Do you feel like you spend more time cleaning the litter tray and picking up the litter your little fluff nugget leaves on the floor than playing with your cat? If so, then this is the blog post for you.
In the Litter Robot 3 review, I’ll take a good look at the third installment of this innovative litter box. It has been redesigned with an improved filter system and a new sensor for monitoring your cat’s activity and you’ll be amazed by how it looks like a sleek modern toilet with an automatic sifting mechanism that scoops out all of the clumps from your kitty’s business into a sealed container below.
So let’s get going.
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Last update on 2023-05-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
1-Minute Review
The Litter Robot 3 Connect is an automatic, self-cleaning litter box designed for cat owners who hate scooping cat litter. With its patented shifting process, the lox automatically separates solid waste from clean litter, with the cat waste going into the waste bin. This process automatically removes waste, so your cat always has a clean bed of litter.
Inside of the robot is lined with sensors that detect your cat’s presence, so the cycling begins after your cat leaves. The Litter-Robot features an odor-absorbing component and carbon filters, which helps to reduce the smell of litter. To enable remote control and customization, the WiFi-enabled robot connects to an intuitive litter robot app which also helps you keep track of your cat’s litter health.
- Automates cat litter scooping
- Easy to set up, use and clean
- It has a user-friendly mobile app
- Good odor control
- It’s big, with a large footprint
- Has a steep price tag
- Needs regular care and maintenance
Last update on 2023-05-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Let’s take a closer look
How the Litter Robot 3 Connect works
We pet parents love our cats, we sure do. But, one thing I know for a fact is that no one—literally no one—enjoys scooping cat poop. Cleaning a litter box is certainly a dreadful chore, and it doesn’t matter how cute and adorable your pet is.
If you love your cat, but hate scooping litter, then a self-cleaning litter box is what you need. Automatic litter boxes abound, but they aren’t all made equal. In fact, the majority of them are very disappointing and a total waste of precious time and money. However, the Litter Robot 3 Connect is one gadget that stands out of the right. It looks nothing like a litter box, but it’s a total game-changer.
The Litter Robot 3 is essentially a heavy-duty robotic cat toilet that looks more like a miniature spaceship than a litter box. At first glance, it looks somewhat complex, but it actually has a simple design.
The unit has an inner rotating globe that sits on a base. When it’s time for your cat to do their business, they step into the globe. The globe is lined with sensors that detect the presence of a cat.
Once your cat is finished and exits the litter box, it waits a few minutes before the clean-up begins. The inner globe slowly starts to rotate, and as it rotates, the litter is sieved through a filter to separate clean litter from cat waste.
Clumps and solid waste fall into the base—which doubles as a waste storage compartment—while clean litter is filtered into a compartment on one side of the globe.
Once the waste has been moved into the base, the globe will continue to slowly rotate to its original position, bringing the fresh litter back into place for the next time your cat wants to poop.
The base of the Litter Robot Connect doubles as a concealed waste drawer, and it’s lined with a plastic litter bag (you can also use a garbage bag) to ensure that it stays clean. To dispose of the waste, all you have to do is open the drawer, tie off the litter bag and chuck it in the garbage. Also, remember to ut a new bag. And that’s it; you don’t have to scoop litter at all!
Performance
Litter Robot 3 Connect is an impressive litter box, and a great home gadget for a family with four-legged members. The bot is WiFi-enabled and has an app that allows for remote control.
From the app, you can make certain adjustments, like the countdown time. When your cat steps into the globe and the sensor detects its presence, it initiates a countdown, after which the cleaning cycle begins.
The countdown can be set to either 3, 7 or 15 minutes. The default setting is 7 minutes, to give your cat ample time to complete his business before the globe starts to rotate. You can also monitor how often you cat(s) use the robot when you’re away from home, as the app sends out push notifications.
It also alerts you on when to empty the waste drawer also you can check the litter robot app to see how full the waste compartment is. Another useful feature is the 8-hour sleep mode, which prevents the robot from activating a cleaning cycle at night. This is especially useful if the robot is placed in your bedroom, because the humming sound it makes while cleaning can be distracting at midnight. You can also turn off the blue night light.
The Litter Robot 3 works pretty well most of the time, however, the sensors may fail to detect your cat a few times. And when this happens, the robot will not activate a clean cycle. The cat sensor fault isn’t that big of a deal because you can manually activate a clean cycle from the mobile app.
Limitations
The first thing you’ll notice about the Litter Robot 3 is that it looks enormous in size. It looks nothing like a kitty litter box, which is a good feature. But at the same time, it’s really large and has a massive footprint for a litter box. This may be a dealbreaker if you live in a small apartment and can’t find the extra space for it.
Another obvious drawback is the price, usually priced around 500 bucks is certainly a steep price tag for a litter box. But if you consider how much stress it will save, and how you will never have to scoop cat poop again, you’ll find that the investment is certainly worth it.
A final thumbs down for the Litter Robot 3 is odor prevention. You would expect that a robot of its price would do an excellent job completely eliminating litter odor. But unfortunately, it doesn’t.
To be fair, the robot doesn’t actually claim to completely neutralize odor, it only promises to significantly reduce litter box odors, and it has odor-absorbing components for this. However, an accumulation of waste in the drawer can make a bad smell leak out even before the litter bag is full, and this can be worse if you have multiple cats.
To help with odor, you can put a box of baking soda in the drawer, this will help control odor and increase the length of time between each waste disposal.
Ease of set up and use
As sophisticated as the Litter Robot 3 is, the set-up process is a breeze. It comes pre-assembled and doesn’t take much to get it set-up and running, you can get it running barely 10 minutes after unboxing. It has a handy instruction manual that simplifies the set-up process.
The hardest part of getting the robot to run may be convincing your cats that their new toilet isn’t gonna bite.
Yes, many pet parents reported that their cats weren’t particularly excited about the robot, some cats were actually scared of it and avoided it for the first couple of days. The robot has some buttons in front of the unit, but the mobile app makes controlling it from anywhere easy.
These buttons can be locked from the app, to prevent kids and pets from indiscriminately pressing them.
Also, this litter box uses only clumping litter. The way the robot is designed, permits it to only work with clumping litter. And when adding litter into the globe, make sure that you don’t add too much. The globe has a maximum-fill line for litter, too much litter will be too heavy, and the globe may be unable to spin due to the extra weight.
Reliability
The components of the Litter Robot 3 are made of high-quality and durable plastic, it’s sturdily to last for a decent number of years. It has a solid working mechanism and gets the job done most of the time. If you get one of these robots, you can expect it to last for about 4 years. 4 years of not scooping litter, that’s certainly a good bargain. It’s certainly not the cheapest litter box out there, and it’s not the regular litter box.
Ongoing Maintenance
The Litter Robot 3 is designed to be an easy-to-maintain gadget. The company behind the product, Autopets, recommends that it should be given a deep clean about twice a year, the inside of the globe should be cleaned once in 1 to 3 months and the carbon filter should be replaced every few months. Luckily, certain components of the products are easy to take apart and piece back together.
The outer piece that holds the globe can be taken off by pressing down the two buttons inside, the globe and waste compartment can also be taken off for a good clean. But, beware of the electrical part of the gadget, no cleaning is required there. The globe and waste drawer can be washed with soapy water and completely dried before reassembling, and make sure that no water gets into the electrical part of the machine.
Extra Purchases and ongoing costs
Litter Robot is made of heavy-duty plastic and is a pretty durable gadget. But since it has mechanical parts, it’s not uncommon for its components to need replacement with continuous usage. Autopet sells replacement parts for the robot. Litter Robot 3 also uses litter bags, some litter bags are included in the unit, but eventually you will have to buy some more. Or you can simply use trash bags, they work just fine.
A couple of alternatives to consider
While Litter Robot 3 is an amazing product, there are other alternative self-cleaning litter boxes that are worth mentioning.
The first decent and more budget-friendly alternative is the PetSafe ScoopFree litter box. Although it’s a self-cleaning litter box, it looks very much like the standard litter box and doesn’t have any high-end mechanical functions. The self-cleaning function is a metal rake that automatically pushes off the solid waste into the waste storage compartment.
The entire unit costs less than half of the Litter Robot 3 but you will have to make a few extra purchases and one reoccurring purchase is the cat litter crystal tray refills, which is somewhat pricey. But traditional litter and a forever tray both work just fine.
Another great high-end automatic litter box is the PetKit Pura X. Compared to the Litter Robot 3, this unit runs more smoothly, it’s much quieter and the deodorizer works better. It also has a useful mobile app for customizing the settings to suit your kitties. While it’s an excellent alternative to the Litter Robot 3, it’s also more expensive, with a price tag of almost $600. But, don’t let the price scare you because this is an excellent machine. If it’s something you can afford, you should totally go for it.
FAQs
Does Litter-Robot 3 have Wi-Fi?
The Litter Robot 3 doesn’t come with Wi-Fi, but the Litter Robot 3 Connect does. And, unfortunately, the Litter Robot 3 doesn’t connect to the Autopets Connect app, this is the major difference between these two litter boxes.
At what age can cats use the self-cleaning litter box?
According to Auto pet, cats of any age can use the Litter-Robot except kittens and cats that weigh 5 pounds or less. If your cat weighs less than 5 pounds, then they shouldn’t use the Litter-Robot unattended.
How do I keep my Litter-Robot from smelling?
There are a few reasons why your Litter-Robot may be smelling bad, and here are some of them; The waste drawer needs to be emptied, frequently The waste drawer and globe need to be cleaned, they should be cleaned frequently. The carbon filter needs to be changed (it should be changed at least once in 6 months). The base seal may be won and need to be changed if you’ve done all these and the box still stinks, try adding a box of baking soda in the front of the waste compartment. If it still doesn’t help, then maybe you need to improve your cat’s diet or check with your vet to see if your cat has a medical condition.
Is Litter-Robot Good for multiple cats?
Yes, Litter Robot can be used by multiple cats, up to 4 cats. However, if it’s used by multiple cats, the waste drawer will need to be emptied more frequently. The higher the number of cats using it, the more frequently it should be emptied and cleaned.
How long does the Litter-Robot 3 Connect last?
With proper care and maintenance, you can expect your Litter-Robot to last for about 3 to 5 years.
Final thoughts
While The Litter Robot 3 may seem like a huge investment upfront, but if you take a moment to consider how it will significantly reduce the time spent scooping and how your kitties will no longer have to deal with a dirty litter box. For me, that’s more than enough reason already.
And a few extra bonuses include litter tracking, litter saving, curbing stinky smell, and generally keeping your home a littler cleaner. With all these and more, the Litter Robot 3 Connect is certainly worth it.
Emma Marie is a valued writer at the Little Robot Shop. She studied robotics and deeply understands technology, which shows in her writing. She consistently produces high-quality content, making her a perfect fit for the Little Robot Shop team.
While not writing, Emma works in a popular electronics retail chain. Emma also enjoys running and has two dogs with whom she loves spending time.
