A litter box which cleans itself automatically that you can monitor via your phone? It’s not science fiction—it’s the Litter-Robot 3 Connect! This high tech litter box completely eliminates the unpleasant chore of scooping out the litter box—all you need to do is remove a waste bag from it periodically (once a week for a single cat and more often for multiple cat households) and you are good to go. No special litter or bags are required—a good clumping litter and tall kitchen garbage bags work fine. (Yes, Litter-Robot sells its own litter and own bags, but the system works fine without them.) A bonus of the new Connect version of the Litter-Robot is that it allows you to use an app on your phone (iPhone or Android) to monitor the litter box remotely. You can see when your cat uses the box, monitor the level of the waste drawer, and receive notifications if something is amiss, such as an operating fault of some kind or a full waste drawer. The app isn’t perfect, but it is helpful, and kind of fun to use. It is essentially a nice addition to a truly stellar product. The Litter-Robot 3, if operated properly, truly does free you from litter box drudgery. Only having to take out a full waste bag and replace it with a clean bag twice a week (I have two cats) is a far cry from having to actually scoop out a litter box to clean it. And as the Litter-Robot cleans itself after each use, your cat never has to do its business in a dirty box. This makes the cat happier: cats are known to prefer eliminating in a clean box. And for you, it means that your cat isn’t walking around your home with dirty paws. And speaking of your home, it is going to smell better with the Litter-Robot than with a typical litter box, because all the waste is gathered in a closed area with a carbon filter to reduce any escaping odors. Overall, it is an outstanding system. So what’s the catch? It is quite expensive, running $449 for the basic Litter-Robot 3 and $499 for the fancier Connect model with the smartphone app connection ability. Also, you have to follow a pretty strict set of guidelines to make sure it operates correctly. Essentially:
1. You have to be careful to use just the right amount of litter—too little and your cats don’t have enough to do their business in and too much and the weight is too heavy for the system. And it has to be a clumping litter—not every kind of litter will work
2. You must be sure that the feet of the Litter-Robot are on a hard, flat level surface (if on tile, even grout lines can be problematic, so you have to work around those)
3. The litter box cannot touch any walls
4. You have to press the reset button after each addition of fresh litter, removal of a waste bag, or repositioning of the unit. )
There are also a few other periodic maintenance things you need to do—there are a few places in the litter box where litter dust can build up which affects the operation of the device—but these are not difficult and don’t need to be done very frequently. Disassembling the device and cleaning it periodically is nice to do, I suppose, but really not that necessary unless your cat is particularly messy or you have super high standards. (In my approximately 8 years of use of Litter-Robot cat boxes, I think I have emptied and washed out the globe twice.) In my opinion, if you have the money for this litter box and you can follow the operating instructions, the Litter-Robot 3 Connect is truly a game changer. It takes all the icky stuff out of owning an indoor cat.
So overall, I would absolutely recommend the Litter-Robot 3 Connect if you can swing the price. It really transforms the indoor cat owning experience. You will be happier, the cats will be happier and visitors to your house will be able to tell the difference. Plus, it is a pretty cool thing to show off—bet you never invited your friends to check out the litter box before!
This product is available directly from the US manufacturer at Litter-Robot.com. The Litter-Robot 3 is $449 and the Litter-Robot 3 Connect is $499. Many thanks to the kind folks at Litter-Robot for sending me out this sample to review.
Thanks so much for watching, and have a wonderful day!
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