Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by AreYouKidding? : System: 5-Stars -- Cartridges: 3-Stars

For the money, these cartridges should be 100% plastic lined. The current design has a plastic lined base, but urine can still creep up the sides and "wet" the cardboard.

Make no mistake, the system is the best I've used; but Scoop Free needs to update these refills to prevent urine saturation.

My cats:

1) 18lb Russian Blue, 13 years old
2) 10lb Calico, 12 years old

Each has their own Scoop Free litter box. We get about 3 weeks of use out of each refill cartridges.

Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" : Easy to Make your Own

We adore our ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box - our only point of contention is buying these refills. Yes, the refills work fine. We love the whole concept of this system, the crystals are awesome at absorbing the odor, the tines never clump. However, it is pricey to buy in essence a cardboard box with some crystals in it for this much money. So we experimented and found a solution.

Instead, we take their cardboard box and spray it with a regular spray lacquer like you find at any Michael's store - a few coats. That makes it waterproof. Then we buy standard crystals at a WalMart. We get a ton of uses out of it, and just wash the box itself out every few weeks. We have two cats - one an 18 pounder, so rather large. He doesn't have any issues at all with this. I'll note that he doesn't have his front claws, but our smaller cat (8 pounds or so) is fully clawed and hasn't had any issues with this either. No "claws through the cardboard" or anything. I imagine if you had some sort of tear-happy kitty you could reinforce the bottom with a sheet of plexiglass very easily, which would be quite washable and durable too.

For us, however, that wasn't necessary. Yes we might have to buy one of these every number of months to get a fresh, clean box to start with, but other than that you can certainly "create your own" without having to buy their units.

I'm not sure how to rate the unit then. I'll give it a 5/5 because it is an awesome idea and you should get one or two to start with. However, keep in mind that you don't need to keep buying them if you don't want to - it's just as easy to make your own once you understand how they work.

Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by Jonathan Appleseed : Perfect

I have three cats. Two females, and a male. When I bought this unit and started using the cartridges, the oldest female was 13. There was an adopted male that was 1, and a female rescue cat (horribly set upon by mange and god knows what else during the three months she spent in the alley before we rescued her), who was also about 1.

I was concerned that the alley cat would have issues adapting to a new box. She did not - even though she absolutely *hated* the male cat and did whatever she could to avoid him. But she used the same litter box that he did. Almost two years later, she still hisses at the male cat and acts tough with him (he still thinks she's playing, the dork; he has no idea that she wants him roasting over a firepit like a stuck pig and considers his attempts to play an act of war), but she still shares the same litter box.

This was a godsend. If you have problems with the litter or the unit, be sure to call the company first before abandoning it. I noticed one reviewer here who did that, and the solution to their problem was very simple and quick.

EDIT 9/29: The price for this item continues to climb. For a while it was around $70, then $80, now it's nearly $100. This system is becoming more and more popular, so it would stand to reason that the price should be dropping. Go figure.

Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by HB "Sam" : Pretty good system

I decided to wait until after 6 months use before leaving my review for this product, after all, what we really need to know is how it works in the LONG RUN. The 3 stars is because the price of the cartridges have gone up so much, were it not for that I would have given it 5 stars.

First off, the crystals track some, not gonna lie about that. However, I have two cats in a studio apartment and I don't touch this thing UNTIL it starts to smell, which (I must be lucky), has averaged to be at around 3 weeks use.

The thing looks cheap as hell. I wish they would make a new model that had an actual bottom as opposed to the replaceable cardboard making up the bottom. My other problem is that because my apartment is so small, it is smushed between bookcases and it is extremely unwieldy to change the litter cartridges. If I had this in a basement say, with room to spread out, I think it would be very easy to change. This is why if they made a real whole system, I would pay a lot more for it. Something like littermaid where you just lifted the poop out.

But see the cartridges have gone up tremendously since I bought the product and if they built an easy to use system with no cartridges they would loose revenue so I have little hope on that front.

I have been reusing the cartridges though. I just dump the poop and old litter out when it starts to smell and put new litter in. My cartridges do not leak at all. Also, on EBAy you can buy plastic cartridges which can be used over and over, which I will do soon. I'm trying to rig a system to make it easy to just lift the poop without picking up the frame. If I could do that, the system would be perfect!

I wish these companies would be more interested in creating excellence than in creating an expensive system that keeps us tied them forever.

I like it better than Littermaid though because during the summer, my littermaid would smell horrible, the poop would "melt" and stick to the prongs, total mess. This really doesn't stick unless I let it sit forever and it starts to fill up. I can't believe I can't smell it. I keep wondering what would happen if I bought another littermaid and put crystals in it instead of litter. Would that make the perfect system? Or would the crystals somehow mess up the litterbox? Hard to say, too expensive to try anyway!

In summary - very messy to change unless you have room to spread out (but still way worth it for the convenience of no touch/no smell for weeks). Cartridges too expensive, I refuse to pay those prices no matter what I have to do to find workarounds! Highly recommended on the whole.

Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by Jennifer Ruggiero "Jennifer R." : Much better than the off-brand!

I have been using this for years with my cat, Ricky. One tray refill lasts about 3 weeks with him. So, six trays will last quite a while. I really like this product a lot. It traps the odor and does an effective job. I keep this item in my cart at all times and monitor the price. When it drops, I buy it. For example, on May 11, 2010 it was $85.43... which is $14.24 per tray. Great price, so I bought it. Most of the time, I see the price hovering around $99... so when the price drops, you need to snag it!

In regards to knock-offs... I tried twice another brand. That brand did not trap the odor and the litter smell was gross. The tray only lasted two weeks. I went back to Fresh Step Crystals/ScoopFree litter trays and will not buy an off-brand again.

I hope this review helps you make your decision. Thank you!

Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by flygirl "Flygirl" : With Reservations

I love this company and it's product. Their customer support is second to none. Having said that, I do have an issue with the ever increasing price of the cartridges. When I bought mine, a box of six replacement cartridges was about $75.00. It is now over $95.00. I have three cats which makes this cost prohibitive, as I have to change mine out every ten days or so,making a box of six cartridges last 2 months. Doing the math, I am spending $45.00 a month in cat litter. This is unacceptable. I think this company should drop their price of replacement cartridges!

Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by Leslie J : Best system I've ever used

This product is the best litter system I've ever used. But you don't have to buy these cardboard cartridges. Go to e-bay and look for "forever cartridges" there's a guy that makes these out of pvc and you can buy the crystal litter to fill them. It costs me about 1/2 as opposed to buying the scoop free cartridges.

Scoop Free litter box is designed with a premium refills blue crystals, 6
Review by P. A. Owens "Cat lover" : No scooping the poop!

I love this product and litter system. Originally purchased the system on QVC but buy my cartridges on Amazon because it's cheaper (plus free shipping if you've signed up and this stuff is heavy). I have one cat - a Cornish Rex - who is very, very fussy where she goes. With regular litter boxes, she'd leave a mess if not scooped every day by backing up to hang over the box. Yulk. This system is perfect for her and me. I don't scoop and it lasts the entire month. Around the 20th day, I take a scooper and remix the litter pellets in the main area (not under the lid). Then, you have the fresh smell until day 31. Whoever invented this system was a genius.