Have cats? Read on!...

Well, I have two cats... my first two. I got them 6 years ago. I'm really lazy in general and I hate cleaning the litter box. Well, I who doesn't?

I have had the Littermaid auto-scooper for years and loved it. I think it is one of the more popular on the market. If you hunt around you can usually find it for just under $100. It has always worked well but it has a few annoying quirks. One of the biggest was that it gets "stuck" easily. I'm not sure how to describe it other than the automatic arm that scoops the litter out would not be strong enough to move through certain parts of the box (sometimes) and it would not be able to complete its task... this was annoying.

So I saw a new brand at the store the other day -- the Stylette Litter Sweep Ultra for $79! They also sell a cheaper one that does not "auto" sense for $59, the Litter Round Up. The woman at PetCo said that they have had some Littermaid units get returned by never had this new brand get returned... so I thought I would give it a try.

It's been about a week, and it works really well so far. It does take much longer to complete its task and it is a little louder -- it takes about 1-2 minutes to go through its cleaning process compared to the littermaid which only took about 20-30 seconds. However, it seems to be much more reliable and do a better job at evening out the litter. Basically its not as "finnicky". Combine that with the cheaper price and I highly suggest it.

Oh one other thing! The littermaid unit requires expensive plastic containers. This unit uses much cheaper bags -- they resemble hair nets you would use in the shower (they might even be hairnets!). So over the long haul you will save money as well.

The PetSmart website sells it here.