Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsSTILL Really pleased with this box!
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2007
We had a first-generation Littermaid that bit the dust after about 5 years. We tried the traditional box with regular and clumping litter but with 2 cats, we were changing the regular litter every 2 days and one of our cats had become very particular -- let's just say she was showing us her displeasure if the litter wasn't clean enough for her liking more often than every 2 days. I was going to buy a new-generation Littermaid but after reading the customer reviews, I decided to try the Scoop-Free instead. We've had the box for 2 weeks now and I'm very happy so far. The biggest advantage the Scoop Free has over the Littermaid is it's unique waste catching process -- combining the rake with the urine-absorbing crystals, which results in overall less solid waste and thus less cartridge changing. With the Littermaid, between our two cats (one very old and one very big) we were having to change the cartridge every 2 days anyway and everyone knows what happens with the Littermaid when you forget to change it on time. The Littermaid also resulted in a lot more spillage and tracking of litter around the box, and there has been very, very little tracking with the Scoop Free -- in fact, I didn't buy the hood and even with it open, the odor control and tracking control has been far superior to the Littermaid. I will say that the refill catridges are a little pricy, but I'm certain overtime the price will come down and in the meantime if I do some savvy shopping I can keep it under control. Once I figured in the cost of the Littermaid cartridges and the scooping litter I had to add to the Littermaid, the cost ratio was more or less comparable between the SF and the LM anyway. The product is very easy to install, change and clean and comes with clear, concise directions and a 90-day moneyback guarantee from the manufacturer should you not be absolutely delighted -- I've got original packaging and the receipt in the garage just in case, but at this point, I don't see us sending it back. The instructions do say that if you have multiple cats and/or older cats, you will have to change the cartridges more often (every 10-15 days versus 30 for your average-sized, average-aged single cat) and my initial experiment with the box with my 2 cats shows I'm going to need to change it every 10 days ... but I have one very old cat who drinks a lot of water and one very large cat (30 lbs ... ) which is more like having two cats, so it makes sense. (After about Day 10 I started to notice a faint odor of urine as I walked past the box as the crystals reached "absorption max" ... up until that point, odor control was phenomenal!) So it will cost me about $45 a month in cartridges. I changed it today and as advertised, never had to see the solid waste, changed quickly, wiped down the case with an antibacterial wipe and I was back in business. Best of all, our "picky" cat loves the new box and has not soiled anywhere but in the Scoop Free box since we installed it. This in and of itself made it worth its weight in gold to us -- cat uses the box, box only requires maintenance every 10 days. With two busy schedules and young children to care for, it's nice to not have to devote the extra time to tending the litter. Strongly recommended!
UPDATE: May 2007 -- we still like this box a lot, but if you have pets who like to wet the box in a certain spot, be sure to follow the manufacturer's guidelines to rake/stir the litter frequently; if you do not, and your cat prefers a certain spot, the crystals in that spot will cease to absorb properly and the box will leak through in that spot. Still, even with this issue (which is unique to cats that have a preferred spot) the odor control and ease of use of this box has been great overall.
AND ANOTHER UPDATE, JAN 08: We still REALLY like this box. We order the 6-pk refills from Amazon using our free 2-day Prime shipping and find they are very competitively priced if we do so. We go through 2 refills a month with our 24-lb cat (our 19-yr-old cat passed away over the summer) which would work out to two avg sized cats I think. We did end up buying and using both the privacy hood and the litter tracking mat to keep down on the tracking. Box is easy to clean and keeps your hands clean, as promised. Almost a year later, we're still enthusiastic about this ... a great value for the price.
