ChouBox Automatic Litter Box Review: A Good Investment If You're Patient

May 2024 · 21 minute read

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Key Takeaways

Experimenting with the ChouBox automatic litter box has been a pretty good experience, and its best feature is easily saving me from having to manually scoop the litter box. However, for such a high price, I wish there was a more feature-rich companion app and better tips for helping your cat acclimate to the ChouBox.

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Automatic litter boxes are expensive, but as a cat owner, if you can automate the process of scooping the litter box, it's a worthwhile investment. The ChouBox automatically detects when your cat uses the litter box and scoops it shortly after---the absolute dream!

There are seven total sensors on the ChouBox to help detect your cat's presence and determine when it's time to scoop. With all this built-in technology, it's probably not much of a shock that the ChouBox's price is steep: $620. However, this is a relatively new product and the company regularly discounts it. At the time of writing, the ChouBox costs only $465.

The ChouBox started out as an Indiegogo crowdfunded project, and some of the reviews are a bit disheartening. While I did experience some of what people are mentioning in their reviews---like the ChouBox stopping mid-scoop or saying the bin was missing---this was while the ChouBox was on carpet, which Choueer specifically advises against because it interferes with the necessary sensors. My overall experience with the ChouBox was mostly positive, barring the initial disinterest from my cats.

Before getting into the review, I wanted to give some details about my two cats, Rider and Blaze, for reference. Rider is 10 years old and weighs roughly 13 pounds. He's pretty stuck in his ways with certain things, and struggled to adjust to the ChouBox more than my younger cat. Blaze is seven years old and was a runt in his litter, so he only weighs seven or eight pounds, and he's the cat you'll see in a few pictures. It was clear to me that it was easier for Blaze to maneuver inside the ChouBox, but it was plenty big enough for Rider---he's just obstinate.

Also, my cats use Okocat wood-based litter, which I think has helped with controlling smell in general before testing the ChouBox. Choueer notes that a mixture of cat litter of 50% bentonite and 50% tofu sand has offered the best results with the ChouBox specifically, but I didn't encounter any issues using my regular wood-based litter.

Specs

Unboxing and Setup: Incredibly Simple

Thankfully, there wasn't much to physically set up. When I opened the large square box the ChouBox arrived in, I lifted everything out in a single wrapped package. The litter box was already assembled, with blue tape securing the individual pieces together. Once I removed the clear plastic wrapping and ripped off the tape, I found all the little stuff---trash bag bundle, manual and quick start guide, cleaning brushes---in the waste drawer.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

I know that the blue tape was there to hold everything together, but it was also a nice indicator of where each piece separated. The litter trap pedal, which is essentially a helpful step for your cats up to the litter box, also came wrapped and taped. The pedal is made of three parts that fit snugly into one another.

Related: The Best Subscription Boxes for Cat Owners

With everything out, I took a look at the individual pieces to understand how it all fit together. The main body---or, the bottom piece---is where all the technology is. On the underside of the main body, there are gravity sensors to detect your cat's presence, and these won't work too well on soft surfaces, like carpet. The main body also contains the control panel with a small display, two infrared sensors near the opening to detect when your cat enters and leaves the box, and the waste drawer.

Then, the gray cat litter ball sits inside the bottom piece, and then the white outer piece, called the bonnet, aligns with the bottom piece and gets locked in place. Once all the pieces were in place, I had to find a place to put it that was close enough to an outlet but at least a few inches from the wall in either direction. Choueer recommends not putting the ChouBox on carpet because the sensors don't work properly, but the only places in our home we want a litter box long term are carpeted. That said, I did properly test the sensors on hard flooring in our home during the review.

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After the litter box is in its new home, the rest of the setup is done on the app. Choueer doesn't have a proprietary app for the ChouBox, but you can use the Tuya Smart app (Android/iOS) or the Smart Life app (Android/iOS). The Tuya Smart app is what I saw in the manual, so that's the app I've been using. However, to connect your ChouBox to the app, you have to plug the litter box in, and I wouldn't recommend doing that right away---more on this later.

The App: It Works Well Enough

As I mentioned, I used the Tuya Smart app with the ChouBox because this was the app mentioned in the setup manual. Connecting the ChouBox to the Tuya Smart app is similar to connecting any Bluetooth device. I followed the instructions to put the ChouBox in pairing mode, chose the device when it popped up in the mobile app, and set up my cat's profiles with their approximate weights.

When I open the Tuya Life app, I see a button on the home screen for Automatic Cat Litter Box and a picture of the ChouBox. Tapping this button takes you to the litter box's specific screen, where you'll see regular stats like maximum weight, how many times the litter box is scooped on the current day, use frequency for your cat(s), and running averages for how many times the litter is scooped and how many times the waste drawer is emptied on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.

On that first screen, you'll also see a few quick action buttons---Scoop, Flatten, Don't Disturb, and Lock. When tapped, the Scoop icon triggers a manual scoop of the litter box, the Flatten icon triggers a manual flattening of the litter in the box, the Don't Disturb icon turns off the beeping sound after scooping, and the Lock icon closes up the litter box as a child safety measure. Then, you'll also see a log with times of when your cat entered the litter box, when they left, and how long they spent in the box.

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Most of the important stuff is in the Settings section, which you can get to by scrolling all the way down and tapping on the Settings icon. You can create a profile for your cat with their name and weight, and as long as you're somewhat close to their actual weight, the ChouBox will note your cat's exact weight every time they use the box.

Related: Purrfect Products You and Your Feline Friend Will Love

With the ChouBox on carpet, neither of my two cat's weights were accurate. I entered 14 pounds for my older, larger cat---Rider---and 8 pounds for my younger, smaller cat---Blaze. After these initial weight entries, the litter box adjusted Rider's weight to 26.46 pounds and Blaze's weight to 19.84 pounds, about 12 pounds heavier for each of them.

Underneath the Cats' Profile menu option, there are three options that don't do anything: Tutorials, Instructions, and FAQ. It'd be super helpful if there was material linked to these three menu buttons, but alas. After these three options, there's Scoop Setting, where you can swap between Auto Mode, Timing Mode, and Manual Mode.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Auto Mode detects when your cat enters and leaves the litter box, and automatically scoops after a specified time between one and sixty minutes (though Choueer recommends leaving this number lower for better results because if the gravity sensors detect anything, that countdown starts over). Timing Mode lets you set the number of hours in between each automated scooping, from one hour all the way up to 24 hours. As you might expect, Manual Mode puts you in charge of when the scooping happens, whether you trigger a motorized scooping through the app or do it yourself.

I've experimented with all of the modes and they're all great. Manual Mode was especially great in the beginning when my cats were still getting used to the box because it put me in control of triggering a motorized scooping, and I could make sure they were out of the room first. When I was testing the ChouBox on carpet, Timing Mode was great because it didn't rely on the sensors---it just automatically scooped every three hours. Then, Auto Mode was great on hard flooring because it consistently scooped after my cats went to the bathroom, containing the smell and also providing them with a clean box at all times.

You can also customize the reminder notifications the app sends you. The Empty Waste Reminder can be set between one to 21 days, the Add Cat Litter Reminder can go off after one scooping or after 12 scoopings, and the Empty the Bin Reminder can go off after one scooping or 15 scoopings. Overall, using the Tuya Life app is a pretty bare experience, but everything you need is there.

Definitely Not Love at First Sight For My Cats

My cats didn't like the ChouBox at all in the beginning. My younger cat was curious but got spooked as soon as everything was together and moving. The instruction manual suggests that you move your existing litter box and put the ChouBox in its place. This is the first thing---out of many, many things---that I tried to encourage my cats to use the ChouBox. Unfortunately, my cats continued to use the old litter box that I moved to another room.

Related: My Stupid Cats Won't Use This $450 Litter Robot, But Maybe Yours Will

It's probably worth mentioning that I recently bought them a new litter box in September---three months before testing the ChouBox---and it's the largest litter box I've ever purchased. It's an extra large rectangle litter box with high sides, giving them more than plenty of room. In comparison, the ChouBox is a much more cramped experience. That's not to say it's small; it's actually quite spacious, just smaller than the huge rectangular one.

After a few weeks of the ChouBox being where the old litter box was---and both of my cats consistently choosing to go in the old litter box---I started trying to close the door to the room the old litter box was in, at least during the day when I was awake. My younger cat would cry at the door or stick his paws under it, trying to get in, and my older cat just seemed to wait until we opened the door at night.

Since both my cats insisted on using their old rectangular litter box, I took the white top piece of the ChouBox---the bonnet---and wedged it in the other litter box. I figured this would help them get used to the tighter, circular inside of the ChouBox. During the time the bonnet was wedged in the old litter box, I would close the door to that room whenever I remembered. If the door was left open all day, and they chose their old litter box, they would at least have to go within the circular area of the bonnet.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Both cats used the old litter box with the bonnet inside of it, but still refused to go in the actual ChouBox. I bought Dr. Elsey's Cat Litter Attractant, an additive to entice cats to use a litter box. I tried spraying Feliway around the ChouBox to help make it less scary. I moved some of their poop and pee clumps from the old litter box into the ChouBox to get their scent in there. I experimented with these things over the course of three to four weeks, and neither one of my cats would use it. Sometimes, they would go in the ChouBox and toss litter around, but they wouldn't actually go to the bathroom in it.

As a last resort, we let the old, luxuriously large litter box get disgusting---like absolutely disgusting---to the point that the bottom was practically one big pee clump. Cats like a clean litter box, so the idea is that if you keep one box clean and the other one dirty, they'll prefer the clean one. There have been times when I've forgotten to clean the litter box for a few days and it's gotten pretty gross, but never this gross---and they still refused to use the clean ChouBox.

After two and a half months of trying all of the above with the ChouBox, I decided to bite the bullet and make a complete swap. At this point, they were familiar with the ChouBox, and both of them had gone inside and tossed some litter around. I took the old rectangular litter box outside to the patio where it was out of the house and the cats couldn't smell it, but I left all the litter inside just in case one of them threw an absolute fit and looked like they were going to try to use the bathroom somewhere other than the ChouBox.

I knew that my cats knew the ChouBox was a litter box, but I wasn't confident that one of them wouldn't act out and try to go to the bathroom on the floor near the ChouBox instead of in it, so I took some precautions. Underneath their litter-trapping mat, I put two pee pads down to hopefully save the carpet from any accidents. I vacuumed any excess litter on the surrounding floor so they wouldn't be inspired to go wherever they found litter.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Thankfully, there were no accidents---at least, not on purpose. My 7-year-old cat acclimated much better than my older 10-year-old cat. My younger cat is also much smaller, around eight pounds, whereas my older cat is around 13 pounds. While my younger cat seemed frustrated about the situation, he went into the ChouBox, tossed some litter around, and went both number one and number two. My older cat, on the other hand, had some issues.

My older cat likes to pee up against the high sides of a litter box, and the ChouBox is missing defined "sides" because it's a sphere. Because of this, I think he couldn't figure out where he wanted to pee. Eventually, he found an okay position and went. The first time he pooped in the ChouBox didn't go nearly as well.

Because there's an opening at the front of the ChouBox, it seems natural that a cat would put their head out of the opening, right? Well, not my cat. He shoved his face into a little crevice in the back of the ChouBox, and pooped with his butt through the opening, causing it to tumble down the litter trap pedal as it fell. Then, to make matters worse, he tried to cover his poop like normal, meaning that he was chucking litter out the opening. Unfortunately, he did this more than once, but for the most part, he faces the correct direction now.

If I Could Have a Do-Over, Here's What I'd Do

Earlier, I mentioned that I wouldn't recommend plugging in the litter box right away. If I could go back in time to when I first unboxed the ChouBox, I wouldn't plug it in until my cats had used it at least a couple of times. I would put litter in it, put it where our old litter box was, and let them experiment with using it before knowing that it moved and made noise. I would manually scoop it for a while, multiple times a day so they got used to that litter box constantly being clean.

If you have really skittish cats, I might even suggest leaving the parts disassembled first, laid out for your cat to investigate each and every piece. Then, you could put it together without litter inside, leave it for a few more days, and finally add litter---all for a more gradual acclimation process.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

I was way too excited to put it together, get it connected to the app, and see how it works, but once your cats see and hear it move, you can't take that back. Cats feel vulnerable when they use the litter box, and most cats probably won't react well at first to a litter box that makes sounds and moves. My cats are fairly adaptive. They've moved with us multiple times and adjusted to new environments well, but I think that letting them use the ChouBox before ever turning it on would've made a huge difference in how well they acclimated to it.

Functionally, This Litter Box Is Pretty Great

Once my cats were actually using the ChouBox, the experience was great. Even when I had the ChouBox on the carpet, and the sensors wouldn't work accurately most of the time, I loved using Manual Mode and Timing Mode to scoop the box. With Manual Mode, it's so nice to simply open an app, push a button to trigger a motorized scoop, and spare my knees and wrists to scoop the box myself.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

If you only have carpeted floors, the ChouBox is still a good investment, but it's a fantastic investment if you have hard flooring. I didn't test this, so I don't know how well it would work, but I would imagine that using a hard desk chair mat would mimic hard flooring and enable all the useful features that come along with accurate sensors.

Using Auto Mode with the sensors on hard flooring, I could see when my cat entered, when they left, and the cat's weight. Every time I walked by, the litter was visibly flattened, and I could tell it had gone through a scoop cycle. When the ChouBox was on carpet, I sometimes had issues with it thinking the waste bin wasn't in there during a scoop cycle or otherwise not having a smooth scoop cycle, but I've had absolutely none of those issues while it's on hard flooring.

As I mentioned earlier, my older cat likes to pee on the side of litter boxes. He also likes to dig all the way to the bottom, which usually means I have to unstick the clump from the side of the box. I was worried about how well the ChouBox would handle pee clumps on the very bottom, but it does really well. The gray litter ball flips over completely when it's scooping, and a slit on the bottom of the gray ball allows air to come in, which causes the anti-adhesive pad the litter sits on to push out and sort of pop out anything that's sticking to it.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Although you can mute the annoying beep when it's done scooping---and I can't imagine who wouldn't do this---the motor sounds were still a bit jarring to my cats. When the motor is going, it's just under 35 decibels, which is somewhere between a loud whisper and light rain. Eventually, my cats got used to the sounds of the ChouBox scooping. It would wake them up if they were sleeping on the bed or the cat tower nearby, but they wouldn't run away or jump down to investigate it.

My younger cat will occasionally have a moment of uncertainty where he wants to smack it a few times with his paw, but to be fair, he does this randomly with the plastic wrapping around a pack of water bottles or other random everyday objects. He's a skittish little guy.

Related: Litter Genie Review: A Cheap, All-In-One Solution For Scooping Litter Boxes

Also, the ChouBox does a great job of keeping the smells in, whether stuff stays in the waste drawer or inside the gray ball for a few hours between Manual or Timing Mode. Speaking of the waste drawer, it's pretty big. It can hold up to two weeks of waste, though ChouBox recommends swapping out the bag every week. Luckily, if you forget, the app will let you know when the waste drawer reaches max capacity.

Cleaning and Maintenance

The ChouBox scoops itself, but it still needs regular cleaning just like a regular litter box. All of the pictures in this section were taken after roughly two weeks of use. I started the cleaning process by putting a fresh trash bag in the waste bin, and pouring out the litter from the gray litter ball. Since the waste bin is so large, there wasn't any spillage when I did this.

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Then, to clean the anti-adhesive pad in the gray litter ball, I used the included brush, paper towels, and water. First, I used the brush to break up some of the stuck-on clumps, and then went at it with alternating wet and dry paper towels for about 15 minutes. ChouBox doesn't recommend using any sort of disinfectant spray or wipes, as chemicals like bleach can turn into toxic gas when mixed with urine. Luckily, water does a good job cleaning on its own, and the hard bristle brushes that come with the ChouBox are excellent for maintaining litter dust and getting into small crevices.

My cats use Okocat litter, which is wood-based, and when their pee mixes with this litter, it forms an almost congealed consistency. Because my older cat pees against the side, this congealed mixture ended up getting wedged in a crack on the front left side of the gray litter ball. I had the brilliant idea of using a toothpick to get it out, and this worked beautifully. It all came out in a few swipes within a minute or two.

Cleaning everything else was even simpler. The white bonnet piece needed a quick wipe to get rid of litter dust around the opening. Then, the bottom piece that holds the waste drawer accumulated some loose litter, so I tipped it over my trash can to empty it, and then wiped it out with a wet paper towel. For the waste drawer itself, deep cleaning it wasn't much different than regularly maintaining it.

Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

The trash bags that come with the ChouBox are sort of square, and they fit perfectly inside the waste drawer. There's a gray door in the waste drawer that moves out of the way when the litter box is scooping, and sometimes litter accumulates on this little gray door. In the center, there's a small silicone rectangle piece that you can remove to brush excess litter into the waste bin with the tiny brush that's included. This tiny brush, as well as the larger hard bristle brush, are excellent for maintaining litter dust and getting into small crevices.

For extra cleaning of the waste drawer, all you have to do is remove the trash bag, dump any loose litter particles into the trash, and wipe it down with a wet paper towel. Then, you put a new trash bag in the waste drawer, reassemble everything, and you're golden!

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Verdict: If You Can Be Patient, It's Worth It

Overall, the ChouBox delivers on its promises and I love not having to scoop the litter box manually anymore. Despite my cats not wanting to use it at first, they've certainly warmed up to the ChouBox in the past couple of weeks. I think that ultimately, they'll like having a clean litter box at all times with Auto Mode.

If you don't have a place with hard flooring in your home where you could put the ChouBox, or you're not willing to buy a hard chair mat to create a hard surface on top of carpet, it's probably not worth it. Sure, you can use Manual Mode and Timing Mode, but the sensors won't work accurately and then you're paying oodles of money for only half the features.

Choueer's return policy states that the ChouBox has to be clean and unused, which means you can't put litter in it and see if your cat will use it before deciding to return it. Because of this, I'd highly recommend thinking about your cat's temperament before making your decision. How well do they react to changes? Have you tried using a water fountain or automatic feeder with a motor in the past? If you've changed their litter or litter box, do they adapt well?

ChouBox: The Ultimate Automatic Litter Box

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