If you have grown tired of the daily task of cleaning the litter box, odds are you have found yourself considering purchasing a LitterMaid. With so many different models available on the market, choosing the right one can be quite difficult. This has probably led you to spend hour’s online reading customer reviews in hopes of finding the right machine that will meet your needs. While a variety of positive reviews exist, many have nothing but complaints about this machine stating that it broke after only a few months time, wouldn’t scoop, etc.

I was in the same boat you are now when I purchased my LitterMaid Elite Mega about six months ago. I was on a quest to find the perfect automatic litter box because I had grown tired of the daily task of cleaning the box, and that was with only one cat. With the addition of a second cat, the cleaning task became much more tedious. I myself spent hours searching online, and with my technical background, I had hopes of finding the perfect litter box. Instead of finding the answer to my prayers, I was unable to find at least one machine that worked perfectly. Even the machines that cost two to three times as much as the Littermaid, had their fair share of negative reviews.

I finally came to the conclusion that the only problem free litter box is a standard box, so I finally decided to give the LitterMaid Elite Mega a try. With the online sale that Petco was offering, I figured I had nothing to lose and only more time to gain. With an ever growing cat population, now at four, there had to be a better solution to my litter box woes.

The first time out of the box the LitterMaid worked fine. I read the manufacturers recommendations regarding the best litter for optimal performance, and dismissed it without a second thought. I figured it was just a marketing ploy to purchase the litter they “recommended” so I figured I be fine with a hard clumping litter. We were using Scoop Away at the time and figured it would work fine. I soon found that it did not clump fast enough, so I upgraded to the extra strength multi cat version and that’s when the problems started.

We heeded the manufactures recommendation to spray the bottom of the pan with cooking spray so the clumps would not stick, but that didn’t seem to work. We even went to the point of waxing it with car polish to create a smoother, slipperier pan and even that didn’t help. While that worked when the box was clean, it did not take long before cement clumps were sticking to the bottom of the pan causing the machine to make a horrible grinding noises as it came to a halt because it could not scoop the immovable lumps. This then sent me on a quest online to find a user recommended litter that would work well with the LitterMaid.

I had found a list of five different brands that supposedly worked well with the LitterMaid, so I did a little further research and decided on the Ever Clean Extra Strength Premium Clumping cat litter. While this litter did quite well with clumping, it made the problems I was experiencing with the LitterMaid even worse. Its strong clumping ability created even harder cement lumps on the bottom of the pan and with four cats that like to use the box one after another, the LitterMaid just could not dispose of the piles. The grinding would become much worse at it would try three times before giving up. It got to the point that I never got a good nights sleep because I was always being woken up in the early AM to what soon became classified as the “death squeal.” I would then get up and clean the box so as to avoid a horrible mess in the morning. Obviously the amount of human intervention that was required was not what this machine was meant for. This went on for months before I finally had enough and decided to give the World’s Best Cat Litter a try as it was the one recommended by the manufacturer.

As I scoured the Internet for the best deal, I was shocked to find out how much this natural litter cost. How could something made of corn cost so much more than the standard clay litter? I bit the bullet, so to speak and order the Extra Strength version figuring it would perform better than the original. When I first put it in the box I had my doubts that this litter would really do anything, but I was shocked to find that it actually performed as described. This is not to say that I do not have to perform a manual cleaning of the box on occasion. Stuff does still get stuck to the rake or the pan, but the amount that is left is no where near as bad as what I had experienced before. I have been using this litter for months now and the machine no longer makes the sickening grinding noises that it once did since it’s now free to work as it was designed. My only recommendation is to not use the regular strength litter. I tried it once because my local store ran out of the Extra Strength. The regular strength does not clump well and does a bad job when it comes to holding in odor, especially in a multi-cat home.

While you may be concerned about the added cost of buying those costly waste receptacles, I found a cheap trick for making the waste receptacles last longer. Just line them with 4 gallon waste paper bags from your local grocery store and you can get at least a few months out of one receptacle. Don’t fall for the ads that claim to offer bags that are designed specifically for this task. All they are selling you is the exact same type of bag that you can get at your local grocery store but for an inflated price.

Overall I am very happy with my LitterMaid Elite Mega automatic litter box. While I did run into some issues getting it to work correctly, the problems were caused by the use of an improper litter and not the performance of the machine. As soon as I switched to a different litter the machine performed as it should and it is still working fine to this day. I just want to give a word of caution. While it will help decrease the amount of cleaning you need to do, it should not be considered a completely “hands off” device. I suggest checking it once a day to remove any lumps the machine could not get and to check the status of the waste receptacle. Other than that I would most definitely recommend giving the LitterMaid Elite Mega a try. It truly can help solve your litter box woes while giving you back the time in your day you so desperately need.

Source by Jennifer Bedell