High Tech Litter Boxes

When automatic litter boxes first appeared I thought they were ridiculous, until I learned they made it possible for people with compromised immune systems to keep their cats... When the price started to come down, I was tempted but way skeptical - but my first LitterMaid was a dream - all metal, it came already assembled, a really brilliant piece of engineering. It lasted almost 5 years before a cable broke, and I loved it so much I just went out and bought another LitterMaid - which I hated from the moment I took it out of the box: all plastic - put it together yourself - directions totally lousy - all kinds of extra unnecessary stuff - like a digital clock that constantly had to be reset... It lasted - literally - days beyond the 1 year warranty. I put it on the curb without a backward look, and resigned myself to being the litter maid upstairs as well as down. Now, thanks to our Grandhuman, we have a SmartScoop. I put it together today - pretty straightforward - it ran though it's first cycle perfectly, and then Cyrrie broke it. No, no, Sweetheart! That was a joke! And no, it wasn't even funny... What really happened was that Cyrrie peed, and 15 min later the thing stalled out, gave up, flashed red. So I manually cleaned the box and - following directions - reset the thing. But by then it was totally incapable of raking clean/empty litter, so I called the 800 number. They were actually very nice and said they'd send me a new, more powerful, motor which I should get sometime next week, We'll do another product review then...