PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box

Surprised at how well it works – Like many cat owners, scooping the litter box was a chore I dreaded. This solution has transformed our household's litter box routine, making it a breeze to maintain a clean and fresh-smelling environment for both us and our feline companions. Admittedly, our cats weren't initially thrilled with the change. The automatic scooping mechanism's… Read more ·  1

novelty startled them at first. However, PetSafe's design incorporates a thoughtful delay after cat use before the scooping cycle begins, allowing our furry friends to exit comfortably.

The true magic of the PetSafe ScoopFree system lies in its self-cleaning mechanism. The scooping arm automatically rakes waste into a disposable tray, eliminating the need for daily scooping. This has been a revelation! We simply empty the tray every few days. This translates to significant time saved on litter box maintenance, a welcome change for busy pet parents.

The system with crystal litter offers superior odor control. The crystal litter effectively absorbs and dehydrates waste, preventing unpleasant smells from lingering. This is a massive advantage over traditional clay litter, which can trap odors but require more regular emptying.

While initial cat adjustment might require some patience, the PetSafe ScoopFree system with crystal litter has undeniably improved cat ownership for us.

An affordable and genuinely solid offering - I just wish it came with a hood – - The Good: * Plenty of space for larger and mobility-impared cats to move around in * Simple, uncomplicated operation that's very unlikely to put your pet at risk * Drawer bin has a good capacity and contains smells quite well * Easy to keep clean * No unnecessary “smart" functionality, and no unreliable apps required to use * A lot less… Read more ·  1

expensive than pretty well every other self cleaning litter tray on the market

The Not-So-Good: * Large tray means it takes up quite a bit of floor space * Doesn't come with a hood/cover, nor available as an option * Low sides aren't fantastic at containing mad diggers from flinging litter around * Low IR sensors in the bed can be thwarted by those same mad diggers * Works best with fast-clumping litter ie. the expensive stuff. * Won’t tell you when the bin is full, nor stop itself from overfilling.

The TL;DR: The PetSafe Scoopfree Self-Cleaning Litter box is a genuinely solid product, offering a straightforward and (mostly) reliable operation that, while not "cheap" is much less expensive than basically every other self-cleaning litter box on the market. Your cat’s individual “habits” will determine just how much time you’ll save avoiding manual scooping and cleaning though, and the lack of a hood is a glaring omission.

Note: Product was provided free-of-charge as part of Productreview.com.au's Ambassador program, and was tested continuously for four weeks for the purpose of this review.

This review was made with the kind assistance of the goodest floofbois, Nelson and Percy.

—

The PetSafe Scoopfree Self-Cleaning Litter Box is an automatic litter tray that uses a simple raking action to keep itself clean. Its basic, straightforward design and complete lack of WIFI-connected ‘smart’ features no doubt help it achieve a comparably low price of $429 RRP/~$380 online (at time of review).

This makes it significantly cheaper than most other self-cleaning litter boxes currently available. And a more appealing option for people like myself with multiple cats who’d like to spend less time dealing with litter boxes, but can’t bring themselves to spend over $1000 to do so.

The Scoopfree Litter Box arrived in a surprisingly large box (which the cats loved) because it is, well, a rather large unit. Measuring 730L x 530W x 255H, it almost takes up the same amount of space as the two, covered litter boxes I’ve been using with my boys up until now. With limited floorspace in my laundry, the challenge would be to see if it could successfully replace two manual litter trays, serving two male cats.

On the positive, this allows the internal litter tray itself to be quite large (approx. 350x350mm) to give your cat(s) enough space to do their thing. Both my big, tall tabby and three-legged ginger boi were able to manoeuvre themselves into and around the Litter Box without restriction or, thankfully, making a mess on or over the sides.

There’s no assembly required - the outer mechanism simply sits ‘around’ the litter tray - other than plugging in the AC adapter and filling up in between the marked levels with a suitable clumping litter. I also lined the waste drawer with a tidy bag (medium size fits with a little stretching, large is a bit too large).

The coarse attapuligte (non clumping) clay litter I’d been using in my cats’ manual trays isn’t suitable for the Scoopfree Self-Cleaning Litter Tray, as it isn’t fine enough to pass through the grates in the rake. This would mean experimenting with several different fine particle clumping litters - with varying results. We’ll get tot that in a bit…

The ScoopFree ‘Box works very simply. Optical sensors detect when your cat enters, then leaves the tray. This starts a preset, non-adjustable 10-minute timer to allow the litter to absorb and clump your cat’s business. Once the timer is complete, the rake slowly lowers down and sifts through the tray, catching the clumps which are duly flipped into the storage bin at the front, its lid rising and closing automatically.

The rake then reverses back through the litter, providing a lovely flat, raked zen garden for your kitteh’s return. The whole process takes a little over 3 minutes, and is paused immediately should a cat jump into the tray. This safety feature, along with the fact the mechanism moves so slowly and makes a decent bit of noise while doing so, means that it would very unlikely to trap, catch or otherwise injure your cat, which is obviously the most important thing. PetSafe do however recommend kittens/cats under 6 months only use the ScoopFree ‘Box unplugged.

The single button at the rear-top of the unit can be used to manually initiate or pause a cleaning cycle, if required. And that’s your lot. There’s no Wifi connectivity, no app, no monitoring, no alerts when the unit is being used or needs emptying. Personally I consider this a good thing. Not only does it help keep the price down, but my experiences with other “smart” pet products have been underwhelming: unreliable connectivity and apps seemingly more focussed on upselling you stuff than delivering the actual service you paid for.

Of course if you are keen on monitoring your cat’s toilet habits for health reasons, you’ll need to look into another product (and pay accordingly).

The Scoopfree Litter Box comes with a quite a well written user manual, which outlines a sound method for introducing your cat or cats to the unit over time. I had no such issues, as my tabby (Nelson) jumped in literally as I’d finished pouring in the litter to christen it. Within about three days both cats were using the ScoopFree ‘Box exclusively, which was great.

As mentioned, I experimented with several different types of litter over the course of the review period. The Scoopfree Litter Box definitely benefits from using quick clumping, firm setting litter. I found generally means the most expensive options, north of $20 a bag. CatSan (bentonite) seemed to work the best, with the modestly-titled World’s Best litter (corn kernels) a close second. Both would rake through reliably with little if any “bits” remaining once the cleaning cycle was completed.

Cheaper options like the VitaPet (bentonite) and Smitten (zeolite) performed okay with poos, but clumped urine would tend to break through the rake, stick to it or be pushed back into the tray during the return cycle. I also found the VitaPet in particular to clump “low” in the tray (a sign that it clumps too slowly?) and patches would be missed entirely by the rake (see photo). As such, I found myself having to manually scoop out the missed bits on essentially a daily basis… which kinda defeats the purpose of a self-cleaning litter tray!

As others have noted, the rake will occasionally dump a bit of otherwise clean litter into the waste bin. This seems to come down simply to chance, and how the surrounding lumps gather up and block the rake as it moves up to the waste bin. A bit annoying, but it isn’t hard to quickly flick the excess back into the tray. Filling the tray itself closer to the ‘high’ mark does seem to exacerbate the issue - definitely don’t overfill.

The waste bin itself is a good size and I found I could get about four days before needing to empty. With two large male cats, that seems pretty good. Despite a lack of rubber sealing the lid does a good job of containing the smells over that time period. Note that the waste bin itself has no sensor to alert you when it’s full, or to stop the machine from continuing to function. It will merrily overfill itself if you ignore it for too long.

Assuming you’re using a ‘good’ litter, the ScoopFree ‘Tray should only require cleaning every week or so. The litter tray is easily removed by lifting the outer unit up, and the waste bin lid comes away with minimal effort. The rake itself is removable from the mechanism by turning two captive screens under the side flaps. The waste bin drawer can be a bit stiff to remove, but otherwise works as you’d expect.

Generally the experience with the ScoopFree Litter Tray has been quite positive, save for one aspect brought about by one my cat’s specific behaviour. Basically, Nelson loves to dig around in his litter, and is very particular and thorough about burying his business as deep as possible.

So naturally he shifts and flicks the litter around rather enthusiastically, and this is where the lack of a hood and the Scoopfree Tray’s lowish front and sides struggle at times to actually keep the litter contained in the unit. I find myself having to sweep around the tray about twice a day to keep the mess under control.

I understand why the Scoopfree Litter Tray doesn’t come with a hood as standard (would make the shipping box even bigger) but I really wish it was an option, as with PetSafe’s other similar-but-different self-cleaning litter try offering. I’d happily pay for another $50 for a decently-sized hood and door to go over the tray. Not only would this stop litter from being flung everywhere across my laundry, but would also likely improve smell management and lessen the aesthetic impact of the litter tray too. I hope PetSafe can make one available soon - seems like a no-brainer.

Another, related issue is that the optical sensors sit quite low to the tray, and can be blocked by an overzealous digger pilling up litter against one. This has happened a few times, resulting in the unit not commencing its cleaning cycle until manually overridden.

Admittedly these issues are mostly due to my loveable boofhead’s behaviour (Percy doesn’t do any of this… kind hard to when you’ve only got one foreleg). Then again I’m sure plenty of cats do exactly this in litter trays, so it’s something you need to consider.

All in all, I think the ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Tray strikes a very good balance between simple, reliable functionality and a much more accessible price. Better, more feature-complete options exist, but they cost a lot more money. For those wanting to try a self-cleaning litter tray without spending a fortune, it is a solid option and worth considering despite some minor flaws... most of which could be dealt with by adding a hood.

Was convenient at first, broke in less than a year – *Edit as of 06/02/2025* Loved this while it worked, but eventually the cheap manufacturing reared it's ugly head. The scoop mechanism became constantly squeaky, and we started to encounter regular mechanical errors with the rake. As of today, the mechanical error with the rake appears to be unfixable unless I were to send it back to PetSafe for a… Read more

professional repair and/or replacement. I can no longer recommend a product that breaks within such a short time frame and can only assume that so many of the parts being made of cheap plastic has played a large part in this.

I was given this litter box for free, to test in exchange for my review, and I absolutely love it! Being a cat owner who works full-time and has a toddler to handle when she gets home, I was genuinely struggling to keep up with the amount of litter box scooping required for our two cat household. I'd considered but didn't purchase a previous version of this litter tray because they forced you to use their disposible litter trays and crystal litter. With this new version, they've made huge improvements as it has a reusable litter tray which you can fill with your choice of clumping litter. It was extremely easy to set up and I've been using it for a month as of writing this review. It hasn't missed a beat yet - the sensor and automatic scooper has been working perfectly. The convenience of being able to remove the waste tray and just tip it in to a rubbish bag has been absolutely amazing. It's very easy to push the system up to remove the litter tray when a full litter change is needed. It's very easy to remove the scooper when it needs a clean, and the design of the scooper makes it very easy and simple to clean. When I say that this has removed so much stress from my life, I am not kidding! I have chosen to rate it 4 stars as there are a few things that can be improved upon to make it perfect. I would prefer for the power cord cable to be a bit longer, for the households that need it, and perhaps they could add something to the litter box to wrap excess cable around for those that don't need it as long. The waste container doesnt have any extra parts or design considerations that make it easy or smooth to remove and put back, you're just pushing a hard plastic container into the hard plastic slot, or vice versa, and that specifically feels very cheap considering the RRP of the litter box is currently $429.99 AUD on the PetSafe website. Which brings me to my final point, that $429.99 AUD feels a bit steep for this litter tray in my personal opinion. Considering my experience, the build quality, and the notes I've made above, I think I would only want to pay up to $350.00 AUD if I were purchasing this myself. However, this expense may very well be worth it for being who are as short on time for chores as I am. Overall, I do highly recommend and love it, and believe it only needs a few tweaks, especially if if you can find it on sale at any point.

Great Idea In Theory – Full disclosure - I was sent this product to review under the Ambassador program. When I received it, the box is quite large (as is the actual product inside). It's fully assembled and ready to go other than adding litter and plugging it in. The tray itself is much larger than a normal litter tray, so you ned extra room with placement. Because of… Read more

it's size, it's hard to move around and we found you had to be careful otherwise the top and bottom would separate. As it also requires power to work, it needs to be somewhere with outlets. A laundry generally does which is where we set it up.

Initially we had some trouble with it as my daughter didn't read the instructions and just chucked regular kitty litter in (which didn't work too well). Then we got some regular clay clumping litter as suggested (Smittens from Woolies). This worked a bit better however there were still times the scoop arm seized and had to be reset. The included instructions were clear to read and explain how to fix the issue, however there was always times when it would get stuck.

The new unit didn't seem to bother kitty at all and used it straight away. It senses kitty and then automatically scoops once it's finished doing it's business. When it was working, it scooped the poo away as it should. The rake itself gets a bit dirty but it's easy to clean as well. In general, it uses more litter than a conventional litter tray (with it's scooping action). It also seemed a bit more work as the scooped remains needed regular cleaning (compared to a conventional little tray).

Overall, it's a novel idea and mostly works. However other than the initial purchase price of the actual unit, the ongoing cost for the litter would add up significantly more than a regular tray. Overall cleaning time was about the same as a regular tray.

Pros: - The smells not as a bad as a regular tray - Easy to clean - Less manual raking required - Didn't seem to faze kitty being new

Cons: - A little loud at night - Uses a lot more litter than a conventional tray - Litter tray depth could be a bit deeper - Rake gets stuck on occasions - Large unit - Fairly pricey

Convenient , but more cons than pros – We trialed this product as review ambassadors. Overall, we found more cons than pros to our previous simple covered litter tray and scoop. You would have to reflect on your own personal situation and budget to decide if this item works for you, your pet and lifestyle. From the first day we had this item it was an adjustment for our one cat...and… Read more

small children. Our small children had to be monitored as the tray seemed like a toy to them. Given the open design of the unit, it's something to be mindful of with kids.

A lengthy induction period time for my cat was required to stop her panicking when the litter tray began to move. She did eventually get used to it.

Pros: - I like that the unit comes apart and the bottom tray is easy to get to - The draw at the front is convenient to remove soiled litter daily or weekly if needed - Not having to clean the mess immediately myself - I like that it has a sensor that does not allow it to begin cleaning when my cat is using the unit.

Cons: - The price is expensive for not only the unit but also the official "pet safe refills " refills ($44 for 2x pack of just the crystals or $24 each for the pet-safe Scoopfree Replacement Blue Crystal Litter Tray). - The overall size of the unit is very large and heavy. It's the biggest litter box we have ever had - Quite loud. It is not something you can block out in the house unless you close the door. We have to turn it off at night given the sound it just too loud at our house. - Finding the right litter for a cheaper option as opposed to the "pet safe" . - How the unit scoops the mess means that faeces becomes attached to the metal sifter and needs to be cleaned at minimum every week . - Given this is an open litter tray, my 2-year-old has been trying to play in it. We have had to order the cover (for another $40) to stop this from happening.

Litter tried with the unit so far: - $28 Breeder's Choice Recycled Paper Cat Litter 30L - (Coles) - This is what we have been using for years - Not compatible given the size of the litter - $16.99 Happy Tails 5kg Cat Litter Crystals (Bunnings) - Not compatible given the size of the crystals While the unit was cleaning half of the crystals were moved and scooped into the draw given it was able to pass through. - $7.99 San-i-pet Clumping Cat Litter 10kg- (Aldi) - This was compatible

Big box is a mixed bag – Every good cat owner loves their cats, but not so much the job of cleaning out the litter trays! So we were delighted to have the opportunity to try the new PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box (SCLB). The SCLB packs a few surprises. It's an innovative product with a lot of potential, but there's also some room for improvement. My… Read more

first surprise was the size. It was quite a bit larger than I was expecting. My first impression was that it looked a lot like an A3 computer printer.

Thankfully the SCLB comes ready assembled, although you do have to attach the Australian socket pins to the power adaptor. The instructions don't explain this, but it's simple enough to work out.

As I said, this thing is big, and you need to be aware of that if the space where you keep your cat litter trays is limited. The footprint of the SCLB is 69 x 48 cm (3312 cm2), but its tray is only 41 x 35 cm (1435 cm2). That’s just 43% of the SCLB’s floor area. For comparison, our standard litter trays take up only 38 x 28 cm (1064 cm2) of floor space. We use two of them together (2128 cm2), which provides more usable area than the SCLB, but takes up less space. The height of the SCLB is 26 cm compared to 9cm for our standard trays, and again, the standard trays are deeper than the SCLB tray.

The second thing to check is whether you have a nearby power point. In our place, I had to use a 5 metre extension cord, draped across the floor. If we decide to keep using the SCLB in that location, I will have to get a power point installed nearby.

I also had some issues with the waste bin. The instructions suggest that you can line the bin with a small bin bag. I did this, but immediately found that rolling the bag over the edges of the bin presents a problem when inserting the draw back in. Although the plastic is very thin, the extra thickness is enough to jam the sliders, and I had to press rather firmly to get the drawer fully in. An improved design might include a locking rim (like with garbage bins) to hold the bag so that it does not interfere with the drawer sliders.

I filled the tray with clumping litter up to the maximum height of 5 cm, switched the SCLB on, and left for nature to take its course. (PetSafe recommends using clumping clay with the SCLB. I use Aldi San-i-pet Clumping Cat Litter, which I settled on after much experimentation with different types of litter. It's easy to dig, clumps very well and has less tracking.)

While our cats are thinking about using it, you have time to go measure and see if the SCLB will fit your preferred cat litter space before reading part two of my review.

If you're anything like me, you'll want to wave your hand around inside the box to try and trigger the cat sensors. Surprisingly, they weren't that easy to trigger. So I tried placing the cat in the tray and was pleased to see they work a lot better with an actual cat!

Next, I wondered what would happen if a cat tried to get into the tray while the rake was working. Evidently, PetSafe's designers thought about this too, and I was pleased to discover that triggering the side sensors stop the rake from moving. If you trigger the rear sensors (that sit behind the rake when it is parked) while the rake is in operation, the rake actually reverses direction back towards the waste bin. Good. You don’t want the cat to get trapped at the rake parking end.

Now, about the smell… It’s great that the cat doos are being raked into the waste bin at the front of the SCLB. (See photo 1.) My only concern here is that the waste bin is not sealed. The poo in the waste bin only has a thin layer of clumping attached to it, so it is fairly exposed. By contrast, our standard tray is about 8 cm deep, which is fairly good for smell reduction. A suggestion to PetSafe would be to better seal the bin, and perhaps include some kind of deodoriser.

One of our cats occasionally does not bury its poo. In this case, the rake worked well and it was actually an improvement in smell mitigation having the poo raked into the waste bin.

Another positive is that the SCLB has quite high sides around the tray, reducing the likelihood that your cats will accidentally spray outside of the tray. Even so, one of our cats did managed to spray wee up on to the top of the SCLB, dousing the power button. I can't tell if the power button is liquid proof, but I would hope that it is. (See photo 2, which also shows the available room for the cat in the litter tray.)

The inner sides of the SCLB do not overlap the sides of the tray, and there is a groove where they meet. (See photo 3.) Clumping litter thrown against the sides can get caught here, rather than fall back into the tray. When I lifted the SCLB body for cleaning, some of this litter managed to escape the tray and fall onto the floor. (See photo 4.) I have not seen it in practice yet, but I'm guessing a correctly aimed pee could also end up in this groove. It would be nice to see PetSafe tweak the design to keep everything in the tray.

While the rake did a fairly good job with poos, it was not so good with wees. Wee tends to go down to the bottom of the tray, and the rake does not go right to the bottom. I still had to take the towel and dig up the clumped wees at the bottom. This was also an issue around the edge of the tray, where the rake did not quite reach, and particularly behind the rake if the wee was sprayed in that direction. Obviously when behind the parked rake, the rake cannot catch the clumps. (See photo 5.)

Occasionally the rake did not catch something on its journey to the waste bin but caught it on the return trip, pushing it to the back of the tray so that it got stuck behind the parked rake. This was not a big problem, but I can see that depending on how frequently you monitored the SCLB, this missed detritus would build up. This was not helped if the cat weed through the rake, which then had a solid clump attached to it.

Removing the rake for cleaning is quite straight forward, although I found the lock on one side did not lock as positively as the other, which was not reassuring.

In conclusion, there are pros and cons with the ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box. I still have to dig around to dislodge clumped wees in the litter that the rake has missed, so it falls short of the completely automatic waste removal I had hoped for. On the positive side, the rake does a great job of removing messy surface poos, minimising that particular smell. For now we continue to use it for these benefits.

Fundamentally it is a good idea, and with some fine tuning I could award it more than the 3 stars I’m giving it in its current A3 printer-sized incarnation.

This litter box is quite good for it's price tag despite the requirement for some further improvements – What Went Well Starting with the structure of the litter box, the rake is stainless steel, which means it won't rust over time and the overall build of the litter box is very solid, it doesn’t feel cheap or can be easily flipped over by my cats. In terms of assembling, it is very easy to assemble with minimal parts that need to be put together, I… Read more ·  1

had the litter box set up in a matter of minutes, this was quite pleasant. I like that the cable is quite long, 2 meters in length, allowing me to place it anywhere around the house. A small but thoughtful feature that's worth mentioning is the minimum/maximum litter level marked, it helped indicate when it is time for me to refill the litter. Regarding the functionality of the little box, as per the manual, this automatic cat litter was meant to be used with crystal litter, but I have been using clumping clay for my cats and didn't want to risk them not liking a different type of litter, so I tried to use clumping clay instead. Glad to say that it still works well. It's suitable for clumping clay as well, not just crystal litter, and this is a nice bonus as clumping clay is significantly more affordable than crystals. The machine would automatically clean 10 minutes after my cats did their business, but there is a button for me to activate the cleaning on demand, which is very helpful. It thoroughly cleans the clumps/poop MOST of the time, saved me from having to go back and pick up any missed clumps/poop. The machine takes exactly 10 minutes to clean itself after my cats use the litter, which is accurate to the manual's description. I used my own liners inside the bin, and it's great that it fits nicely. The bin is easy to remove and clean (even with the liner).

Improvement Opportunities Although the box is easy to assemble, it is quite large, takes up a great deal of space in the house, and is bulky to clean. It would be nice if the box had a lid of some sort, since there is no lid, the litter escapes the box when my cats push the litter after it does its business, and the bad odours are not contained, instead, it spread within the vicinity. I am particular about cleanliness and smell. One of my initial negative impressions of the box was that it was too loud. We have gotten used to the sound after 1 week of usage but at the beginning, it wakes us up in the middle of the night, so we had to go turn it off. I noted the following negative points, though I am mindful that I am using clumping clay rather than the recommended crystal litter. Compared to another automatic litter box that I also have, I had to refill the litter twice as often - twice a week. I noticed that it uses more clumping clay because the excess clay is pushed into the bin together with the clumps. Another point is that even though the level of clumping clay is within the suggested range, the clumps/poops will sometimes rise higher than the rake’s height and fell back behind the rake when the rake is moving along the box to push the clumps/poops into the bin, resulting in wastes that's left behind, which I had to manually pick out myself (video and photo attached). The functionality of the litter box is not consistently reliable all the time, in the sense that it sometimes stops halfway even though there are no cats around, but then, sometimes when my cats are nearby - within the stated perimeter - the machine wouldn't stop cleaning (photo attached), and lastly, sometimes the manual cleaning button doesn’t activate a clean.

All in all, I honestly think that for the price of this litter box, it's a good build, mostly does a good job, and significantly reduced the time I spend cleaning after my cats. I only had to do a clean once a week, so I am quite happy with that. The improvement points are compared against a different automatic litter box that I started to use not long back, but it is over 3 times the price tag of this PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box. To conclude, I would still highly recommend this product.

Room for Improvement, but great for those that hate to scoop the poop – *Item sent for Review via Ambassador Program* To start I’ll note that the initial unit we received only worked for 2 days, however my experience with PetSafe customer support was great. Mitch sorted out a replacement to be sent after we went thru some basics. The unit sadly appeared to be faulty. The next unit arrived, and we had only a few days… Read more

with it before we went on holiday, at that time the cats would be going to a friend who would also get to try the unit out. Setup was easy enough and the guide makes all you need to know simple to setup and use. All in all, the unit functioned as you would expect, and seemed to handle the thicker clumping litter, provided we did not overfill. Time will tell if the Tabby we have will continue to use as she would regularly poo outside the box. Our best guess here was if the litter was not clean, so far, she has not done this. The cats seemed to accept the box for what it was, never getting scared or not warning to use. The smell itself seemed to be reduced mainly due to fact that it was stored and covered, but you do find yourself getting complacent and forgetting to empty it. Space wise the unit is larger than old so we may need to adjust the setup and consider the need for a nearby power point closer to the unit.

What was good • Customer Service was great, AU based and sorted a replacement. • We have noticed less of a smell over time. • Convenience of the pull-out tray to empty is clearly the biggest selling point, no more scooping. • Simple light and button to trigger a manual rake. • The unit is easy to clean for most parts, wipe down is all that is needed, remove the rake is easy to do for the deeper clean. • Fast raking time, less than 60 seconds. • Appears to work with the Catsan and Chandler mix, but better with Catsan only. • Certainly saved the amount of time needing to scoop. • Can’t fault customer service provided.

What needed improvement / Feedback • Bit on larger side, and holds a lot less litter than cats are use to, bit too shallow. • The unit is noisier than we would like, hearing it going in middle of night woke us, so hoping we will get use to it as another sound. • The back and sides need to be higher; cats tend to spray, and this ends up outside as seen in pics. • The tray is a bit hard to access to give it a proper clean or empty litter, if not careful you make a mess. • Raking sometimes was uneven, seemed to all be on one side or occasionally missed raking some deposits as seen in pics that then ended up behind the rake. • The front draw would sometimes ‘stick’ needs a bit of a wiggle to get out. • Potential to waste litter as it sometimes rakes in large amounts of loose litter. • Price online, I am still not sure if I would be happy with the price for what it is.

What a great invention! – This review is for the PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box. It was supplied by PetSafe for me to review as a ProductReview Ambassador. For anyone interested, I‘ve tracked down the instruction manual here- on the PetSafe US website. https://www.petsafe.net/media/downloads/400-2587-1.pdf > (FYI when I checked it appeared the… Read more

PetSafe Australia website links you to the wrong manual.) It’s worth having a read of the manual prior to this review- so you’re familiar with various parts of the PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box. (Which I’ll also simply refer to as the “Litter Box” from now on.)

I’ve put a few videos together on unboxing the Litter Box, how the Litter Box rake operates and a video showing the Litter Box in daily use by our cat. See here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLccb2vOIo0IRCzWKaJqa3Kc7sn0i9DAH2

For the test, Alex (the reformed street cat), kindly volunteered her services. She’s around two years old, 4kg and has been an indoors cat for the last 10 months. Prior to that she was a regular wandering “street cat”- that hung around our suburb (but nobody appeared to own.) We adopted her and she’s been living 100% indoors since. She was using a normal cheap plastic litter tray with CatSan clumping clay litter, and her tray is located in an unused bathroom.

The Litter Box is substantially larger than your average kitty litter tray. The external dimensions are 72.1cm long x 52.3cm wide x 25.4cm high. The actual litter tray’s usable surface area is approximately 34cm long x 35cm wide (each end of the litter tray slopes upwards- so I’ve excluded the shallow end sections in those measurements.)

The Litter Box does hold a large amount of litter compared to the cheap basic litter tray we were using. However, during testing, I’ve found the litter stays clean and fresh significantly longer. So I don’t anticipate overall litter usage will be any more. It could even work out to be less over a long period of time. Previously, we were manually scooping the old litter tray at least twice a day. It usually began to smell of urine and needed changing after 7-9 days. I’ve been testing the Scoop Free Litter Box now for 24 days and it has the original fill of clumping clay kitty litter in it. (The litter has only been topped up during that period.) So automatic cleaning of the soiled litter clearly prolongs the usable life.

The waste bin (the used litter gets raked into) measures 16.5cm wide x 37.6cm long and 9.4cm deep. In practice I’ve been emptying it roughly every 2 days. The manual suggests you can leave it longer, but there are substantial air gaps (the waste bin is not sealed.) So particularly when the cat does a poo, the smell isn’t contained. Also, with our cat, after two days it was best to empty it as she always tends to use the centre area of the litter tray. So the centre section of the waste bin was always the area piled highest with the soiled litter. It could definitely be left longer and each cat will no doubt have different toileting habits.

The Litter Box is powered by a mains power adaptor that outputs 19V DC. It’s a universal power adaptor suitable for use worldwide. There are multiple different power point adapters and it’s simply a matter of slotting in the required one for your country. The lead from power adaptor isn’t overly long- it’s roughly only 160cm in length. That presented a problem for me as there’s no power outlet in the shower/ bath area where Alex’s litter tray is situated. So the Litter Box needs to be located close to a power point, or you’ll need to use a 240V extension cord and find a safe (well ventilated) position to place the power adaptor.

While testing the Litter Box, I used a power meter to monitor the mains power consumption. I was very pleased to find the amount of standby power is commendably low- it averages at only around 0.5 Watt. Even when cleaning the tray, with the rake operating, the power peaks at fewer than 2.5 Watts. So using this automated Litter Box won’t have a noticeable effect on your power bill. I worked out it would take roughly 100 days for the litter box to use 1kWh of power. For me (in SA) I pay around $0.50 for 1kWh of power.

In use, occasionally very small pieces of poo may be dragged backwards by the rake and end up between the rake and the litter tray end. It’s easy enough to remove them using a scoop- simply operate the rake manually (to move the rake out the way), and scoop them out. It’s not a regular problem, but can happen over time.

It is specified the Litter Box will only work with small granule clumping litter. With clumping clay litter (I used CatSan Ultra clumping clay litter during testing) I found it best to keep the litter level down near the low mark. This minimised clean litter being pushed into the waste tray by the rake when it does the tray cleaning. It’s only a minor problem- with a very small amount of litter being wasted- but worth mentioning. Other brands of litter will no doubt vary in this area. I also found with clumping clay litter filled to the maximum level, the rake would sometimes pause midway through the raking motion. After keeping the litter level at the lowest mark this hasn’t occurred again.

Alex had no issues using the Litter Box and actually preferred it straight away to her old tray. She even climbed into the empty Litter Box to check it out during the unboxing. The noise of the Litter Box operating didn’t scare her away, but each cat will be different and may require time to get used to a litter tray with moving parts and emitting some noise.

To be honest, I was a bit dubious as to how well any automated cat litter tray would work. However, after a couple of weeks of testing, I can highly recommend the PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box. If you’re shopping the automatic cat litter tray market it should be on your short list. It works as advertised and overall I can’t fault how well it functions. It kept the litter tray clean and definitely prolongs the usable life of the cat litter. The optical cat sensing system worked flawlessly and it is even smart enough to ignore a cat wandering through the tray (or if you happen to use a scoop to rearrange the litter) vs a cat urinating or defecating in the tray.

One small issue is the waste bin "drawer" can be a bit stiff/ difficult to remove. When reinserting the waste bin it's also very important that the main body/ outside frame of the Litter Box is left firmly in contact with the floor. Otherwise, the lip of the waste bin will not slide in underneath the lip of the litter tray. (The litter tray is not supported by the main body/ outside frame of the Litter Box and the waste bin must slide underneath the litter tray when installed.)

Life is also a lot easier not having to scoop out the old fashioned tray two to three times a day. Out of habit, we simply check the Litter Box waste bin when Alex is fed (twice a day.) The Litter Box hasn’t had any malfunctions that required our intervention, and has never missed cleaning any soiled litter out the tray.

The instruction manual (linked earlier) states the litter tray, waste bin and waste bin cover can be washed by hand or in your dishwasher (yuck- I didn’t try the dishwasher!?) The rake can be hand washed when required. The videos, I’ll attach to this review, show the different parts and Litter Box operation.

I've uploaded the videos onto Youtube as they're too big to upload onto ProductReview's website. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLccb2vOIo0IRCzWKaJqa3Kc7sn0i9DAH2

Totally exceeds expectations and works brilliantly – I was given this litter box to review as a Product Review Ambassador. I was eager to give it a go as I'd always wanted to try an automated litter box but could never bring myself to pay $400+ for one just in case my cat wouldn't use it. I must say I was quite skeptical at the outset, the idea seemed a bit gimmicky and I felt either it would be… Read more

more trouble than it was worth to set up and maintain it and/or my (often skittish) cat would refuse to use it and would take to toileting in random areas around the house instead in protest. Thankfully neither of these assumptions proved to be the case and the PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box has integrated into our home and lifestyle virtually seamlessly.

Setup out of the box was very easy. A quick read of the directions, fill with litter to the 'max' line (we used our regular mix of half plain clumping clay litter with half lavender clumping clay litter), put it in the place of our regular litter tray (an extra-large/high version, photo attached for reference), plug in and switch on. I was a bit concerned as a) the box plastic felt a bit flimsy, and b) it only holds about half the litter we had in our regular box, but again, none of these factors proved an issue.

Our cat was a bit suspicious at first but not overly spooked, and knew to use the litter (as it was the same litter he had before). He watched it cycle the first time with us and then seemed unbothered. The box has a sensor that cleans the litter 10 minutes after your cat has used it, so there's plenty of time for the cat to move on before the cleaning starts (solid blue light - clean, flashing blue light - litter has been used and box is in countdown mode). I can't comment on how this would work in multiple-cat households, but with our single cat it's been great. The noise is minimal - my husband hears it sometimes - he was a bigger skeptic than I and finds the whole contraption fascinating - but I rarely do. When it activates the grate pushes forward very slowly and pushes the clumped pee/poop with it until it reaches the front. The front flap opens and the waste gets pushed into the holding tray, the flap lowers and the grate slowly moves back to its resting position, finishing the litter off to level as it goes (which we always did manually after out cat used his regular litter, both because we felt he preferred it and so that we could see if it had been disturbed to trigger cleaning - he likes it done asap after each use, as I think most cats do). The whole cleaning cycle takes about two and a half to three minutes. There is no litter wastage or excess litter pushed into the waste collection tray. It also doesn't smell (another concern, as there are small gaps) and the waste doesn't get smushed or stick to the tray. You can use a bag in there but we wanted to try it without one first and it's been fine so we haven't bothered. We find the waste container gets full every 2-3 days (not the 'weekly' indicated in the product literature, but that could just be our cat) and so we just tip it into a larger lidded bin about twice a week. It's very easy and takes less than a minute. Very, very occasionally a small piece of poop falls over the grate and so gets stuck in behind it on its backsweep, but that's happened twice in our almost month-long test, which we consider negligible (and you can just pick it out, it's not a big deal, and again it wasn't smushed or otherwise messy due to the slow speed of the grate's movement). Other than that we've had no issues whatsoever and top up the litter maybe every week and a half to two weeks.

Litter cleaning has never been a huge deal, and only takes a minute each time, but it's an unpleasant task, creates quite a bit of dust and we would do probably 5-10 'pop-ins' daily to check if it had been used before with our regular litter box. Now (after the first week or so, when we checked this machine excessively to make sure it was all working and not making a mess) there's no need to even look as we know it will just get cleaned as required. It's a very first-world luxury, but it's minimised the litter hassle to the maximum extent possible, in my opinion, and quite simply it's pretty fabulous. We've also noticed that the general area around the litter tray is cleaner - both in the spread of litter (there seems to be less tracked out by our cat, not sure why) and less dust generated, which is a bonus side-effect. Given you still have to empty the container every few days and there's an occasional snafoo with the poo, I'd give this a solid 4.5 stars, but I'm genuinely happy to round up to five as it's really exceeded expectations and is about as fuss-free as you could hope to get. It's definitely a keeper for us. I also think our cat really likes it because the automatic cleaning is much more efficient than his often forgetful/unreliable humans ;)

This vet approves! – My wife is a veterinarian and we are destined to own animals with issues and quirks. This includes two cats – Chips and Peanuts. Chips is gregarious and young, peanuts is older and intensely anxious and skittish, has been her whole life. The cats don't like one another and we keep a large number of boxes to minimise interactions. We don’t see much… Read more

of Peanuts (despite both cats being exclusively indoor) but our lives are ruled by her potty preferences. If the boxes she uses are not pristine she pees in the shower which is unpleasant for all involved. We set up a video camera with motion detection to see who was using the new box, see the attached videos.

It's been a bit of a hit. Chips took to it immediately and if my video camera is correct she's averaging 15+ visits a day so thats got to be almost exclusively that box. The video attached is about 15 minutes after we set it up – straight in and no qualms. She has jumped in while it’s cleaning a few times – it stopped right away. We have not been able to coax Peanuts into it, but by virtue of Chips preferring the ScoopFree we’re seeing less shower-pee protests from Peanuts. Peanuts checks it out in passing each day, but being so high-strung and uncovered I’m not surprised she’s too timid to jump in the new box. We will give it time though. I placed her in it the other day, she scratched about but hopped out. I’m optimistic.

What I love about it - Odour control. Seriously better smelling than a normal covered catbox. - Does everything the box says – keeps a clean, low odour and hygienic box with no daily scooping. You really can’t ask for much more than that. - It gets every single nugget – small amounts of wet litter may be left but clumps are reliably swept into the catch. - Ease of cleaning – the catch tray is simple to empty and clean out. Can be pre-bagged if you want to and fits compostable bags neatly. - Worked equally well with any of the clumping litter brands we tried. - High sides had reduced the amount of scatter from aggressive covering up by the younger cat. - We use less litter. I'm not really sure why, making its because it's just cleaning so much more frequently but we don't need to top it off as much.

Some very minor gripes - ‘dangles’ can get stuck on the rake. It does do a very clever trick, trying to repeatedly dislodge anything every few times – but sometimes its too stubborn. Not a big deal at all and only twice in a month. Both dislodged of their own accord. - The size – It’s really big. Considerably wider, longer and taller than a standard uncovered box. Finding a spot that’s private enough, can accommodate the size and has access to a power point is a challenge.

I'd love to try it covered, or placed under a bench so Peanuts is maybe less scared to use it. I think the most important opinion is the resident veterinarian and animal expert of the house who so far has given this thing a thumbs up. She was sceptical especially having used earlier iterations decades ago in the US - but the technology has come a long way and this has made a genuine positive impact on the house.

4.5/5***** A great solution to help with a very unpleasant chore with some room for improvements – First up, and for full disclosure and transparency, we are happy to have been offered the opportunity to test the ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box by PetSafe and productreview.com.au as part of their ambassador program and write an honest review of our experience. By we I mean my wife and I, who have been scooping cat droppings out of… Read more

clumping clay litter for around 3 years now since moving into an apartment, and of course the main star of the show, our circa 15-year-old cat Fantail.

The litter tray is rather massive and we didn't quite expect it to be this big, even though the dimensions are clearly advertised on the website. The official and accurate dimensions of the tray are 72.1 cm L x 52.3 cm W x 25.4 cm H. By comparison, our previous litter tray measured only around 56 cm L x 39 cm W, making the footprint of the ScoopFree nearly twice that of its predecessor. So, do make sure you have sufficient space for this unit. With its grey plastic design, it looks rather a lot like an oversized office printer, but it actually blends in surprisingly well where we have set it up replacing Fantail's previous litter tray.

Another important thing to note is that the cable on the AC adapter is only around 180 cm / 6 ft long, which might be a little short for some users, especially if you, like us, wish to keep the litter box in a bathroom or toilet where the nearest power point might well be further away. It would be great if PetSafe offered an optional extension lead for the barrel connector on the DC side of the adapter as an accessory to allow setting up the tray several metres from the nearest outlet without having to run an AC line voltage extension lead through your bathroom.

We struggled a bit to install the tray which sits inside the frame that holds the collection compartment and the motorised rake. The tray has to be installed from the bottom, or rather the larger frame is lowered over and sits on top of the actual litter tray. But the tray has a lip at the front that is supposed to go under the waste collection tray. It wasn't until later that we figured out that it is much easier to first remove the smaller collection tray and slot that in as the very last step.

Needless to say, you'll need to fill the tray with the right amount of clumping clay, as indicated by two little arrows for the minimum/maximum fill levels, in our case a bit over half a bag of our cat's favourite brand litter (which comes in twin-packs of 2 x 7.5kg bags). The manual suggests that you can use a rubbish bag to line the waste tray and we found that the 27L / Size M wavetop bin bags (made by presumably Australia's best-known brand of rubbish bags) that we use in our kitchen bin are a near perfect fit and really make emptying the tray when it is full a LOT easier and mess-free. While on the topic of emptying the tray, from our personal experience, we've found that we have to take out the bag about every 5 days, but that time will clearly vary with your cat's "output" which likely depends on many factors including its weight and diet.

Unlike changing litter, which apparently can be quite an issue for some cats, we were happy to see that our cat had absolutely no trouble adopting the new toilet, despite his old tray having had a lid and a more sheltered design.

Once set up, the appliance really is super easy to operate. There's only a single button to either start a manual "on-demand" sweep, abort the countdown when it has been triggered by the litter tray's motion sensors, or stop an already ongoing sweep and return the rake back to its parked position. The button also has a couple of LEDs to indicate the current state and it is a membrane-type button that allows cleaning the tray's frame with a damp cloth without having to worry about damaging the electrical components. The waste tray, litter tray and rake are all easy to remove for occasional cleaning.

As mentioned, the appliance's frame contains an array of what I assume are some kind of optical sensors that detect motion inside the litter tray, whether it is your cat or you having a dig. I'll admit that we occasionally couldn't resist the urge to pull out the old scoop and have a look if there was anything the rake had missed that needed cleaning up, which is of course all part of delivering a proper review of a cat toilet that claims to be scoop-free. I am happy to say that we really only very rarely found a couple of smaller chips of clumped litter that would have broken off a bigger clump. Having used the same clay litter for several years now, scooping by hand and having witnessed how easily these clumps can break up and at times completely fall apart, we are more than a little impressed by how well the rake on the ScoopFree tray does the job. It manages to gently pick up and nudge our cat's waste towards and into the collection tray and normally only leaves behind a few small specks of wet clay mostly around the edge of the collection tray (as seen in one of the attached video recordings and photos). This is no doubt the result of a lot of trial and carefully tweaking the ideal time to wait and let the litter properly clump after detecting the cat has paid the tray a visit (according to the manual the countdown is 10 minutes though we didn't time it) as well as the shape, speed and angle at which the rake moves through the litter. We did time how long it takes the rake to complete a full sweep and the answer is almost exactly 3 minutes, so roughly 90 seconds to scoop and the same again to return the rake and smooth out the litter.

The motor isn't exactly quiet, especially when you place the appliance in a bathroom with bare tiled surfaces and nothing to absorb the noise. Unfortunately, we lack the means to accurately measure the level of noise, but I'd estimate it to be around the same as your typical kitchen stand mixer if at a slightly lower pitch. We're lucky that in our case the cat's toilet is located as far away from our bedroom as can be in our unit, but it is certainly something worth considering should you contemplate the purchase and are tossing up suitable options for placing the tray.

It is also worth mentioning that the lid on the waste collection tray does not seal all around and there are some visible gaps, especially around the sides and hinges, which means it doesn't fully contain the smell. It would be amazing if PetSafe's engineers found a way to improve this aspect of their design, maybe by adding some kind of flexible rubber seals. Another thing we're planning to look at is ammonia/urine smell-absorbing granules which might work to mitigate the smell in the waste tray. That said, simply the fact that the automatic tray has been there to deal with our cat's "business" 24 hours a day and will within 10 minutes move the waste he frequently fails to bury under a decent layer of litter to where it is at least partially contained, is a huge improvement over coming home to a wall of odour.

After having trialled the ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box for around four weeks now our preliminary and likely final verdict is overall very positive. Although, as with most consumer goods and appliances, there are some things that could hopefully still be improved (noise, smell containment, size/footprint, accessories?) we are very happy with the way this tray works. While I don't expect this or any cat toilet will or can ever be truly self-cleaning, at least in the long run, so far this device has definitely delivered on its promise of freeing us from scooping by hand, something we previously had to do several times a day, if and when we could, or suffer the consequences of having missed. We certainly can't see us going back to the old tray and I think that one is destined to find a new home.

A great value automatic litter box – I was invited to review this new product. Having recently also purchased a different self-cleaning litter box I was keen to see how the ScoopFree one stacked up against that model and to see whether our cats preferred one or the other. I note that the ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box is available from various on-line stores in… Read more ·  1

Australia, including Amazon. The prices appear to be around $350-$390. This seems like excellent value compared to the other self-cleaning device that I purchased and the others that I have looked at.

Pros: - Easy to set-up - Cats like it - Easy to force a litter clean Cons: - Can be messy depending on the litter used - Not always perfect in cleaning the litter - Bin doesn’t perfectly catch all the waste litter

The ScoopFree litter box arrived packed in its box in an outer box. There was no padding, just a plastic bag, but it arrived undamaged.

Set-up was a breeze. I just had to take it out of the box, put it on the floor, attach the power, add some litter and it was ready to use. The instruction book was helpful and easy to read. I am currently using Aldi San-i-pet Clumping Cat Litter (bentonite) and this seems to work fine in the ScoopFree. Although according to the manual it’s not necessary, I also elected to line the waste bin with a small garbage bag to make it easier to clear.

The footprint of the device is quite large, around 700mm x 470mm. It sits 260mm high so the tray area is generous at 390mm x 350mm and easily accessible. The waste bin and automatic bin cover are at one end. There is a single large ‘Rake’ button with a light at the other end that shows when power is on and the device is ready.

Our five adult curious cats took to it immediately (see pictures below). They checked it out within one minute of set-up and two had used it within the first few minutes. There were all quite mesmerised by the cleaning cycle and watched it closely the first few times! We have one who is a little shyer than the others but he was happily using it within a day or so. If we had been transitioning from a manual litter box I would have left that available for use for up to a week but it didn’t seem to be necessary for our clowder.

The device’s sensors pick-up when a cat has used it. It automatically runs a cleaning cycle 10 minutes later. You can force a clean, or stop one, by pressing the Rake button on the top. The sensors will pick up if a cat enters during the 10-minute countdown to a clean, or if it has already started, and restart the countdown or pause the cleaning cycle. When I have had to force a clean it sometimes still won’t properly clean the litter. It could be that different clumping litter might help with this but I have not yet tried any. I have also noticed that if a cat decides to use the tray when it’s half-way through the cleaning cycle it can drag their deposits back to the top of the device rather than into the bin. When this happens there is no alternative but to manually clean the area and the rake.

The motor that drives the rake through the litter during the cleaning cycle is a little louder that I would prefer but it doesn’t seem to bother our cats. If the device was within earshot of a person’s bedroom then I imagine that it could wake a light sleeper in the middle of the night.

I understand that there are covers available for some ScoopFree devices that minimise the spread of litter outside the tray. I 'm not sure if one is going to be available for this model but I would get one if it was.

After four weeks of use I can report that it is still in regular use. Our cats have access to it for up to 12 hours each day and it seems to be equally preferred to our other automatic litter box. We generally clear the waste bin a couple of times a week and if it was the only device in use then that would probably need to be every two to three days. If we had a single cat I imagine that it could easily last for a week.

Cleaning of the device is very easy and the instructions are clear and helpful. The stainless-steel rake can become clogged if the ‘business’ is messy (or caught on the wrong side – see above) but it’s easy to remove and clean. The litter is not terribly deep in the tray so I have noticed that if urine and litter clumps on the plastic base and in the corners then the rake won’t clear it properly. I have found that using a normal litter scoop easily dislodges this. I also found that how the litter bin sits against the bottom of the tray can allow bits of litter to escape and that’s a little annoying but not a major problem.

Fantastic, very easy to use and works well – I have been using this product for a bit over 2 weeks now. At first I thought my cat might be scared of it, but in fact she was very curious. The cat litter I'm currently using is Catsan Clumping Clay. I love the fact that there is a time delay before it self scoops as this gives the time for the litter to do it's thing first. Of course having… Read more ·  1

the option to activate it manually is fantastic too, handy for when you want to test it out to make sure it's working etc.

It is larger than the standard type tray I was using but still fits well into the same space where I had the previous tray. The power cord is generous, it is sufficiently long enough to reach a power point on the wall above up above our laundry bench (roughly the same height as the washing machine one).

The instruction booklet is one of the best I've received with any new product recently. It has clear illustrations that are easy to interpret but unlike a lot of product manuals these days it also has clear and concise written instructions. The booklet is all in English which means you don't have to flip through a thick booklet full of instructions in other languages to get to the part relevant to you.

The set up was very easy, and it is also a very simple process to dismantle a couple of bits to be able to fully refresh all the litter and clean it as necessary.

So far the PetSafe Scoop free cat litter tray works exactly as advertised and has been fault free to date. It's very easy to pull out the small tray to empty straight into a bin whereas previously I was having to remove the lid off the old litter tray, scoop into a bucket and then transfer into a bin.

The sound can seem noisy at first but I haven't found it to be disturbingly loud at all even when our cat uses it during the night.

The only improvement I would like is perhaps an optional clip on edging to make the enclosure higher or perhaps an optional lid that covers the 3 sides but is open at the front.... only because I have a very strange cat who will pee standing up sometimes which means it can end up out of the litter tray even though the sides on this tray are relatively high which would no doubt be more than sufficient for most cats.

I have uploaded a video to give you an idea of how it works, I have had to shorten it a little due to file size restrictions so it doesn't show the complete process from start to finish but it should give you a good idea.

I would certainly recommend the PetSafe Scoop Free Cat Litter Tray.

If you are on the fence for one, stop!, buy it! – For once, I will start with the end if you don’t want to read it all, Yes, you should buy one if you were considering it. Now on to the review, I was offered the opportunity to try the Scoopfree self cleaning litter box, I was on my own research about self cleaning cat litter box as we have 2 cats, and, like everything you ask the kids to do, it… Read more

ended up to me to either remind them or just do the cleanup… The deal was we agreed to get a second cat if everyone was on board with the litter duties, you right, it didn’t last long. But after 2 years I had enough and I was looking to get an automated litter box as the cats Milo and Zelda were a little fussy about the cleanliness of the litter box. If it wasn’t to their liking, Milo would find any clean basket of laundry or anything soft on the floor to do his business. Zelda would just scratch to get outside. So I had high hopes for this litter box and it was a great news to be selected to review such a product. First thing you will notice, it is big, and imposing, the time it takes to assemble is minimal and the power cord is of a descent length also I would say, the longer the better. Second part is that we use a clumping litter called world’s best cat litter from woollies. So all my experience with the litter box are based on the fact that we only use this type of litter. You may have a different outcome with other litter. Once you have installed the litter box, I personally dumped the old litter on top of the new one to make sure the smell is still there for the cats, and right or wrong I removed all the other litters from the house, so they would only have one left to use. Bite me! Well it didn’t take long for Milo to use the litter first and I think he didn’t have to much issues getting use to it. Realistically he is the one I wanted to use it the most as I am tired of finding peepee around the house. I am glad to tell you that in the 3 weeks we have had it he had only one accident! I am very happy with that and I believe it’s because Zelda had done her business just before and the litter hasn’t had time to clean it when he wanted to use it. I believe Zelda took a little longer to get use to it but now she is fine. The timer for cleaning works fine, about 20 min after the visit, it had no issues and each visit was cleaned. I can tell you the safety stop works as my dog did put her head in the path of the rake and it stopped and resumed a little time later. It’s good to know your cat won’t be caught in the rake. To be honest there isn’t much to say, it works fantastically well as long as you have enough depth of litter. I have just top up the litter and the way it works so well is the fact that there has to be a certain amount of litter in the box. I would say if you don’t have enough, that’s where you will have issues.

Depending of the cats you have you will have a different length of time between cleans. I change the bin liner I put to collect the droppings once a week and I have done one full clean yesterday and it was super easy. Pull the dropping canister, remove the lid and rake, take the litter box out then just wash everything refill put things back. It doesn’t take much longer than having to clean 2 litter box and I don’t have to deep clean every week. So definitely a happy cat owner!

You can find all sorts of gimmicks with automated litter box, they weigh your cats, they recognise which one it is, it connects to your phone… I love my cats but I am not fussing around all those little things, how often they use the box, etc. I have enough alerts on my phone between work and other apps not to add extras. So I am very happy to say it is a very simple mechanism, there isn’t too much that could go wrong. If you need a clean, because you want to make sure it’s clean or just added extra litter, just press the button and it’s done! It’s simple, my cats got used to it in a couple of days max, and Milo used it in a few minutes after I installed it. It was in the same spot as the old one so not too difficult. Zelda might have taken more time as I took away the other ones.

Why am I so enthusiastic about a cat litter? It was the only chore around the house I hated the most, because If it wasn’t done when Mr Milo wanted his litter cleaned, he would use other parts of the house. Now, every time I pass the litter box, it is nice and clean, He is using it and I haven’t had to clean other places except once because of conflicting toilet timing with Zelda. You cannot put a price on the peace of mind it brings to me. If it dies I will purchase another one! I will also update this if anything worth mentioning happens.

This is for you if want to increase the time spent cleaning up after your pet! – **This was sent to me as an item to be reviewed for free.** STAY AWAY FROM THIS ITEM. Pros - Scoops poop well most of the time. - Large surface area for cats to do their business Cons - LOUD. Very loud. - Doesn’t work with all clumping litters. - Rails frequently get jammed - Wastes way too much litter - Has some odd and difficult… Read more

places to clean - Had to remove scraper every day and clean it - Odour increased because we had to change type of kitty litter - Machine takes up lots of space (both a pro and con) To start off this piece of equipment is incredibly flimsy from start to finish. It takes up a boat load of room, it has all sorts of nooks and crannies than can get dirty with cat waste. For example, where the runners sit that drag the metal bar across the surface for scraping. Those areas are a real pain to get to.

Do not recommend at all. First off, it works for poop 90% to the time. But Urine? Nope! If your cat pees at the back, like ours does, then it clumps behind where the metal scraper can’t reach. It then solidifies all around the scraper, front and back and then drags the solidified kitty little all the way to the front, effectively dumping the entire lot of kitty litter into the waster basket.

Prior to using this we were using Coles clumping cat litter. It left no odour, it was cheap, and didn’t irritate our cars so sinuses. Well, despite it saying “works with all clumping litters” this is incorrect. It doesn’t work with the Coles stuff so we ended up buying a $40 bag of clumping litter which lasts about 6 days.

The machine simply doesn’t work in the way it should. Ours malfunctioned twice and on the second time I threw it away because I broke it trying to realign the rails the metal scraper sits on. It was more work having this machine than not having it.

Also does not come with any bags out of the box so that’s the first thing you have to go buy. It feels cheaply made and is poorly designed.

Ours last 10 days in total before it failed and I couldn’t get it going again without doing irreversible damage. If you would like less free time than you already have, then go ahead, buy this! Our cat loved this - He jumped into it before we even finish smoothing it out prior to his first use, as seen in the attached photo. But us, as the cleaners? Not so much!

Excellent, but not for every cat – (AMBASSADOR REVIEW for free product. Although 1 of my 2 cats made my personal experience 2 star, I am rating the litter box itself 5 stars as my cat’s behaviour is an uncontrollable.) It works exactly as promised, but your cats may break the deal. (Warning: graphic details.) Plus, you must be prepared to use a little more litter as a “price” for… Read more

the added convenience.

First, be prepared for the size of the ScoopFree Clumping Self Cleaning Litter Box. It is huge compared to a regular open litter box, and is bigger than the large covered litter boxes that we have. As it offers automated scooping, it also has to be close to a power source.

The biggest decision I faced was where to put it as - other than popping in the Australian prongs for the power adaptor and plugging into an electric wall outlet - it was ready to fill with clumping litter out of the box.

NICE, INTUITIVE DESIGN The grey plastic unit (which reminds me of a printer!) has basically 5 components, the: - actual litter box - electrical surrounds / housing that sit on top of the litter box - easily removed metal rake that “scoops” the clumps - pull-out drawer where the clumps are deposited - electric wire, adapter and plug

It is an open litter box. Our 2 cats have always had covered litter boxes, and I rang PetSafe to enquire about purchasing the cover shown in their online shop. The customer service is excellent. The phone was answered almost immediately and the service friendly and professional. Unfortunately the cover is for the Crystal litter box models and is not for this clumping model. However, to my surprise, our 2 cats were unfazed by the lack of cover.

The design of this litter box is intuitively simple to take apart for cleaning and to fit back together. The plastic seemed sturdy and the components fit well. However I found the pullout waste drawer a little fiddly to pull out and push back in, and was concerned this would break as the plastic didn’t feel as sturdy as the rest of the box. Best of all with this model is that you are free to choose any type of clumping litter you/your cats like.

I was planning to swop out our 2 cats’ favorite Litter box #1 which is close to a power outlet, but it was too big for the space. The location of Litter box #2 was adequate, but there was no power close by. In the end, it replaced Litter box #3, the least favorite, as there was enough space to fit the new litter box and it was close enough to power.

There are handy markings on the inside wall to denote the minimum and maximum amount of litter to use. The high sides of the box contained the litter from being kicked out, but was not too high for kitty comfort. Our 2 cats had no trouble getting in and out, and used the new litter box as often as they used the old least favourite box. Tracking was minimal.

AUTOMATION & THE COST OF CONVENIENCE After the kitties did their thing, the sensors counted down - denoted by the blinking blue light - for the waste to clump before the metal rake slowly swept forward to push the clumps towards the waste bin at the front of the litter box before reversing to “park” against the back wall of the litter box to wait for the next visit. The operation was not totally silent, but neither was it loud. Noise wise, it was totally fine.

But do be prepared to pay for the cost of convenience as automated scooping uses more litter than manual scooping - see photo. The improved odor control basically comes from the automated, scooping of waste after every kitty visit. (Odour control, we’ve found, is inherent in the type and quality of litter used, some have really great odour control, some have no odour control and stink right out the packet / box. We use the red World’s Best Cat litter and its odour control and clumping is superb.)

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION From observations over the week, the raking worked best when the kitties did their thing around the middle of the litter box.

Our big boy cat aka The Overlord was largely on board. He doesn’t pick the absolute middle of the box, and although he prefers to deposit around the perimeter he does his stuff a little bit away from the sides of the box.

Unfortunately, our little girl kitty is a horror show. She wees at the side walls, and when she does so, the clumps don’t form well during the countdown time and the rake tended to smear this along the sides before squashing what’s left of the clumps against the rake tines and back corners on its return journey.

Even worse, her favorite poop spot is the back right hand corner hard up against the back wall of the litter box. Well, suffice to say, this is can be a disaster when automated metal rakes resting at the back wall were involved.

KITTIES RULE In short, whether the ScoopFree clumping litter box is right for you depends entirely on your cats. If they deposit away from the side and back walls of the litter box and more towards the middle, convenience and an always fresh litter box is within reach.

But if your cats are wall huggers like our little Princess Kitty, you’ll end up with supplementary manual scooping and - worse - additional cleaning.

If you (let’s be honest, your cats) do decide to buy one, note the measurements first and scope out your home for a location before adding to cart and checking out.

It’s pretty good! Doesn’t solve all of you kitty litter issues but it comes close! – Having used this for a full two weeks now, I can confirm that it takes a great deal of effort away from the often messy task of keeping the kitty litter in order. I particularly like how it senses when the cat has been in the litter, waits 10 mins for the clumping litter to do its thing, and then cleans the litter. I like the fact that you can… Read more

use it with rubbish bin liners so you don’t have to touch the soiled litter and I like that in terms of maintenance, that it’s simple to clean. I was a bit concerned that maybe it would be difficult to clean but it’s not. The part that you need to clean, just falls away when you pick up the unit and doesn’t require any fiddly bits to put it back together. Charlie took a while to warm to it (Charlie is our cat) He used it, but it’s not without complaint. I guess, being a male, that he’s just a creature of habit and doesn’t like change. He’s always been fussy when it comes to his litter. If we didn’t clean it out every second day at the least, he would refuse to use it. This need is eliminated because the litter is always clean and the soiled litter is always in the collection tray. Given that we both work and are out of the house most of the day, it’s great that this machine takes care of Charlie’s needs while we can’t.

There are a couple of downsides that warrant a mention. 1. It doesn’t clean soiled litter that is at the very end of the machine opposite the collection tray. The rake doesn’t get immediately into position and as a result, I needed to tackle this bit manually. 2. If you over-fill it with litter, it will stop raking and the light flashes until you fix it. It’s not a major, but it’s worth noting that you can’t over-fill it if you want it to work. 3. It’s HUGE. If space is an issue for you, you need to consider the dimensions of this monster. It’s 470 x 670mm which is significantly larger than your average kitty litter tray. We need to have it on a table away from the Labrador who thinks that the cat leaves him snack-treats when he uses the litter box. It fits on our cat-table. 4. It doesn’t solve the kitty litter smells issue. I suppose that could be more of a brand of litter issue or maybe it’s just something we have to accept if we want to have a cat. The design of it keeps the soiled litter away from sight, but it still wafts around the immediate area.

I’ve added a video of it in use.

Makes life easier – I was pleasantly surprised with PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box. Nothing makes life easier than simply disposing cat faeces directly into Green compost bin. With the side of the removable tray, this makes it so much easier. This is a plus. The other noticeable ease is the automatic raking. The PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping… Read more

Self-Cleaning Litter Box, does a cycle about 10min after our cat has done its business. This is all done within a minute. There is no need to physically rack through the litter. There may be the odd time where you will need to clean the grill, (all depending on the faeces) but a rarity.

I was provided with the PetSafe ScoopFree Clumping Self-Cleaning Litter Box for a review. So far I have had no major issues. Choice of Cat litter does play a role. I initially tested with recycled cat litter as this was what I had on hand. I did find when in operation, a lot of the litter did end up in the deposit tray. As the recycled litter in size are large pieces, the grill did scatter around and also removed almost an eighth of the litter. Fortunately, I was given some Clay litter and this did make a difference. The choice will be to the consumer but remember, the larger the litter, the grill will remove more than just cats business.

Would I recommend, Yes. It’s not a noisy machine, is entertaining for our cat as it enjoys watching the cleansing process. You will need to place in an area where you have easy access to move about as the whole unit is quite large in size. As we have a cat, this is sufficient for us.

Pros: * easy to assemble * less hands on cleaning involved * cat most definitely uses

Cons: * choice of cat litter * large in size, so be aware of positioning within home and does need to be near power outlet

A Luxury Experience – We have had cats for many years and never looked past a basic litter tray, clumping clay, scooper and baby wet pads under and around this set-up. Cleaning was necessary once a day at least, including a sweep up around for anything flicked out after disposing of clumped waste via a plastic bag we made sure everything was left dry and fresh. We… Read more

have always tried to use old bags but that's, maybe, getting away from this review.

Also, we did use a liner in the litter tray (thick garden bin plastic) to lift everything out once a week or more and the process included a good cleaning of everything.

I have deliberately not looked at any other reviews for this product. I will be interested to see how similar or not I am.

Elephant In The Room - Price - 6/10

This product is way more expensive than any basic set-up. The only real question is is it worth the extra money if it's within budget? It's large and shipping must be a good part of that extra cost, but It certainly works!

More On Size - 8/10

When this first arrived I thought wow this is one substantial product size-wise - see pictures for exact measurements. However, after setting up the overall footprint is no bigger than the basic set-up in real terms for our usage case. This is because the sides are high and everything stays enclosed, no sweeping to deal with.

Construction Quality - 9/10

The plastics are hard and rigid. They don't feel like they will like being dropped on anything hard, but they do feel very up to many years of normal usage. The removable parts are noted as dishwasher-safe, save for the metal rake. We elected not to wash anything in the dishwasher, but I question the long-term life of the metal used for the rake as it is noted as not dishwasher safe. In the time we have had everything it's as shiny, after a clean, as the day it came, so no obvious worries either. It keeps itself pretty clean anyway.

The electric motors have been VERY quiet and efficient.

Assembly - 10/10

Very easy. One small tip: take everything out carefully, so as not to have anything fall away - see the next point concerning cleaning/maintenance point for more on this.

How Much Clumping Clay - 10/10

x1 4.5 KG bag of the basic clumping clay from the local supermarket will go a long way. I think we may even use less versus the basic litter box set-up.

Cleaning/Maintenace - 9/10

Closer to nature than flushing a toilet, but way farther away than a basic litter tray. It all functions as advertised. Bits that need to be cleaned are easily removed and put back in place. Any casual glance you could be forgiven for thinking it's not been used at all when it has been several times. A really close inspection and there is some clumping left on the rake and some wetness at either end, but you are looking for the 1% on a very clean and smooth area.

In Use - 10/10

It just works. If it's running a cleaning cycle when a cat goes up to it nothing bad will happen that we can see, and they work it all out. It basically runs itself that way.

Odour Control - 10/10

The manufacturer claims x3 better odour control than a traditional box, and I won't disagree. I have no clue how they came to that number, BUT it is a noticeable positive for the product. I hate the smell of this end of things and noticed this benefit instantly, FWIW.

Conclusion

It's a worthy luxury product that is well worth considering if you have the budget. It still needs human intervention to keep everything hygienic and clean, but it minimises the need.

Also, it allows time-shifting: You get way more latitude in choosing when you must get involved.

Really cool but not Puuuurfect. Worth it if you hate doing the litters often! – Pros: - Easy to use and clean. - Love the auto clean after 10mins. - Works best with fine clumping cat litter. - Odour is reduced due to it cleaning automatically. - Emptying and cleaning the tray is easy to do. - Gets the smelly poos outno worries! - My cat used it right away without any dramas. Cons: - Expensive! - Litter does get sprayed out… Read more

somewhat easily, but depends on your cat I guess. Walls could be a tad higher or a clip on wall would be good. - Works best with fine clumping cat litter but not so great with crystal litter and Coles branded cheapo clumping litter. - It does not get urine clumps fully out, maybe 3/4, as the grate does not go low enough into the tray, but it is tolerable. - If not using fine litter, it scrapes a lot of good/dry litter into the end tray.

Overall, It's expensive but worth it if you hate doing the litter often. The idea is great and I would reccommend the purchase if you have a spare $400 lying around.

Great litter box for odour control – Litter box works really well at effectively removing the waste without having to scoop it yourself. I recommend to line the collection bin with a bin liner for cleaner waste disposal. The litter box is on the larger size but it’s good if you have more than 1 cat, and the tall sides help to stop the litter from getting flung out. I recommend using a good quality clumping litter for best odour control.