue to match against the particular sample cut out of the tree/box stand I bought---THEY WERE AN EXACT MATCH...and from Simona America...

Although I've never talked with the Forever people, I am sure they are well meaning, nice folks who love cats.

I did talk with the PermaScoop people, and they are definitely cat lovers who own 3 or 4 big male Ragdolls, and the guy who designed their box is a PhD in engineering, so all I know is that the PermaScoop works for me (x2) and although they are just starting out in the cat-tray biz, they told me several times over the phone that they will do anything they can to please---and they have for me! Appearantly they have been designing consumer products for over 20 years or so...

I asked PermaScoop about PVC and they also knew it was poison and promised never to expose anybodies animals or children to it---they don't use it--They use ABS which at the consumer level, is inert and harmless. I know from volunteering at GreenPeace (I am not an AVID nuts-and-twigger--but I care about our environment) that PVC is one of the nastiest plastics on the PLANET! Europe has already banned most PVC, and now, finally our politicians are at least talking about it. The stuff can't even be recycled properly, so they burn most of it--and that releases MORE toxins. Not very "green" at all (LOL). The Chinese are heavily into its production...

The vet told me that even though my girl (Dolly Pawton) got deathly sick, some cats wouldn't even show symptoms, but that they would all be affected in some internal way...now I worry daily for my others--and for all the tiny fur babies that get exposed by any means. The vet thought (after talking to engineers at the college) that Dolly and the others were probably exposed to the leeched chemicals on the surface of the PVC--either by licking or breathing contaminated dust. PVC seems to break down and oxidize because of the chlorinated ingredients, and then forms a film which can contaminate directly, or by contact, in the case of the litter tray. It's real scary--even for US!

Be well--Kevin R-Ohio