by I was raised by cats: a wild calico and an abundance of Fancy Feast fluff balls that were my big cats. And I raised cats throughout my adulthood, including a boy scraped from the streets, a shy gal from a horse barn and a magical shelter kitten who lived to be 22. They all had one thing in common: boxes stinky trash.
Cats are self-cleaning, experts say. Now we finally – at the end! — have a litter box too. Here is my full review of the self-cleaning Trash-Robot 4.
Whirlpool
Keep up with the Jetsons: This sleek, smart self-cleaning litter box detects cats and automatically runs a quiet clean cycle after they leave. It accommodates families with up to four cats.
- No scooping
- Odor is significantly reduced
- Accommodates up to four cats
- A simple arrangement
- A useful app
- Monitor weight, waste
- Quiet
- dear
- Exclusive to one retailer
$699 at Whisker
Publication after publication (Forbes, People, Spruce Pets) is the king of this bin. Even Jenna Fischer of it The Office He swore she “changed his life” in a funny video. Now I get why! Since I joined the Litter-Robot 4 a few weeks ago, our two senior cats have enjoyed a spotless litter box, our house smells fresher than ever and we’re not cleaning up poop over the edge. Bonus: Our giant pup muppet has zero trash items (more on her later) and a handy app keeps tabs on everything. It’s really awesome.
This is our first foray into the world of high-tech litter boxes. I never thought outside of the plastic box until 2011, when my husband ordered the then popular Omega Paw Roll n’ Clean Self Cleaning Litter Box. (Spoiler alert: It’s the one no self-cleaning – you have to roll the box over and bang on it to clean it, but it served us well. We are keeping it upstairs until we can bring in a second Robot Litter since multicat families need more than one potty). which the cats miss as someone kept pointing their hindquarters out of the hole. It’s not.
The simple arrangement
The Garbage-Robot 4 came together completely! We read the breezy instructions, plugged it in and littered up to the designated line (it requires 8 to 10 pounds of clumping litter or litter beads or very small crystals). Then we download the wonderful Whisker app. You can then upload pet pictures and stats such as age and weight so the smart box can track your cat’s bathroom habits. The best feature of the app, however: It tells you when the lower tray is completely hidden and needs to be dumped (for us, maybe once a week). And you’ll need that reminder because you’ll forget you even have a litter box.
To cover our senior tuxedo outfit, we put the new box next to the old one and just a little bit of used junk from the old box, as instructed. The transition was immediate for our tough 13 year old Brooklyn boy, Willie (he used it that day). It’s slower for our 11-year-old Lupe because of the dang dog (again, more on her later), but it’s happening!
The smell test
When you live with smell, a kind of “nose blindness” sets in, so the real test is whether your house stinks to go on tour. When you return, the truth will smack you in the face as all the smells hit you at once. We left on a five day trip this morning after plugging in the Litter-Robot. The regular “Cat Detected” and “Clean Cycle Complete” notifications let me know they were in use while we were away. (You can disable those, too.) Still, we were worried we’d come home in accidents. Instead, we returned to happy cats and — for the first time ever — a lovely smelling house!
The dog test
Our giant muppet dog, Suki, loves our kittens just a little too much – so much so that she started coprophagy (poop-eating) when we adopted her. Unfortunately, we set up kitten obstacle courses to keep her mouth out of the litter boxes. It was complicated and strange. This smart box put an end to the madness. A clean cycle runs within minutes after the kitties go.
There is still one small problem. Our shy cat, Lupe, prefers to use the box upstairs where the dog won’t talk to her, but when Suki is safely out of the house, Lupe makes a break for the Litter Robot. We may need the latter in our lives.
I’ve also heard plenty of good things about the Litter Box 3 Connect in the past from everyone from my trusted Realtor to Queer Eyeby Jonathan Van Ness. I could get one for our backup upstairs to save a few bucks. (If I do, I’ll report back.) But the Litter-Robot 4 has improved our lives so much, I’m tempted to splurge or pick up a refurbished model.
A few additional things
The Whiskers seem to have thought of everything. They won’t even let a power outage send you back to scooping: Pick up a backup battery Trash-Robot 4. And for the ultimate in clean, you can upgrade to the Trash-Robot 4 Bit Clean, which features special mat, improved ramp, extra liners, wipes and more.
Whirlpool
You will feel like you are watching Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey when this silent robot gently rotates and removes your cat’s waste. The clean, mod design comes in eight colors and patterns.
- No scooping
- Odor is significantly reduced
- Accommodates up to four cats
- A simple arrangement
- A useful app
- Monitor weight, waste
- Quiet
- dear
- Exclusive to one retailer
$699 at Whisker
