Just a couple of minutes, ok?
Can we?
She is so scared, ok anyway
Hey, what's up? Sami here.
Today I will be reviewing something that my cat Harriet has long been looking forward to
That is, an automatic cat litter box - the ChouBox.
And I will compare it with the PuraMax and Litter Robot to see what's new about the ChouBox.
So without further ado, let's get started.
Shall we?
Hey, shall we? Answer me.
Alright, just for the record, the one I got to test was a prototype so the official unit
you get at the end might be different. After all, that’s quite normal with any crowdfunding project.
So, what you are going to see is all based on this unit that I own
and I will try to be as honest as I can.
So, first things first, let’s check out the design. On the front, we have a litter box at
the bottom. Moving up is the LCD display and a knob to let you choose different settings,
we’ll get to that in a second. And of course, we see the spacious entry for cats.
If we take a closer look, we find two sensors lie on each side for detecting cats entering
or leaving the litter box. Those are just one of the many sensors on this machine BTW.
On the side, are the handlebars for carrying the box, just slide it to the side and you
are ready to take out the top cover. While at the back is the type-c port.
That’s the design. Overall, I feel it’s minimalistic and modern, especially if
you compare it to the Litter Robot. But I would say the same good looks as the PuraMax.
For those who are wondering about how to use this litter box,
it’s basically not a huge difference compared to other automatic litter boxes.
You first connect it to the power. Oh, btw, the cable is bite-proof with this kind of nylon
braided design just in case of your cat gets naughty. Then the ChouBox starts initializing,
this took about 30 seconds and the noise is a bit loud with this kind of grumbling sound.
The good thing is you don’t have to keep turning it on or off all the time,
it’s a one-time thing. After that, it reminds you to add cat litter. Then I added a certain
amount of cat litter. Rotate the knob to the “Flatten Sand” and press on the knob to confirm,
then the machine starts to rotate and flatten the litter, this process takes about 30 seconds.
And that’s it, basically, all you need to do next is wait for your beloved cats to use it.
But before that, let’s take a good look at what’s new about the ChouBox.
It offers an App, on the homepage, it records a very detailed activity log of your cat.
Below that is the Statistics, which shows you the key info of your cat and the ChouBox.
“Me” here includes Store and Help Center those. “Settings” here is all about, of course, settings.
Below the ChouBox image, there are four commonly used choices. Here I chose “Scoop Now”,
and as you can see, it’s scooping. I like that blue wave animation effect on the App,
it feels a sense of high-tech. Alright, that’s the App, it’s still in its early stage and I
can’t show you much more info but I really like the idea, we are in a smart device era, aren’t we?
Just in case you don’t want an App,
we can manually control this ChouBox by using the display and the knob.
You rotate it in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction to choose different items. Once you
chose and then press to confirm. It is easy to use even the first time you get your hands on it.
But of course, you really want to see this machine in real-life use. But unluckily,
during my hours of shooting, we didn’t catch my cat Harriet using it, she was super curious,
but since this was the first time she faced so many cameras and lights, it seems she
was not ready yet, so I will just use water to simulate the waste.
Before that, we made sure to install the litter bin bag.
Pull the litter bin out, remove the top part, we see the drawer,
it separates a small part for putting the litter bag in, that’s awesome. It’s all in the details, mate.
Then just put the bag into the bin, put back the top and push it into the slot, easy peasy.
After pouring some water, I pressed Scoop Now to scoop. Then magically, the bin rotates itself
and filters out the waste bumps and pushed them to the bin and then flattened itself.
When it’s time to clear the waste, I just pulled the string on the bag and
sealed them all in once. It’s pretty quick without contaminating anything. Speaking of that,
I have to mention the built-in ozone generator, though I haven’t really tried but seems the
waste drawer of ChouBox is fully enclosed. It’s good because you don’t need to replace that part
like other litter boxes. For example, you may need to get air-purifying refill for PuraMax.
One last thing is the assembly and disassembly, I would say it’s as easy as the other two. Just
slide the buckle to the side as shown in the video and then take out the top case,
then the wheel part. In case you are wondering what’s under the wheel, here you go.
So that’s basically all the necessary info for the ChouBox and I tried my best to show
what’s available. But since I haven’t used it for a long period of time so in the next
comparison part, I’ll just check some of the downsides on the other two litter boxes to
see if ChouBox has solved the issues or not and of course, are there any cons from the ChouBox.
First compared to the Litter Robot, for many users including me, the biggest issue maybe is the large
rubber pad and the multi-hole filter, which can easily absorb all kinds of dust and odor and it's
very difficult to clean. For this issue, the ChouBox has solved it perfectly. There is
only a medium-sized silicon pad attached there and the filter is easier to clean obviously.
Another thing I have to mention is the part under the wheel ball,
just too many holes there so if any sand gets into it, it would be pain in the ass to clean,
while this won’t happen with the ChouBox since it’s much simpler.
For others, the ChouBox takes up less space as we put them head-to-head
there. They are the same ease of assembly and disassembly from my experience.
Design-wise, the Litter Robot 3 looks old fashioned like a product from the last century
but feels much more rugged and also since they offer physical keys it would be good for the
elderly to operate. And that’s one downside of the ChouBox, the LCD and knob design is more advanced,
but maybe not that user-friendly to all people. Also not sure if the cat
could accidently kick the knob and activate the machine and cause some issues. Again,
I haven’t used it for much time and things need to be tested over a period of time.
If compared to the PuraMax, for me the biggest problem is the assembly and disassembly,
it looks less intuitive than the other two, but if you get familiar with it, it’s OK. But I really
don’t like that they just exposed those cables and main circuit when you take off the top cover!
You never know what cat might be doing next! Another thing is the smaller litter box,
you have to change it more often than the other two for sure.
Also unlike the other two, PuraMax has adopted an old way to get rid of odor, in which they
put deodorant to a bracket on the wall. I’m not saying it’s bad but more consumables,
more cost, and of course more trouble. Again, the PuraMax adopted the same
porous filter like the Litter Robot, which is a bad idea, and I don’t know why this.
But on the good side, I like the design of the PuraMax and I think
their buttons plus LCD design is more scientific.
To conclude, from my limited days of use, I do like the many new designs and functionalities
from the ChouBox, the designer really knows how to present this product from a cat
and cat owner’s perspective and make it easy and simple to use.
It’s smart and sensitive, like whenever I touch it, it will automatically stop and wait,
this will minimize the possible injury to your cat.
The product doesn’t have consumables,
no need to replace this or that, saves lots of trouble. Overall, I like it.
But like I said this is a prototype and stability is one of the things you should
consider. The LCD and knob design is good, but I guess would be difficult for the elderly to
operate since it’s not that bright to read, and definitely not as intuitive and straightforward
as the physical buttons on the Litter Robot. But again, like I said the one I have is a prototype
and ChouBox is still working to finalize everything. So if you want to give this thing
a shot, I would recommend to do so. If you are interested in this product, you can find out the
link in the description and back the project.
Alright, that's the video.
And if you have any questions about the ChouBox,
please don't hesitate to leave your comments in the comments section.
I’m Sami and I will see you in the next one.
Where is Harriet?