I've been looking at getting an automatic cleaning litter box for a while now. Would you mind recommending the type that you bought if you are so happy with it?
It does require a small amount of maintenance to keep it running smoothly. Separating and cleaning the main pieces every 2-3 months is all I do (nothing that requires tools to disassemble, but a good 15 minutes of cleaning+vacuuming)
Our cats were always very stinky with traditional litter boxes (even on different diets) and the litter robot did cut that down significantly... but what made a huge difference was using a litter that was a combination of clay, activated carbon and silica granules (we use Biokat's Diamond Care Classic - it is expensive, previously I manually mixed in carbon+silica into cheaper clay litter with moderate success).
We only have one cat now, and only need to replace the bag once every 10 days, but even so I can't detect any cat smell in the house (and am quite sensitive to it) nor can any of my friends/family -- but they all have cats so there may well still be some base level of smell that all our noses are innured to.
To a sibling commentor's warning, neither of our cats are worried about it cycling (in fact, our sphynx races over to watch it cycle any time she hears the motor start up). It has a weight sensor as well as a pinch sensor to prevent the cat being injured in case they jump in while it's running -- so far nobody's tried to, but good to know it's there.
I found it quite good for our older cat, too: one of our cats had a bit of arthritis in later life and needed the set of steps to comfortably get up and into the litter box which does increase the already pretty significant footprint of the device. It also has an automatic low light that comes on when it gets dark that helped her get around when her eyesight was failing.
A sibling comment noted that it's pretty expensive and may not be worth the cost - I think that's probably true, although I've no regrets (and even bought a second one) because of the amount of scooping it's saved me.
Our cats were always very stinky with traditional litter boxes
That's probably more expensive over a large enough number of years relative to a robo litter box, but you're also removing other indoor allergy causes as well, so it's doing other work which may be beneficial.
Also the fan noise from the filters is very gentle; actually a plus for many.
For the one cat though it is definitely great, he's kinda fearless though so your cats may not quite be brave enough to face the beast everytime they go to the bathroom.
Edit - my name is Zircom, I have a litter robot 3 for the record, and I recommend it as long as you don't have scaredy cats.
It's been great so far, the kitten really liked it, she will even come to watch it run when it does it's cleaning cycle.
Older cat was a little skittish as first but took to it as well, I left out the old litter box for a few days but soon she started going to the cleaner automated one.
With two cats I empty the bottom tray liner twice a week, every couple days I'll vacuum the ramp and around the litter box to keep the small clay litter confined to that area.
We're using the BoxiePro Deep Clean, Scent Free, Probiotic Clumping Cat Litter.
I'd go ahead and get the wifi one esp. if you travel or are out of the house, I also setup a camera to keep an eye on it and initially to see which cat was using it.
We weren't using scoopable litter before so I'm estimating this will save us over $4k in litter costs over the next 3 years. We were using yesterdays news litter, changing out two litter boxes every other day was about $12 in litter. I like putting plenty in their boxes it seems cleaner for everyone.
So it uses very little litter I add a solo cup of litter a couple times per week, so I expect the $28 bag of boxie will last at least a month.
It sounds crazy to spend this much on a litter box but since we weren't using scoopable it will actually save us money.
Plus when we're out of town our neighbors won't have to change the litter boxes, maybe once on a long trip.
It is larger than a standard litter box. We set ours up in our hall closet off the kitchen, wide closet, double sliding doors. I'm going to build a small rectangular cat door off to the side of the main doors so we don't have to keep the door open. I'm going to build a full depth and width shelf above it so it's in it's own space in the bottom of the closet.
Edit: Thanks for all the replies. I am still on the fence about it, and may try further options to reduce the smell (at least enough so that a cat-person like myself can live with it ;))
There is a carbon filter that sits on one end of the tray to help minimize scent, but it's not very effective in my experience. I'm currently experimenting with putting various nicely-scented objects in that tray, in front of the filter (like those little scent blocks you can hang on the side of your toilet bowl, for example).
The scent will also largely depend on the cat's digestive system. My cats tend to not have very smelly or soft feces so it's not bad at all, but if one of them gets diarrhea you bet I'm emptying that litter bin right away. Likewise, if a guest is coming over I'd probably suggest emptying the litter bin beforehand just in case.
I know you already know of better litter and baking soda tricks, but there is a powder you can purchase and sprinkle into litter, which gives off a fresh scent. I found using it also helps, as does sprinkling some of it into the bottom of the litter tray itself (into the litter waste bin). I don't have the name of it on hand, but I think there are a few brands out there that are pretty common.
Edit: the _majority_ of the time there is no smell I can easily detect until I open the tray to remove the garbage. But as someone else mentioned, no smell to a cat person may not be a reliable gauge.
I will say I think this one works well, but you could likely find something cheaper because you don't need to much air circulation for a litter box. I just happened to already have this one.
The litter won't stay in the open part for more than 10-25 minutes and then it is cycled into the drawer which is relatively contained and has a charcoal filter on it.
We have two cats and end up changing the drawer every 2-3 days. I have a friend who manages not to change the drawer for a week and I do think it starts to smell then.
The main benefits are that we don't have to tend to the litter tray that often and when we do we only need to pull out the plastic trash bag, tie it up and replace with a new one. I also think it uses a lot less litter as we never have to fully change it out like you do with normal cat boxes.
It's an expensive item but I think it's definitely worth it. Get a reconditioned one for $50-100 less as they are perfectly clean and they will get messy pretty quickly anyway.
We pair ours with Nature's Miracle cat litter which has baking soda and other deodorizer in it.
Made a huge difference to the smell when we switched.
You will smell it when you open the drawer to change the bag a couple times per week but only till you tie up the bag to take out.
It does take a little learning. You have to learn how to not overfill it. How to do a full break down clean of it (not hard just more involved). It doesn't keep the smell down significantly more than a traditional litter box imo.
Pretty sure ours paid for itself in litter savings in about a year.