Oh well! There are a bunch of videos at the link, not only of how this one works, but how it compares to others. Early Bird price is pretty much 2 for 1!
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Iāve added it to my favorites. Going to keep checking back especially over the course of the next few months.
I was stressing about how the litter boxes are going to be done while Iām away in December. I figured, Iād be spending the same (or really, much more) to have someone over 2x a day to do the litterbox for 10 days. In the end it made more sense to pay someone to housesit every other day, and use the money Iād have spent on 2x-day chores to buy something permanent that makes our lives a little easier.
Plus the last time I paid for someone to come 2x a day for two weeks, we only saw them on our security cam (driveway/porch) twiceā¦ 
ā
I just got a chance to watch one of the videos. This looks like a lot fewer moving parts (good thing) than the LR4 and would probably hypothetically be easier to fix when/if it brokeā¦
ooooo Iām really debating getting this one. I have a prissy fluffy cat and a large male cat where I just donāt think they would like the litter robot because of the size and confinement.
I suppose this thread is owed an update. I got my Litter Robot 4 (LR) late December 2022.
The LR comes fully assembled. There is no IKEA-level assembly hell to struggle through, but syncing the LR to an app on your phone is unpleasant. The app is not made by people who believe in ergonomic design or sensible directions - so there is some trial by fire. So much so, that by the time I got to the step where you name your LR, I named it PITA.
When it arrived, I noticed the plastic top (referred to as a ābonnetā, though it has none of a bonnetās charm) was misaligned and there was a gap between the bonnetās edges and the cylinder frame itself. See pictured:
I wasnāt pleased about this since it was a $799 purchase, but I put some tape on it and lived with it.
The cats took to it right away. I left it turned off the first few days, and just put it right where their former litter box was. No issues transitioning, but I will say while this is the LR4 and allegedly houses ābiggerā cats, both of my larger cats (15lb, 14lb) ā who are not even large on the scale of Large Cats ā have to do the Lurch equivalent of ducking through door-frames to fit into the globe.
In short order my cats destroyed the lining:
Once you get past the appās rough edges, it has some useful features. The app is named Whisker; it tracks when the LR4 cycles, the % of wastebin filled, the litter weight and ratio, and the cat weight. If you have more than one cat, it canāt really tell them apart, but you can by comparing weight[s]. The app is also patched fairly often, with new features rolling out every few months.
Since you can monitor cat weight and visit frequency on the app, you can see weight fluctuations or early signs of urinary troubles or incontinence. I caught a brewing UTI last month - I noticed that one weight (12.8lb) kept triggering the LR4 to cycle more than the usual 2-3 times a day. She was visiting every hour, sometimes every 5-10 minutes! Brought her to the vetās, and got ABX. The vets were delighted that there is an app that tracks these things - very useful.
Whisker/Litter Robotās customer service, however, is abysmal. In April I reached out because the cats had ripped apart the liner. Their astounding advice was to duct tape the rubber lining back together. On a $799 product that was under warranty and less than 6 months old, no less.
That made the Karen in me come out a bit (sidenote, they also advised just taping the globe to the cylinder also). I did not find ājust duct tape itā a satisfactory solution to the liner problem; itās medical grade rubber that is designed to be non-stick, duct-tape wouldnāt even solve it. In the end I got both a liner and globe replacement, but donāt expect great CS right away. Youāll have to push for the quality service you want.
The motion sensor is very sensitive - a plus and minus. The machine is quiet, and I like the app tracking software. The waste bin is shallow and I wish it was bigger - I have to empty it daily.
All in my QOL is improved, but not sure Iād buy one again.
