50685 - CT Des. SmartSift CatPan w/ Biod. Liners

I have severe chronic pain (particularly back pain) so my biggest problem with caring for my cat is cleaning and maintaining her litter box. I previously bought another litter box with a similar sifter built in but the problem with it was that you have to roll it upside down to sift it which still requires effort and strength that I don't often have. It would also need extra effort occasionally as the used litter wouldn't always fall in the right place so I would have to reach in and contort myself to get everything out. This box is completely superior to my old one. The used litter will fall into the right place every time and doesn't require any excessive effort to maintain it. You just pull the lever and it's done. The lever system can be a little bit heavy when the box is filled with litter but it's really minimal. Like it could be a bit too difficult for a child under 5 years old-ish but it's so simple and easy to use that children definitely could use it without any help. I'm not quite sure how effective the deodoriser is but it's nice to have it built in. The door system is also quite nice as my cat doesn't love being in an enclosed space for too long so we keep it open for her to stick her head out when she uses it. It's also just oddly fun to use. The only downsides I've seen is that it's quite a big box that takes up a lot of space and the entrance is quite high up so my Luna cat has to jump a little bit to get in which may be a problem for senior cats with limited mobility (Luna is a year old so this isn't a problem for me currently). I also couldn't figure out how to use the liner for the litter tray specifically but the bin liner for the waste drawer was easy to install and that's the more important part to have the liner in in my opinion. There is also a minor problem as you have to use clumping litter with it which will sometimes stick to my Luna's stinky butt and back legs/ paws but she's easy to clean even though it's not her favourite thing for me to do. Another issue with the clumping litter and these types of sifting mechanism is that the urine litter clumps can sometimes stick to the tray so I have a flat litter scoop nearby to scrape off anything stuck to the tray. I may have to properly clean the unlined tray sometime in the future but it's easy to take apart so it's not a problem for me. It's my understanding that you need to have two litter boxes for one cat and one extra for each additional cat in a household. So, because I love this box so much, I'm heavily considering buying another to replace the one I have to roll. It's somewhat expensive but it's a great option as I can't get a fully automatic one due to the cost and lack of electric power where I keep the boxes. It's definitely worth every penny and I can't recommend this enough especially for those who have disabilities or limitations that make cleaning the litter difficult.

EDIT to my original review. 6/4/2024 This worked as my original review but my kitten is now over 6 months old & I have a second kitten who is 10 months old and find that the litter box no longer works well. When my kittens do number 1 it clumps on the grate and the litter tray and then the box starts smelling nasty straight away, also my older kitten poos in corner missing the tray and it's stuck all in the crevice, I then need to dismantle and clean out completely which defeats the object. This is daily so I have bought an Omega roll litter box regular (I had looked at this before I bought the smartsift & the only reason I didn't go for it was that I thought I wouldn't be able to roll it but that was not a problem actually in the end) I have now bought another Omega box in large and I am very happy as both boxes are very good indeed, the size I have in my utility room downstairs and the regular size is upstairs in a spare bedroom. The smartsift was dismantled and cleaned and is in my garage waiting for hubby to take to the dump. I would not recommend the smartsift as it seems to only suit very young kittens and cats that don't pee & poo in the corner of smartsift or by the grate. It's a no from me. I am disappointed as at first it did work for me but then everything went pear shaped. Also when the urine clumped on the tray and grate the box really smelt bad which up to then I had not experienced bad smells from the smartsift. I hope my review helps someone in their decision on what to buy. I do recommend the Omega Paws though. I got a 9 week old kitten in November & waited to use this box before reviewing. I researched for about a 6 months before ordering this Catit litter box. I bought the grey & white model. I first thought that one of these electric powered all singing & dancing boxes were the way forward but after reading reams of reviews I was put off by the problems & faff (I wouldn't mind the expensive £500 price if they worked seamlessly) I thought why would I want to spend my time trying to solve the problems they seem to come with when the whole point is to have a litter box that saves me time & effort, so it was a no from me. Then I looked at a similar litter box which worked on the same principle but you manually roll the whole box, as I have Arthritis I would struggle with that, although it seems reasonable & cheaper if you could manage it. I then thought I would buy a large top entry simple box and just empty the box every day (no way do I ever fancy sifting poo & wee balls lol lol lol) so then I spotted this one. First I will list the the things that are annoying before I list the positives. Cons:, 1)The litter box arrived in its original box only which was battered and torn (this I thought was awful as it was not in another parcel protection brown cardboard box) this is down to the company which is why I knocked a star off as I was not impressed especially with a price tag of £100. 2) The handle is flimsy (although you can buy a new one cheaply directly from the company website) but I would prefer to pay an extra £10 to have a sturtier handle. 3) I my opinion only, I think that if you have a cat that stands close to edge of box you will have a problem with wee running over the edge which wouldn't be a big problem if the bottom waste tray didn't have a whole in it due to the way the drawer fits into and is secured. For me this is not a problem as my female kitten never stands to wee. Pros: The footprint of the box is similar to a large ordinary litter tray, where it is bigger is the height as the waste drawer is at the bottom, then the litter sifting tray is on top, around that is the hood so as long as you have a place that can accommodate the height it is not a problem. The box is easy to put together, the handle is a little stiff when first used only because it's new, so after a couple of days this loosens up. It's easy to add litter to it & to scoop out all month old litter when doing a full clean. I use a cat safe disinfectant and a cloth to give it a good clean but I only do this every 4 days when I change the waste drawer liner and no need to take hood off. I have been surprised that I have not had any bad odour from the box at all (it pongs when you open the waste drawer to change the liner on day 4 lol) I would not leave waste drawer for 7 days (company claim 7 days, as I keep the box in a bedroom this may be different if box was kept in a garage or utility room you may get 7 days before a change is needed) as I experimented when I first got it and at the end of day 4 I got a slight musty smell by the box and day 5 it was in the air not just by the box, so I think it needs changed on day 4 (which I think is amazing). The secret to getting a good result with this box is as other reviewers have said, fill the sifting tray to just below the line mark on the sifting tray and when pulling handle do it slowly, then you will not get clean litter falling into the waste tray. The box has a charcoal filter that needs to be changed every couple of months but I will not bother getting another as this box really doesn't smell 😊 I tried a couple of litters, Best cat clumping which I found clogged the sifting slatts and tracked badly, pets at home ultra clumping which was very dusty & tracked badly but made really good wee balls that just fell into the waste drawer, very occasionally I needed to tap on the sifting tray for it to fall from the tray wall, odour control was very good, Ever Clean Multi cat (even though I only have one cat) this one has a smell of fresh laundry which is subtle and very nice, excellent odour control, tracks a little & sticks occasionally to the sifting tray so you need to give the tray a harder tap for it to drop into waste tray, what I do now is I add a little pets at home ultra clumping to the Ever Clean which gives me a better result without the dust & tracking. My little kitten was 9 weeks old so I put a shoe box in front of the entrance to help her climb in & out which she did with no bother at all, I actually have a small kitten tray because I thought she would be to little to use the big one but she took to it so quickly & then within days stopped using the kitten tray and will only use the big one now. I love this box it's so fabulous , it does everything a good litter box should. I read reviews which said don't bother with a liner in the top box only get liner for the tray which is what I do and I agree you only need a waste drawer one. I use Ever Clean litter as it suits the box very well. I use cheaper waste bags for the drawer from pets at home they do a big box in large size. I recommend this tray as it is easy to use easy to clean & my kitten is very happy using it.

Ok so... this is a complicated review, but it's really necessary to explain all the bad reviews below, as I almost didn't order this because of them, and this would have been such a mistake. To summarise, this box saves me tons of time daily, as I don't have to be "hunting" for the nasty bits hiding inside the litter, and there is NO WASTE of clean litter whatsoever. Only the bad stuff goes into the bin! It's so perfect! Now, to explain some of the bad reviews out there, that to me are worth nothing comparing to the good stuff I get from this litter box: - Putting it together took a while, but after you do it once you don't forget how to do it, it's very straightforward - Yes, you do need to bring it all apart to clean it, but it's totally worth the time it saves me daily - Yes, clean litter does go in the bin, if you don't follow the instructions and put litter ABOVE the line that is clearly in there. If you do take your time to read the instructions and do it right, NO clean LITTER falls in the bin - If your cats are scratchers, DO NOT use the liners on the cat base... I don't see why would you do this with this litter box if you don't do it on normal boxes anyway... it's just a matter of common sense - Yes, if you don't use the liners, the pee litter "balls" do stuck to the bottom... Doesn't this happen already with a normal litter box? How would you expect it otherwise? I just use the plastic "shovel" that I used in my normal little box to wiggle the pee from the top and it falls straight into the box... takes me a few seconds to do this once I clean the poo! - Yes, there is smell coming out once you pull the lever, what did you expect? Underneath the cat pan base there is tons of poo and pee! Didn't your old litter box have any smell? Doesn't your bin smell from the amount of poo and pee you put in there daily? Just change the drawer bag everyday too if you don't want the smell to be down there... To be honest when it's closed I can't smell a thing. - If you use the RIGHT litter it works perfectly fine. This litter box is not to be used with normal cat litter. You need clumping cat litter, and it doesn't need to be a terrible expensive one either... We use Tesco clumping cat litter and it works much better than another expensive one I bought from the vet. It took me ages to find the right clumping litter for my two cats even with my normal litter box. If yours is not working with this litter box, you're not using the right one, go out to the supermarket and pet shops and try new ones. - Yes, you do need to wiggle the handle a bit to get all the litter back into the cat pan base... It takes me around 4 wiggles.. which is around 5 seconds... - Yes, it is MASSIVE. It occupies the space of maybe 1.5 normal litter boxes, so better make sure you have the right space before buying it To finalise... the box might not be completely perfect, but it's much better than what's said in these bad reviews. I'm so glad I risked it, thanks to everyone else that left reviews with a bit of common sense in them.

So the design of this litter box is great. However wast so good for our 8 week old kitten. The good - Great design - Easy to clean - Carbon filter is a bonus - Easy operation The bad - This thing is huge! - Entrance is very high for kitten, (had to buiild it some improvised cardboard box steps to use) - The layer of litter is too shallow (Stuff sometimes sticks to the bottom) - Dosent filter out smaller soiled clumps whic end up either back in the box or worse stuck in the litter filter - Cat flap dosent seal very well so odours get out. - We was using corn based cat litter (Worlds best cat litter) It stinks! Dont use it with this one as it needs to be cleaned out every day, ootherwise you get a horrible farmyard yeasty smell, clumping clay litter is best - Propietary linners for the soil tray could become expensive It is still a very good design cat litter, but only for specific user cases and only if you have the space for it. Although our kitten used it, it did start soiling around the house. (We atribute this to the type of litter) We will keep this box and user it when the cat is a bit older but for now we are going to use a simple high sided box with a much smaller footprint.

Great idea but unfortunately. You need to wash it out regularly and the smell of cats urine is hard to get rid of.

We've been using the Smartsift litter box for half a year already and we are very happy with it, our cats included. At first, I was sceptical about it, my main worry being the internal size of the box. I had the impression it wouldn't be large enough for the cats to feel comfortable and be persuaded to use it. Also, I wasn't sure they would like to jump up and down to enter/exit. In fact, the size is adequate and the cats didn't have any trouble at all depositing their... and covering it up. Also, they weren't troubled at all with the little hop required to enter/exit. For our very young one, we put a shoe box in front of the entrance and she easily used it as a step. The cats seemed really eager to use it as soon as we assembled it. When, for various reasons, we also had a secondary, traditional litter box on the side (e.g. one cat had surgery and we were worried she wouldn't have the strength to hop up), the cats always preferred the Smartsift box instead of the old one. I guess one very important reason my cats like the Smartsift so much is that it is clean almost all the time. It is so easy to sift that we don't consider it a chore; we just sift it as we walk across it. It is actually pretty neat to watch the litter move and sift and return in its place cleaned... so sometimes it gets sifted without there being any deposits in it! There are times, though, when some clumps are not sifted right away because they get stuck to the bottom. Most times a few taps on the side of the box will dislodge them but sometimes we have to use a scoop to dislodge them and then they sift normally. These clumps are created when the cats dig all the way to the bottom and poop there. So, we keep the box topped-up with an adequate amount of litter to minimize this problem. We use the EverClean litter with this, as we decided a long time ago that it is probably the best clumping litter out there. Also, we don't use the liners for the base (i.e. the actual litter box), just the liners for the drawer (i.e. where the dirty litter drops after sifting). We discovered that our cats were tearing the base liners when digging and that the base liners were not allowing for a good sifting (some litter was retained into random "pockets" in the liner). However, we found out that we could line the drawer with the (larger) base liners instead of the (smaller) drawer liners; when the time to change the litter comes, the larger bag allows us to empty all remaining litter into the drawer and dispose of it in one go. In conclusion, we are very happy with this litter box and we highly recommend it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDIT: It's now been almost 2 years that we've been using the SmartSift and it's still top notch. No malfunctions whatsoever in it's moving parts. We take it outside and give it a good scrub with soap and disinfectant once a month so it looks pristine, almost as new. We replaced the carbon filter once and have ordered another replacement for the future (these filters are meant to be replaced once in a while). We've had more cats living with us and not a single one had any issues with it. Even the 3 kittens that we adopted (not simultaneously) started using it straight away after we showed it to them (with the lid open at first because they were too weak to push it to enter). The kittens just needed a shoebox as a step to climb to the entrance, as I described in the main part of the review. A drawback that we've found: We sift many times before changing the bag, since the bag is big enough to hold a lot of dirty litter. However, this means there is a significant quantity of dirty litter inside the Smartsift, giving an unpleasant odor. The filter does a great job of minimizing it but it's still there. So, we have placed box in the boiler room, away from human noses. I guess if we emptied and replaced the bag with every sift it wouldn't smell at all but that defeats the whole purpose of the Smartsift design. Verdict: Highly recommended, even after 2 years of use.

I've been an Amazon customer since 2012 and this is the first time I've been angered enough by a product to write a review. I'm basing this review after a month of usage with a 2 month old Maine Coon. Credit where credits due, I will first speak about the very few good things about this product. None of them are good enough to warrant anything higher than 1 star, but it's worth talking through them anyway. The good: • I've read some reviews claiming there's not much space inside. This isn't the case. The whole unit is rather large, and my kitty has had no problem so far with the space available inside. • The height of the entrance is fine, my little kitty needed help getting in for the first few days, but quickly adapted and no longer needed aid. • There's a small window on the roof that makes it easy to inspect the clumps inside. I use this to avoid opening the door, letting all the smells out. The bad: • The instruction manual does an awful job of so many things. Sure, the construction process is fairly straight forward; there aren't many parts, so it's not that difficult to figure it out. What irritates me, however, is the lack of guidance available to actually use the unit. The "fill guide line" is tragically unhelpful as it does an awful job of telling me where that fill line actually is or why that fill line is important to begin with. • When cranking, the clumps of litter are supposed to funnel towards the middle, and then subsequently be deposited into the bottom tray when the gap between the swinging shelf and the face of the unit is large enough. This rarely actually happens, for several reasons: - Clumps will often roll to the sides, and will require manual "pushing" into the middle so it's able to fall into the tray below. This is as a result of the balance you need to strike between cranking enough so gravity does the work for you, and not filling the bowl up too much so that when you crank, you end up filling the bottom tray with unclumped litter. - As mentioned in other reviews here, the grates that sift through the litter are way too large. Cat waste will often get stuck between the grates as well. - Some brands of litter can sometimes form large clumps. This is very problematic for this product because in addition to the "trapped to the side" issue in a previous criticism, when large clumps correctly fall into the middle, there isn't enough space for the clump to fall into the tray below, unless you're willing to let unnecessary amount of unclumped litter fall in too. - The space available behind the grate, the area that effectively allows the "recycling" of litter, is abysmal. It's practically useless. I pretty much get the same result whether I have the grate attached or not at all. - Litter very easily, and very quickly, finds it's way into various nook and crannies. Most notably inside the unit itself, on both sides of the door. - This unit is a pain to clean, in addition to the previous criticism, due to litter getting into all available corners. - The hand crank broke on mine just a few days ago. Maybe this won't apply to most, but the design behind this crank infuriated me. By over filling the bowl (due to the lack of information in the manual telling me the right amount to put in), after many cranks, the "plug" for the arm itself has warped the surrounding socket. This means the bowl won't rotate since cranking now just swivels the arm, rather than acting as a lever. I find this ridiculous because when I first assembled the unit, I remember making a mental note of how quickly I suspected it would break. Why would you not design the handle to be fixed in place? If that wasn't a viable option, why not design the socket with some kind of click mechanism that would prevent the surrounding socket from warping? Overall, it's just not worth the hassle. Don't buy this product. You're much better off putting in a little extra effort with a litter tray, or an enclosed one if you're concerned of the smell. With the broken crank lever, that's basically what I have now.

I have a 2yr old domestic shorthair (Max) and an 8 month old Maine Coon (Banksy). Both are indoor cats and Banksy is a bit particular - he’ll protest by soiling the Mat/floor if Max doesn’t bury his output... so this product had an instant appeal. The quality isn’t bad, and as the boys are young the height isn’t an issue for them (before I ordered mine I did think the age and mobility of your cat needs consideration for jumping up and down from the entrance). 3 stars because - and I may have overfilled slightly first time round (I’ll update in due course) - a lot of good litter went to the bottom tray along with the clumps. I use a good quality clay clumping litter (Felipure) which I’ve stupidly been paying £20 a time for 16kg locally as haven’t found it cheaper elsewhere. What I’ve learned in the past 7 days of first use: 1. Don’t exceed the fill line in the top tray. My bad, admittedly, but I’ve learned. I ended up buying a dog food scoop to transfer the good stuff from the lower tray once the clumps are removed. So that’s a saving I’m glad to have identified. 2. Don’t bother with the bags for the top level. Yes, some say clumping litter can be like concrete and damage the tray. But despite trimmed claws (indoor cats who don’t fight), the top bag got ripped and mid placed - so I just needed to take care to avoid the cat pee at the top of the liner when hoping to tie the bag before transferring to my bin liner. 3. I’ve not only just cancelled my order for the top tray but the bottom tray also. Let’s face it, typically things should have clumped before going to that lower level. Or, you could probably save cash by using a bin liner alternative that isn’t bespoke - afterall, our feline friends won’t be using this compartment to toilet, so clawing won’t be an issue either. 4. Coincidentally I’d just bought myself a ‘Litter Locker’ the previous week and was concerned this might be redundant and a waste of cash. Actually, it’s brilliant and a much better value for money product yet again than the bags - there isn’t any odour and the quality and value are just right. This means I could during the week transfer clumps and waste from the lower tray to the Litter Locker without having to make trips outside (no issue with odour as it is actually well designed) before then transferring the good remaining litter back to the top tray (as mentioned, in fairness to this litter box I probably had overfilled it - but equally sometimes the mechanism needs more of a jolt and so good litter could be lost; just an inherent limitation of the design. Overall I would recommend this product - but I’m glad I was able to cancel the bags I ordered last night and am aware to pay attention not to overfill that top tray.