Pet Zone Semi - Self Cleaning Semi Automatic Cat Litter Box - Smart Scoop Cat Litter Box with 6 Bags & Carbon Filter for Up to Two Cats 6-16 Pounds

I've had this automatic box for around 10 months, and overall it is great for the price. Sure you could spend a few hundred more on something truly lavish, but this thing accomplishes a very simple and very important goal: I no longer have to worry about cat litter every single day. I can forget for a couple days and the machine has me covered. And at first I was disappointed that it doesn't have a cover, but believe me, you wouldn't want a cover. You need to be able to see where the machine makes mistakes. As I mentioned, the machine sometimes misses things. Sometimes chunks of stuff will end up stuck just out of reach of the rake, right on the very edges of the box. So you need to give it a helping hand there, and you also need to go in to the box 2-3 times a week and clear up any clumps of litter that might be solidifying in the corners of the box where the rake doesn't really touch directly. Sometimes if your cat wants to use the exact same spot in the box all the time, you'll end up with the storage box overflowing just in that one spot, with nothing else in the rest of the reservoir. So really it's wise to attend to the storage box and help remove clumps as soon as you notice it. And there's another reason you want to empty the storage box fairly frequently: the smell inside. So yes, realistically you're going to want to empty the box every couple of days, but the fuller it gets, the worse the smell gets, and it gets really bad if you let the box fill up. I would recommend just thinking of all that storage space as 'insurance' for two-day vacations or if you forget for a while. I only noticed a couple problems. One, where the motor wasn't able to return fully to its docked position, and I got an amber light warning. I found out I had just carelessly allowed some litter to build up on the platform that the box sits on while docked, so it was interfering with the motor. And second, if you get a power outage, you will need to press the power button again manually. The machine does not turn itself on again after a power outage! Once I figured that out, it's been smooth sailing ever since. Fantastic product.

UPDATE TO PREVIOUS 5 STAR REVIEW; I bought this box on January 9, 2015 and it started malfunctioning in August. Intermittently, the box will rake to the end, and then do a little dance and error out with the box held wide open (talk about smelling bad). The rake will not return on it's own, requiring me to power cycle the unit. Even that doesn't always work, you have to repeatedly power cycle it until it finally decides to return the assembly to the ready position. At first, this would only happen about once a week, but now it is multiple times a day. Being a fairly mechanical person, I pulled it apart to see if there was something stuck or perhaps debris stuck in the gears. No such luck. Also, the advertising of metal gears is very misleading. Yes, there are some metal gears, there are also some plastic gears. I considered buying another one, but after skimming through the reviews, it appears this is not an uncommon issue. I will purchase another Littermaid instead as my previous Littermaids lasted years instead of the months I got out of this unit! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have use a LitterMaid, you know the pros and cons of automatic litter boxes. This box is far superior to the LitterMaid variation in the following ways; It is FAR quieter, easier to empty, and feels much better made. Instead of using bins that you have to properly align with tabs, this unit uses a permanent bin that you put a trash bag around. When it is time to empty it, you simply remove the bin using the handle, then peel the bag from one end of the bin and roll it down to the other end. This traps the mess in the bag, you never get your hands in the refuse. Put the bin in a new bag (a plastic grocery bag works just fine), and drop the bin back into place. Such a simple solution to this messy job. With the LitterMaid, I hated this job. You could never avoid getting crap on your hands, and the bins were a pia to reinstall. With this unit, it is a five minute frustration free job. As far as the litter goes, I suggest Tidy Cats hard clumping litter. This litter works perfectly with this unit. Do not fill the unit above the upper line of the pan. I have three large cats (MainCoon, Angora, and a Blue Russian), and this box is more then up to the task. The only two downsides I see with this product are the charcoal filter does not stay in place, and you must leave room on both sides of the unit as the motor and guide rails are on the outside of the box. Answers to a few questions I have seen posted; 1. The attachment on the end of the box is to help release sticky refuse from the rake as well as to insure larger clumps do not roll off the end of the rake. 2. If your cats pee on the rake, turn the box around. They are aligning themselves with your walls, not the box. 3. If the clumps are sticking to the bottom of the box or are breaking apart, use a better litter. Again, I suggest Tidy Cats hard clumping litter. I tried their feather light product with my old LitterMaid, and they broke apart instead of being raked. In fact, I have tried several different litters over the years, and, in my experience, Tidy Cats simply works best with automatic litter boxes. 4. All of the automatic litter boxes I have used do not rake all the way to the edges. This is not usually a problem, but can cause small pieces of refuse to be left in the box. Your cat will adjust the litter without your help, this will cause the missed pieces to eventually be picked up. To sum it up, this is the best automatic litter box I have used. Is it perfect, of course not!

I like many others writing reviews have experienced the pluses and minuses of automatic litter boxes. I like many started many years ago with Litter Maid. I had 3 different models over the years, each lasting less time with each subsequent generation. The last I literally had replace 5 times under the 1 year warranty. The Litter Maid has several design flaws that guarantee failure. Thus the search and research to find something that worked better. Let me be honest. We have two male cats 20+ lbs each. Any litter box will be tested. I looked at every make and quickly came to the conclusion I would not spend $500 for any litter box. I was looking for something < $150 that addressed the design flaws of the Litter Maid. The two top candidates were this one and the Pet Safe Scoop Free. I read every review. Watched youtube videos. The Pet Safe clearly had more reviews than the Pet Zone and many positive reviews. In the end I really could not live with the thought of spending an additional $40 for a reusable plastic litter pan for the Scoop Free. Between the price of the disposable litter pans or having to spend $40 for something that should be part of the base unit seemed a bit to predatory to me. After seeing a well done YouTube video on the Pet Zone I decided to give this one a try. I have had it now for about a month. The Pluses: The design corrects defects in the Litter Maid. 1.The rake and motor move as a single unit. No electronic components are exposed to kitty pee. Male cats tend to pee back, or spray. The rake on the Litter Maid has the stop switch contacts on the back of the rake. A major source of issues on the 6 units I had. 2. The rake gear and track mechanism are outside the litter box. This keeps them dry and clean. The Litter Maid the gear and track are inside the litter box. Subject to urine, and eventually caking of litter in the gear and gear track. This eventually leads to the rake mechanism jumping off track on one side or the other and it jams. 3. With the drive motor and litter basket moving as a unit, there are no wire harnesses and ribbon cables that have to track with the movement of the rake. The Litter Maid has both and both are document sources of failure. Especially the ribbon cable.. Search YouTube videos. Very common problem. 4. Extended delay after use. This unit waits 15 minutes. The Litter Maid 12 Minutes. This does not sound like much but I have seen much less problems with the litter clumps breaking up during raking. I'd really like to see an option to delay up to 30 mins. 5. Much quieter than the Litter Maid 6. Plastic bag liners. We use the plastic grocery bags rather than the supplied bags. They fit better and are free. 7. I have not verified, but one of the YouTube reviews indicated that the drive motor can be replace. If the cost is not crazy, that could be very helpful The Minuses: 1. With the way in which the rake must scoop the waste to empty into the bin, the L shaped rake must lift up and over to deposit behind itself. There are times #2 waste get left at the front of the litter box. 2. This box seems to use a motion sensor rather than an IR sensor. This causes the system to trigger a cleaning even if you are simply filling the box with new litter. 3. The cleaning cycle does not reset the timer if another cat uses the box while it is in the countdown. With two cats we have had the clean trigger when the kitty was in the box. Good thing for us, our cats are not scaredy cats:-0 4. Like I mention above, it would be great if the delay could be adjusted to accommodate longer or shorter periods. Different clumping litters behave differently, and change over time after the box has been opened. Yes the Scoop Free does have a time selection. We will see how durable this unit is, but over all, we are very pleased with the design and function. We have minimal manual intervention. Much less than the Litter Maid. About every other day we clean the rake when we empty the waste bin and put a new plastic bag in. We usually have to lift the rake and hand scoop where the kittys pee behind it.. Not much you can do about that. I love the fact that I can pull the bag out and tie it shut to seal the waste and smell. The house smells much better these days. Update 6/2022 I had to replace the original unit this month. The motion detector had stopped functioning. I believe it is because the cats, male, have pee'd over the motor / motion detector enough to damage the motion detector. No I did not reach out the manufacturer. I felt that given the price and how long I have used the system that purchasing a new one was not unreasonable. All of my previous observations are still true with the new litter box. Still, my overall satisfaction is good.

I have been using this unit for nearly a year now. There are a few things that I have learned. I've tried multiple litters; light-weight, clumping litter seems to work best. I'm currently using the Tidy Cat with Fabreze. I've tried the "all natural crushed walnut" litter; once. It molded like crazy. Don't over-fill it! About an inch of litter in the unit is all you need. If you over-fill it, it will have a hard time pushing through the litter. Don't think that you won't ever have to clean it. The rake doesn't always get to the very bottom of the pan, so if urine has clumped down on the bottom of the pan, it's time for a cleaning. The great part is, cleaning it is pretty simple. The rake / collector unit lifts off by simply pulling the black lever under the lid. The motor comes off by unlocking it and sliding it. Everything except the motor itself can be washed, hosed off, whatever. I think I end up completely changing the litter and giving it a thorough cleaning about every 2 months; and this is with THREE CATS. I mean, let's face it. There will never be a completely automated cat litter box that doesn't need occasional maintenance; but I have to say that this one is about as close as you can get. I empty the tray every few days (mainly when I see that the lid isn't closing completely because it's full), and give it a hose down every couple of months. The only down side about this box that I have found is that while it does appear to have a sensor for when the cat is IN the box, it doesn't appear to have one if the cat is behind the mechanism. This did result in one of our cats getting briefly trapped in the unit; needless to say he never did it again. He wasn't injured, and the motor-release was right there, but it did cause me some worry about how he may have been injured if we weren't right there. I suppose that would be my biggest request for this unit; put a motion sensor on the back side of the mechanism, so cats who are a little short in the brains department (like one of mine) doesn't get trapped by the returning mechanism. Pros: Works quite well, even in a multi-cat environment. Isn't super noisy Easy to disassemble and clean Motor seems well built and rugged Cons: Overfilling it can cause it to stop working Power failure will turn the unit off; it won't clean until you turn it back on. No sensor to avoid entrapment on the return cycle of the unit Overall, this is a good purchase for the money.

I've owned this product for a little over one year. I bought this item because I have been unable to keep my dog from raiding my cat's litter box for his disgusting little "treats". I work during the day, and it's impossible to continuously monitor the litter box and keep it scooped before the dog finds it. For the most part, the box does its job by at least keeping the temptation to a minimum. That said, there is some room for improvement. In light of some of the previous reviews: - The box is heavy and difficult to clean. Even though the box keeps itself scooped, you do have to periodically change out the litter (every few days). - It does not do a good job of keeping the odor down, despite scooping the waste into a bin. It comes with a flimsy, poorly fitting odor filter that quickly wore out, and I deemed the replacements too expensive for how poorly they worked. - You don't have to order replacement bin liners from the company - it is designed to be used with plastic grocery bags if you so desire. Just keep in mind that not all bags fit it well. The larger ones fit better, but can cause the lid to the bin to not close fully, which exacerbates the odor problem. - It's not the best at scooping out the waste. I'd estimate that it gets it about 60-70% of the time. You'll get better results with better quality (tighter clumping) litter. - 14 months later, the motor is still working just fine. I've had it malfunction a couple of times, but was able to get it to resume working by unplugging the unit and manually resetting the motor. Just be careful not to damage the side rails on the box. I nicked the plastic once when I dropped the box and had to file off a couple of plastic bits that caused the motor to freeze up, but thankfully no significant damage occurred. Overall, it was a fairly decent solution to a disgusting problem, but there is room for improvement.

First things first, this thing is big so lots of room for you large cats, that said, if you want to fit it in a enclosure, good luck finding one in the right size that isn't going to cost $300+. If I really understand how awkward the dimensions were, I likely would have gotten something different. As for functionality, it work 90% of the time, except if there is poop at at the point where the rake starts to scoop up. Yes, I check the litter is at the correct level. The rack doesn't come to the very end of the litter box so there is a 1inch gap that can get missed. I've tried realigning it but it doesn't help. Not the end of the world but annoying still. The thing that does bug me is how loud it is. Don't get me wrong most automatic litter box are loud, but as this moves slowly it feel like forever when you are half a sleep. And it circle back to not being able to put it in a enclosure to quiet down the sound. What I really do like is the waste bucket and handle. Super easy to dump and be done. Would I recommend this likely not. While the setup was easy for me, I think for many people it would be like buying from Ikea for the first time and riding the struggle train. It just lack that polished product feel. If someone came out with a encloser under $150 that fit for this. I think my opinion would change.

UPDATE #2: Owner for 6 years. Went through one under warranty, then had to replace the motor unit out of warranty for $35 with improved design. Not too bad, comes to about $26/year of fairly dependable operation. I've decided to try another brand since the motor unit just broke again, and it is going to take too much effort to even remove it from the pan. I never really liked how dirty the components got, the shallow amount of litter the pan accepted, and the noise. UPDATE: I had an earlier version of this unit which had known issues with broken plastic gears. They sent me a new motor unit with metal gears. I think this happened after about a year or maybe 2. It worked with my low maintenance cat ever since. Then I took in a crazy stray cat that is totally available for adoption in Socal as of this review (Jan 2019). I estimate he generates 1/2 his body weight in poo every day. I've had him a few months and the extra strain has broken my spirit, but not this litter box. I see reviews about bad motors, but not experienced this, perhaps I was sent a new motor unit at the right time before they cheapened it? Maybe there is too much load on the motor with too much litter? At any rate, the competition does not seem any better with people regularly changing motors or just buying replacements every year or so. This product has exceeded my expectations while service from the manufacturer was good and prompt. It must have been out of warranty when it broke. Although the plastic gears were a flawed design that should have been taken care of. 'd expect about 5 years of operation out of something like this and it looks like it will get there. I also expect improvements but it looks exactly the same in the photo as my older box, which is disappointing: The rake is still not great (difficult to clean, too large to scoop everything, doesn't reach bottom, doesn't groom the litter), it could use more litter depth, motor seems weak noisy and slow, and it could use a larger bin with a better lid to seal the waste. It needs to be emptied too often. 4.5 stars, which rounds up to 5 _________________________________________________ Owner for 12 months. I have four issues so far: The photosensor (I assume) doesn't seem to be able to detect my cat 100% of the time. I put my hand in front of it and trigger it. My cat uses the box and nothing happens. My cat is black as the night. The rake has 1/2 inch wide openings, way larger than any hand scoop. It also doesn't quite reach the bottom. It tends to miss a lot of little things. You can only put in about 2-3 inches of litter according to the instructions. That's not enough. Any litter brand will tell you on the packaging that you want at least 3", but they are telling you to only put in enough for one use of the box. After that it will essentially be running low on litter. This seems to be the root of many other reviewers problems as clumps stick to the bottom and cause failure. If they just designed for deeper litter it seems like a lot of issues would go away. The unit doesn't groom the litter in any meaningful way after scooping. So, the rake could be a lot better. So could the pathetic motors that all of these automatic litter boxes seem to use. It pushes the litter to the end of the box and strains the motor. The rake recently started getting caught on the end where a there is a raised plastic feature. The waste bin can get full on one side in just a couple days depending on your cats habits, which blocks any new waste from entering and creating a mess. I have a skittish kitty, and the unit is quiet enough that he just seems curious rather than afraid (bit noisy for a bedroom though). After many months he continued to be fascinated by it. I was sure to be around the first time he used it. It does mostly work, but it's only marginally better than an old fashioned litter box at ten times the price. I have bumped it up from 3 to 4 stars. I was expecting it to break just looking at the other review, but it's still working after over a year of daily use. It's good to have if you are busy/lazy/out of town.

It worked fine for the first few weeks I owned it and then the litter rake began getting stuck on the edge lip of the box and would not complete a cycle. I contacted customer support for Pet Zone, and they indicated that the litter rake was causing the issue and they sent me a replacement. I installed it and again the litter box worked for a few days. However, after a few days, the litter rake was getting stuck again, but in the different part of the cycle. Now, it was getting caught on the edge of the box during the part of the cycle where the rake lowers back into the box after dumping the waste into the receptacle. I tried releasing the clutch on the motor unit and resetting it at the indicated mark where the cycle begins and it continued to get stuck in the same spot and never complete a cycle. Eventually, the motor unit got completely stuck at the end of the litter box and could not be moved even with the clutch released. That is where I am now, the motor unit stuck at the end of the litter box, unmovable, and a useless $100 litter box that I have to manually scoop. I contacted customer support again last week and have not yet heard back. Unfortunately, the Amazon return period for this item has expired, so I'm stuck with this useless, expensive piece of junk that is more hassle than it is worth. Clearly every possible corner was cut during the engineering and manufacture of this product. What should be a very simple device is hampered by terrible design and "cost engineering." Even when it is working correctly (which is rare), this litter box requires exponentially more maintenance than a traditional litter box. There is about 1/2" range where the litter level is acceptable. If you put in too much litter, the motor gets bogged down and can't complete a cycle, if you put too little litter, it won't clump properly or you cats will refuse to use it at all. You also must constantly manually level out the litter or it will end up accumulating at one end of the box as the litter rake sifts through it during its cycle. Waste frequently gets stuck to the wire of the litter take and must be manually scraped off. The litter rake frequently tosses waste and litter all over the place as it lifts up to dump waste into the receptacle creating a huge mess. Basically, I have had to spend more time cleaning up after this supposedly automatic litter box and touching waste than I have ever had to do with a traditional box. This litter box requires so much maintenance that you end up spending vastly more time just getting it to work properly than you would just cleaning a traditional litter box Needless to say, I will be going back to my old Omega Paw box, which although low-tech, actually works and doesn't make my life harder. Buy this instead: http://www.amazon.com/Omega-Paw-Self-Cleaning-Litter-Pewter/dp/B005E2S77C/ref=pd_sim_199_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41v85w2vQ0L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=1JM49VZBBGS9XJ1Z8H32