GoKawiilCompare Our Picks
Connected to an app? Entry size Footprint size Compatible litter Suitable cat size Special features Petkit Purobot Max Pro 2 Yes 10.7 x 10.5 inches 21.2 x 25.9 inches Any clumping litter with granules shorter than 0.5 inches From 6 months old or weighing 3.3 to 22.1 pounds AI-powered camera; deodorizing cartridges Whisker Litter-Robot 4 Yes 15.75 x 15.75 inches 22 x 27 inches Clumping or scoopable clay litter (translucent or crystal may affect litter level monitoring) 4 pounds minimum, no maximum LitterHopper auto-refill attachment Petkit PuraMax 2 Yes 7.87 x 8.85 inches (76 liter interior) 24.4 x 21.2 inches Clay, tofu, mixed, and bentonite litters (incompatible with crystal) 3.5 to 18 pounds Odor eliminator attachment in the waste bin; a deodorizing spray that goes off periodically PetPivot Autoscooper 11 No 16.3 x 15.4 inches (10 liter interior) 21.5 x 21.5 inches Benonite and mineral litters (incompatible with tofu or crystal) 3 to 22 pounds No Petkit Purobot Ultra Yes 8.58 x 9.84 inches 20.9 x 32.2 inches Clay, tofu, mixed, and bentonite litters (not recommended with litter longer than 0.5 inches or wider than 3 mm) 3.3 to 22 pounds Camera to see inside and out of the litter box; two-way audio; AI cat identification; auto-packing and -sealing waste bag Homerunpet Self-Cleaning Litter Box CS106 Yes 10 x 10.5 inches 27.4 × 23.6 inches Tofu, bentonite, clay, and mixed litters Up to 20 pounds Self-filling litter reservoir Whisker Litter-Robot 5 Pro Yes 15.75 x 15.75 inches 22 x 27 inches Clumping or scoopable clay litter (translucent or crystal may affect litter level monitoring) 3 to 30 pounds AI-powered camera; WasteID smart detection
Others We Tested
Photograph: Kat Merck
Litter-Robot 5 for $799: While on a recent trip, I received an urgent message from my house sitter. “I think I broke the cat turd tilt-a-wheel,” it read. I knew he hadn’t broken the Litter-Robot, but I also knew it was doing what it always does, even when I’m at home: throwing arbitrary error codes. Laser Board Fault, Extended Scale Activity, Overloaded Globe … I never know why these codes are triggered, only that they are frequent and almost always incorrect. They also stop the machine’s operation until someone can physically go troubleshoot on the LR’s LCD screen, since these errors aren’t resolvable in the app. But aside from this issue, the base model Litter-Robot 5 does offer some improvements and design tweaks over the base Litter-Robot 4: easier assembly and waste removal; the aforementioned LCD screen; and, if you have a Whisker+ subscription, a new WasteID feature, which is supposed to distinguish between feces and urine. Unfortunately, this has only worked intermittently in my four months of testing, as has the LR’s ability to tell my cats apart by their weights, which are different. I believe the firmware on the 5 still has a ways to go, but if you’re willing to wait it out, LR confirms improvements are already in progress and rolling out soon. I will keep testing to see if this happens, as I do prefer Litter-Robot’s larger opening to Petkit’s, the ease of cleaning, and the fact it can hold a week’s worth of waste from my two cats before needing to be emptied. —Kat Merck
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Petcove PurrTek Covered Self Cleaning Litter Box for $288: I was surprised when my two large cats easily took to this very small automatic litter box. I wasn’t even sure my 16-pound cat would be able to fit inside. Set up was super easy, just insert the step (my cats preferred to use it without because they’re so large and it took up valuable real estate inside), plug in, download the connected app, and connect the box to Wi-Fi. The waste bag was already installed, and there were also large buttons on the front to manually control settings like auto- or manual-cleaning, deodorization, auto leveling, waste or litter emptying, and sensing. I’ve grown to really appreciate easy outside buttons, which are a game-changer when the often buggy app crashes, or you aren’t near your phone. Like many automatic litter boxes I test, this product would be vastly improved with a better app interface and more clear english translations. It was very hard to figure out what the settings were asking or even if they were set, mostly because of the poor translation. Waste bin calibration could be set from zero to 15, and litter leveling setting could be set from zero to six, seemingly arbitrary numbers that didn’t seem to change settings. ‘Do not disturb’ mode could be set, but only for a specific clock time, like 11:30 pm, rather than a span of time, which nullified the effect. It took an egregiously long time to clean, at almost four and a half minutes for the whole cycle. I wish the waste bin was at the bottom of the device, because emptying and refilling the bag was often messy and had litter leakage. The device worked without issue overall and my cats liked it, but for $400, I’d get the Petkit PuraMax 2, which is the same price but works so much better.
Photograph: Kat Merck
Els Pet Orbitie for $280: This is one of the least expensive automatic litter boxes, but it functions much like the more expensive models, with an internal 65-liter-capacity orb that rotates and catches clumps with a plastic grate, depositing them into a bag-lined box below. The opening is a generous 12 by 12 inches—plenty big enough for my two 7-year-old cats, who took to it almost immediately despite never having seen anything but a traditional litter box. The accompanying Orbitie app doesn’t offer an extensive amount of information; it tells the user the volume of litter and what step of the cleaning phase the box is currently in, as well as how many times the box has been used and at what times. The first test unit I received was faulty—it sent multiple phantom alerts to the app, letting me know it had cleaned itself as many as 36 times a day, which I knew for a fact was not true. The replacement unit, however, works just as intended, though the bin beneath fills up fast (about every other day with my two cats), and it occasionally needs to be disassembled and cleaned, as tiny pieces of cat litter have a tendency to get in the gears beneath the orb (and make a loud grinding noise). However, this isn’t an unusual occurrence even with pricier boxes. Online reviews panned an earlier version of this box, but Orbitie says this is an improved version. Thankfully, like the bigger brands, Orbitie also offers a 90-day money-back guarantee if you’re on the fence. —Kat Merck
Photograph: Molly Higgins
... continue reading