Does The Litter Robot 4 Have Issues? My Experience After A Year (2024)

I made a review of the Litter Robot 4 last year as a Beta user and so far this automatic litter box has worked as well as the Robot 3 Connect (which my cat used for over six years). The Robot 4 brought more features in comparison to the LR3 Connect. One of those features is the quieter operation which I really appreciate. However, as with any highly automatic device, some issues could arise while using them. Here’s my recollection of the main issues of the Litter Robot 4 that I have experienced as a user of one, and also some issues experienced by other cat owners as well.

Will you encounter all of these issues with the Litter Robot 4?

You may never encounter some of these issues, it mostly depends on if you use the unit correctly. I realized that most malfunctions appear when people don’t follow the instructions from the manufacturer, which are really simple. Also, some of the following are not real issues since they don’t affect the operation of the Robot but for some people could be “annoyances”. Fortunately, as I have enough experience with the previous Robot, I can figure out my Robot 4 easily and I will help you to do the same as well.

Learning how to properly use the Robot 4

Here I will not only mention possible issues you may encounter with the Robot 4 but also how you need to use the automatic litter box to avoid this from happening. The steps to avoid issues are really simple.

Issues I have Personally Encountered Using the Litter Robot 4

As I mentioned, these are the few issues (or details) I have encountered using the Litter Robot 4.

Bonnet getting misaligned after moving the Robot

The few times I moved the entire unit to the sides for cleaning the floor and I put it back in its location I saw the panel turning red. I reset it several times to no avail, I unplug it and plug it back, and no success. Finally, I remembered that Litter Robots in general need their bonnet to be correctly put in order to work. So when I moved the Robot I grabbed it from the sides but touched the bonnet and I created a gap between the base and the bonnet which is a misalignment. This creates an error and the panel shows red.

So I totally removed the lid and put it back on making sure it was totally aligned with no gaps in between. The right way to put the bonnet is to put the back first and then the sides and front for a perfect alignment. Without this, no matter what you do to your Robot, it will be stuck with red if the bonnet is not correctly placed.

A misaligned bonnet equals a removed bonnet, even if it looks like is not. In my video below I show how to correctly put the bonnet on the base. So every time you move your Robot from its location make sure not to grab it totally from the bonnet.

How to put the bonnet onto the base of the LR4

Moisture on waste drawer

This is not an operational issue but it needs to be addressed and taken care of. As the waste drawer of the Robot 4 came practically airtight (unlike the previous LR3 version that features vents), the moisture of the cat waste gets trapped inside the drawer with nowhere to go. This is simply resolved by getting the OdorTrap packs that contain plant-based oils to absorb and destroy odor molecules with their natural chemistry. Together with the packs, you must get the OdorTrap Pod which is a holder to put the OdorTrap packs inside it and with magnets to attach to the waste drawer’s inner wall. Each OdorTrap pack lasts for up to two weeks. If you want a more moist-absorbing solution you can get silica packs and place them inside the waste drawer. You can get 45 small silica packs for under $6 on Amazon. You should place three or four inside the waste drawer and get the moisture totally absorbed.

The waste drawer not showing fully empty on the Whisker App

Update July 2023: Now the App shows the real percentage of the waste drawer after you empty it, you just need to wait for one cleaning cycle to happen to see the current percentage.

Every time you empty the waste drawer or put cat litter in the Litter Robot you must reset the unit. This is because the smart weight-scale sensor needs to calibrate the default weight every time these changes are made. But what happens sometimes is that even after emptying the Litter Robot and resetting the unit, the App still shows the waste drawer as 30% full. I figured it takes a little time for the new status to show on the App, maybe a couple of cleaning cycles. So don’t get frustrated with this, the new status will update after a few cleaning cycles and the real full percentage will show.

Curtain Sensors not detecting motion from the far sides

The three “eye” sensors located at the entry of the globe are close together and the very far right and left areas are “blind” spots at the entryway. I discovered this when I put my hand into the globe from the far right side. Although I don’t consider this a real issue because cats don’t really enter the globe squeezing through a tiny area like that (unless they are commandos lol), I still wanted to mention this fact for transparency. Also, if a kitten is using the unit and jumps into the globe from under this “blind” spot, their tiny body could go undetected. Still, as the Robot 4 also works with a weight-scale sensor, the kitten would still activate the unit with its body weight (if over 3 lbs) to start a cleaning cycle. See a video of the “blind” spots in the entryway.

Issues Experienced By Other Cat Owners With the Litter Robot 4

The following are issues experienced usually by other users of the Litter Robot. As I am a long-term user of the Litter Robot I know what to do and what not. Here I mention what you must do to ensure the smooth operation of your Litter Robot 4.

Panel Displaying Red & Green Alternating Lights (Unleveled Surface)

The Litter Robot manufacturer mentions always that the Robot works on hard floors and not carpeted ones. That’s why they came up with a new accessory for the Litter Robot which is a hard mat to place the unit on carpeted floor that matches exactly the Robot’s footprint.

As the instructions say to place the unit on a hard floor some people just place the unit on any hard floor thinking they are doing the right thing. However, a hard floor doesn’t always equal a leveled, even floor. The hard floor must be leveled for the Robot 4 to properly function. This means if you place your Robot 4 on a hard floor with an uneven section (usually on a garage’s floor) the control panel will display alternating red and green lights or sometimes a stuck red light. You need to make sure the floor is leveled, which is in most cases.

Rotation Halfway | Clean Litter Dumped (Too much Cat Litter)

Even though the globe’s rubber features a full line to indicate the maximum level of cat litter, some people still overload the unit. This is because the area is kind of round so you can always overload the globe if you pour litter up to the full line. So what you need to do is putting cat litter a little under the full line but always get a flat litter bed. If you overload the Litter Robot 4 what will happen is that after a cleaning cycle, a lot of clean litter will get dumped into the waste drawer. Also, due to the excess of cat litter in the globe, the unit may not even complete the cleaning cycle, so pouring the right amount of cat litter is very important. The amount will also depend on how heavy the clumping clay cat litter you use, is. My article best cat litter for the Litter Robot 3 and Litter Robot 4 explains which cat litter is heavier and wich is lightweight. Finally, resetting the unit after topping off with new cat litter is very important as well.

Cat hair on the sensor blocking a rotation

If you have a longed-hair cat and your Robot 4 sometimes gets stuck on red and doesn’t rotate, it could be due to the cat’s hair blocking the entry sensors. This is because the three “eyes” sensors are designed not only to activate the unit for a cleaning cycle but also to stop the Robot from rotating if a cat enters the unit. So these “eyes” see the cat’s hair and consider it a cat. Same if the seal stripe has too much cat hair. The excess hair on the seal stripe could touch the sensors while rotating and cause the same issue. What you must do is keep the sensor free of cat hair (remove the cat’s hair carefully with your fingers) and keep the seal stripes clean from cat hair. That’s all. It’s always a good idea to brush your cat’s hair to remove excess shedding, especially during summer. Personally, I have never experienced this issue with my cat.

Whisker App registers low cat weight (If your cat peaks head first before entering)

If your cat is particular when entering the box, you may see that your cat occasionally weighs less than usual on the App, and you may wonder why this happens. This is because your cat takes a peak inside the globe before entering and puts its front paws on the step to do it. When a cat does this the weight-scale sensor registers less weight (half weight) since the cat is not fully stepping into the globe. This is not an issue with the operation of the Litter Robot 4 but more like occasional wrong weight info in the App, only if your cat is particular when entering the Litter Robot 4. My cat never does this, when she wants to go, she goes. This usually happens if a cat is getting to know the Litter Robot and doesn’t fully trust it yet.

In case you want to do a Hard Reset

When you do a hard reset o factory reset the software of the Litter Robot 4 restarts to its original state, erasing the data, settings, and Apps connected to it. If you want to do a hard reset on your Litter Robot 4 you must do the following:Press and hold the Reset and Wifi buttons for three seconds. The panel’s light will start a sequence of red, blue, and green, and a cleaning cycle will start. When the cleaning cycle is completed the hard reset was done successfully.

My Conclusion

The Litter Robot 4 and its possible issues (that you may not experience) will never outweigh the benefits of using this great automatic litter box. If I didn’t think so I wouldn’t have used this unit for so many years straight (I don’t like extra headaches). And it’s not like I haven’t been offered to test other brands but none of them get close to the engineered design of the Litter Robots. As I like to offer new options to my readers, I reviewed a different brand that promised to be the perfect solution (and it looked like it) but it didn’t last three months. See my video review of this unit here.

Bottom line

Most of the possible issues when using the Litter Robot 4 are just a matter of the correct setup, use, and maintenance of the unit. And none of these issues are unsolvable; I am living proof of that. My Robot 4 has been working for over a year and my cat uses it daily with no problems whatsoever. I could easily solve all the small issues with my unit. As a bottom line, after 14 months of using the Litter Robot 4, I highly recommend it because it has worked excellently for my cat and helped to ease my life. If you ask me, getting one it’s absolutely worth it. If you want to check the latest updates on how the Litter Robot 4 works, keep checking my full review as I will keep you posted. So far, it’s been working excellently.

Get your Litter-Robot 4 and save $50 with the link below. On top of that the Litter Robot Bundles are $50 off as well (limited time). Click or tap the link below to access this promotion.

$50 off Litter-Robot 4

About Lorena Ávila

Lorena Avila is a Marketing Engineer, Writer, cat figures collector, cat lover and cat owner, but above all a very passionate investigator of felines. She started investigating cat products 7 years ago when she couldn't find reliable reviews on the internet to buy an automatic feeder for her own cat and since then she has been helping others providing honest information online.
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