I didn't have the littermaid myself, but a friend that I cat sat for did. I hated it! You have to touch the little containers with the dirty litter in it. I HATED that! When her littermaid died, she got this other kind of litter box that was pretty cool, but she had to send it back because one of her four cats was afraid of it and wouldn't go all the way inside. She would stick her head in and poop on the floor. I don't remember the name of it. It was a big round one that once the cats did their business and left the area, it would spin around and the dirty litter would fall into a pan underneath. You could put a trash bag in that pan to line it, so the only thing you had to do was remove the bag and put a new one in. It did have a good return policy, so she was able to try it for a month or maybe even two and then return it once it was obvious that Jill wouldn't use it properly. It was comparable in price to the littermaid as far as I can remember. I can either ask her or search online for it if you are interested.