One of the best things I ever did was automate my cat’s litter.
It seems like a ridiculous thing to spend money on, but playing treasure hunt on a regular basis with a big tray of litter gets old. So does trying to clean the litter box after my cat uses it so that it doesn’t stink up the house. Not to mention giving some other poor soul the job when I’m away on a trip.
The Litter Robot 4 is the perfect solution. In my original review I described it as “an obsessive cat owner, but in robot form” and I maintain that assessment. Despite the occasional hiccup where I need to manually cycle the bot (usually whenever the firmware is updated), the Litter Robot 4 is perfect, ensuring my cat’s litter is always clean.
The only issue is maintaining a proper level of litter at all times. Too much and you end up just wasting it, dumping clean litter into the used litter tray. Not enough and badness ensues—either the robot ends up a mess or somewhere else in your house does.
Plus, If you’re going to be gone for more than a couple of days, there’s a high likelihood that your litter levels will get low. And asking a pet sitter to refill the litter isn’t ideal. They’ll likely overfill or fail to cycle the Litter Robot after filling (which puts the device in a stuck state until someone pushes the Cycle button).
The LitterHopper fixes this by ensuring that the perfect level of litter is in the Litter Robot 4 at all times. It can hold up to 13 cups of litter and runs during a cycle whenever it detects that the litter is below the optimal line. It works with just about any litter (you can specify which you use in the Whisker app).
Installation is a bit involved. You’ll need to partially disassemble the Litter Robot 4, removing the cowling and inner drum, then installing a new drum back plate and counter-balancing foot for the hopper. Luckily, Whisker provides ample instructions. All told, it took me maybe 20 minutes from start to finish, going slow to ensure that I had everything lined up just right.
Once assembled, you’ll make sure your litter level is just below the fill line, press a few buttons on the control panel to sync the hopper to the robot, and everything just starts working. During a cycle, if the litter level is below the fill line, the LitterHopper drops in litter to fill things back up. The LitterHopper motor is a bit noisy, so you might want to enable night mode in the app so that it doesn’t disturb you overnight.
You’ll also want to make sure that you have less litter in the drum for that initial cycle, where the Litter Robot 4 establishes where your optimal litter level is. Otherwise the LitterHopper will fill the drum above the line and you’ll end up wasting clean litter. Speaking of, the Whisker app doesn’t let you know when the LitterHopper is empty, so you’ll want to check on a regular basis to make sure it’s full.
My only problem with the LitterHopper? It should come with the Litter Robot 4 to begin with. It ensures that the device is performing optimally at all times and truly automates the entire litter maintenance task. Asking for an extra $99 on top of the $699 for the Litter Robot 4 is a lot.
Still, if you already own the Litter Robot 4, the LitterHopper absolutely completes the package. If it was any more autonomous, it’d empty the dirty litter on its own. Currently you can get the LitterHopper from the Whisker website. They’re 10 days out on shipping, so if you want one for the holidays, you’ll need to act fast.
