Automatic Litterbox Central

Well the Tidy Cat isn't totally horrible, but it does break apart pretty easily so I still need to try out other litters. By this time, we had had to break down and totally clean the LM about 3 times. It seemed to last about a week before it was such a huge disgusting mess that it needed to be cleaned. The SS is staying pretty clean and the pee clumps are coming right up off the bottom if i gently use a scrapper.

Here's the problem... I am STILL getting pee clumps over the end of the new lip. Its been three times since we put on the new lip. The first time was our fault though since hubby didn't realize you have to push the power button and I didn't realize he hadn't so the box was pretty damn full of pee clumps when I did finally realize and run it. There were so many, they didn't fit on the rake well and that was why the clump got shoved out. The others I wasn't in the room to see, so I have no idea why those two fell out; however, from watching it that first time, I had an idea. I am going to experiment first with bending the lip so it has a gentle curve back into the box which should help the clumps to roll back onto the rake. If that isn't enough, then I will add a bit of height to the lip along with this curve and hopefully that should do the trick. My cats have enough room to enter the box from the left side so the longer lip wouldn't be a problem for me.

The new motor seems much more powerful and just plows through the box. The old one sometimes got hung up on a single large pee clump and would reverse a few times before getting it. I am not sure how much difference the new rake is making since I am using Tidy Cat, but the box has been pretty darn clean and it does seem like I don't have to scoop broken clumps as much as before even with crappy litter.

Even with the few pee clumps getting rolled out, I am keeping this box and giving it 4 stars because cleaning them up takes me about 30 seconds and other then that, the box has been so much better than I hoped for. Clean up is so easy for me because I have two mats http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=3052369 next to each other in front of the box and if a clump gets out, I just pick up whichever mat it is on and roll it into the waste area and then shake the mat over the box, wipe the mat down and I am done. Even my standing up peer isn't making a mess with this box and all the cats except the feral (she just isn't seeming to get total litter box usage since the CG ) seem to like the box.

I'll update after trying to bend the lip and give the results. Cross your fingers for me

Dawn

I just checked it out on Amazon. they have a smartsccoop listed for $99.99 and a deluxe smartscoop listed for $129.99. I can't see any difference between the two. Maybe the deluxe includes the upgrades you got from the company? I currently have the scoopfree but one of my cats is getting so big she has become a side peeer. The smartscoop has a larger litter area than the scoopfree. Finding a few clumps of pee on the matt may not be as annoying as finding a puddle of pee under the box. Plus the crystals are very pricey. The new box would eventualy pay for itself!
Colleen

Well I just spent ~30 minutes typing an update, but Dr. Distructo (aka. Scabbers) yawned, stretched and hit refresh with his paw before I could hit the submit button... I'll try to retype it when I can... Just know I haven't abandoned my post, my cats are just sabotaging my efforts!

Dawn

Looking at this setup, I wonder if your cats re like mine and like to pee at the front of the box where they get in... and in the case would turning the box around, so they have to setp over the rake/receptacle area to get to the litter, would make the rake work better? It would mean taking off the ramp and using a litter matt instead of course.

Sorry this took so long, but I had a family emergency. I haven't been able to address the pee rolling issue because of this, but still think if I can figure out how to fashion the lip I am envisioning, it would fix the problem. Here is an update on how it has been going other then that:

About a month ago I changed back to my former litter (Fresh Step) and right after I changed back, the motor started having an insane time trying to clean the box. It seemed like the urine was passing through the litter on top and making a huge rock hard clump on the bottom and thus adhering to the bottom of the box. The motor would then try to break this clump free and would moan and groan 5 times before giving up. I was having to go in and unstick it and clean the box 8 or more times a day and my husband was getting pissed at being woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of the motor straining over and over and over... I tried less litter... I tried more litter... I tried cleaning the motor housing and reseating it... After about a week of this, the motor sounded like crap and was making a horrible popping sound when it was returning to the home position so I called them up to request a new motor. I told the lady about how it was acting and that the only difference was the litter and she told me the box is suppose to be able to work with any clumpable litter.

It took two weeks to get the new motor and towards the end of this time, I just turned the whole thing off and manually scooped. It couldn't make it through even one normal cycle anymore even if there was only a little bit of poo in the box. When we got the new motor in, we broke the whole box down yet again (we had just done it about 3 weeks earlier when we got the new waste receptacle in) and cleaned it totally. We then put it all together and put in Tidy Cat for Multiple Cats. It's been about 3 weeks or so since we got the new motor and it has been going fine again with the Tidy Cat. The pee clumps still get rolled out one or two times a day and they still break up a bit sometimes, but they aren't stuck to the bottom like cement and the motor is working just fine at picking them up and getting through the litter. It seems to work better with a litter that doesn't funnel the urine to the bottom then clump it like cement and adhere it to the bottom of the box. A litter that immediately starts to form a ball around the urine and separate it from the other litter into an independent ball on top or in the middle of the litter is what I am shooting for.

Once a day I sift the litter with a scoop and pick up any pieces that broke off and are big enough to scoop. I then lift the rake and scoop the litter behind it forward to keep it from building up back there to much and then empty the bin. It is still so good at filling the waste bin evenly and fully that I only have to empty it once a day with 6 cats. The Roll Away had what looked like about the same sized waste holder and I had to empty it twice a day.

On acceptability... Four of our kitties are using it perfectly, the old cat uses it almost all of the time, and the feral is using it most of the time. This isn't perfect, but it is a heck of a lot better then it was before and they are getting better and better about using it. I am hoping soon it will be all 6 100% of the time. What is strange about this is, when we had the CG set up as a normal box, they all used it 100% of the time and at first it seemed like they were all using this box 100% of the time. We am hoping it will return to that lovely state quickly.

A side note... My sister-in-law has a new LM and says it has worked as well as the old one they had and she has had no problems with hers becoming a nasty mess daily or losing a lot of clean litter to the dozer affect. She is looking at getting a CG to try because she is sick of litter, but other than that says the LM has worked as it should for her (she has 2 cats). This is completely opposite of how the LM worked for us, but I am seeing more and more that each of the boxes seems to have a different success level for each person dependent on a slue of various factors.

Dawn

Dawn, which LM does your sis have - the Elite Mega, the LM900 or what?

I'll have to ask her and let you know. She has no problems, but mine was nothing but problems

Dawn

Dawn, if your cats insist on clay litter, my favorite is Dr Elsey's Cat Attract or Precious Cat Ultra. It clumps well, no fragrance, and the cats love it.

Yea I have seen good reviews on those, but it is another month until our new Petco opens here and the closest Petsmart is an hour so I'll have to wait to try them. Thanks for the suggestions and I will let you know how they work

Haven't talked to my sister-in-law yet, but I haven't forgotten!

Dawn

Well I actually went to my local pet shop which will take anything back no questions asked, they are so good about this I always drive the extra 10 minutes to go there than the one close to me where they won't even take back defective items. They had the LM900 on sale for $80 so I bought it and brought it home. I hated it! It is SO loud and the very first time my cat used it he peed on the rake and there was a huge clump with the rake embedded, which is IMPOSSIBLE to clean. For the exterior size the litter pan was not very big and very shallow. What a mess, what a badly designed product! I just hated everything about it. I took it back and got the Elite Mega Littermaid, which is now in my living room for a showdown with the Smart Scoop. I think the Elite is far better than the LM900 if only because the rake is not so prone to gumming up and can be removed. I really don't understand why anyone would prefer the old one. So far my cats have used it and it's working fine, I have not had any stuck rakes or wasted clean litter. But it is also SO LOUD! The Smart Scoop is not only quieter in decibels but doesn't "whine" and change pitch like the LM, which I find more annoying. It also has a much larger footprint than the Smart Scoop for the same litter pan area.

In the Smart Scoop I am experimenting with various litters. My feeling is that it is the better concept than Littermaid, but it needs work. The rake needs to more closely fit the arc of the box when it performs it's flip so the clumps are not left behind, and it definitely needs to reach a bit deeper. The new upgrade kit extended lip only helps if the clump starts falling off at the point it hits horizontal - if it's already gone under the rake it gets left behind. With WBCL I did not get any clumps tossed out, because instead they broke up and crumbled back into the box, so after a day there is a bunch of crumbled clumps at the front of the box - right where the cats step in and get their feet dirty... but arguably better than having big clumps flipped out in front of the box. Unfortunately my boy cats love to pee either right up the front of the box corners or in the back corners. April from Smart Scoop says they are working on further improvements to the product, which is very encouraging!

I tried some very fine sand-like litter (Better Way) in the Smart Scoop - it was not good because the urine formed large pancakes on the surface (I think it's a great litter for manual scooping) and these huge flat clumps they fell off the rake during the flip. Unfortunately my boy cats like to pee right up against the front of the box or the back of the box. I am now trying the Scoop Away Unscented which is similar to the Dr Elseys Ultra clay clumping (but was on sale at the store very cheap). Next in the lineup is Litter Pearls 50-50 blend, which is a wood recycled clumping product coated with clay and mixed with silica crystals. I am hoping the urine clumps will be firm but smaller with this one and stay on the rake best... but we'll see.

I am actually considering trying Litter Pearls in the Smart Scoop, since it is very good at collecting the feces, it only has problems with big urine clumps at the front of the box. I didn't have much success with crystal litter in the past it saturated after only 2-3 days but possibly with the rake "stirring" them after each use it would work. I also think the larger pearls might be more absorbent than the finer particles in the Dr Elsey's "Senior" cat litter I tried in the manual box.

Things I love about Smart Scoop so far:

- much quieter than LM
- more robust design with motor on the outside and fewer flimsy parts
- very responsible customer service and ongoing work on the design
- about 1/2 the price
- extremely easy to clean

Things that need work:
- those missed clumps and stuff flipped out with some clay litter
- I'd like to see a safety shutoff if the cat gets in the way of the rake