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Litter box heaven: Technology offers scoop alternatives(Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 20--We have robotic vacuum cleaners, self-cleaning ovens, odor-repelling socks. Why then, in this age of technological wonders, are we still having to manually scoop out the litter box once or twice a week? Cleaning the litter box is an awful chore -- worse than taking out the garbage. It's more on par with scrubbing the toilet, but it needs to be done more often, it's messier and it smells worse. Turns out, there are gizmos out there for those who don't want to spend the rest of their lives scooping the cat box, but here's the question: How much would you pay to never have to clean the darn thing again? $100? $200? $400? And if you spend that kind of scratch, will the device work? We wanted to know, so we pounced on the very latest and greatest in litter box technology for a test drive. Here's the scoop: PICK OF THE LITTER (CLEANERS) LITTER-ROBOT Price: $299 Rating: 4 stars (out of 4) Information: litter-robot.com. This is the top of the line when it comes to mechanized litter boxes that use ordinary scooping litter. It looks like the litter box on the Death Star -- a black plastic sphere with a menacing air (there's a white version, too). How it works: The mechanical stuff resides in the base. The sphere contains a metal grate and a rubber pouch. After the cat enters, the Litter-Robot waits eight minutes; then motors in the base begin to rotate the sphere. The litter goes through the grate and into the pouch. The waste is trapped on the grate and dumps through a hatch on the globe as it turns. A garbage bag catches the waste. Empty by pulling out a drawer on the base. Pluses: It works. Very little mess -- although I had to add a carpet to trap the litter our cat tracked out; reliable; easy to clean; relatively quiet. Minuses: Pricey. Bulky. A hassle to add litter into the globe. Not smell-proof -- you'll be emptying it long before it's full. Training -- it took some effort to get my cat, Joe, to use it. Bottom line: As close to litter box bliss as I've seen. ANDY WINEKE VAN NESS SIFTING CAT PAN Price: $20-$29 Rating: 3 stars (out of 4) Information: Petsmart.com, Petco.com Bypass the need to touch that nasty scooper by buying a sifting litter box. How it works: Three plastic trays fit snugly together to compose the unit, which is about the size of a typical litter box. The top tray is the sifting tray. Pour in clumping litter, and when ready to empty, lift out the top tray; this allows litter to fall through the holes to the middle tray while the sifter catches clumps. After pouring the clumps into the trash, the middle tray holding the filtered litter is lifted from the bottom tray and set aside, while the sifting tray is placed in the empty tray. Pour the litter from one box to the others, and it's ready to go. Pluses: Inexpensive. Simple. Cats dig it. Minuses: It's only slightly more convenient than the scooping method. Solids sometimes get stuck in the holes of the sifter. WILLOW WELTER LITTERMAID ELITE BASIC Price: $109.99 at PetSmart Rating: 3 stars (out of 4) Information: Petsmart.com, Petco.com How it works: After the cat finishes its business, the box waits 10 minutes, then a motorized rake pushes through the litter and deposits the waste in a hidden receptacle. Pluses: Can go a week between emptying. Works with multiple cats -- and entertains them, too. Minuses: Rake needs to be cleaned -- icky. You have to buy the disposable waste bins. Lids don't fit quite right. ANDY WINEKE CATGENIE Price: $329 (plus shipping if ordered online) Rating: 1 star (out of 4) Information: catgenie.com The company that makes CatGenie claims you will "never touch, change, smell or buy cat litter again," but that assumes you can install it, your cat will use it and you won't encounter any glitches. How it works: The CatGenie fills a bowl of plastic pellets with water, then scoops up solids, liquefies and then sends them through a hose, washes and sanitizes the pellets, then finally dries the pellets with warm air. A cartridge of sanitizing solution is in the back of the device. The cycle takes about a half-hour. If the cat needs to use the box while it's running, he's out of luck. Installing the CatGenie requires some simple-sounding plumbing: An inlet hose connects to a water line and an outlet hose hooks to a toilet or laundry drain pipe. But the water line adaptor included with the CatGenie didn't fit on our toilet line, so one trip to the hardware store, one hour and plenty of cursing later, my handy fiance had installed the unit, hooking the outlet line over the edge of the toilet bowl. We followed the instructions on how to acclimate cats to the bowl, slowly moving their old box toward the CatGenie. After a week and a half, our cats, Shredder and Lambert, hadn't set paw in it. We tried balancing their old litter box on top of the bulky machine (it's 19 inches wide, 24 inches long and 21 inches high). When we removed the old box days later, Lambert started pacing and frantically meowing. We gently set him in the CatGenie. He jumped out and walked to the corner, squatting. I ran to the garage and got the old box. We put it next to the CatGenie as an option. When Shredder used the CatGenie, we rejoiced. Lambert still refused. A few days later, we braved the removal of the old box. There was evidence they were both using the CatGenie. We ran the cycle. It worked. That night, I awoke to a shrill beeping noise. A red light on the CatGenie was lit next to the word "error." Apparently, a cat had stepped on the button that starts the cycle. The bowl was full of water and sanitizing solution, which possibly smells worse than cat urine. I unplugged the power cord, plugged it back in and pressed the start button. It resumed. The next day, I e-mailed the customer service department of CatGenie about the clogging. I got a prompt and friendly reply, saying I should unfasten the hose and bang it on something to unclog it. That night, we ran the cycle again. Almost an hour later, we went to check what was taking so long. It was full of liquids and the room reeked. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! We had had enough of the CatGenie. We unhooked the hose, spilling unpleasant liquids onto the floor, unplugged the machine and lugged the cursed contraption outside to pour it in the Dumpster. We made it -- almost. As we heaved it up to pour out its contents, it tilted the wrong way and the liquids spilled on us. The CatGenie is a good idea that, in our case, went awry. I know of one family that has one and loves it. Perhaps we got a defective model. Perhaps we're cursed. After our frustrating test run, I decided the device was not worth the trouble. Pluses: Comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee, and a 2-year warranty on parts and labor. If you have a laundry room with a water line (we didn't), space and a power supply nearby, the CatGenie may work for you. Minuses: Expensive; bulky; malfunctions can lead to nervous breakdowns; requires plumbing; sanitizing solution smells worse than cat urine. WILLOW WELTER STYLETTE LITTERSWEEP ULTRA Price: $79.99 Rating: 1 star (out of 4) Information: Petsmart.com An automated box that uses ordinary scooping litter and a novel rotating bowl. How it works: After the cat does his business, the LitterSweep waits 25 minutes, then begins to rotate. A metal scoop/rake on the side goes through the litter, lifts out the waste, then dumps it through a door into a small receptacle. It's an elegant design and it worked great for Joe -- for a week. We went away for a three-day weekend and left Joe alone with the LitterSweep. We came back to find the automated litter box rotating like Linda Blair's head in "The Exorcist." We never could get it to work right after that. Pluses: Neat design. Easy to train cats to use. Minuses: Possible demonic possession. Fragile. ANDREW WINEKE To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazette.com. Copyright (c) 2007, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |