Littermaid

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary: The Littermaid is a well-constructed litter box which turns the chore of daily litter cleanings into a simple weekly container emptying.  It runs on batteries or with the included AC adapter and with a simple trick (explained below) it will run without problems, automatically doing kitty’s dirty work.

Note: For an at-a-glance view of Litter Robot vs Cat Genie vs Littermaid vs Scoop Free click here.

They named it appropriately. 

With two cats and one litter box, you basically become a maid to the litter box, tending to it daily.  So, when I found out that a product existed that would reduce the frequency of scooping litter from my schedule, I was very very interested.

The premise is that the litter box has a rake at one end and an airtight container at the other.  An infrared sensor (much like the ones on garage doors that prevent people from getting squished) detects when the cat is in the box and when it leaves.  About 10 minutes after the cat leaves the rake scoops through the litter, collecting the kitty mess along the way and drops it into the airtight container before going back to its resting spot.

Cat Genie	Littermaid
Rating: 5 out of 5	Rating: 3 out of 5

Stupid cat. That's what I used to think when cleaning the litterbox and grumbling to myself about him prancing around like royalty while I clean up after his majesty. Of course, the simple solution of getting rid of the little bugger isn't really an option due to the wife's emotional attachment. So what's a guy to do?

Note: For an at-a-glance view of Litter Robot vs Cat Genie vs Littermaid vs Scoop Free click here.

My first attempt at solving the problem was to search for some sort of automatic litter box, insisting that someone has to have this figured out by now – I was right, but there are several options and you can only do so much reading about a cat litter box before you feel awkward and bored. I settled on the Littermaid box which essentially uses a rake to run across the litter, scooping up any cat droppings into a container which becomes air-tight after the rake goes back to its resting place.

There is a sensor to stop the rake in case the cat does something silly like jump in, and I figured that emptying the container once a week would surely be easier than each and every day as I did currently (ok, once every couple days, but it begins to stink after that.) After some mild threats about giving the cat away, I received wife approval for the expenditure and ordered it immediately...