When it comes to choosing an automatic litter box there are always 2 ways to do it: get a unit that works OK and doesn’t break your wallet or just bite the bullet on the price and get the best one in the market. In this article, I will give you 7 basic reasons why I think the Robot Open Air is the best automatic litter box and why this unit changed my life as a cat owner (yes it did!).
After reading hundreds of reviews for different self-cleaning litter boxes in the past almost 5 years I came up to the big conclusion that most of them had similar fails. Somehow the design of most self-cleaning litter boxes caused the units to have some issues where you needed to deal with troubleshooting more often than you would like.
Some automatic litter boxes work better than others, that’s for sure, but most of them are not 100% reliable in the sense that you just can’t leave them alone for up to 7 or 8 days with one cat and not even worry about it.
As follows I came up with 5 conclusions as an owner of a Litter-Robot III regarding those fails that most automatic litter boxes have and how this unit became my best partner, especially when I need to leave for short trips.
#1 You don’t need to scrape the bottom of the litter pan
Some automatic litter boxes, especially the ones that work with rakes, need you to scrape the bottom because the urine forms big clumps that get stuck on the bottom of the litter pan. Obviously, a rake can’t collect that so that’s something you need to do manually.
With the Litter Robot, you don’t need to scrape because the rotation mechanism gets rid of the clumps after your cat does its business so it doesn’t give it time to get stuck on the bottom of the litter area. In addition to that, the litter area is made from thick rubber that drops down a little bit when the machine rotates, making anything that could be stuck at the bottom, be released.
How the rubber bottom releases any stuck clumps
#2 No cleaning stuck feces from the box’s sides or edges
These are the typical “accidents” that happen when your cat defecates and misses the right spot, leaving some feces on the sides, edges, or even hanging out. This can happen to any automatic litter box with exposed edges as much as to regular litter boxes. Due to the shape of the Globe without corners or edges, your cat won’t have a spot to miss when doing its business.
Even if your cat urinates sort of horizontally or poops a little on the walls of the Globe, it will go to the rubber (not onto the floor) and with the rotation mechanism and the rubber dropping down a little, any stuck feces will go down to the waste drawer. The Litter Robot’s Globe contains much better feces or urine that otherwise would fall out of the litter area using a regular litter box.
#3 You don’t need to troubleshoot the unit from getting stuck
Some units show red blinking lights when the rake gets stuck for whatever reason and they simply stop working. If going on a trip this could be a very bad mess. One of the best things I love about my Litter Robot III is the fact that it NEVER gets stuck or stops operating. It’s so well designed that the whole system works smoothly because the mechanism has been so well thought out. I have been using this machine for almost 2 months and it has never stopped working!
The only thing that happened to me was that the waste drawer was too full (it went almost 11 days without emptying) and the cleaning indicator showed blinking. This means the waste drawer needs to be emptied but even with this indicator blinking, the unit does 3 more cleaning cycles, and only after that it stops working. In my opinion, that’s more than excellent. Also, the Globe may stop rotating is if you have too much litter or too little in the Globe. But this is not a technical defect, you just need to make sure to keep the litter up to the full line, pouring some litter every week.
#4 You don’t need to manually even the litter bed to make it work smoothly
Most automatic litter boxes with rakes need you to manually spread the litter evenly due to the rake creating piles of litter or because a special litter needs to be aerated, etc. Litter boxes might need you to spread the litter manually for the following reasons:
- The rake creates a pile of litter behind the rake so it needs to be cleared
- The rake pushes too much litter and creates a pile close to the waste compartment
- The cat makes big piles of litter blocking a sensor mechanism
- The litter box uses a special litter that needs to be spread out to work better
If you don’t mind doing this it’s not really a big deal but if you want to get the best automatic litter box that helps you to forget about the litter box, you might want to choose a different system.
#5 No need of buying branded supplies for the Open Air to operate
I have mentioned this point in other articles and it’s very important to me. After reading so many reviews from customers trying to adapt their units for them to work without the brand’s supplies I thought I needed something that I can use without being trapped with specific supplies. As follows I will mention examples of some automatic litter boxes that need you to buy their products for the machines to work:
- The brand’s trays are pre-filled with crystals
- The brand’s plastic waste trays
- The brand’s detergent for cleaning cycles
- The brand’s litter for the system to work
- The brand’s liners
With the Litter Robot you only need to buy any good clumping litter and you can use 13 o 8 gal trash bags, that’s it! I did testing for one year using different brands of cat litter to determine what’s the best cat litter to use with the Litter Robot and I got conclusions that will certainly help you.
I consider the Litter Robot Open Air the best automatic litter box and I hope I’ll keep feeling the same as the times go. So far this unit has worked perfectly and I am surprised about how something like this could change my life as a cat owner. I can only imagine how much this unit would change the life of a multi-cat owner. In this article on how to choose a multi-cat litter box I mention how the Litter Robot III suits the needs of multi-cat owners, no matter if you have 2, 3, or more cats.
Now I don’t even think about the litter box anymore for at least 7 or 8 days (my cat is full-grown now) and I can focus on playing with my pet or doing any other activity than squatting to clean the litter box and breathing that awful smell all the time.
#6 It can be adapted to be dual powered
If you need to leave your cat alone for several days and you worry about a possible power outage, the Litter Robot can be upgraded by purchasing the Battery Backup Kit which is one of the Robot Open Air accessories (check on this link for the battery accessory and how to install it). Simply install the kit in the Litter Robot battery compartment and the unit will operate no matter what, up to 20 cleaning cycles.
7#The Open Air comes with a Wi-Fi Smart version
The Robot Open Air has a smart Wi-Fi-powered version, the Litter Robot Connect, and a Wi-Fi-powered version that is ideal for multi-cat households, the Litter Robot 4. The smart Wi-Fi versions of the Litter Robot 3 Open Air can be managed on your iPhone or Android, so you can change settings such as change delay time or sleep mode, or any other function of the Litter Robot. The Open Air also can be switched to a Connect version by installing the Connect Kit or purchasing the Connect Base. Learn more about this in my Litter Robot Connect Review where I show the functions and how to transform the Robot Open Air 3 into a Connect version.
The Connect Robot App (Whisker App) is a powerful tool that allows you to monitor your cat’s elimination frequency which is important in case your feline friend has some digestive or urinary problem. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that now we can go out for short trips and the litter box is one less thing for our friend to take care of. She only needs to come to our home to play with our cat and that’s it! (we feed our cat automatically). If you want to see a comparison between the best and most popular brands of automatic litter boxes, I created a side-by-side comparison with the best self cleaning litter boxes.
I hope you can experience the same as me and be happier about having a cat. Don’t wait any longer to change your life as a cat owner like I did. Get the Litter-Robot 3 Connect, or the Litter Robot 4 with $50 off your purchase by clicking on the link below. If you want a payment plan, you still can get $50 off! Simply choose Affirm at checkout.
#8 The Litter Robot 4 is the multicat version!
The new Litter Robot 4 is ideal for multi-cat households and larger cats. The globe features a neater inside and a flatter-faced entryway that allows larger cats an easier maneuver inside as they can stick their body a little outside the globe to do their business more comfortably. Also, the new version allows kittens weighing from 3 pounds to use the unit in automatic mode. Additionally, the globe features 3 sensors at the entry to detect the cat entering the unit, and this way if a cat jumps inside without using the step, the cycle will activate automatically anyway. Not only that, the Litter Robot 4 features a smart weight scale that registers the weight of the cat that used the unit the last and keeps a record of these weights, this way you can see what cat used the Litter Robot the last. This and much more details about this new version on the review of the Litter Robot 4.
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