Here's a review of a self-cleaning cat litter box by LitterMaid that I just made on Amazon.com. If anyone has used one that they like please let me know what manuf and model it is.

<review>I bought this from PetCo 4 days ago, for my sister who has 2 cats and is in the hospital and will not be able to bend over and clean litter boxes for a while. It was the model that included the cover, which I didn't need. I tried it out on my small female cat for a couple of days and it worked without a problem. Then I installed it in her apartment, replacing 1 of 2 traditional boxes, where the female cat used the one I didn't replace and the male cat used this one. I waited for him to check it out first, he got in it but never used it while I was there. I wasn't concerned since I had seen it used successfully before.

2 days later I picked my sister up at the hospital and took her home. When I checked the litter boxes, this LitterMaid was full of unscooped cat droppings and all of the litter had been pushed over to one side of the box. When I turned it off and back on, the comb ran over the part with no litter and when it reached halfway across where it encountered litter and cat droppings, the motor whined down, then reversed direction, doing absolutely nothing.

I am disappointed in this unit and it will be going back to the store for a refund as soon as I am able to do so. </review>

According to my cat, its litter box IS self-cleaning...

As a cat owner as well, I was slightly interested when I saw these things advertised. However, your story proved my initial thinking that the clump pushing would push more litter towards the dump side than would ever get pushed back again by the reverse stroke. Glad I didn't invest.

Ours is a Litter Maid Elite. It’s been running without problems for more than a year. Sounds like the comb on your device cannot move up-down freely. Also, make sure the litter doesn’t go above the red line marks around the box. It’s possible that the litter itself is triggering the device sensors and reverses itself.
We usually empty the dropping container every day anyway, but it’s great getting home from work and not having the unpleasant cat dropping smell to remind us to clean the litter box.

I'm going to check it out a little more tomorrow night when I go visit my sister. I think that her cat is probably getting overly aggressive when he covers up his (treasures?) and throws the litter all over to one side.

Not sure what model I bought, but it has a blue bottom with a white top and came with a privacy tent. It was $240, marked down to $180 in the store.

Ours doesn’t have the tent thingy, it is probably the cheapest model. My wife did all the research but I would‘ve remembered if it cost more than 150 buck so I’m sure it didn’t :P

My sister in law have a similar one, at first she also complained that it wasnt scooping properly. She later found out that the cat would jump into the box as soon as it hears the motor go .It lasted a few weeks then I guess it got tired of doing that.

Maybe Axiom could make speakers to fit the self-cleaning cat litter boxes to calm them down before the big cover-up.