The Litter-Robot 4 Lets You Say Goodbye to Daily Scooping Forever
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Love the cat, but not so much the litter box. Even if you find the best cat litter, there's still cleanup to do. That's why we're a little obsessed with self-cleaning litter boxes. The tech detects when your cat has done their business and whisks the yuck into a waste receptacle. Of course, there is no wizardry here — you are still going to have to dump out the waste bin eventually. But in the meantime, the cat mess is hidden away, your house is odor-free and daily scooping is a thing of the past. More time to toss around cat toys and pet your best fur friend!
The very latest and greatest model is the Litter-Robot 4, a Wifi-enabled upgrade to the Litter-Robot 3 and an improvement on the Litter-Robot 3 Connect. Lynn Redmile, Testing and Product Review Analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Appliances and Cleaning Lab, tried the Litter-Robot 4 at home with her three cats after having used the previous models. She found that the features that come with the Litter-Robot 4 can be worth the higher price tag.
What is a self-cleaning litter box and how does it work?
If you’ve never used an automatic cat litter box, this might help give you a visual. Your cat jumps in to do its business and a sensor registers that the cat has been in there. Nothing happens immediately, giving the cat a chance to scratch and leave, and the litter some time to clump. Then the machine rakes or sifts the litter to separate the clumps from the clean clay litter.
The Litter-Robot 4 works a little differently than others in that the entire dome rotates to do the cleaning. After the cat has used it—the default setting is seven minutes later, but you can set it to clean after only a few minutes or to wait 15 minutes—the dome slowly and almost silently rotates. The clean litter passes through a large sieve and the clumps are directed to a chute which sends them to an odor-trapping bin below the dome. The dome rotates back again, closing the waste chute, and the clean litter is filtered back into the litter pan.
A Litter-Robot is ideal for a household with multiple cats, like Redmile's. Two cats fill up one regular litter box quickly, so having one of these auto-cleaning devices saves you from daily drudgery. The Litter-Robot 4 is cleared for up to four cats, but the more cats you have, the more often you will be emptying the waste receptacle. For four cats you might actually want to try having two boxes and both can be simultaneously connected to the Whiskers app.
Litter-Robot 4 vs. Litter-Robot 3
The Litter-Robot 3 Connect is still available, and it's $100 cheaper than the Litter-Robot 4. Litter-Robot 3, which doesn’t connect to the internet at all, is also available and the most affordable of the bunch. As for the differences between them, we've found the Litter-Robot 4 to be the quietest version yet. You have to be right next to it to hear it doing its job. Its new, wider opening is more inviting to cats who might be skittish about an enclosed litter box, and the waste receptacle is larger, so you can empty it less frequently. Finally, the controls are on the top of the dome, making them easier to access than the controls on the front of the Litter-Robot 3 Connect.
The Litter-Robot 4 is even better at trapping smells and dust. A combination of a tightly sealed carbon-filtered waste receptacle and the upgraded sifter ensures no odor or dust permeates your living space.
You can connect the Litter-Robot 4 to the Whisker app and track your cats' usage. The sensor will recognize each cat by weight. Follow how often each cat visits the box and watch for trends in usage and any changes to your cat's weight. (Always share any alarming changes with your vet!) While Litter-Robot 3 Connect works with cats who weigh 5 pounds or more, the Litter-Robot 4 works with cats who weigh just 3 pounds or more.
The app also shows how full the waste receptacle is, alerts you when to empty it and lets you know when you need to add more litter.
What’s the best litter to use with a Litter-Robot?
A Litter-Robot uses any premium clumping litter and works by sifting instead of raking, which means there is no rake to clean. The Litter-Robot doesn't require that kind of regular maintenance.
You can line the waste bin with liner bags that you purchase, or you can recycle grocery bags for that purpose. When the Litter Robot's Whisker app indicates that the waste receptacle has to be emptied, you just take out the bag, tie it up and throw it in the trash can. Then reline the tray and you're set to go again. It all feels more sanitary than scooping.
What to know before you buy a Litter-Robot
A Litter-Robot 4 is tall — it won’t fit under a desk and may not easily squeeze into your bathroom — but it’s not unsightly and you can’t smell it. It can work well in any room that has space for its 22" x 27" footprint, but it does need to be plugged into an outlet to work.
Pick the black or the white model and choose between the waste bin featuring a step, to help your cat climb inside, or a handle, to make opening the bin easier. Optional accessories include a mat to reduce litter tracking and a pack of two OdorTrap pods, which are essentially small air fresheners using plant-based oils to further neutralize odors. You can actually stick an OdorTrap pod on any Litter-Robot or even a regular litter box.
If the Litter-Robot doesn't notice your cat in there, it won't automatically go through the cleaning cycle. If you have a new kitten too small to set off the sensor, you can turn off the automatic cycle and instead manually trigger the box to clean itself.
Most months you can just replenish the litter to replace that which has clumped and dumped. But don't overfill the litter dome or else it won't work — there are clear markings to help you. Every so often you will want to deep-clean the entire device with gentle soap and water. Non-electronic components can be taken outside and sprayed down with a hose. The company recommends you do this three times a year.
Bottom line: Is the Litter-Robot 4 worth it?
Primarily what you get with the Litter-Robot 4 is your time back — plus a much more sanitary way of dealing with cat waste. The very hands-on chore of scooping the litter box becomes a thing of the past, and monitoring when you need to change litter goes on autopilot, thanks to the app.
Houseguests likely won't catch sight of a cat turd, and you'll worry less about litter-box odor. In our opinion, that alone makes it worth the price. "You won’t be disappointed with it," Redmile says. "The design of the dome with its rubber liner makes its automatic emptying process almost infallible." The U.S.-based company's 20 years of research and development continually improves the Litter-Robot product offerings and its app features. "It's an impressive piece of engineering and it really works," Redmile says.
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
For decades, the Good Housekeeping Institute has been providing expert reviews and advice on appliances, cleaning products, and pet products. Lynn Redmile has been a Testing and Product Review Analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute since 2012, and has tested the Litter-Robot 3, Litter-Robot 3 Connect and the Litter-Robot 4 in her home with her three cats.
We have also tested Litter-Robot products in our Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab for setup, easy clean-up and clump removal. In our Lab, we simulated a cat using the litter box with water and a small weight to trigger the sensor and observed the cleaning process.
Journalist Jessica Hartshorn is a consultant to the GH Institute Pet Lab. The Pet Lab provides expert reviews and advice on all things that matter to pet parents from the best dog GPS trackers to the best vacuums for pet hair. Hartshorn uses her decades of experience as a cat owner, and decades as an editor for Parents magazine, to help evaluate pet products that families use in their homes.
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