PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box: A Scoop-Free Marvel?

There are a lot of differences between cats and dogs, with cats usually winning out more often than not. Not only are they more independent, but they will often show you just enough love to enjoy them without getting too clingy or annoying. 

Unfortunately, one of the differences between cats and dogs that most cat owners will all agree is a loss on their end is kitty bathroom cleanup duty. While handling either animal isn't fun, going into a cat litter box to clear out all of the "buried treasure" is probably #1 on most people's least favorite pet pass time.

The good news is that, while it's still some dirty business, through the use of different litter box machines, you can essentially pass off the bulk of this chore to the litter box itself, allowing it to pull out and handle any waste automatically. Your days of scooping traditional clumping litter and crystals7 Best Crystal Cat Litters of 2023 may well be over! 

Is The Petsafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box Any Good?

The PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box is generally well-regarded by customers. Some benefits from this well-respected automatic litter box manufacturer include its low maintenance, convenience, and reduced odor compared to traditional litter boxes.  

Many praise its self-cleaning feature, and hands-off convenience, and love the boxes' all-around better odor control. However, some have reported reliability issues with the disposable trays and the cleaning mechanism.

ScoopFree Smart Self-Cleaning Litter Box: Features

Litter Tray Setup

If you're looking at a picture of the PetSafe litter box, odds are you're probably feeling a bit intimidated by its setup. The reality is that you shouldn't. 

At least when it comes to putting everything together, there isn't a ton of things you need to do. Everything is already in place while the fact that it's a motion sensor means you don't even need to turn anything on.

A downside is that, because there don't seem to be any buttons you can press or play with, you can't decide when it works or how fast it works. 

Instead, you should expect it to always be about 20 minutes after your cat was last in there before it scoops anything. You can't make this time go faster or shorter, which is a bit disappointing.

Litter 

However, the challenge with many of these litter boxes is that many of them have a pretty spotty track record. This often results in waste clumps clogging various chutes, and disposable litter trays, or the machine's water trap itself does not work as intended. 

This all leads to us looking into the PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box and what they have to offer.

In this article, we'll take a look at the PetSafe Self-Cleaning Litter Box and see how it stacks up overall in terms of its size, setup, and functionality. 

By the end of this, you should have a clear understanding of whether this is a litter box worth your time or if you're better off just getting your hands dirty and doing it yourself.

Build

Talking about the pan's build, the first thing worth noting is the material quality used. While the walls are all pretty low, they're also fairly thick. 

This not only means they take up more space in the litter box itself but also are resistant to a lot of bangs, scratches, and kicks that might come from you or your pet.

Internally, the litter box comes with a stainless steel rake that will sit on one end of the pan before dragging itself (and everything it catches) over to the other side to be picked up later on. These rakes are motion-detected, allowing them to know when your cat finishes their business before you do.

Not only are they effective for keeping the litter box cleaner, but they do it so subtly that you probably won't hear them doing their thing. At the same time, your cats likely won't be disturbed or frightened, making it incredibly useful for most homes that may be super busy or hectic. 

You'll want to make sure you clean it regularly, but so long as that's in place you won't have to worry about blocked safety sensors or anything like that.

For me, I found "cleaning regularly" was pretty much just once a day, usually at the end of the day before showering and heading to bed. You could find yourself doing it multiple times in the day based on the number of cats, but I have two and I still got away with only handling it once in the day so there's that.

Read this next: 9 Best Clumping Cat Litters

Easy Disposal?

Without a doubt, there's a lot to love about this litter box, however, one thing you'll need to keep in mind is that you're probably going to need to transition over from your standard kitty litter to a crystal litter. 

The machine exclusively uses this type of litter, which is made from silica gel beads and is known for being highly absorbent of liquids. 

This means that you're not going to have to worry about dealing with dust clouds, urine stains or smells, as the litter pretty much just absorbs it all. Instead, you're just going to need to deal with the waste bits, which are dehydrated of their moisture, making them less smelly.

On top of this, the crystal litter can go for around an entire month without needing to change. Since I've got two cats, this is probably shortened a bit, but even still it's a lot better than the standard clumping litter which can leave a lot of smells and need replacing at least twice a month. 

The crystal litter is also much lighter than standard litter, meaning it won't stick to your cat's feet nearly as much and is likely the reason why it's used exclusively for the PetSafe litter box.

The downside to this litter is that it's going to cost more than standard litter. Not only that, but for those with sensitive noses, you'll be trading out ammonia and urine smells for synthetic chemical smells. 

I've heard this from people, and while I will say I noticed a bit of an "artificial" scent lingering on my cats, it was definitively the better option compared to walking into a laundry room that smells like barely covered cat urine.

Cleanup & Odor Control

Your cleanup process isn't going to be quite as extensive simply the fact that there's a considerably reduced amount of litter that's out of the tray. In addition, the process of replacing everything is pretty straightforward. 

You're supposed to ideally clear everything once a month for single cats and every two weeks for two. I have two cats and I've played around with the timing to see what would happen, even going into the 20-day mark. 

So long as you're on top of the daily clearings there shouldn't be an issue, though that's only from the perspective of two cats and not large litter families

The crystal litter is also great when it comes to handling pee odors. Again, if you're sensitive to synthetic chemicals, you're kind of trading vices a bit. 

For other people, it should not only remove all urine smells, but it also pretty much removes the odor and smell from your cat's poop. I want to stress again that it's important to clear things out daily.

 I didn't try letting it go past a day but I'm reasonably certain that that's where the issues are going to start showing up in terms of smell and an overall mess.

Size

In regards to its size, the PetSafe litter box is available in multiple options. They have the Original version (the one I got), the Ultra version, as well as the Top-Entry Ultra version. 

While I'll go into a bit of the difference between these three later when we talk about the design, I will say that the Original was certainly the smaller of the three, coming across as an open litter box with low sides reminiscent of most standard litter boxes 

In terms of measurements, the PetSafe Original is 19 inches wide and 28 inches long, with walls that are just over 6 inches tall. 

The other two options have largely the same overall size, but the included privacy hood does alter their heights a bit.

Read this next: Best Sifting Litter Box: For Easy Cleaning And Odor Control

Design

From a design standpoint, I think PetSafe was very serious about keeping a look that was as accessible to everyone as possible. 

The self-cleaning litter waste trap box has tan and grey walls with a purple hood that sits along one end. 

The small purple hood is used to hide away and store your cat's waste between it cleaning itself and you removing everything.

As mentioned, there are a few significant differences between the standard Original version compared to the Ultra and Top-Entry Ultra versions. Whereas the Original is pretty standard in look, the Ultra, and Top-Entry Ultra both come with their own lid hoods. 

For the Ultra version, the privacy cover hood is more for giving privacy than anything too controversial. The Top-Entry Ultra furthers this by giving your cat a top space to jump in and out of when entering and leaving.

Price

From a pricing standpoint, the PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box is on the lower end of high-priced litter boxes. 

It's normally right under $200, which is a pretty good price considering some get well into the $500 price range to do essentially the same thing.

Where the price will end up coming for you is the crystal litter. As good as it is, it's stupidly expensive, with a 6-pack set of trays costing around $100. 

While single-cat owners are only dropping $200 in a year, for me it's going to be closer to $400, which is just insane.

Is it worth the price hike?

That's a tough one. I will say that, if you're ok with that, consider looking at a higher-priced litter box and comparing the pricing with the difference in features and the number of pets it can hold.

PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box: The Verdict

While some things are admittedly less than stellar with the PetSafe litter box, it would be a lie to argue that those issues outweigh just how easy this is to use. The big thing is just making sure you include clearing it out at the end of the day and you're golden. 

I keep saying that because it's so quiet and so effective, it's SUPER easy to just forget you have to do something at the end.

If you're someone that doesn't like kitty solid waste, cat pee, or poo smells, doesn't have a sensitivity to artificial chemical smells, hates the daily scooping cycle, and is willing to drop $200 (or much more) on your cat's litter, this is an incredible option worth looking into.