Beware this fatal design of automatic litter boxes from ali express or amazon or similar

My advice is to buy nothing from AliExpress or Temu.

Disagree, if you need a custom big machine made, there are some really good people on AliExpress.

I have had a couple of customized CNC machines custom built for a fraction of the price it would have cost to have it done over here. Even with the shipping costs it came out cheaper. And the people were really helpful, they use machines like mine all the time so they know their stuff. They offered really good advice and were excited to work with me. It's a bit butt clenching to fork over a lot of cash and hope a big ass pallet shows up 4 months later, but they've come through for me every time. YMMV.

Temu on the other hand can fuck off. It's just a scam site like Wish.
- I'd argue there's a huge difference from chintzy household tech and industrial machinery on AliExpress.
- I mean yeah thats how it works if you outsource your work to low wage, low work safety countries. And the result is that the machine shop near you goes bankrupt and you are now dependent on large corporations that can wipe out whole business segments on a whim. Sometimes you just dont have a choice, but if you do, dont buy cheap stuff from far away or big corpos.
The issue here though is that these were being sold by AliExpress through Amazon. Amazon has much more public trust than companies like AliExpress or Temu, so people aren't going to be immediately suspicious of everything for sale on there.
- Even Amazon has gotten super sketch as of late. It’s hard to determine which products are good or not when the site is flooded with 500 duplicates from 500 clearly fake companies.
- Unless I know the manufacturer, I don't buy from Amazon either.
  
  It's 95% junk. Need to start holding corporations responsible and not just going "oh, it's a third party seller! It's not our fault."
  
  They're taking fuck knows how much in fees, and worth trillions of dollars. Fine them. Massively.
- At this point Amazon is just a local warehouse selling the same products as AliExpress, but with faster shipping and more markup.
- What happened that amazon suddenly became the "good guy" don't order from there either.
Yeah, nah, I'm not gonna pay 10x the price for a knockoff arduino from a local seller that just buys it from AliExpress anyway. There's no better place to get electronic components and modules without bankrupting yourself
- I can give Ali a pass for niche things, but Temu is straight up junk. The problem is when these cheaper products permeate everything while being pushed as high end. Etsy is basically useless now because of this. Almost everything on there is an overpriced knockoff.
  
  None of this is necessarily AliExpress’ or Temu’s fault though. It’s just what happens in a capitalist system.
And try to avoid Chinese products whenever possible.
- So just stop using literally any and everything, got it.
- So, no digital electronics at all. That's a great life
I'd rather pay 80% for things that have a 50% chance of turning out shit anyway. What makes you think Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart are any better?

Nobody should be buying an automatic litter box from any of these sites. They're all coming from China with the same build-quality regardless of whom you're buying it from. I do not get the hate against Chinese shops but loving American brands who do the exact same thing but can somehow get away with empathy from people
- Products as a whole are going to shit in terms of quality. It’s part of the enshittification that late capitalism drives.
  
  And automatic litter boxes have always been trash. I’ve had 2 in my lifetime and they were both bad. Just scoop that thing and call it a day!
- less empathy, more some level of barebones regulation. This post makes me think youve never received anything from a place like Temu lol.
i used to buy plenty from aliexpress. its generally pretty damn good.

I mean... yeah.

This should not need specific mention. But it's good that these warning exists, anyways. But it's also kinda obvious, you're ordering from Aliexpress/Temu. It's like those shitty china cat fountains that run the 220V line into the water basin and convert the power there. Because hey, why only fry your pet a little...

Most people are used to devices being at least somewhat safe. They don't expect devices they buy from a large online retailer to be that bad. A flaw here and there, sure, but basically a 100% chance of death? Yeah, that's not exactly to expect.
The problem is this automatic litter box was bought from Amazon, which was being resold from Aliexpress. People have some level of trust in Amazon. Misplaced trust I would say, as it becomes littered with sketchy 3rd party sellers who have no responsibility to their customers.
- There's a lot of things wrong with Amazon of course, but this switch to Chinese shadow companies and their garbage products is really problematic. They create a new "brand", set up a new product they bought from some manufacturer in China, add a fuckton of fake reviews to boost themselves onto the front and when they sold everything they vanish, along with the product page and any possibility to share negative reviews from the lack of quality or other issues. It's literally a scam and needs to change.
Huh, I never really put much thought into that

My cat fountain uses a USB cable, so hopefully it's only like 5v when it leaves the brick/adapter.

The water fountain is a game changer, my male cat absolutely loves it. He washes his paws in bowls and doesn't drink much, but with the fountain he drinks a ton of water.
- He washes his paws in bowls
  
  That's adorable 😂 Such a hygienic boy!

The detail that negative reviews warning of the danger kept getting removed or edited is really sinister

Thanks for the heads up, OP, but has anyone used one of the “authentic” version of these? Worth the money or nah? I’ve always been curious but can’t justify spending that much money on a litter box.

I bought a refurbished litter robot about a year ago, and was initially aghast at myself for spending that kind of money for it, but now I am convinced it was worth the price.

It has made one of IMO the worst parts of cat ownership significantly easier, with the upside of being better for the cats as well.

Even with the high price I would recommend.
I wanted one but the automatic ones are WAY out of my price range, so I got an Omega Paw Roll' N Clean that I absolutely LOVE!

It makes taking care of litter almost completely effortless at a fraction of the price of the robot ones and it's economical to use too:

You just put clumping litter in, roll it to deposit the refuse into the handy drawer, roll it back to put the clean litter back in, and empty the drawer.

It takes me mere seconds a day to clean up after two adult cats, and it's cheap enough to buy and use that I can afford to give them that GOOD kitty kibble without neglecting their sanitary needs!

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Omega Paw, except as a thoroughly satisfied customer 😁
- The rolling ones are the way to go. Saves enough time for the price, no way I could justify the cost of the fully automatic ones.
The advice I've always heard is that if you can do it yourself, it's always better. Animals can't tell you that they're sick, so every bit of info you can get on how they're doing is important. Having the machine automatically clean the litter box deprives you of that option.

With that being said, a clean litterbox is also really important. I plan on getting a couple of cats in the next 5 years after I've gotten my shit together (cats and incredibly messy houses don't mix), and I will probably get an automatic litter box because I don't want my depressive episodes to result in my cats being miserable. As this post shows, you should do your research. Find a litter box that has been endorsed by multiple unrelated reviewers if possible. Some of these boxes are dangerous, and many of them are kinda worthless.

The video in the OP was recommended to me a few days ago and was my introduction to this whole fiasco. This person has done a ton of reviews and has a couple of boxes he'd recommend.

EDIT: I literally linked to the video in the OP... I thought it was the video from one of the people who had a cat die.
- I don’t want my depressive episodes to result in my cats being miserable
  
  I would appreciate if you didn't attack me personally.
  
  Nah but for real I go through the same thing. I feel really guilty when I let their box get out of hand, they never seem bothered either which kind of makes it worse.
Yup, I have a Litter Robot 4 and we love it. It saves a ton on little costs, but was a massive upfront cost.

Easier to travel and the litter stay clean, it's always clean for the cats and they love it. We're big fans.
- Keeping itself clean while we're gone is such a huge benefit. We have three cats and finding people to care for them used to be a pain in the ass. Now we have the Litter Robot and a couple of automatic feeders so we can leave for days at a time and the cats barely notice we're gone.
- I had no end up trouble with my Litter Robot 3. So much I ended up just throwing the whole thing away.
I have a litter robot 3 and it's great. It was costly but I've probably already made a significant amount back on litter cost. The cats took some time to get used to it and one of them refused without adding a set of steps to get in but all in all they seem happy 18months later.
I bought a LitterRobot last year at the urging of a family member. It's awesome. Money well spent, especially because one of our kitties tries to bury but scratches the walls and fails.
We have one at work (office cats ftw). I don't know the model, but knowing the owner I'm positive they didn't get a cheapo version. In this case it's worth the money because it does a fairly good job at mixing the litter which seems to help quite a lot with the smell (it gets noticeably better a few minutes after it's done its thing), since no one is gonna empty it during the day.
Getting a Litter-Robot 4 is the best purchase I've ever made. Wallet is still hurting a bit, but I have no regrets. Replaced 2 smelly litter boxes in my apartment with something that just sends me a notification once a week to empty the bin. It even tracks my cats weights, so it tells me who used the litter box, along with a chart of their weight.
I also bought one a few years ago, for 2 cats. Definitely expensive, especially going for the litter robot 4 over 3, but was told by friends' the 3 was somewhat loud and made their cats nervous.

Honestly have loved it. Allowed me to go on vacations with less worry about sitters cleaning the box well, or overuse between visits. One cat especially does not like to cover his mess, and the LR4 has spoiled me and him to allow his lazy habit to persist.

Definitely very expensive, but Very worthwhile for me and knowing laziness/busy times won't affect the kitties. And of all the reviews, litterrobot seemed to be the best, and most reliable.
I'm not sure but it sounds like the guy who made the video OP linked might have a few suggestions
- Yeah, I’ve watched some of his stuff before but I also like a variety of opinions and maybe some additional unexpected advice, as was the case here with another reply.
I tried two different ones. First dudn't function (defective unit). 2nd worked but no so great for my cats. Our large male urinates a lot, so the bag needed replacement after about a day and a half. And it was WAY more difficult to clean inside the thing (big drum shaped inside thing) than just a simple catbox was.

Thanks for sharing! Not all people are aware of the possible dangers and I believe we tend to assume things are safe nowadays.

I have two Litter Robots and I love them. I spend 5 minutes a week cleaning cat boxes which is as simple as pulling the garbage bag out of the tray and putting in a new one. And every time the cats go in there, it's clean.

Expensive but worth it. They aren't perfect, but I haven't found anything better.

I watched this yesterday. It came just in time, because I was eyeballing those exact boxes on Amazon. I was so mortified I nearly cried. Coming home to (or even hearing) something like that happen because I wanted to save more time would have broken me. I would have never forgiven myself.

Edit: I ended up buying one that rotates sideways instead. Only reason I'm updating it is because someone in the video was like, "I believe in a cats self preservation to save them." My cat, who is afraid of heavy rain, runs to the litter box to watch, making it stop and start because she keeps poking her head in. She absolutely would have been caught. Even scaredy cats get curious.

Just gotta get a reputable brand. I recently got a Popur X5 and it's been real nice.
- Yeah, that's the plan. I'm still interested in them, but God it was scary to realize I almost bought that.
They were previously removed from amazon but I guess they're back being sold by a different company... ☠️

I edited the title to reflect this.
- There were only a few from no-name sellers, and I was only looking at them for price. But maybe they've been pulled with the extra attention?

I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach watching the video so I'll skip that. I'm just happy I'm way too paranoid when it comes to my cat's safety to use anything that works automatically in places the cat can reach on it's own without me being right there.

Even if something works just fine at the start: everything can start to malfunction. I don't care if the chance is so tiny it might not exist, if I can make it even smaller I'm all for it.

But thanks for sharing the danger these things are.

Yeah it was only very vague descriptions but it was still very hard to hear
There are much safer designed ones from reputable companies, these ones are drop shipped ones where they'll put anyone's logo on them, and have a very poorly thought out design.
- Even products from reputable companies can malfunction. I'd be unable to continue living if a cat of mine died because of some tech stuff I bought which wasn't even needed in the first place. They're my beloved family and I will not be putting them at risk, no matter how tiny and close(!) to zero that may be, when I can just completely zero said risk. I'll keep scooping that litter box manually.

I almost cried watching that 😢

I did cry watching that. What the fuck man, how hard is it to make a litter box that doesn't kill pets!?!! You had one job!

I already have a huge hate boner for Chinese products, to the point where I especially do not use their shops, and hate what became of Amazon, but this shit really takes the cake. And with all those shadow "brands" (how tf is that even legal?!) there's no way to hold anyone responsible either. Just create another company, dump a few thousand positive fake reviews, and then when you sold everything you make everything vanish before any bad reviews start to pop up from pure negligence, lack of quality, toxic materials, etc, etc.

Poor family who had to find their cat like that... RIP Moshi & Charlie and whoever else felt victim to this crap. :( Imagining those cats last moments makes me wanna cry... Rotten country.

Just saw this video earlier today. Heartbreaking. I hope the online retailers respond and take action to get these things off the market. The design is just inherently dangerous.

That's AMAZON. Amazon does this.

Imo a litter genie is the way to go. Have to scoop it yourself but at least it's convenient

I really liked these sifting litter boxes arm and hammer has, they're inexpensive, super easy to scoop and make inspecting litter easy as well (have had urinary issues in past, both on urinary food but I don't take chances)
And it doesnt execute your cat like a late 1600 monarch. Which is a a great improvement

Fuck these companies

well, no problems here. My cat wouldn't even shit in a regular litter box when I bought an enclosed one. I had to take the lid off for her to go. she would never even consider getting into an auto one lol

My cats are weirdos. They love the enclosed ones.

I originally had an open one for my cat, but then my sister purchased a closed one for her kitten. It was so she could keep her in her bedroom while the cats got to know each other's scent. But my cat would occasionally get into her room, and then use the enclosed litterbox.

Eventually I ended up getting another one because they preferred the enclosed one to the open one.
Me too 😅

Beware this fatal design of automatic litter boxes from ali express or amazon or similar - they can be DEADLY