There’s no two ways about it – the best self-cleaning cat litter boxes make looking after your kitty hassle-free. Many of the top options on today’s cyber shelves can do it all. They can trap bad odors, automatically sweep the litter after your cat has visited and can do all that so quietly, that you’d never even know they were there.
Many of the best self-cleaning cat litter boxes are also smartphone app-controlled, so you can have all your cat’s toilet habit insights (like how many times they visit and when) at your fingertips. Most of these smartphone-linked gadgets can even send you handy alerts letting you know it’s time to switch up their litter.
So essentially, the top self-cleaning cat litter boxes mean you can enjoy all the fun parts that come with being a pet parent and less of the mess. Simply fill these handy pieces of kitty paraphernalia with the best cat litter and let them get to work, cleaning up after your furry friend.
Of course, just like the best cat beds, no one size fits all. This is why we asked five pet parents to put a handful of the top-rated self-cleaning cat litter boxes through their paces, examining everything from how simple they are to set up, how easy their cat found it to use and what they liked and disliked about it.
So if you dread cleaning up after your furry friend, travel often or just want a little help with the unpleasant chore of scooping up, keep scrolling. We’ve compiled an all-you-need-to-know guide on the best self-cleaning cat litter boxes in a range of styles with prices to suit all budgets.
Best self cleaning cat litter box overall
A self-cleaning litter tray that disposes the waste in a drawer underneath and notifies you when it needs changing. It features a charcoal and bamboo filter to fight against bad odors, and you can track your cat’s health via an app on your phone.
Best basic self cleaning cat litter box
A self-cleaning litter box that automatically rakes your cat’s clumping litter. Not only does this help with odor control, but it also means that you only need to empty it once a week.
Best high-end self cleaning cat litter box
Aesthetically pleasing, virtually silent and coming with an auto-sealing waste drawer that only needs to be emptied every 14 days, this self-cleaning litter box does it all. You’ll get handy alerts, via an app on your smartphone, when your cat visits and how long they stay.
Best self cleaning litter box for waste capacity
Coming with a massive 10L of waste capacity, this litter box only needs to be changed every 15 days if you’ve got one cat. Meaning? It’s ideal for anyone who spends days away from home or who doesn’t have time to change the litter drawer regularly.
Best self cleaning litter box for small spaces
If you’ve always wanted a self-cleaning cat litter tray but have been put off by their large presence, this smaller-in-size option could be your perfect match. It’s app-controlled, packed with health monitoring features, quiet and has 13L of waste capacity.
Best self cleaning litter box that is easy to use
A self-cleaning litter tray that’s sleek, modern, and easy to install. It also tells you how much your cat weighs, how much litter is remaining, and when to change the waste bag – super handy!
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Best quiet self cleaning litter box
With odor control and pet monitoring features, this self-cleaning litter tray will make your life a whole lot easier. It sifts out the poop after every use, saving you the dreaded job of cleaning it out.
Best self cleaning litter box with crystal litter
This self-cleaning litter box automatically rakes your cat’s poop and gives you helpful reminders when you need to change the trays. You can monitor your cat’s health and activity via a smartphone app, and the crystal litter prevents unwanted odors.
Best open top self cleaning cat litter box
This self-cleaning litter box has an open-top design and can be controlled via a smartphone app. Thanks to the ‘pull and wrap’ system, it keeps unwanted smells out of your home and has a large capacity for waste.
The best self cleaning cat litter box overall
This self-cleaning litter box is perfect for tech-savvy pet parents who love a gadget. Not only can you track your feline’s health via the Smart Home app, but you can also programme a EPA-certified UV light to reduce unpleasant odors. The modern design comes in four colors (grey, blue, pink or green) and doesn’t make a loud noise when sifting. You can even pause the cycle while you sleep if you’re worried.
While she says the box controls bad smells pretty well, she had to empty the bottom tray once or twice to get rid of stool odor.
She says: “For me, the most valuable things about this product are the time savings and sanitary features. It’s nice not having to scoop the box all the time – I have two senior cats who drink more water, so traditional litterboxes tend to become wet pretty quickly. My female cat sometimes gets urinary tract infections, and I think this box will help with that, as the litter stays much drier.”
So, what did Julie’s cats think of it? Before she’d even set it up, Max jumped straight in to test it out. She says that both of her cats have been getting on fine with it and seem comfortable using it. However, if you’ve got a senior cat on your hands, it might be worth buying a step to help them get into it.
In terms of set-up, Julie said it took a bit of time to set-up but after watching a video on Casa Leo’s website, it came together easily. She’s finding it easy to use now, but said that sometimes the bottom tray doesn’t slide in all of the way on the first time and she has to play with it a bit to get it back in. She also notes that there have been a few times when the unit didn’t seem to be rotating automatically after the cat used it so she had to do it manually.
You might think a self-cleaning litter box would be rather noisy, but Julie notes that this isn’t disruptive and doesn’t scare her cats at all. During the night, she has the cycle on pause which she describes as a “nice feature” to have.
When it comes to cleaning it out, she says: “I’ve just changed it a couple of times on an as-needed basis, or when the alerts tell me the tray is getting full. The balls of regular clumping litter drop into the tray at the bottom, and when it gets full, you pull out the provided plastic bag and throw it away. Pretty simple.”
The best basic self-cleaning cat litter box
The PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box has been designed to help make cleaning up after your kitty that much easier. With the bold claim that you’ll never have to scoop litter again, we were excited to take this little beauty for a spin and see if it really would make our lives a whole lot easier.
Our pet parent tester, Alisa, put this litter box through its paces and while she personally couldn’t justify spending more than $200 on this sort of product, she did feel that it would be worth the money for anyone who hates having to scoop litter on a daily basis.
“It traps odors reasonably well — I didn’t notice a smell most of the time — and it does work as promised for the most part,” she said. “Sometimes it misses a clump or one gets stuck to the rake and stays on it, but it was relatively easy for my cat to use.”
PetSafe states that the litter box is easy to set up and clean, and on the whole, Alisa found this to be the case — although her little feline friend wasn’t quite so keen on the noise.
“Setup was pretty easy. The one thing I didn’t like was having to run an extension cord from another room because the area where I keep the litter box has no outlets. I waited a day or two before turning it on because I have a skittish cat. It makes a noisy, mechanical humming noise when cleaning — audible from another room — and she’s scared of it. Luckily the fear doesn’t stop her from using it, but she is visibly concerned while it’s raking,” she explained.
While the litter box isn’t the most attractive model on the market, Alisa found that its low profile means it can be tucked away behind things, which is great if you’re wanting to keep it out of view. It also sweeps the box clean 10 minutes after a cat has used it, a feature Alisa described as being very convenient.
Perhaps the best part about this litter box is just how long you can go without having to empty it (around five days) — ideal if you’re a busy cat owner who would rather spend the free time you have playing with your feline friend as opposed to cleaning up after them! “We were able to go almost a week without emptying the waste bin,” Alisa told us.
However, while PetSafe claims that you can line the tray and waste bin with bags, it doesn’t lend itself well to that. “Bags can get in the way of the rake, and when we tried lining the inside of the waste bin the bag just got pushed out of the way by the incoming waste. Luckily, the waste bin is easy to pull out and empty,” Alisa explained.
Although the PetSafe ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box certainly has some drawbacks, if you have a confident kitty who’s not scared of the mechanical hum that many electrical products can make and you’re looking for a low-mess, no-fuss way of cleaning up after your fur friend, this litter box is well worth considering.
The best high-end self-cleaning cat litter box
The PetSnowy Self-Cleaning Litter Box makes life as a cat owner easy, as it takes all the hassle out of cleaning up after your furry feline friend. So if you hate the act of getting the pooper scooper out this tech-heavy device will save the day.
This self-cleaning litter box is packed with features. For starters, it’s fitted with a TIO2 Photocatalyst System that locks away odors. Then there’s its anti-tracking
curved walkway that will help you say goodbye to litter tracking. Next up is its auto-sealing waste feature, which means you don’t have to see, smell or touch waste for up to two weeks. While its smartphone app control means you can have insights into your four-legged friend’s health at your fingertips.
Cat owner, Amanda, tested out this product for us and said: “I’m incredibly happy with the litter box. It is pricy, but worth the money.” Amanda said the machine was ‘very easy’ to set up and because it operates at 53db (which is the sound you might expect in a quiet office), when it’s cleaning you can ‘barely hear it’.
“The bin automatically cleans five minutes after your cat visits the bin, but you can set it to a schedule,” she notes. She also praised the litter box for trapping odors immediately. “This keeps the whole area from smelling. There is an optional deodorizer you can use, but I have not found it necessary,” she said.
Another feature that stood out was the smartphone alerts. “I really like the alerts that let you know when your cat entered the bin,” she tells us.
“It tells you how much they weigh and how long they spent in there. The alerts usually have a funny description too.”
So, aside from the high price point, were there any negatives? “I found that the weight readings vary a lot,” Amanda says. “So I don’t believe they are accurate. I have also had some trouble with clumps of litter sticking to the cylinder and not getting swept up. However, I can easily break them up with a scooper to allow it to be cleaned.”
The best self-cleaning litter box for waste capacity
Let’s face it, the best self-cleaning cat litter boxes are worth their weight in gold as they give you the space to enjoy your fur friend without the chore of cleaning up after them. And the Redsasa Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box is a brilliant example of this.
According to cat owner Kelly, who tested out this machine, the setup is easy and the instructions are clear but the hardest part is setting up the app that connects to the machine via wifi.
Overall Kelly believes this self-cleaning gadget is ideal for anyone short on time or just dreads cleaning the litter box. “It is a good one-time investment and sturdy enough to last a long time if maintained well,” she says. “It does all the work for you. You just need to empty the tray and fill the litter.”
The litter box is quite large — especially for a small apartment. It comes with a 10L waste collection bin. This means you’ll only have to empty it every 15 days if you have one cat using it. And even then, when you’re ready to do so, all you have to do is open a drawer, pull the bag’s drawstring and dispose of the waste. “It is very easy to maintain,” our tester Kelly says. “The app will also tell you when the tray is full and needs to be emptied.” If you purchase this product you’ll get 40 litter tray bags thrown in.
Odor-wise, this litter box is fitted with a 5-second quick disassembly and it comes with a deodorizing design. Kelly seems to think it works very well. “It doesn’t have a spray, but it has a ventilation system built into it to make the smells go away.” Although she mentioned: “You do need to empty the tray completely to have no smell at all.”
One thing to flag is the size. Kelly doesn’t think it’s great for large cats. “Our cats are both under 10lbs and it’s fine for them but some larger cats might not like how small the inside is.”
The best self-cleaning litter box for small spaces
The small-but-perfectly-sized Catlink Pro-X Luxury Version self-cleaning litter box doesn’t just do a brilliant job of cleaning up after your cat. It can also track the stats of your cat’s health and makes a report available to you every day, week and month.
Our tester Allie, who has two cats, said this feature provides a great way to keep on top of your cat’s health and wellbeing. She told us: “The health-factor really only comes in because you’re able to see which cats are using the litter box — which is actually more useful than you may think. If you have multiple cats this is a great way to monitor them.”
The automatic litter box is smaller than other products we’ve seen, which Allie says makes it perfect for small spaces. “This one is relatively small and can be tucked away fairly easily, which is essential for our small apartment," she says. "It looks really good in the space we’ve chosen for it. I think this is probably the only automatic litter box that would make sense in our small apartment.”
Looks aside, Allie also praised the machine for how easy it was to set up. The only issue was connecting it to the app. “It took a couple of tries to get the litter box connected to our wifi properly.” But once done, Allie couldn’t believe how quiet the machine was.
Once your furry friend has visited the litter tray, the self-cleaning gadget automatically sweeps five minutes after it senses a cat has used it. But, as Allie mentions, you can set your own time in the app. Plus, it will send you handy reminders when you need to change the litter, empty the tray and fully change the litter.
Emptying the tray was something Allie had to do every seven days and she mentioned it was very ‘easy’ to do — with no noticeable odors detected.
There were, however, a couple of downsides. “The litterbox will not properly register a cat’s weight if they weigh under 3.5 pounds, or if you have multiple cats that are within one pound of each other, which ours are,” Allie says. Additionally, it didn’t work properly on Allie’s carpet. “Unfortunately, our entire apartment is carpeted,” she notes. To get around the issue, Allie placed a wood plank underneath it and it seems to be working just fine.
Would Allie recommend this to other cat parents? “To be honest, I’m not sure we would’ve paid $600 for this litter box not knowing how useful it would’ve been,” she says. “But boy are we glad we have it! The amount of time and energy it’s saved us in not having to clean the litter box twice a day is amazing.”
The best self-cleaning litter box that is easy to use
If you’re looking for a self-cleaning litter box, but are put off by tricky setups, this could be the product for you. Our tester Norah said the instructions were “extremely clear” and assembling it was “very easy”.
The litter box cleans and deodorizes on automatic, manual, or scheduled mode – saving you the unwanted job of clearing it out every day. Norah says that she only has to swap the waste bag out once a week which has saved her lots of time.
She says: “For someone who lives in a busy household, the litter box has completely alleviated an entire step in our list of to-dos. Not only that, it also works amazingly well and the app is extremely useful and convenient.”
When we think of a litter box, we don’t tend to think of something particularly good-looking. However, Norah says it’s “way more sleek and stylish than your day-to-day box [...] and blends in very nicely.” She also confirms that it traps any unpleasant odors.
So, what could be better about it? Norah says that it might not be the best option for large cats as the entrance is quite small. “Our cat is close to 12 lbs and it absolutely works for her. Anything larger than that may not work.”
Whilst it took some time for her cat to get used to it, Norah says that she really enjoys using it now.
The best quiet self-cleaning litter box
This self-cleaning litter tray does the dirty work for you; sifting away your cat's poop while minimizing unpleasant odors. You can use it with up to four cats and even monitor their activity via an app on your phone. While you might not be that interested in your feline’s toilet habits, it can tell you a lot about their health, which can be very useful. There’s also a night light to help your cat see what they’re doing in the dark.
Our tester Jo was pleasantly surprised at how quiet the clean cycle is and confirmed that it doesn’t scare her cats. She also says that setup was super easy as the litter robot came pre-assembled, and the app talks you through the instructions.
She says: “I love that we were able to set up an account for both of our kitties and it very cleverly was able to determine which girl was using it and take weight measurements. The app sends you a notification to let you know when one of the cats has used it and when it is performing a clean cycle. It also calculates how many clean cycles have been performed.”
When it comes to changing the waste, all you need to do is pull out the drawer, tie up the bag and dispose of it, and Jo says this was quick and easy to do. However, it's a little tricky to re-set the app once you clear out the box.
She says: “One of the things that's made me most happy since using the litter robot is the lack of litter droplets on the floor. Gone are the days of constantly having to sweep up after the cats and this is all down to the clever fence which just clips onto the front of the litter robot. I have to say it is fantastic and if you have the money then go for it, you certainly won’t regret it.”
The best self cleaning litter box with crystal litter
With this self-cleaning litter box, you won’t have to scoop your cat’s poop ever again. It automatically rakes the solid waste into a trap, and you’ll only need to replace the trays once a month. It’s compatible with PetSafe’s Crystal, an odor-trapping litter that’s dust-free and absorbs and dehydrates the waste. If you want to keep an eye on your cat’s health, you can monitor their activity via a smartphone app which also alerts you when it’s time to swap the tray.
Our tester Laura said: “The litter box does a good job of trapping odor since it hides all the poop away in a little compartment at one end. I have the litter box in my bedroom and it hasn’t bothered me at all. It is very easy to set up, use, [and clean up]. I just took out the dirty tray, covered it with the provided lid, and popped it in a trash bag.
“Nellie [the cat] went right to it. She was in there sniffing around before I even got the litter in and then once it was ready for her, she went ahead and tested it immediately! I put it next to her old litter box to get her used to it, but she didn’t need any transition time. I was worried [the noise] would scare Nellie, as she sometimes likes to go back in the litter box for a second round, but it has a 20-minute delay, which was plenty of time for her to finish up before it starts raking.”
The best open top self cleaning cat litter box
With this self-cleaning litter box, you can monitor your cat’s toilet habits via a clever smartphone app. This can be really helpful for keeping an eye on their health as it tells you things like their weight and how often they’re toileting. You can also track the litter levels to ensure it’s ready for use.
It can hold 7.17L of litter and can last up to 14 days without being changed; making your life a whole lot easier! When you want to remove the waste, simply pull the strings on the back and pop it in the bin - the odor-blocking bag will stop any unpleasant smells from releasing in your home.
The box operates at a 50dB sound level, so you won’t have to worry about it being noisy and invasive. The dark gray color looks sleek and discreet and the litter mat will ensure that no extra residue is spread on the floor.
Our tester Henry says: "It does a good job of trapping odors as the tray automatically cleans itself shortly after the cat finishes using it. We noticed a difference in house smell with the automatic litter tray - especially helpful for nighttime! The footprint is larger than for most litter trays and it isn’t fantastic for use on staircases/landings which is where we tend to keep our litter trays, but the design is sleek and stylish and looks good in the home.
"We have three cats and all were able to use it without issue. The only issue that I can think of is that the tray is raised quite high off the ground, so older cats or those with mobility issues may struggle to get in and out of it.
"Assembly was straightforward with clear instructions. There is some noise made when cleaning, but I wouldn’t describe it as loud (it didn’t wake us up in the night when placed on the landing outside our bedroom). While the tray is on the more expensive side, cat owners that can afford it will definitely value the time and effort it saves, so I do believe it’s good value. "
How to choose the best self-cleaning cat litter box
Despite all of the delights that cats bring to your life, one of the not-so-glamorous sides of being a cat owner involves reaching for the pooper scooper. That’s where the best self-cleaning cat litter boxes come in as they do all the dirty work for you!
Thankfully, technology has allowed feline owners around the world to say goodbye to one of the most unpleasant chores that come with being a cat parent. Whether you hate scooping or simply don’t have enough time in the day, these automatic cat litter boxes can turn out to be well worth the money.
When choosing the right self-cleaning cat litter box for you, it’s important to take into consideration the following factors:
- Size of the complete unit
- Whether it is suitable for multiple cats
- Whether it has a hood (if your feline loves to flick after visiting)
- How the waste is removed and disposed of
- The sound it makes during cleaning
- If it has the ability to reduce odor
- The type of litter and bags it required
Becks is a freelance lifestyle journalist who has more than 9 years of experience in the world of digital and print journalism. She covers health, wellness and family interests for a range of titles. When she's not putting pen-to-paper (or finger-to-keyboard) she's reading, in the gym, or taking her Dog Aunt title very seriously looking after the handful of four-legged creatures in her life.
