cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/3610354

Looking to pick up a self cleaning litterbox but there are a lot of options. The coolest one I’ve seen by far is the CatGenie Automatic Cat Box, but it’s nearly $500 and seems a little overkill.

I’ve also seen that the PetSafe Litterbox is a very popular choice, but it uses proprietary litter refills and crystal litter when I’d prefer clay litter.

I’ve been getting away with a $15 do-it-yourself litterbox just fine for a while, but I think I (and my cat) would appreciate something that doesn’t require daily maintenance. Something as simple as an automatic rake would be interesting.

My main goals are:

  1. Requires as little maintenance as possible while keeping my cat happy and the smell under control
  2. No proprietary lock-in (I can use my own litter)
  3. Doesn’t break the bank
  4. Built well, won’t break / easy to fix / good warranty / cheap enough that I can just buy a new one if it breaks

While I am looking for budget friendly options, I’m also curious on the more expensive options. I can’t imagine what justifies spending $700 on a Litter-Robot when emptying a litterbox manually isn’t that bad and the CatGenie is $500 and promises zero-maintenance. Have you had good luck with premium options like that?

  • BirdsWithBeefyArms@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Exact same situation here, two 3rd gens.

    We did the same type of research you did OP, and honestly you have three options:

    • get a low cost ‘automatic rake’ box, which will break in a month if your pet has a bad day on the potty. Or worse, everything will get stuck to the rake and it’ll be worse to clean than scooping the box.

    • you go with something proprietary like the crystal litter solutions.

    • or you get an expensive box like the litter machine.

    Its certainly unfortunate that there aren’t better options for cheaper, but I do think that it’s the right choice in most cases. I have 4 cats and 2 litter boxes, and I empty them about once a week with a deep clean every 3 months or so. We do have one non automated box because sometimes they prefer that, but overwhelmingly they prefer the litter machines.

    • VentOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah that’s rough, especially when you start factoring in multiple litterboxes. $1k+ on litterboxes is a hard pill to swallow.