I no longer have a cat but when I did I had a pretty snazzy litter box that had a roof, when you wanted to clean it you rolled it onto it's roof and back and all the clumps ended up in a little removable drawer.
I think "Omega" is a current brand of one of these.
The Litter Robot is essentially an automated/motorized version of this. Interestingly, according to a friend of mine who ran experiments with his cats, the robot version was noticeably more efficient in terms of litter consumed (and this prompted him to replace the manual versions with the robots on a faster schedule, since clumping litter is a non-zero expense).
Yes, it is called the Omega Paw. We've been using it for almost 2 years and quite happy with it. It is also much cheaper than the robotic ones.
Cleaning process is just rolling the whole thing 180 degrees and rolling it back. The clumps and poop will drop in the drawer, ready for disposal. Literally 15 seconds task.
> (and this prompted him to replace the manual versions with the robots on a faster schedule, since clumping litter is a non-zero expense)
Interesting. How expensive is cat litter where he lives? For me, it is indeed a non-zero expense, but also mostly unnoticeable one. Definitely not worth replacing with a robot that'll most likely take more than a year to pay itself back - and I don't expect this kind of tech to run continuously for a year without major, expensive breakage.
It's the US, so about $10 for 35lbs of "Litter Purrfect" from Costco. Around 20lbs/month/cat was his pre-robot, usage, IIRC, and he had multiple cats.
> For me, it is indeed a non-zero expense, but also mostly unnoticeable one.
Every non-zero expense is noticeable to someone living frugally, since they can easily add up if left unnoticed.
> Definitely not worth replacing with a robot that'll most likely take more than a year to pay itself back
To be clear, he wasn't basing the purchase decision itself on the cost savings in litter, merely accelerating the timing of the purchases. He had already decided to "splurge" on replacing all the manual litterboxes with robots.
> I don't expect this kind of tech to run continuously for a year without major, expensive breakage
Most of the tech's actually remarkably simple (for the LR-II model, anyway), which means, in a way, it's overpriced, but the market bears it. The standard warranty is 18 months, and the extended warranty (another $50 or $100?) doubles that.
Personally, I've had them last over 5 years, with the main failures being the electronics (cheap and easy to replace, unlike many other products), power supply wall wart (which I merely replace myself with a better one), and a metal spring for the "waste door" (not as easy, but the parts were free, and it's a very old-age failure).
