Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I did a lot of research before buying my latest litter box. I felt this one would work for me and my cat. Unfortunately, it's not all pull & dump as stated. I have a mature, small, female cat. I was looking for help with litter scatter, odor control, and, of course, ease of cleaning. I have back issues & arthritis so I'm always looking for ways to make life a little less painful. This box seemed like it was really going to help; no crazy motorized gadget to get caught in a noisy loop at night or weird washable toilet thing to deal with. My thoughts were that manual just might be better. Litter control: I have to say, I am thrilled at how much the litter scatter was reduced after we set this box up. I would have to sweep 3 times a day or more with other boxes to keep it under control. Now, I sweep maybe once a day, sometimes every other day. The inside 'step' seems to really help catch the litter. Odor control: This... not so great. The drawer under the box is supposed to help minimize odor, but realistically, if you keep more than 3 days of urine and poo clumps in there, it is going to start to smell. The carbon filter on top is pretty much useless. My guess is that it's just another accessory for an owner to waste money on. The limited amount of litter one can put in this box can also make it difficult for your cat to cover their business up, especially if they only potty on one side or pile litter up in one area. Ease of cleaning: Not so easy. My cat pees in the front left corner on the sifting grate. This means that there is wet clumpy litter in between the slats, which are very difficult to clean. You have to take the locked, attached-in-the-back lid off to do a decent job. Since my cat pees in the corner this also make a big clump of litter that doesn't just dump in the box. It has to be broken down to fit properly. To prevent this, I'd have to sift every time she pees. Not possible since I work during the day. When sifting, the inner tray tilts towards the front of the box. The unclumped litter flows through the grate into a receptacle, while the clumped litter falls into the waste drawer. This is how its SUPPOSED to work. When it works, it is very nice. But, it doesn't work that way most of the time. Remember that blocked grate with pee clumps? It HAS to be cleaned well. Otherwise, only a small amount of the litter will be able to get through the grate. The remainder will dump into the waste drawer wasting a lot of usable litter. If you have a cat that uses the back of the box, this may be a good option for you. The waste drawer might hold 2 weeks of waste, but I think it would be really full, not to mention stinky I'd you let it go that long. Taking it apart to clean and change the inner liner when needed is a bear. You must unlock it, unclip the attachment in the back (and manage to keep it unattached), then juggle the very large lid while getting the pull lever out of it and not relocking the back attachment. It's not very fun when you have a bad back or other reason to want something that's easy & convenient to clean. In my experience this litter box is neither of those two things. I'm probably going to remove the grate and just scoop it. I just hate that I paid such a high price for a hooded litter box.