Making the litterbox less of a chore

When I was studying for the Bar exam, even the simplest household chores were difficult to do every day.  One of my responsibilities is cleaning out the litterbox, and sometimes it was just too tough to break away from my studies and get down to the basement every day to do it.  My husband ordered us a Litter-Robot, and suddenly a gross once-a-day job turned into a much cleaner twice-a-week job. I had heard of disasters with other automated litterboxes--the rakes get clumped full of litter, the motors stop running, you have to buy special bags to put the litter in, and they just don't plain work.  The Litter-Robot, due to its unique design, does not have these drawbacks.

The Litter-Robot consists of a globe with an opening in front, on top of a large base.  The base contains a drawer with simple latches that can hold a regular kitchen-sized trash bag.  You put clumping cat litter inside the globe, and the cat goes through the opening to do his business.  A sensor underneat the drawer recognizes that a cat is inside the globe, and sets a timer for 10 minutes.  After the cat leaves and the timer goes off, the globe rotates, and a unique filtering system drops the clumps through holes in the globe, keeping the clean litter separate.  The clumps drop into the kitchen bag, which needs to be replaced about every five days if you have one cat, more often if you have more cats.  The best thing about this system is that the bag is in a drawer that is covered up, so no smell!  To replace the bag, all you have to do is slide out the drawer, pick it up, tie it, and throw it out.  It's that simple. 

The Litter-Robot is not without its drawbacks.  About once a month, you need to take it in the backyard and hose it off to get some of the gunk and smears from clumping litter off of it.  It won't affect the performance of the unit if you don't do this, but the smell can start to add up after a while.  If you overfill the litter, sometimes the globe won't turn properly.  And if you don't empty out the bag on time, it can smear used litter all over the outside of the globe.  Also, while I never had this problem, apparently the noise of the motor may freak out some cats into not using it.  The website of the Litter-Robot has tips for people whose cats are afraid of it.

All in all, though, the Litter-Robot's strengths greatly outweigh its few drawbacks.  If you hate cleaning out the catbox and you want a long-term solution, consider the Litter-Robot.