View Full Version : Self-Cleaning Litter Box
autodata
2004-05-16, 14:28
So we just got one of these crazy gadgets for the cat. He loves it. We still have the old one out, but he's abandoned it. It senses motion and then automatically rakes the crap out 10 minutes later. Of course the question on my mind: can I install linux on this thing? :p
Cybermonkey
2004-05-16, 14:31
LOL, might as well use embedded windows :D
BRussell
2004-05-16, 14:36
What would happen if the cat got caught in the cleaning mechanism? Cat meat for dinner?
I was thinking of getting one. How does it handle the waste? Does it go into a bag? How often do you have to clean it?
NosferaDrew
2004-05-16, 16:22
Yeah, I've thought about getting one of those too.
How big is it? I've got three cats, so I have a super jumbo sized one now and usually clean it every two or three days. It's a pain.
SonOfSylvanus
2004-05-16, 16:39
Make the cat crap outside for godssake. That's the thing that puts cats above dogs... if you let them do it outside, they do it in private, on soil, sniff it, then rake it over themselves... problem solved.
billybobsky
2004-05-16, 16:45
why do they sniff it?
why do they sniff it?
Who doesn't?
NosferaDrew
2004-05-16, 16:57
Kinda tough on the 2nd floor of an apartment building (I moved into an apartment because I'm 1 block from work and not having a commute in Los Angeles is literally life changing).
When I rented a house, sure, they'd just go poop in the garden and when I buy a house next spring the issue will be solved, but until then.....
Make the cat crap outside for godssake. That's the thing that puts cats above dogs... if you let them do it outside, they do it in private, on soil, sniff it, then rake it over themselves... problem solved.
autodata
2004-05-16, 17:18
I was thinking of getting one. How does it handle the waste? Does it go into a bag? How often do you have to clean it?
It rakes it into a little closed box, so there's no smell and nothing to look at. Don't know how often we'll have to clean it, but he's a big (18 pounds/muscle, not fat) cat and I'm guessing every 3 to 4 days.
They come in different sizes. The thing seems to have sensors everywhere, from motion sensors on the side to sensors in the rake. If it gets too much resistance, it's supposed to back up and then try again. So unfortunately no kitty steak, BRussell.
Only problem is that I can't see the specs anywhere.
Aside from that, this is one of the best gadgets we've gotten in a while (well, other than finally getting a gamecube last week). I've always hated cleaning his piss.
SonOfSylvanus
2004-05-16, 17:45
...but he's a big (18 pounds/muscle, not fat) cat...
Excuses like that don't wash. ("Big boned" indeed.) That kitty needs a healthy diet and a strict exercise regime!
/idiot
autodata
2004-05-16, 18:07
Excuses like that don't wash. ("Big boned" indeed.) That kitty needs a healthy diet and a strict exercise regime!
/idiot
LOL
Seriously, though. The kid is too violent to be a fat ass. Especially when he's all drugged up on catnip or other herbs
http://fireantav.com/ai/11-5.gif
alcimedes
2004-05-16, 18:12
one thing i've read is that some cats don't like the noise. maybe there are multiple versions of auto litter boxes, but some make a racket. after the first few times it runs, the cats won't go near it.
maybe the new ones are quieter though.
billybobsky
2004-05-16, 18:13
is it just me or is the feline in that picture graced with somewhat terrifying claws...
Cats. The devil's familiars.
I think america needs one of these
BurningWheel
2004-06-02, 19:14
sometimes technology is a bad thing. we used to have one. bad news, piece of junk
thuh Freak
2004-06-02, 19:54
sometimes technology is a bad thing. we used to have one. bad news, piece of junk
what was wrong with it?
Instead of raking the kitty bombs into the container, perhaps it flung them onto the carpet or nearby furniture.
:D
Personally, I liked Tycho's telling of his experience with the automatic catbox....
I've had a couple weeks now with the Littermaid Plus, and I have to say that this is one of the worst designed consumer devices ever made. I don't have any arguments with the concept - a machine that obviates the need to play with feline waste. I'm onboard. Men of science, please invent a machine that will collect and sequester the tiny pot roasts my cat leaves behind. It is, however, a deeply ironic device, and it has lessons to teach us about sloth and human folly. Indeed, this strange method of instruction is the only thing it accomplishes with any regularity. What we learn through using the device is that life is sometimes difficult, and to try and mediate that fact invites the scorn of the universe.
There is a sort of "comb" that trawls the litter, snaring the sweet surprises left within and theoretically deposting them into a sort of cat shit purgatory. While mostly successful, the waste must first travel up a steep ramp, like the ones in extreme sports videos. And sometimes it is flung out, as though by catapult, toward imaginary foes.
The thing is, the device really doesn't have a lot of room in it for cats, which strikes me as a design flaw. You would think they would try to put a cat in there, or find somebody who had a cat, shit, maybe just imagine a cat and try to design their litterbox around that hypothetical, hairy customer. But they didn't. Cats must situate themselves diagonally in order to make a deposit as it were, so the container at the end where it's all supposed to go fills up at the sides first and then boils over into your house. This isn't even the worst problem.
Cat pee and litter is like wet cement, it's like a new state of matter. In an ordinary, non-robot litter box it has time to "set" so that you can remove it and then go do something that is important to you. If, on the other hand, a mechanical arm reaches out and spreads it the length and breadth of the device, now you have a completely disgusting new task you could never have imagined in trade for the one you thought you were giving up forever.
It is the sort of thing you would design if you had only a vague description of a cat and you didn't really give a fuck if it worked or not.
Fellowship
2004-06-03, 00:17
:lol:
Have you guys seen This Thing (http://www.litter-robot.com/?referrer=Google) ??
LOL! I could not help but laugh out loud when I saw this!!
The funny thing is it seems very compelling :D
Fellows
The cat on their web site looks pissed off. I would be too, that thing looks frightening.
Personally, I bought a LitterFree automatic cat box. It actually fills with water and and liquifies the waste and sends it down the drain. It pwns.
NosferaDrew
2004-06-03, 00:28
http://www.litter-robot.com/images/homepage/main_red.jpg
^
|____ That's one of my cats in attack mode trying to kill me because I replaced their litterbox with something big and scary and they don't know where to go poo!.
NosferaDrew
2004-06-03, 00:34
Personally, I bought a LitterFree automatic cat box. It actually fills with water and and liquifies the waste and sends it down the drain. It pwns.
Wait, so how do the granules not get washed away, yet the poo does.
Sounds like magic to me - BLACK MAGIC!
Fellowship
2004-06-03, 00:35
The cat on their web site looks pissed off. I would be too, that thing looks frightening.
Personally, I bought a LitterFree automatic cat box. It actually fills with water and and liquifies the waste and sends it down the drain. It pwns.
OMG where have I been!!! Things have sure passed me by LOL :lol:
HAHAHA (http://www.smarthome.com/6123.html)
Fellows
I think that is the Hal 9000 kitty excrement removal system, Fellows.
"Kitty... what are you doing kitty? I don't understand this hostile attitude, kitty; have I done something wrong?"
:D
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