I have grown up with cats and they have become my inseparable chummy fur-family member. Their insistent meows wake me up every morning. While taking care of my adorable kitty, I make sure she is feeling comfy around in the home. To be honest, cleaning her litter box and solid waste ( sounds less creepy than how we people call it- poop) is abhorring.
I have seen my parents changing cat litter and dumping it. And, I have always wondered as a child, how humans cannot build a robot maid after all these technology upgrades to clean out that stinky and messy stuff!
Gladly, one day, my wife gifted me a scoopfree ultra litter box. This automatic litter box came with a self-cleaning feature and that’s when I realized automation doesn’t only ease up human efforts in industries. My furball feline, Lucy, looked at it with wary eyes and then jumped into it and in no time she started using it normally.
Contents
PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box- Review
I am going to review this product in its entirety and you will find how it can be far better than those clumpy sand cat litter boxes. Let’s have a deep insight into this product.
An Insight Of ScoopFree Litter Box
ScoopFree Ultra is a ‘Leave it and Don’t Worry’ kind of self-cleaning cat litter box that you can leave for weeks at a time. Its touch-free and disposable litter trays make the product only of its kind in the market. The product comes with Premium Blue Crystal litter which is insured to lock the bad odors 5 times better than other clumping or non-clumping litters. Your feline furball will always have a fresh litter to poop in.
There is not anything like setting up this device really. Pour litter from a bag into the disposable litter box, cover it with the top unit, plug in the device and there you go. Your device is ready for your cats.
However, you can set a preset time after which automatic stainless-steel rake will sweep the feces and dump in a cover trap. The sensor inside it will detect whether your cat has left the litter box or not. As soon as your kitty leaves, the automatic timer will start counting preset time.
And, then it will After a few weeks, you will need to replace the new disposable litter tray with the one which is in use.
The product is available in two colors. 1. Purple, and 2. Taupe
Following are the items you will find inside the box.
- ScoopFree Ultra Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box
- Power Adapter
- Privacy Hood (Top-Entry or Ultra, depends upon which one you have ordered)
- One Disposable Litter Tray with its lid
- One bag of Premium Blue Crystal Litter
- User Manual
Features I Loved So Much
There are absolutely appealing features of the product that you would fall in love with. I have been using it for 6 months now and I love this product and looking forward to purchasing another one to place it in my bedroom.
1. Self Cleaning
Self-cleaning is the key feature of this product. I bet you won’t like to deal with the messy cat litter after a long exhausting working day. You don’t have to worry about cleaning your kitty’s excretion at all for several weeks which depends on how many cats you own.
For an adult cat, the litter would last for about 4-5 weeks.
All you need to do is heave up the unit and replace the disposable litter box with a new one. Can anything be more befitting than this?
2. Premium Blue Crystal Litter
I have found this blue crystal litter super effective just as PetSafe insures. The blue crystal is a non-clumping type absorbing litter.
The best attribute of this litter is absorbing the wetness and locking the odor. When your kitty will urinate, it will in no time absorb it.
The crystals are made up of Silica gel which we can see in medicine bottles, or in any other place where absorbing moisture is desired.
The crystal will dry up the solid feces of your feline and will lock up the odor inside it. The dried up poop then can easily be stored in the cover trap.
The durability is good and functionality is appropriate for this product.
3. Waste Trap & Trap Cover
The waste trap is an integral part of the disposable cardboard litter tray. The rake mechanism would sweep the litter inside it. You may be wondering how a cardboard cover trap can be leakproof of odors!
This is the idea, the crystal litter absorbs the odor-causing wetness from solid feces. And, when it is covered into the trap, it does not stink.
Waste trap cover is the outer cover made up of plastic material which adds to the ergonomics of the product.
4. Disposable Litter Trays
As I said, cleaning litter boxes is the only thing which does not make it to the list of my favorite feline take-care tasks. It is so easy to deal with cat litter disposal and replacement.
There is no need to clean the litter box. Just lift the unit, move out the used tray and dump it, and replace it with a new one. You can purchase it from Amazon. However, they can cost you a bit more than other litters available.
5. Privacy Hood
The product comes with two variants based on the type of the hood it comes with. Its ‘Top-entry Ultra’ variant comes with a privacy hood which lets your cat enter from the top of the litter box. Additionally, Top-entry Ultra privacy hood comes with the flip-grate. The other side of the top grate has more holes for better litter tracking prevention.
And, the other one with the name ‘Ultra’ is equipped with the hood that lets your cat enter the box from the front side of the unit.
If your kitty needs privacy every time, this feature is definitely will be helpful. Moreover, this hood prevents litter tracking when they move out of the tray. However, the cat litter material is not sticky but this hood can anyways prevent tracking if there is any.
6. Health Counter and Safety Sensor
Helth counter is the exclusive feature in ‘Ultra’ self-cleaning cat litter box. It calculates how many times your kitty has used her toilet. If you find anything suspicious regarding the no. of times your cat has used the box, you can contact your vet.
Safety sensor detects the presence of your feline pet. As soon as your feline pal leaves the box, it will automatically start counting the preset time (5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20 minutes). And after the cooldown, the rake will sweep the litter and dumps the poop into the waste trap.
7. Anti-Tracking Litter Mat
I have been using this anti-tracking mat with ScoopFree Ultra Self-cleaning Cat Litter Box as a combination. It works really great especially when you have more than 1 cat. Its material is quite spongy yet with high litter tracking ability. This is really worth spending for.
However, premium blue crystal litter is less sticky than other litter, you can use this mat to eliminate the scattering of litter outside. PetSafe also suggests this 21 inches x 19 inches mat is suitable for PetSafe ScoopFree Ultra, ScoopFree original, and ScoopFree Slide Litter boxes.
8. Quiet Operation
When the rake starts sweeping after the preset time, I find Lucy curiously observing it. Maybe, this may be is sounding funny weird to her. The quiet motor operation makes dull hum which attracts my kitty’s attention. I love to see Lucy eerily observing it!
Things I Don’t Like About The Product
First, I was quite disappointed when I unboxed the self-cleaning cat litter box which I received as a gift. I wanted to use it immediately after setting it up. But the closet in my apartment did not have any power plug supply. So, I had to put this device in my bedroom. If you do not have the power supply plug in your closet or your bathroom, make sure you get one before purchasing this device.
And second, the disposable tray that comes with this product is fairly costly. So, if you are a person who doesn’t like to mess with the cleaning of the box, this disposable box can add more to your running cost of this product. However, you can use ‘Forever Tray’ made up of plastic, as an alternative to the disposable one. You will need to clean it up regularly.
Who Is It For?
ScoopFree Automatic Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box is on the top list for its unique key feature of self-cleaning. Abhorring task of cleaning cat litter is something every day I cannot do when I am aware of the products available like ScoopFree Ultra Litter Box. Its touch-free experience is a boon for the person like me.
If you are the person who has to travel a lot often, this product definitely is for you. All you need to do before leaving is replacing the disposable tray. A sure yes to the people who cannot look after their kitty’s toilet daily.
Pricing And Purchase
Most of the automated cat litter boxes are quite costlier than non-automated ones. ScoopFree Ultra is one of the cheapest automatic self-cleaning cat litter boxes available. A quite reasonable price and its value for money make it a sure buy.
However, you must consider the high running cost of it due to the regular replacement of disposable trays. Also, to eliminate your spending on the trays, you can use ‘forever trays’ available on Amazon.
- Set up is quite easy.
- Effective scooping of cat feces and superior functioning without jamming.
- Blue crystal litter provides 5x better odor control and drying up solid and liquid cat excretion.
- The litter does not track as much as the other litters do.
- Different preset timings for cleaning: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.
- Health Tracker tracks and records the no. of times your cat has used the potty box.
- Privacy Hoods for better traction of crystals and for privacy to your kitty while using its poop box.
- Very low maintenance.
- Superior disposable management.
- Quiet operation of motor and rake mechanism.
- It will be quite expensive for you to replace the disposable litter trays if you have more than one cats.
- If cat feces don’t dry up properly, there is a possibility of sticking of solid waste with the stainless steel rake and may stink.
- This product is only for the cats older than 6 months.
Alternative Product
PetSafe has also launched the similar product to this. Scoopfree Original is for the people who just want an automation feature in their kitty litter box and compromising with some of the features available in Ultra one.
There is no privacy hood. Simply, the cat owners of the kitties whose feline fur members do not tend to scatter the crystal litter and do not need privacy can purchase ScoopFree Original.
Unlike ScoopFree Ultra Litter Box, it does not provide any health recorder that counts how many times your feline pet has used the potty box. So, if you do not want that feature, you can save a few more bucks on purchasing a self-cleaning cat litter box.
There is one more function with which you will have to compromise with. The preset time. Yes, ScoopFree Original automatically sends a signal to rake to sweep the litter box after 20 minutes from your pet leaves the litter box.
PetSafe has designed and introduced this product especially for the people who believe the privacy hood, health tracker and multiple preset time are unnecessary features. Well, if you want to clean the litter box before the cooldown of 20 minutes happens, you can manually press the button on the litter box.
If you want to purchase a cat litter box from any other brand than Petsafe, you can opt for Omega Paw Litter Box. Besides coming with a nominal price, the product delivers spectacular functionality. We have covered an in-depth review for the product, so do give it a visit!
Final Opinion
My Lucy loves to use this ScoopFree ultra self-cleaning cat litter box. It has become a funny weird kind of entertainment for her. Despite considering the cons, the product is a good value for money. This product has the quite reasonable price when compared to other automatic self-cleaning cat litter boxes. Unlike other ones, it doesn’t misfunction or harms your pet. However, you should not ignore the caution and danger signals the product shows.
The product indeed is a ‘touch-free’ and ‘self-cleaning’. The disposable tray is made up of recycled paper and replacement of it can cost you more than you might have expected. There is an option available for you of the plastic permanent tray.
If you are just concerned with its automatic self-cleaning feature then you can buy the scoopfree original. Few more bucks saved on the purchase of the product and compromising with those additional features will surely work for you.
Let us know how conveniently you can use this product in the comment section. Do share your experience with us!