1 stars

My wife and I purchased one littermaid Elites with ionic air from Target to help with our two older cats. We had the first for about two weeks and were satisfied so we purchased another for our younger cats.

The littermaid is flawed on so many levels. The gears and the track that the gears ride on are made of cheap plastic and pop out of place, causing the track to run crooked and therefore not settle in the off position, leaving the machine to run back and forth until turned off.

This is also not a clean solution as the advertise. The will are far too low and the cats end up scattering litter everywhere. The suggested level of litter is too deep to allow the machine to work properly and yet too low for cats to feel comfortable using it, especially when you adjust the level so that the machine works. This low level of litter causes even more mess. Not to mention the mess associated with the disposal bin. I have come into contact with far more cat feces using this product than with years of old fashioned boxes. It furthermore wastes a great deal of very expensive litter in its cleaning process.

This is a cheap, poorly made product with a high price tag that should be pulled from the market.

5 stars

I recently bought a cat (kitten - 4 months old) and, since I travel frequently for work, decided to investigate into buying an automatic litter box cleaner. I'm going to break this review into a few parts:

1) Quality
The quality of the Littermaid Elite is decent, at best. The bottom 'tray' is flimsy plastic but it does stand up and doesn't seem to have any problem supporting the motor and top parts. The two pieces which hold the cat ramp and waste bin seem to bow inwards which sometimes makes it difficult to get the bins to stay in place properly. My initial thought when I saw this unit was "wow, they must be making a decent amount per unit as these seem pretty cheap."

2) Assembly
For anyone who has ever had to put something together (furniture, electronics, etc) this was pretty simple. The pieces fit together well and there are markings to let you know "this doesn't fit here".

3) Functionality
I purchased some middle to high quality clumping litter (NOT the littermaid stuff) and poured it in the box. Even before I plugged it in, Darwin was in the box doing her business. She scratched a few times and covered it up and no litter left the box. I waited a few minutes for the litter to clump (the box has a timer of 10 minutes to ensure clumping), plugged the unit in to power and flipped the switch. The motor kicked on (was relatively quiet) and the rake did it's thing and to the waste bin it went - with NO problems. The ionic air cleaner came on and noticeably cleaned the air - no smell. SLEEP FUNCTION: The very first night I set the sleep function to 11pm - so for 9 hours after 11pm (until 8am) the motor didn't run but the ionic air filter ran every hour for ten minutes, keeping everything selling good.

Overall:
I would definitely recommend this unit to SINGLE CAT FAMILIES. Many of the people who wrote bad reviews have multiple cats which I can only imagine makes things worse and causes more work for the motor and rake. Additionally, there are many modifications you can do to this litter box (search PermaLID or BAG-IT) so you don't have to spend about $1 per waste bin. There are also tricks you can do to keep the box operating at its peak: keep it clean, keep it lubricated, and if your cat is peeing on the plastic bottom, spray it with PAM or other cooking spray and then pour the litter in - a handy trick to get the litter to clump.

This is DEFINITELY worth the money - give it a try.

1 stars

I work 12 hour days and have 2 cats so I thought this litter box sounded great. But I have had numerous problems with it.

1st the litter misses the reticule and piles up underneath the machine. 2nd the rake gets jammed often. 3rd the litter doesn't clump well so you have urine soaked litter pieces in the box that the rake never gets - I have tried other litters and they do not work much better. 4th I keep the box in my spare bathroom and it always smells. I also have a regular litter box with feline pine litter and I rarely smell anything but pine from that box. 5th the rake pushes just as much clean litter into the reticule as it does used litter.

Overall I feel this was a waste of money and would not recommend it.

- hope this helps

1 stars

I recently switched from using a regular litter box to this piece of junk, and I'm very unhappy with it. First of all, I read the instructions completely before even setting the thing up. I used the recommended Littermaid clumping litter as well as other premium clumping litter brands and had the same results. The clumps stuck to the rack almost every time. It made the cat smells that much worse because it would break up the solid waste, dragging it back and forth over the box. Every time my kitty used this stupid box, I had to go in and clean the darn thing. Then when I went to change the receptacle, I found a mountain of litter under the box. Completely unsanitary. I don't mind sweeping up a little litter tracked on the floor, but good grief, not that much. I had to use batteries to run it because there was not an outlet close by, and it drained 8 AA batteries in 2 days on average. I thought this thing was supposed to make my life a little easier, but I found myself spending more time cleaning on it than I did a regular litter pan. It is going in the trash, and I'm going back to the old-fashion method.

1 stars

Please steer clear of this item... This is a TERRIBLE excuse of a litterbox. It constantly runs for about two weeks, and then dies. WASTE of money. rake motor isn't strong enough to move AIR. I will never again buy another item from littermaid. Steer clear people!!

1 stars

I'm not one to complain too much, but this was the worst amount ever spent. I got it when I was 6 months pregnant to save me from having to clean as much cat litter, and I ended up with more work to do! It dumps litter everywhere, so when I change the cartridge I end up finding a PILE of litter under the litter box. I still end up having to clean as much litter as I did before otherwise my house smells like a litter box because of the fact that it brushes poop outside of it. Not to mention, the rake gets stuck and doesn't scoop all of the litter, and it's extremely noisy. I would NEVER waste my money on this again.

1 stars

As others have stated, do not buy this item! I previously owned a Littermaid product that I loved, but after a few years the sensors no longer worked. So I attempted to replace it with this item. From day one, this item has not worked as intended. It holds very little litter to begin with, and still isn't capable of scooping it. It cannot complete the scooping cycle successfully without getting stuck. On top of that, it's simply a poor design and it takes up a lot more floor space than older models. There are so many parts that do not connect to each other, that you can't just pick it up and move it. This product is simply not worth [what] it is supposed to scoop!

5 stars

Ok so I bought one of these litter boxes and I just LOVE it. Also my cat (who is the biggest scaredy cat ever) has no problem with it either. I see the majority of people complaining about ridiculous things, like litter on the floor, come on people, these are cats they like to bury it! You CAN buy a tent to help a little with that. It helps to follow directions and not overfill as well. Also I think the only reason people are having problems with the waste getting stuck to the rakes is they missed the part about CLUMPING litter. I use Fresh Start (which is flushable) and it works perfectly, and if its still a problem- they DO include a scoop that has teeth on the end that FIT into the rake to clean it off. I think people are expecting this thing to clean itself, dumping trays and all... sorry all... but there is still a little effort involved here, lets be reasonable! I agree with 'bigmama "T-bob"' about it not being meant to clean your floors and wipe your cat's butt. This IS a great buy unless your are too lazy to do a little (& I mean very little as long as your using litter that actually CLUMPS) sifting of your own, a lil bit of sweeping and dumping the trays. I've dealt with regular cat boxes for a long time and this is by far the better choice!

1 stars

We just adopted 2 cats and we thought this would be a good time saver, Wow were we wrong. We purchased it Sat. and by Wed the bag of kitty litter was gone. We had to go buy more so we bought a different brand and it clumped better but still didn't work like we thought it would. It waisted most of the litter. When it would scrape it would push the litter into the container then drag the cat waist back out. It's not deep enough for the cats to burry when they are done. The litter piles up under the cat box so it is all over your floor. The ramp is just a waist of space they don't like it. We are not sure what the air filter does but it is just a added piece of nothing. We went out and purchased the old litter box with a cover for [.........]and are much happier with it.

The people that wrote haw happy they are with it must work for the company and need it to sound good.


Now add the time to the store and gas. Not worth it.

Much happier now, a lot cleaner much less smell. My advice stick to the shovel and scoop yourself.