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HomeDog SuppliesFeeders, Water Bowls & MoreLitterMaid LME5500 Automatic Litter Box |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 84 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 Save your money Apr 13, 2009
By Brad S
I've had three of these units and they are all poorly designed and poorly constructed. (Why then did I buy three? Good question. I should have stopped after the 1st.) It is possible to get it working but mine jams at least 2x a day. In fact I spend more time fiddling with this one trying to keep it running than I would with a manual litter box. It also has a nasty habit of leaking litter underneath the unit, so you have to move it and sweep up around it fairly frequently.
My third is on its way out already. I'm going to try another brand and see if I have better success.
22 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 It does what it should Apr 07, 2008
By H. Schindler
"H Schins"
I was so nervous about buying this product after all the negative reviews, but I can say I am so happy I did. My old LM500 model broke and needed to be replaced. First thing I love is that you can take out the rake. I love it! I do not think it is loud at all, actully it is much quieter. The only thing I do not like is when I am completely emptying the litter out - to replace it. It is hard to dump it out of the bottom tray as it is much larger than the original and does not easily fit into a plastic grocery bag. I've just began using a larger bag, so really I just had to change my normal way of doing it.
18 of 19 found the following review helpful:
Absolutely worthless product Aug 05, 2008
By John E. Christ III
Absolutely worthless product. Makes horrible groaning noises in operation, and when you go check on it, you find 25% the poops are stuck on the rake, 25% are behind the rake, and the remainder are scattered in the general direction of the receptacle, but virtually nothing winds up in there. Do yourself a favor, buy the Cat Genie. A lot more expensive, but what good is something that's cheap but does nothing?
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
3rd LM box, this is the best one May 04, 2009
By D. Burkhardt
"-David"
I'm reading all of the negative reviews and I have to say most of them have to be from people not using premium litter or overfilling the unit or not assembling it correctly.
I only retired the last LM because the retractable cord kept breaking.
The original LM compared to the LME5500?
*The metal rake is an upgrade, the plastic one was not better.
* rake is easily removable for cleaning (huge plus)
*They redesigned plastic molding (everywhere) so litter can't get trapped in small corners is great. The old unit was horrible in this sense.
*fact the plastic container tucks into the unit it great; no more mess under it. The only unit had a gap where litter would leak through.
* you can see they spent time thinking of how the litter will get into the grooves where the rake tracks, it has drilled out sections to allow the liter to escape easily.
* wire retraction (which broke on my 5 year old unit) is redesigned; not even visible from the outside
I can only think people aren't following the instructions... so the unit isn't assembled correctly...
Or they are not using a good litter like "fresh step" (I don't use anything else)
Or they are overfilling the unit....
My original unit lasted almost 5 years, and it was stilling working. I just couldn't find the right (flexible) wire for replacement (I tried using 22 gauge speaker wire, but it could only handle the flexing for a month or two). I'm sure with a trip to the local electronic supply I could have had it worked out. But we bought this new LME5500 unit cheap. The previous one lasted 5 years with two cats using it constantly. The 2nd unit we have is in the room off of our bedroom; it's been flawless mechanically too.
So the only times we've *ever* had problems from any of the units (including this one) was from overfilling it... And the wire breaking in the oldest one, but that' expected with the design of the older unit... it's gets bent back and forth... it's going to eventually wear out. They redesigned the wire retraction on this unit, I can't even see it like I could on the old. So the jury is out on the new design.
I can say this newer unit goes through thicker liter better than the old one did. It is however much louder than the older unit :(
Also don't forget most people get online to complain/find more information, very few get online to write positive reviews...
Also NEVER clean the unit with anything but the plastic rake it comes with. If you deeply scratch the bottom of the pan the liter will stick (clump) to it as you have given it a rough surface to attach too. You can spray the pan with a PAM or a non-stick spray. It'll help a bit but it doesn't last long.
2 cats and many years later it's a good product; it's not perfect (far from it) but it's not a chore to use if you aren't ignorant of it's faults. Every automatic liter box has them... We simply change the plastic trays every week and add liter... And once a year we might fully clean it.
Just thought I'd share my 2 cents; 5 year user of their products...
If you need something quiet this is not the right unit for you...
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Poor design.... Oct 28, 2008
By Myla's sad mom
Along with most everyone else, I had an old LitterMaid Box that worked relatively well, aside from the plastic rake getting clogged all the time. However, the power cord somehow got got in the rake and I broke it trying to get it free. I was excited to see a "NEW and IMPROVED" model and excited to have one with metal prongs that would clean better. Well, much to my dimsay it is not improved. I have 2 main problems, the tabs for tucking the waste receptacle are ridiculously small. The receptacle doesn't tuck under them and litter falls through all the time. Also, the rake sits about 2 inches away from the back of the box and doesn't lift very high out of the box. Therefore, wet litter clumps up behind the rake and needs to be scraped out almost daily. When I called Littermaid, they told me they would send some new receptacles. Evidently the ones in the box weren't the right ones. I will see about that. However, as far as the rake goes, I was told it was meant to be that way. That since my "cat pees the wrong direction", I will just have to deal with it. They can't refund my money because it is working properly even if it is a poor design. Well, I guess my only option then is to train my cat to go potty the "right" way.
See all 84 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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