Litter-Robot 5 Pro Review: Fancy Features With Too Many Bugs

Cat owners are no strangers to the daily ritual of litter box maintenance. The Litter-Robot 5 Pro aims to make that routine easier with automatic self-cleaning, and the company has a track record of delivering on that promise. I used the Litter-Robot 4 for years and really liked it — it generally worked well and simplified cleaning cat litter. So naturally, I was curious to see what the latest version would bring to the table.

This time around, Litter-Robot has added improved sensors, quieter operation, and, for the Pro model specifically, a built-in camera and the ability to tell your cats apart. That last one is genuinely useful if you've got multiple cats. On paper, it sounds like a solid upgrade, but after spending time with it, I found that while the new features are nice to have, the Litter-Robot 5 Pro has taken a bit of a step backward when it comes to reliability compared to the model I'd been using for years. It's not terrible, and to be clear, it's still a whole lot easier than manual scooping.

The Litter-Robot 5 Pro keeps that signature globe shape the line has always had, and it's still much bigger than your average litter box. But it's not meaningfully larger than the Litter-Robot 4, so if you've already carved out space for a previous-generation model, you'll be fine. The unit handles cats up to 20 pounds, which covers pretty much every domestic cat out there.

One upgrade I appreciated right away is the larger sealed waste drawer. You don't have to empty it as often, which is kind of the whole reason you'd buy an automatic litter box. The motion sensors detect when your cat enters or exits, triggering cleaning cycles at the right moments while keeping your pet safe.

Build quality feels like a step up from previous versions too. The buttons are more satisfying to press, and the plastic feels sturdier — or at least more premium. You now get two color options, which is a nice touch. I've been testing the black model, and it looks clean and modern. There's also a new LED display on the front that shows status info and helps walk you through setup. You won't interact with it constantly, but it's useful for quick glances.

Getting the physical unit set up was easy enough. On the other hand, the app setup wasn't great. I ran into bugs trying to connect the device — the process crashed multiple times before finally working. What should have taken maybe 10 minutes turned into an hour of frustration. I'm not exactly sure what the issue was in the end, but after trying many times, I got it to work. Maybe it was connecting to the wrong Wi-Fi band (an $800 product should support 5GHz bands), or maybe it was something else. Regardless, it worked eventually.

I'm hoping these were just launch-day software issues that'll get smoothed out with updates, and hopefully customers who buy the Litter-Robot 5 Pro at this point won't run into the bugs that I did. Either way, I like the general design of the unit, and it should look good in most homes.

At its core, the Litter-Robot 5 Pro uses a sifting system that rotates the globe, separates waste from clean litter, and drops the clumps into that sealed drawer underneath. The fifth-generation model is said to run quieter than the Litter-Robot 4, and it does — though I didn't find it to be a huge change in how I felt about its operation in day-to-day life. The Litter-Robot 4 was already plenty quiet. Safety features include automatic stops if a cat jumps in mid-cycle, so you don't have to worry about any injuries.

One thing to keep in mind is the fact that the Litter-Robot needs clumping, non-clay litter to work properly. If you're loyal to a litter that doesn't fit those requirements, you'll either need to make a switch or look at other options.

The system does what it's supposed to do, but I ran into way more issues than I did with the Litter-Robot 4. Motor issues popped up regularly even though the unit wasn't overfilled, and the sensors kept detecting "extended scale activity" when no cat was anywhere near the robot. This meant manually resetting the device, and it happened at least once a week during testing. The unit was on a flat, stable surface, so I can't blame the environment.

These reliability problems are frustrating because they take away from the idea of an automatic system that you don't have to maintain, like you do a standard litter box. An automatic litter box that needs regular manual intervention isn't really all that automatic. Often, if the failures happened at night, I would miss notifications about failures and not know about issues until I smelled that the Litter-Robot hadn't been running for a while.

The built-in camera is new for the Pro model, and it's a cool idea. You can check on your cat remotely and theoretically keep an eye on their behavior. In practice, I didn't find it all that useful day to day — it felt more like a novelty than something I actually needed. The camera feed is also slow to load in the app, which makes quick check-ins difficult. That said, if you've got a cat with health issues you need to monitor, or you simply like the idea of a cat-cam, you might get more out of this feature than I did. You might also find the interior camera handy if you find that, like me, the Litter-Robot 5 Pro regularly needs to be manually cycled, so you can see what's happening in there without having to physically check.

The companion app is well-designed for the most part. The interface is clean, and finding what you need is pretty intuitive. Wi-Fi connectivity lets you check on litter levels and cycle status from anywhere, and the app sends notifications when it's time to empty the drawer or handle maintenance.

But performance can be sluggish and unresponsive at times. There are manual controls for triggering cycles or adjusting settings remotely, but they felt less reliable than just walking over and pressing the physical buttons. More than once, I tapped something in the app and just had to hope it actually went through.

Status reporting was another issue. The app sometimes showed the wrong information — displaying the device as off when it was running or not registering when it actually powered down. Combine that with the false sensor readings I mentioned earlier, like low litter warnings when there was plenty and offline notifications when the unit was connected, and it made the app hard to trust as a monitoring tool.

Despite all this, the app's foundation is solid, and software updates could fix a lot of these problems. One thing I'd love to see are controls on the home screen. Most people are going to use this app to operate the robot, not to check how many "scoops they've saved" or track weight trends. Quick-access controls front and center, or at least the option to customize what shows up first, would make the app way more practical for everyday use.

The Litter-Robot 5 Pro packs in more features than any previous version, including the camera, multi-cat detection, and improved build quality. But those additions come with a trade-off in reliability. The frequent sensor errors, motor issues, and inconsistent app performance mean you'll probably find yourself doing manual resets and interventions more often than you'd want. I still generally like the Litter-Robot 5 Pro, and I like that there are additional features being added. If it all worked well, they would be helpful additions. I still recommend a Litter-Robot in general, but, if you're like me, you may find that the Litter-Robot 4 is slightly more reliable.

The competition

Compared to the Litter-Robot 4, which I used for years without any real problems, the 5 Pro feels like a step back on dependability. The older model doesn't have the camera or some of the smart features, but it just does the job consistently. If reliability matters more to you than extra bells and whistles, the Litter-Robot 4 is still available and might actually be the better pick. If you do want those extra bells and whistles though, you may have to be ready to deal with some bugs and extra maintenance.

Should I buy the Litter-Robot 5 Pro?

Maybe, if you like the idea of the extra features added to the latest model — but be ready to deal with some bugs.