Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I rated this 4 stars, but that rating has to do with using the "Forever Tray" that you can also buy on Amazon instead of the disposable trays that come with this product. I have 2 cats plus a third part-time cat that belongs to my boyfriend that comes to visit every few days. Three cats make a lot of bathroom stops and I scooped my cats' box every day using clumping cat litter. This is fine, except I often am away for the weekend and two days is the absolute max the box can go without being cleaned. I wanted something that would auto-clean and allow me to be worry-free on weekends away. I splurged and got the ScoopFree with the hood and kitty counter since I have cats that like to dig for hours in their box and fling cat litter everywhere. Turns out it was a good choice. It's kind of fun in a weird way to see how many times your cats use the litter box per day. So far, the average is about 8-9x per day for 3 cats. Setting up the ScoopFree was pretty easy. It comes in one piece, so no set up is really necessary other than setting up the disposable litter tray with the magnetic hood under the frame, putting the frame over it, and "snapping" the magnets together that hold the tray flap down. The litter comes pre-portioned so all you do is dump the bag in and smooth the litter level. Plug it in and pick your delay timer for scooping (I went with 10 mins) and away it goes. My cats were a little wary of the new type of litter. Crystal litter is very granular compared to the more sand-like litter they had used before. After a few mins of getting used to it they were fine and used it as normal. However, they were startled the first time the litter box went off to clean. The motor is very quiet, like a dull hum, but the cats had never seen it before so they steered clear of their box for a good hour after its first clean to see what the sentient litter box would do. I was afraid they'd be too freaked out to use it again and have accidents, but after a few days of use the cats seem to have gotten used to the hum of the box cleaner, but they still run up to watch the rake sweep across the litter. :) The rake very evenly distributes the litter so you do not get a pile up of litter at the back or front of the box. So far the cats seem to love it. It provides entertainment plus a tidy box for them to do their business in. I would recommend getting the Forever Tray ($50 on Amazon) instead of the disposable trays that come with the ScoopFree. It's expensive up front, but will save you money overall since the disposable trays don't last too long and are $15 each. With the Forever Tray you only need to pay for crystal litter which you can get anywhere. Odor has been a worse than with TidyCats clumping cat litter, but I do empty the poo trap every 2-3 days or so so it's not too noticably bad unless you're right up with your face near it. Edit: Been using the ScoopFree system for almost 2 months now and I have some updates. 1. This thing is smelly. I have 3 cats so I'm sure that contributes, but the crystal litter that comes with the system in refillable trays and the brand Fresh Step has for scoopable litter doesn't hold up smell-wise for more than few days. After some experimentation I've noticed there are about half inch gaps on either side of the container that holds the waste. I've stuffed those so the smell is less, but it's still kind of a weird design flaw. 2. Crystal litter isn't great with smell control. I've discovered that you do not have to use crystal litter with this thing. Just do NOT use clumping litter. I switched to Fresh Step non-clumping clay litter and it works much better at smell control. It also works with the machine and it's $5 for 25lbs of the stuff vs $13 for 8lbs of crystal. The only downside I've noticed with "sand" litter is the sweeper in the ScoopFree does not as evenly redistribute the litter as it goes about its cleaning cycle. No big deal. The cats shift it around themselves. 3. For 3 cats sharing one box I do a full dump of the litter every 7 days or about 70 bathroom uses. I think around 70 uses the litter is just done. I also clean the trap out every 2-3 days which is much less than my 1-2x a day it used to be before ScoopFree. Edit 7/9/12: Been using ScoopFree for a number of months and this is my second update. I've experimented with clumping litter (in particular using FreshStep clumping litter) and guess what? It works and it has completely got rid of the odor problems. The only issue with using clumping litter is sometimes a little bit of the clumping litter sticks to the bottom of the pan, so every 2-3 days I scrape the bottom of the pan (this is with 3 cats using it). I empty the collection bin every 3-4 days with 3 cats using it. So yes, you can use clumping litter with this baby. With this being the case, I give this product 5 stars!