Hi everyone,
A couple of months ago we reviewed the excellent Petsafe Scoop Free litter tray. One of the things which worried us was the disposal of the litter cartridge at the end of use (in our case every couple of weeks as we have 2 kitties). Although the idea of just taking the bottom tray and covering it with the supplied lid before throwing it away sounded convenient, it left us feeling a little bit guilty about adding to the amount of landfill. We also found that we had to tape the two parts of the box together to stop the crystals escaping on the way to the bin.
If like us you’d like to reduce the amount of waste and don’t mind just a little bit of extra work, then there is an alternative; the Forever Litter Tray The Permanent Scoopfree Compatible Litter Tray. We obtained the tray from Amazon UK where it’s priced at £49.95. The high quality plastic tray takes the place of the bottom cardboard box supplied in the usual cartridges. This gives a little bit more peace of mind when it comes to possible leakage. Firstly because it’s 100% waterproof but secondly because the tray does not twist when you pick it up. There is no lid because it’s not needed as you’ll see. Unlike the cardboard cartridges, the plastic litter tray does not have a hinged flap compartment at one end for the poop to be stored in. This was a bit worrying at first as I was wondering if the collected poop would come into contact with the underside of the Automated Litter Tray flap. After using the tray, it became clear this was not a problem at all. This was mainly due to the fact that the plastic litter tray kit we received comes with two plastic flaps, one of which attaches to the hinged waste compartment cover increasing its height. The second flap is attached to the Forever Litter Tray itself and has the dual function of reducing the escape of litter odour and crystals from the back of the tray as they are raked in. Both flaps are very easy to fit and remove for cleaning if required. The absence of a cardboard flap on the tray also makes it easier to lift the waste compartment cover when you want to give the litter a quick stir to redistribute it evenly because there’s no need to reconnect anything to the magnets.
So what about crystals for use in the Forever Litter Tray? The producer of the tray has spent some time looking at suitable alternatives to that provided with the pre-filled cartridges. What they’ve found is that crystals are still the best type of litter to use but the size of the actual crystals is critical. As well as recommending certain brands of crystals, they have also produced their own brand; Just the Crystals® Premium Crystal Cat Litter. We used these crystals, which come in packs of two pre-measured 2kg bags (the ideal amount as recommended by the maker of the Forever Litter Tray) costing £17.98 from Amazon UK. After 2 weeks use, we found that we had the same odour free use and dehydrated poop as with the crystal supplied in the cartridges. To empty the tray it’s just a simple matter of removing as with the cartridge and just emptying into a bag for easy disposal. We gave our tray a quick clean with some cat safe disinfectant making sure it was dry before refilling with the crystals.
Our main reason for wanting to try the Forever Litter Tray was to reduce the amount of waste going into our bin. It certainly does this but also makes it a lot easier to dispose of waste as a bag of used litter can go in our regular kitchen bin while the cartridge had to be taken outside to a large bin. Using the compatible tray also has a positive impact on your finances. A quick calculation shows that the use of the Forever Litter Tray offers significant cost savings. Based on Amazon’s UK website we worked out that for 6 months of use we could save over 20 GBP. This was based on 4 triple packs of cartridges (total £180) versus 1 Forever Litter Tray and 6 packs (each with 2 bags) of the Just the Crystals® Premium Crystal Cat Litter (total £158). As the litter tray is a one of cost each subsequent 6 months gives a saving of over £70. In the future we’ll be looking at alternative crystals to see if more savings can be made.
You can find out more about the Forever Litter Tray on the company website by clicking here more info on the Just the Crystals® Premium Crystal Cat Litter can be found here.
Thanks,
Katzenworld
Sign up for our new Newsletter (Delivered every Tuesday) here!
Thanks for the inside scoop.
Haha. You are welcome 🙂
Sounds great. But my cat just pees down the plug hole of the kitchen sink.
Really?!? Luckily ours don’t lol. I hope they use the litter box for more serious business tho? XD
Oh good grief, imagine number twos in the sink! Luckily I don’t know where those go!
XD hopefully somewhere outside haha
Now, if they can invent a cat that doesn’t poop or pee, we’re home free!
My cat loves the litter box, probably to scratch as much as she can. To get my attention. But I do keep it clean and I do love the blue crystal type of light powder that is very clean.
Thankyou for the review. I have two cats and two litter trays, they both have lids on and filters, however my cats stink basically. The filters dont seem to be working grrr x
I don’t sell anything under Radio Corp., but for you I’d do anything! 😀
This sounds great! Self-cleaning litter box is a dream come true for me! Thanks for the review! Greets!
Just the info I was looking for my cat 🙂 Thanks for the information on this
I have a ScoopFree for my cats and it works very well. However, I do think the replacement trays are on the expensive side and have been looking at Forever tray with their recommended crystals. Purchase from the USA is probitively expensive – the transport is more than the cost of the goods (and there’s probably import duties as well)!! However, I can’t find either item on the Amazon UK or ES site, do you have direct links to either of them?
Hi Graeme,
That’s very odd it used to be on the Amazon UK version now it appears to only be on the Amazon US store!
I would drop the guys at Forever Litter Tray an email as it really does help to keep the costs down: foreverlittertrays@gmail.com
Thanks for that – I’ll get in touch with them directly.
You are welcome 🙂
And if you need any other help let us know 😀
We also accept guest posts if your own cat(s) fancy a story 😉
I have just contacted them saying: “Hi there, do you know whether there is a seller based in the UK that sells those reusable trays? It can’t be that all UK buyers must pay for the postage from USA, can it?” and they replied: “Sorry to say we only sell via Amazon.com (us). However the shipping cost isn’t as much as you would imagine- we actually have quite a large number of happy UK customers. Please visit the “order” page at our website for more details.”
So I did go to the “order page” and it turns out the litter tray costs $59.95 (expensive, but I’d pay that) PLUS $15.49 for shipping PLUS $15.09 for import fees = $90.53 for a bit of plastic!!! How ridiculous can you get?
Sorry to hear that… When we bought and reviewed this they still had them available in Amazon UK. 🙁
What I’d say though is that once you’ve got the tray most UK crystal brands will work just fine with it.
to my country shipping was $66. ridiculous! and we talk about EU not about some nowhere
Hi Katkarinka. Which country are you trying to get it delivered to? When we reviewed this a few years back it was 17USD for the postage to the UK from amazon us for the forever litter tray.
And it was the same for the other countries we tried. ?
Hello, Does it work on 220 voltage?
Thanks
Hi Nourah,
There might be different versions for different markets. Our UK one came with an adapter for 100 – 240 voltage.
Thanks,
Marc
My forever litter tray has just arrived. Can’t seem to find “just the crystals”, did you ever get round to testing different uk brands?
Thanks!
Hi Barrie,
We’ve indeed with mixed results I am afraid! We are still on the look-out for a UK based crystal litter that is a good enough substitute for the just the crystals… There are rumours though that PetSafe themselves is working on a replacement litter solution so we will keep people posted once we’ve got more on this.