PETKIT PuraX Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box, Scooping

Hello!New cat mom of 2 here. Adopted a 2 year old mom and her 10 week old kitten. Bought this based on reviews and honestly just winging it to hope for the best outcome as I didn’t want to clean a litterbox a hundred times a day.APPThe app is okay… could use some updates to improve the user interface, but it gets the job done. I do wish that the app had the ability to “Level”, instead of having to do it manually from the machine. For example, if you fill the litter and forget to level it, the app may think the cat is in the litterbox due to the additional weight added. It then won’t let you manually clean, or automatically clean until the “cat” has left the litterbox. This is crucial for example when you’re out of town for a couple nights and may not have anyone to manually level/reset it.Though the cleaning is relatively quiet, there’s a way to put in the app a Quiet mode which prevents it from spinning during your set times which is nice. It also has automatic cleaning based on your specs, such as 5/10/30m, etc after the cat has used the box. Or also schedule to clean every Sunday at X time. Really like these options.Only other downside to the app is that there’s no “almost full” notice for the waste tray. Either it’s “normal” aka empty, half full, or 9/10ths full, or it’s “full”KITTENMy little one was about 3lbs when I got her and she had trouble getting in the entrance. I put a little box in front and she had no problem jumping in. Because she was so little, kitten mode was prompted and automatically enabled. Thankfully the litterbox still recognizes when she approaches, but for safety prevents it from cleaning when a kitten is in the house to prevent any pinching, etc. she just hit over 5lbs and I can have the kitten mode off and the app won’t prompt to enable kitten mode again. I have no clue how the app will tell the difference between them once the baby is full grown, but tbd.LITTERI bought the Okocat Less Mess Natural Wood Clumping pellets from gf the bat as I saw a review saying someone else used it. My main concern was tracking as my last roommates cats made out place like a beach because of all the sand litter that would track. Okocat did okay (I also only had her sand litter experience to compare it to) but still had just a little tracking. The mat with holes it comes with helps, but I bought another one to make a longer “walkway” as the cats exit the litter box. Unfortunately I found that when I cleaned the box, it was dumping a ton of clean litter where basically once it cleaned 2x, I had to empty the bin at the bottom which sometimes I’d clean 2x in one day (I had the manual cleaning on while the kitty was still little).I ended up switching to the Petkit brand litter and it works amazinggggggg. A little more expensive, but in my opinion worth it given how much litter it SAVING from being dumped. It also produces near 0%tracking, smells better than the wood pellet one, and now takes the machine up to 4 days before I need to empty the tray at the bottom.The app in my opinion is pretty good at reading the litter levels. While the cat is in the litter box though, it may bump up your %, but once it gets out, litter % reverts backWASTE TRAYIf I had to give a part of this 2 to 3 stars, this would be it… when using other litters like Okocat, the tray would get so dang full even after one cleaning cycle that when you pull the tray out, a bunch of gunk rd up litter would stay stuck on the top so when pulling the tray out, it’s essentially scraping excess litter mess and keeping in under the box. When it’s fully removed, the gunk falls to the floor… so I hated cleaning day as that meant I’d have to move the whole litterbox and sweep up underneath. Now, this is NOT the case with the Petkit brand. Because I’m sure the cleaning cycle was designed with the Petkit litter in mind, you open up the tray to well packed waste where nothing will get caught when you pull the tray out.SMELLI initially kept it tucked away to the side of my kitchen, and that was a mistake. I may have a sensitive nose, but with two cats using it plus with it on kitten mode (not automatically cleaning), I absolutely could not deal with the slight scent in a near space as the kitchen. It wasn’t bad, only when they just dropped a #2 .. but enough for me to move it upstairs in the hallway. Note that kitten mode is disabled and auto cleaning it turned on, I hardly smell anything unless the tray is full or getting full. I did read someone who used arm n hammer litter deodorizer and that stuff was a game changer. I sprinkle a little on top of new litter, and prep the litter in the tray queen I clean it out. After a couple days I sprinkle some on top until it gets full.I’d say to check once in a while to be sure that there’s no dried clumps of litter stuck to the bottom of the barrel inside. When using Okocat, it would get stuck to the bottom so when it cleaned, it obviously couldn’t sift through it so I’d have to scrape it up and let it fall to then get caught in the cleaning cycle. You can just look inside it it during a cleaning cycle to see if anything is stuck. Haven’t noticed this with the Petkit litterTROUBLESHOOTINGOnly thing that has happened is that it’ll say pinch mode was enabled and to check the cat is out. After thanksgiving though, there’s no clicking ok or anything that will let it function normally again.. The only way I found to essentially reset it is to remove the tray complete, then put it back in and then click okay. Not a huge deal, but sucks if you’re not home to complete. It occasionally thinks the cat is approaching when they’re not, but I found clicking OK twice in the machine works too reset it.CONCLUSIONAll in all, my two cats use it 7-11x/day where the tray fills up around every four days. With Petkit litter, 2 bags are lastin me around 3-4 weeks. Kitten mode not needed after kitty gets above 5lbs. Doesn’t smell with arm & hammer deodorizer and auto-cleaning enabled to 20m after each potty break. Some tweaks and improvements needed? For sure. But I give a 5 star as it makes my life so so much easier, I can deal with the few constraints there are.

For about three years, my wife and I have absolutely gushed about how this is the best purchase we have ever made for our cat.It has saved so much trouble, time, ickiness, etc. etc. that if it were to break today I would instantly pick up my phone and buy another— one without making a single complaint as I did it.It was a life saver for us as my wife was pregnant, not having to handle litter when I was away. It’s helpful now if the baby were ever to get into it that it doesn’t have any hidden treasures in it.It works all the time, just keep it clean. It can go literally almost 2 weeks without having to change the bin. It tells you when it’s full, which is awesome, but I found that if you jostle the bin a little bit it will even out the waste inside of it and allow you to go about another week. The bags and deodorizer spray are very reasonably priced, so recurring costs with this are very low.We have just been so happy with it.I would also mention a few things about the design, it is very compact, looks very nice, we have it tucked away in a closet and found that it does very well underneath the bottom shelf of our closet, in two houses now.For the people who have it out in living spaces, it doesn’t look ostentatious, or funky. Just nondescript, clean, and understated. Our cat immediately took to it, and ultimately is a much happier cat, knowing that his litter is always fresh.I recommend using a non-clowding cat litter, as we did notice that dust would accumulate in the closet after a while when we used more powdery cat litter. The clumpier, the better, and if you have a cat that likes to go in the same exact corner every time like ours does, we found it, keeping a spray bottle with a water/vinegar. Dilution was a good idea to spray that corner down so that the corner/wall wouldn’t get too gunked up. In three years I’ve only DEEP cleaned the unit once since we bought it, which was when we moved this time last year and it has just always worked.Imo, best litter robot out there, hands down.One negative thing is that the app is filled with broken English and can be a bit obscure to navigate, but whenever we’ve dealt with technical support over a PETKIT product it is always been with someone who is able to communicate very fluently. Never had to communicate with PETKIT about this particular product though.Hope this helps.

I have five cats and this has been great! I have been able to get rid of two of my litter boxes even though the best practice is to have one more box than cats. This sits behind our couch and I have not had any residue smell and the motor is very quiet. You can hear it shift and whirr but it is not loud at all.All five of my cats were interested right away. Two are two years old and three are just over a year. Only one of my cats refuses to use it, preferring her original box.The remaining four use it constantly. It is great getting the notifications and has helped me make sure my super shy/skittish one is at least an acceptable weight.Totally was worth the money, especially since I got it on sale!!

TLDR: get it if you can afford it- works well, eliminates smell and chores.Full review:Smell has really gone away since we’ve had this, which was what my husband said he would happily pay money for. We had previously used the Breeze litter system which was great, but if I got busy and forgot to change the pad, it would overflow and create a horrible stinky mess.I was concerned the small opening would deter my 10.5 lb American Curl from going in, but after the first few days, he stopped pouting. He hasn’t ever gone anywhere other than this box since we removed his other one (we left them both for a few days so he would get used to it). I also took advice from others here and didn’t turn the new litter box on for a full day so my cat wouldn’t be scared. I have the timer set to 3 minutes after he leaves, but you can do it sooner if you need.I have noticed that my cat goes in the same spot every time for pee, which is not great for him because it’s just on the edge of the litter area, and so it sometimes gets stuck on the sides or on the grate that sifts the clumped litter (we are using Pidan litter currently but I’ll try the PETKIT litter next just for comparison).What that means in a practical sense to me is that I have to peer in there every day or two to make sure the clumps aren’t clumping into the grate so I can keep the smell at bay. It only smells like clay, though, not cat pee or poop, so that’s fine with us.The litter tray is great but I wish there was a warning that the tray was *nearing* full before just saying it needs to be changed right now. Still, that’s much better than it had been with the other litter system we had, because there’s no chance I’ll forget.I love getting to track how often he goes and how much he weighs, because honestly I had no clue before.The deodorizing spray smells like nothing to me, but I know it works because originally I turned it off in the settings (default has it spraying 4x a day periodically), and once I turned it back on, the smell of litter all but disappeared. I have the blue/green deodorizer and have nothing to compare it to, but it is fine with me. I saw some complaints but it truly smells just fine (like nothing).It takes less than 3 minutes to remove and replace the trash. Super easy, my kids can do it.Highly recommend, though I have the breeze in storage in case electrical goes out for any reason on the PuraX.It is huge. We have a very small house and I didn’t want to put this in the kitchen or living room, so we got this one because it would just barely fit in the kids bathroom. Otherwise we would’ve bought the Max, which my cousin has and loves.Can’t go wrong. Minor complaints. Smell is gone, chores have simplified. I say go for it if you can afford it. Considering how much we spent on litter pads from Breeze over the years, this one started to make sense monetarily and does my chores for me.Side note, I absolutely love the litter mat. This is the first one I’ve had that actually contains the litter mess.

My two cats took to the Pura X the first day – no transition problems at all. Both my 17.5lb boy and my 16-year-old girl with diabetes and arthritis in her hind legs had no problem getting in or out and had enough room to do their business.The odor control is excellent, even without the liquid deodorizing spray; I used the liquid when I first set up the box, but didn’t re-fill it when it was empty and I don’t notice any difference.The Pura X is quiet. Really quiet. I have it in my bedroom and I never hear it operating and because it’s such an enclosed space, I hardly hear my bigger cat when he’s digging around in the litter.The sensors are great – almost too good. My big cat is fascinated with this thing and will hang around during the 3 minute delay to watch it clean itself. Any time his nose gets too close, it stops until he backs up. While I was writing this the cleaning cycle stopped and I got both an app notification and an email telling me that the “pinch sensor” had been activated because a cat had gone into the Pura X during a cleaning cycle; turns out there was just a big clump that had not gone all the way into the waste compartment.The app was super-useful in the first couple of days, since I could be sure that both cats were using the Pura X when I wasn’t around. It reports on how much weight is in the box during each use, so it was easy for me to distinguish between my cats. Beyond that, it’s a lot of notifications that I don’t necessarily need – one every time a cat goes in, one every time a cleaning cycle is completed. The notification about when the waste bin needs to be emptied is useful though. If you don’t want to use the app, the notice that the bin is full does also show up in the display on the box.I had been using a Breeze System (non-absorbent pellets and a pee pad underneath), so the biggest issue was getting the humans in the house used to having regular cat litter around again – definitely more vacuuming. The mat that comes with the Pura X does a good job, but it doesn’t catch everything. I’m still experimenting with different brands of litter, but so far Dr. Elser’s mulit-cat seems to have the least litter scatter, wet paw tracking, and litter stuck in the paws. I started with Fresh Step Advanced with Gain, but it didn’t clump fast enough and I ended up with white paw tracks on the wood floors in and out of the room and there was a lot more scattering. Also, the cats smelled like laundry, which was weird, but not unpleasant. When I switched to the Dr. Elser’s, I realized that there’s no need for a scented litter, since the Pura X does such a good job of containing any odors.The Pura X isn’t maintenance free – you still have to refill the litter, empty the drawer, and unstick some clumps every so often, but it’s still so much better an anything else I’ve tried. And you may need to experiment with different litters and different cleaning cycle delay times to figure out what works for your cats.Bottom line: the Pura X is not perfect, but it’s close. In my opinion, it is absolutely worth the money.