It’s wonderful to come home and find your feline fur baby waiting for you at the door after a long day away. Cats are wonderful pets to help reduce your stress levels after a hard day at work. However, if you walk into your home and have to clean a litter box at the end of a stressful day, your annoyance and stress levels could go up, rather than down if you’re greeted at the door by your kitty and the aroma of her litter box.
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Rather than stress out at the thought of coming home to litter box smells wafting around your home, we’re going to take a look at self-cleaning litter boxes, along with a couple of products and their pros and cons. Have you heard of self-cleaning litter boxes? If not, let’s take a look at exactly what they are and how they operate.
What’s a Self-Cleaning Litter Box?
A self-cleaning litter box is a kind of litter box that automatically takes care of a cat’s droppings and makes sure that your cat doesn’t scatter litter all around and your home doesn’t smell like a zoo. Automatic cat litter boxes are wonderful gadgets for you and your feline companion. Not only does it deal with the odor coming from your cat’s urine and feces, an automatic litter box also helps keep litter in one place, so you don’t have to constantly clean it up.
In the end, an self-cleaning litter box can save you time—time you can use on other chores, rest and play with your kitty!
We’ll help you choose the best self-cleaning litter box for you, your kitty and your home. In case you don’t know where to start, we’ve prepared a buying guide for you to review. We’ll take a look at two automatic cat litter boxes, comparing their specs, so you can get an idea of the best type of litter box for you and your cat.
Two Most Popular Self-Cleaning Litter Boxes
Here are a couple of the most popular automatic litter boxes we researched:
- The PetSafe ScoopFree Ultra Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box
- The Litter-Robot III Open Air Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box
The PetSafe ScoopFree Ultra Self-Cleaning Automatic Disposable Litter Box
The PetSafe-ScoopFree Ultra Self-Cleaning Automatic Cat Litter Box provides an outstanding method for effortlessly managing feline waste. This self-cleaning litter box can run for weeks without the need for human-monitoring. This litter box uses an automated system, has removable litter trays, integral sensors and a fully adjustable time allowance that gives room for stress-free usage. One unique factor about this self-operated litter box is that offers a privacy cover that makes your cat feel safe and comfortable when going potty. The PetSafe ScoopFree cat box gives you and your cat a consistently clean litter box you’ll both love.
The ScoopFree Ultra Self-Cleaning litter box comes with disposable litter trays that are pre-filled with a crystal litter. Just plug in the box and it will start to work. When your cat enters the litter box, sensors will deter her movement and start rake timer. As the timer runs, the cat litter crystals begin to wick up moisture and odors, dehydrating your cat’s waste. After about twenty minutes, the litter box’s automatic rake scoops the litter into a covered waste trap, where odors and all are locked away.
You can leave the box running unmonitored for about four weeks. After that, clean-up is as easy as placing the lid on the disposable tray and throwing it away.
You’ll have to agree that anyone who loves their cat, but hates cleaning the litter box, will love having a self-cleaning litter box like the ScoopFree Ultra. Especially one that keeps litter from being tracked around your home and keeps odors locked away. Who wouldn’t be happy with a litter box like that?
After four weeks, all that you need to do is load ScoopFree’s disposable litter tray with Premium Blue Crystals and then let the litter box do the cleaning until it’s time to change the disposable tray again.
Some of its unique include:
- Comes with a bag of Original Scent Blue Crystal Litter
- Possesses a disposable Litter Tray with Lid
- Includes a privacy hood for kitty
- Comes with a power adapter
- Operating guide
- Dimensions:
- Outside dimensions: 19 1/8 in. W x 27 5/8 in. L x 6 3/8 in. H (16 in. tall with hood)
- Inside dimensions (where kitty will go potty): 14 in. x 14 in.
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Ask a Vet Live NowThe Litter-Robot III Open-Air Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box
The Litter-Robot III Open Air Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box is another automatic cat litter box that makes caring for your feline fur baby easier. Not only that, but this is the latest addition to the highly respected and successful Litter-Robot brand.
The Litter-Robot III Open-Air is so well put together that it launches into action immediately after your cat leaves the litter box
Once your cat is done going potty, the Litter Robot III possesses an adjustable timer, which begins to count down as the globe of the litter box automatically separates clean litter from clumps and the moves the clumps into a carbon filtered drawer. Once the separation is done, the globe moves back to its open position, leaving the litter box as clean as ever. It makes use of clumping litter and kitchen garbage bags. Some of its unique features are these:
- An indicator that alerts you when the waste drawer is full and ready to empty.
- A self-adjustable sensor.
- It has a control panel lock-out that keeps it safe from your kids and pet themselves getting into the dirty litter.
- An adjustable time cycle gives you room to set the desired time you want the clean up to start (after the cat is doing her business).
- An automatic night light that illuminates the litter box at night time.
- It has the capacity to accommodate more than one feline at a time.
Comparison of These Self-Cleaning Litter Boxes
Both self-operated litter boxes are great for your kitty and easy for you to operate. They have some features in common, but also have some features that are different. Let’s take a look and compare the features of these two self-cleaning litter boxes.
Differences between PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Automatic Disposable Litter Box and The Litter-Robot III Open Air Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box:
- Litter-Robot III is built for any cat size or breed, and can accommodate more than one kitty. This is a good choice if you own two or more cats, or if you have large cats. On the other hand, the Petsafe ScoopFree litter box may be too small for multiple cats or larger cats, which can better accommodate small cats. So, if you have a small cat and a small space for the litter box, then this would be the best option.
- The Litter-Robot III, with its space-age beauty and multiple advantages may be a huge drain to your wallet because of its relatively high cost price. However, the PetSafe ScoopFree litter box comes with a friendlier price tag and is great if you’re on a budget.
- Litter-Robot III does not absorb the moisture in feces, which can make it have some odor, and you may experience spillage when removing the litter tray. The Petsafe ScoopFree litter box, on the other hand, absorbs the moisture in your kitty’s waste, leaving only the solid parts in the litter tray. It also has disposable litter trays with a plastic lining that creates a barrier to help protect against leakage when removing the tray to throw it away.
- The Litter-Robot III might give off an offensive smell once in a while because of its open air structure or if it is not well taken care of, while the PetSafe ScoopFree litter box has been fashioned in a manner that makes odor emissions relatively impossible.
- Litter-Robot III has a kind of alarm indicator; a blue light that flashes when the litter tray is full. This eliminates constant supervision and just notifies you to change litter tray when necessary, while the PetSafe ScoopFree litter box doesn’t have an indicator, so will require more supervision to change the tray when it becomes full.
- While the PetSafe ScoopFree litter box has been programmed from its manufacturers to start cleanup twenty minutes after your cat goes potty, the Litter-Robot III gives you the opportunity to set clean up time as you desire.
- Litter-Robot III has been designed with an automatic night light that makes use of the litter box easy for cats at night, while the PetSafe ScoopFree litter box does not have this particular feature.
Similarities Between Litter-Robot III and PetSafe ScoopFree Litter Boxes
As much as they have a few differences, these two self-cleaning litter boxes do have some features and characteristics in common:
Both the Litter-Robot III and PetSafe ScoopFree litter boxes require the barest minimum of supervision, as they’ve both been designed to be self-operative.
- They both have a timer that sets off once the cat makes use of the litter box.
- Both have integral sensors.
While there are differences and similarities that exist between these two self-cleaning litter boxes, the fact remains that they are both intricately manufactured to ease the stress of you—the busy cat owner–and the choice of which one to buy lies with you. S
So, we hope this guide and the comparisons will help you find the best self-cleaning litter box for you and your kitty. Choose the litter box that’s the best fit for your fur baby, your home circumstances and your wallet. Either the Litter-Robot III or the PetSafe ScoopFree litter box will be an excellent choice for you and kitty.
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Julie
Julie is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where she studied Animal science. Though contrary to the opinion of her parents she was meant to study pharmacy, but she was in love with animals especially cats. Julie currently works in an animal research institute (NGO) in California and loves spending quality time with her little cat. She has the passion for making research about animals, how they survive, their way of life among others and publishes it. Julie is also happily married with two kids.
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