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Welcoming home a kitten is always challenging but we were not quite prepared for how much food was going to be processed by our new tiny fur ball. At 10 weeks of age and weighing only 1.6kg, Arya promptly worked her way through a couple of kilos of kitten food over a few short weeks.
This meant her litter had to be scooped two to three times daily to avoid unpleasant smells and the worst possible outcome: a kitten deciding not to use her litter!
There wasn't anything wrong with our basic plastic litter tray and softwood clumping litter: they did the job but we quickly realised the tracking (the amount of litter sticking to her little paws and being spread around the house) was pretty bad, forcing us to vacuum her cat pad daily!
When PetSafe Australia heard of our woes, they kindly offered that we put their ScoopFree® Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter Box to the test. After four weeks of struggles with litter cleaning, this sounded like a great idea!
What's in the Box?
Your all-in-one box includes:
1. Self-Cleaning Litter Box (left)
2. Privacy Hood (middle)
3. Litter Tray & Litter Bag (right)
4. Operating Guide (not shown)
All elements are carefully packed and it takes less than 5 minutes to set up which is extremely easy.
We were taken aback by the size and weight of the box when it was first delivered! Once assembled, this is not a Litter Box you’re going to move around the house on a daily basis.
How the ScoopFree® Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter Box Works
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| "You may want to put the Privacy Hood on? Otherwise, I'm not going..." |
The Self-Cleaning Litter Box is simply lowered on top and you have the option to use (or not) the Privacy Hood.
Once you have selected the perfect location to your kitty’s new toilet, you simply connect the Power Adaptor to the Litter Box and a standard power point.
The detection sensors will detect every time kitty visits (whether or not she’s actively using it or or simply exploring as happened in the first couple of days) and this kicks off a countdown cycle when she leaves.
After the countdown, a horizontal Rake automatically sweeps the solid waste but the smartest part is that it is being pushed towards a covered Waste Compartment which is then sealed to keep odours at bay.
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| The lid Waste Compartment (left) lifts up to allow solid waste to be pushed in |
The Rake then returns to its original position, leaving the litter clean and smoothing it over, ready for the next use.
When you switch on your Litter Box for the first time, the LED Indicator Light should show a solid green light and the Health Counter (indicating how many times the Rake has been operated) will be at zero.
The Health Counter allows you to keep track of your cat’s Litter Box activity. This may be useful to monitor your cat’s health as irregularities could potentially alert you to a problem. We suggest to reset the Health Counter each time you replace your Litter Tray to give you a rough indication of when it needs to be changed.
You can set the Rake Delay Button at either 5-, 10- or 20-minute intervals after your cat has exited the Litter Box. We opted for the 20-minute interval to start with not to freak Arya out so she would not be associating the noise with her litter use. Being a pretty bold confident kitten, she jumped for a little explore and a wee within 10 minutes of discovering the new system. As recommended we kept her old litter box right next to it for the first four days to ensure a smooth transition but she started using it more and more.
The 20-minute delay interval gives the crystals the time to fully absorb liquids and dehydrate Arya’s solid waste however bringing the delay down to just 5 minutes would mean bad smells are captured a lot quicker!
Your Crystal Litter Tray should last up to 30 days (based on one adult cat) but you’ll need to change more frequently for a kitten or if it is shared between cats.
Arya’s Experience
Like everything else so far, she took her new Litter Box into her stride straight away. We were slightly concerned that she was too small when we started using it (around 14 weeks) as the safety guide recommends use for cats older than 6 months but there was no worry for us there. She was smart enough not to go play with the Rake whilst in operation as most cats would be.
To introduce your cat to the Litter Box, it’s recommended not to plug it in at first to avoid any distractions but we found Arya was not at all worried by the noise so we left it plugged into the power from Day 1.
User Tip: If your cat does not like change, you could add a few handfuls of Crystal Litter to their old litter box for a few days and a also a few handfuls of their old little to the ScoopFree® Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter until they’re ready to make that full transition but we did not even need to do this and made a full switch after just 4 days.
Another tip to maximise the life of your Litter Tray is to place it away from high humidity areas like bathrooms, showers etc. We set ours up in an office - now officially claimed by Arya as her cat pad - so that was not a problem.
We certainly noticed that as a kitten it was a case of “the more the merrier” and she filled up the Waste Compartment a lot quicker than the 30 days we had hoped for and even switching after 21 days was pushing it! We really should have replaced that first tray a few days prior...
Arya also divides her day between 2 separate parts of the house: kitten daycare upstairs with her old litter tray at her disposal and from late afternoon back in her official cat’s room where the ScoopFree® Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter Box is located, so she’s not using it 100% of the time.
However, we noticed that after a few weeks, she pretty much stopped depositing solid waste in her old plastic litter tray upstairs, preferring to use her premium self-cleaning litter box morning after breakfast and at night after dinner (we usually record 3 to 4 Rake cycles during over a 12-hour period). It sounds pretty obvious but if solid waste starts collecting outside the Waste Compartment, it’s definitely time to change over!
User Tip: When you set up your first Litter Tray, please keep the box cover which comes in handy later for disposal (by that stage it will be smelly!).
We highly recommend to have your replacement litter trays (at least one) ready not to be caught short! The last thing you want is an emergency trip to the local pet store to end up paying premium dollars. We found the price varied widely between stores but it was much more cost-effective to buy bulk online not to mention the peace of mind it offers …
Our Verdict
The ScoopFree® Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter Box certainly delivered on all its key promises for us.
✔️ Arya’s tracking was reduced to an absolute minimum with only a handful of crystals to be vacuumed once a week rather than a daily routine. Providing we did not walk in on her right after doing her business - allowing for her waste to be scooped up and sealed - there was a big reduction in smells, especially ammonia which is still unmistakable in her other litter tray.
✔️ We no longer needed to manually scoop her litter first thing in the morning and another couple of times during day. Yes it does not take long and you get into routine but disposing of that daily waste every time made for a smelly bin which had to go outside and on cold winter days, it was a huge relief to avoid all that rigmarole!
After 4 weeks of continuous use, the Rake only got stuck twice because of obstructions (0ut of 100+ cycles) which is indicated by a rapidly flashing green light. The Rake was left in the middle of the tray, basically stopped by the waste that Arya had dutifully piled up in a beautiful pyramid as cats love doing - after all, she was formerly called "Cleopatra"! This simply meant using the Manual Button to start an extra Rake cycle and her waste was dutifully collected the second time around.
On the minus side, it could happen that a small amount of waste is collected on the Rake during a whole Litter Tray life cycle (around 3 weeks for us) but it was easily wiped off when you replace your tray and this system still wins hands down versus scooping and sifting manually a litter tray 2 to 3 times a day.
Because its sheer size the Litter Box is not going to blend easily into your glamorous interior, if you have one to worry about… But then again, an open cat litter box is not a design feature and is not usually kept in high traffic areas so this is not a big issue in our view.
The ScoopFree® Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter Box receives an Arya rating of 4 paws and will be on her list of “must use” for a long time to come!
Price & Where to Buy
RRP: $189.99 from store.intl.petsafe.net/en-au/
This product comes with a two-year limited (non-transferrable) warranty.
Disclaimer: A ScoopFree® Ultra Self-Cleaning Litter Box was provided to us by PetSafe Australia in order to complete this Review. We purchased replacement trays at our own cost.
The best deal for replacement trays was on Ready Pet Go who offer a 6-Tray Bulk Pack for only $129.90.
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