The Truth Behind the LitterMaid Elite Automatic Mega Litter Box – A User Review
If you’ve grown tired of the daily chore of cleaning the litter box, you’ve likely 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 likely led you to spend hours online reading customer reviews in hopes of finding the right machine that meets your needs. While there are a variety of positive reviews, many have nothing but complaints about this machine claiming that it broke after only a few months, that it would not work, etc.
I was in the same boat that you are in now when I bought my LitterMaid Elite Mega about six months ago. I was on a quest to find the perfect automatic litter box because I had gotten tired of the daily chore of cleaning the box, and that was with just 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 was hoping to find the perfect litter box. Instead of finding the answer to my prayers, I couldn’t find at least one machine that worked perfectly. Even machines that cost two to three times more than Littermaid had their fair share of negative reviews.
I finally came to the conclusion that the only litter box without problems 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 thought I had nothing to lose and only more time to gain. With an ever-growing cat population, now four, there had to be a better solution to my litter box problems.
The first time out of the box, the LitterMaid worked fine. I read the manufacturers’ recommendations for the best sand for optimal performance and dismissed them without a second thought. I thought it was just a marketing tactic to buy the “recommended” sand, so I thought it would be fine with a hard, lumpy sand. We were using Scoop Away at the time and we thought it would work fine. I soon found out that it didn’t clump fast enough so I upgraded to the extra strength multi cat version and that’s when the problems started.
We followed the manufacturer’s recommendation to spray the bottom of the pan with cooking spray so lumps don’t stick, but that didn’t seem to work. We even went to the point of waxing it with car polish to create a smoother, more slippery pan and even that didn’t help. While that worked when the box was clean, it wasn’t long before the cement clumps clung to the bottom of the tray, causing the machine to make a horrible noise when stopped because it couldn’t pick up the unmovable lumps. This then sent me on an online search to find a user recommended litter that would work well with LitterMaid.
I found a list of five different brands that supposedly worked well with LitterMaid, so I did some more research and settled on Ever Clean Extra Strength Premium Clumping Cat Litter. While this sand did quite well with clumping, it made the issues I was experiencing with LitterMaid even worse. Its strong binding ability created even harder cement clumps at the bottom of the pan and with four cats who like to use the box one after the other, LitterMaid just couldn’t get rid of the piles. Grinding would get a lot worse if you tried three times before giving up. It got to the point where I never slept well because I was always awakened early in the morning to what was soon classified as the “death screech.” Then I’d get up and clean the box to avoid a horrible mess in the morning. Obviously, the amount of human intervention that was required was not what this machine was intended for. This went on for months until I finally had enough and decided to try the best cat litter in the world as it was recommended by the manufacturer.
While searching the internet for the best deal, I was surprised to find out how much this natural sand cost. How could something made from corn cost so much more than standard clay sand? I bit into the bullet, so to speak, and ordered the Extra Strength version thinking it would work better than the original. When I first put it in the box, I had my doubts that this sand would actually do anything, but was surprised to find that it actually worked as described. This is not to say that you do not have to perform manual cleaning of the case on occasion. Things still stick to the rake or pan, but the amount left is not as bad as what I had experienced before. I have been using this sand for months and the machine no longer makes the disgusting grinding noises it used to make as it is now free to run as designed. My only recommendation is not to use the regular strength sand. Tried it once because my local store ran out of Extra Strength. Regular force does not bind well and does a poor job of retaining odor, especially in a multi-cat household.
While you may be concerned about the added cost of buying those expensive waste bins, I found a cheap hack to make waste bins last longer. Just cover them with 4 gallon waste paper bags from your local grocery store and you can take at least a few months out of a container. Don’t be fooled by advertisements claiming to offer bags specifically designed 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 had some trouble getting it to work properly, the issues were caused by using the wrong sand and not the performance of the machine. As soon as I switched to a different arena the machine worked as it should and still works fine to this day. I just want to give you a warning. While it will help decrease the amount of cleaning you need to do, it should not be considered a completely “hands-free” device. I suggest you check it once a day to remove any lumps the machine was unable to get and to check the condition of the waste container. Other than that, I would definitely recommend trying the LitterMaid Elite Mega. It can really help solve your litter box problems while giving you back much-needed time of day.
