I review cat products like self-cleaning litter boxes for a living, but there's one product that I've stayed loyal to for four years now: The Whisker Litter-Robot 4. Granted, it's large, and also $700. But the appeal of not having to scoop is real!
A Litter-Robot detects when a cat has done their business and whisks the waste away. Friends, colleagues, and consumer testers via the Good Housekeeping Home Care & Cleaning Lab have all given the Litter-Robot 4 great reviews, and in my experience, it's held up to daily use.
Pros
- No scooping
- Tracks visits
- Tightly traps smell and dust
- Keeps a cat's business out of sight
- Quiet operation
Cons
- Tall
How does the Litter-Robot 4 work?
If you’ve never used an automatic cat litter box, here's the gist: Your cat jumps in to do its business and a sensor registers it. Nothing happens immediately, giving the cat a chance to scratch and leave, and the litter time to clump. Then the machine rakes or sifts the litter to separate dirty clumps from clean clay litter.
With the Litter-Robot 4, the entire dome rotates to do the cleaning. After your cat uses 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 rotates. Clean litter passes through a 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. Clean litter filters back into the litter box.
The whole process is quiet. Sometimes I catch the sound of the litter sifting, which reminds me of the sound of a rainstick, but that's about it. It's kind of soothing.
What are the benefits of a self-cleaning litter box?
What motivated me to use one was travel. My husband and I frequently go away and hate returning to a very full litter box. I wanted our two cats to have a clean bathroom, whether we were home or not.
Other Litter-Robot users buy one because they hate the hands-on chore of scooping. The self-cleaning device only requires you to dump a bin, and an app alerts you when the bin is full. You can line the Litter-Robot 4 waste bin with a liner bag to make dumping even easier, or you can recycle grocery bags for that purpose.
Cat owners who don't want visitors to glimpse a dirty box, or smell it, are also into the Litter-Robot. It does a fine job of hiding all the pee and poop under the dome. You only see your cat's business when you dump the bin about once a week.
Transitioning to a Litter-Robot 4
I had to get over the size.
My hangup was and is the size. The Litter-Robot 4 is nearly 30 inches tall. It won’t fit under a sink, for instance. We live in a small city home, and our regular litter box sits outside our one and only bathroom, in a corner cabinet, hidden from view. The Litter Robot had no shot at fitting in that cabinet.
The Litter Robot has a 22" x 27" footprint, and it needs to be plugged into an outlet to work. So to get the ball rolling, I set it in my son's bedroom since he's away at college. (Thanks, Joe!) Per the instructions, I left the old litter box alone so there would be no sudden change for my cats.
Then I had to get my cats to switch.
Our two tuxedo cats, feisty Azula and senior Helen, are largely cooperative. They've posed in cat carriers for me and eat pretty much whatever I put in their dish. But at first, they were 100% not interested in trying the Litter-Robot.
I got desperate. I moved their regular litter box outdoors to the patio to "force" them to use the Litter-Robot 4 while we went away for a weekend. That move is not at all recommended by the company. In its article on switching your cat to the Litter-Robot, Whisker recommends:
- Keeping the Litter-Robot 4 unplugged at first (I was impatient)
- Setting it next to the old box (I was trying to save space)
- Leaving the old box out but letting it get full, motivating cats to try the new one
I returned home and saw the empty Litter-Robot and began to panic. First, I let the cats go out on the patio to use the old box. Then I moved the Litter-Robot in front of the cabinet that had been housing the old litter box, to properly communicate what the Litter-Robot was for.
I also started an email exchange with Whisker customer service. As I was typing, "They won't use it," Azula got in and peed, probably to make me look like a liar. Later she did catch it moving and stared it down, but she must have decided it was not a threat.
Helen, meanwhile, would "hold it" until I opened the patio door and let her run to the old box. Finally, I moved the old box back to its former position in the cabinet, and I put the Litter-Robot 4 across from it, between the doorways to the kids' bedrooms.
For a month, Helen used only the old box, and Azula used both, depending on her whims. Eventually I caught Helen using the Litter-Robot 4 as well. It took about six weeks of it sitting across from the old box for her to get curious enough to go in there. So new users: Be patient!
What Has Worked for Me
My initial testing was in 2022. Cut to today, and Azula has moved out with my 24-year-old child, and still uses the Litter-Robot 4 daily. It's her only box, and it's been going strong for four years. Helen is back to the old-fashioned box, where at least she's good at testing cat litter.
Favorite things about the Litter-Robot 4:
The Litter-Robot 4 is Wi-Fi enabled. In addition to showing when a cat has used the litter box, the app shows the level of waste in the bin and the level of litter in the box. It tracks "scoops saved" to make owners feel good.
The controls are on the top of the dome. The former version had the controls placed on the front so that you had to bend down to see them. Now the control buttons are easier to use. You can set a nightlight, run a cleaning cycle, and more.
Not having to scoop is even better than expected. It saves time and frankly makes cat ownership a lot nicer.
One setup tip: Give yourself an hour to properly set up the Litter-Robot. I rushed through it and added litter right away—only to realize I needed to turn the machine around and tip it to scan a QR code for the app. Whoops!
I also had to pair the app twice before it finally connected, but the good news is that it has never gone offline for me since. Valuable advice: Connect it to your guest Wi-Fi. Many Wi-Fi enabled pet products cannot work with 5G service. Connect to your slower Wi-Fi, the 2.4 GHz, often the "guest" one.
Two issues that I've had to make peace with:
Azula required modifications. She pees with her rear end almost out the door, so I had to use the included fence piece on the front of the Litter-Robot 4 to keep her pee inside. Users can also upgrade to a larger fence if necessary.
Reddit was useful for addressing Litter-Robot hurdles. There are tens of thousands of people in r/litterrobot, which feels very validating.
Litter-Robot 4 couldn't tell my cats apart. A big plus of the technology is that you get reports on the app when your cats use the Litter-Robot. I was looking forward to monitoring their weight and having a record of which cat uses the box and when. But I've discovered that if two cats are within a pound of each other, the Litter-Robot 4 can't distinguish between them. Azula is about 12.5 pounds, and Helen is closer to 12 pounds and the app marks every visit as Azula.
The brand has a solution: The new Litter-Robot 5 can distinguish between cats and even takes video footage of them. You can read my full review of the Litter-Robot 5, which is more expensive but provides more data.
What’s the best litter to use (and how long does it last)?
A Litter-Robot uses any premium clay clumping litter like Tidy Cats, Scoop Away, or Arm & Hammer. There's now also Tidy Cats designed for the Litter-Robot. Crystal litter or paper litter won't work because the pee will just sit on the bottom of the drum rather than forming clumps that can be sorted out.
Picking a litter has not been a big deal. Unlike with the traditional box, odor is so well hidden with the Litter-Robot 4 that I am less concerned about the brand.
My family gas been thrilled with the litter efficiency of the Litter-Robot 4. We top off the litter much less often than we do with the regular box.
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 want to try having two Litter-Robots since both can be simultaneously connected to the Whiskers app.
My bottom line
Is the Litter Robot 4 worth it? Yes, if it's in your budget. The $700 price tag is steep, even if it does save you litter and a lot of time. "You won’t be disappointed with it," said former GH Contributing Product Analyst Lynn Redmile, who has used a Litter-Robot 4 for more than five years with her kitties. "The design of the dome with its rubber liner makes its automatic emptying process almost infallible."
The U.S.-based company's years of research and development continually improve the Litter-Robot product offerings and its app features. "It's an impressive piece of engineering and it really works," Redmile says.
That said, it's not worth it to go over your budget or overspend on something that isn't essential for everyday life. Invest in this feline accessory for added ease, but don't forget that at the end of the day, two gloved hands, a scooper, and a trash work too.
BUY A LITTER-ROBOT 4 BUNDLE FROM AMAZON
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
Contributing Writer Jessica Hartshorn uses her decades of experience as a cat owner and an editor to help evaluate pet products that families use in their homes. She's tested the Litter-Robot 4 and the Litter-Robot 5 firsthand with her family's two cats.
