Whisker Reviews

by L9veme

In spite of the reply, I have never had Wi-Fi issues with my litter robot. I’ve had it for months without it ever disconnecting once. It’s been in the same location. Whisker updated, and now it disconnects at least once a week, and doesn’t even attempt to reconnect. I have to go to the robot, and reset the Wi-Fi even though nothing has changed. I have reached out for support via the website, and they too blame my Wi-Fi, even though they can’t tell me what is wrong with my network. It is hard to accept that it’s the only device in my very connected home that has an issue with my network, especially when it didn’t exist prior to Whisker update, and makes zero sense why it stays connected for ~week each time.

My robot worked perfect until the update. This recent update made it lose internet connection and it won’t reconnect. It won’t even connect to my guest network or phone hotspot.

by Appleforlife12

I just bought my lb connect 2 months ago. I read reviews saying it was worth the $50 to have it be able to connect to phone. It took me over an hour to connect Whisker to my phone. It worked great after sending me notifications etc but the last 2 weeks in the litter app not Whisker it kept saying the draw was full and threatened to not auto cycle until the drawer was empty. I even took the advice of other reviews and downloaded Whisker on my iPad. It didn’t work. I emptied it and reset it. It didn’t work. I was told by the lb app that I had to switch over to Whisker. It’s still saying the draw is full after I deleted and downloaded both apps again. This is very frustration that a $600 device can glitch this much and Whisker is no improvement. Why charge $50 extra if the machine and app won’t sync? The machine it self the last couple of days at least once a day the cycle is interrupted and it does send me a notification for that but still I don’t want to have to worry that when I’m not home the box will not finish a cycle thus resulting in my cat not being able to use Whisker . I wanted to love the box and the connect app option but I can not in good faith recommend this to anyone not strangers or my friends.

by Quinny2314

Reviews have already been written on this topic.

The gist of it.
I can not connect with either of wifi/bluetooth connections. Also, same as other users, I do not feel like scanning the barcode, going thru the entire setup for each attempt. Gets very old several hours in. Total waste of my time.
I tried everything the help email suggested. No luck. Believe me I was really hopeful for the luck I needed..

Maybe, when I have several hours of free time, possibly I'll attempt to fix it.

i know, call me crazy, trying to the same thing over and over while getting the same results.

For great descriptions and break down of these issues, I def suggest, reading some of the other bluetooth/wifi customers who have same annoying problems.


I'm personally tapped out and over it..
I'm more than a little frustrated trying to set this thing up, that quite literally I have no more energy to give this product.

I am going to return it, possibly I may attempt to buy a cheaper version. If there is one, idk, without all of the amazing wifi/bluetooth 'Luxuries' of this product.

Good luck

Please allow me to be clear and transparent,
I have issue, ONLY, with Whisker, customer service relating to Whisker.

I have had the robot, about 2 weeks and I really really love the product.. hence, i will look for a cheaper version if it exists. Omitting anything relating to Whisker ..

Thanks

by Meganofindy

I am an app designer and have dozens of connected connected products in our house. Most apps are at least functional, but this newest “auto pets” app is horrible and doesn’t work. I got almost 40 notifications of litter box errors in 5 minutes. My cat has been nowhere near the box in at least a few hours, so I’m not sure what would trigger this. These issues never occurred with the old litter robot app, so there are clearly some compatibility issues. I am angry that I paid so much for a litter box that has now become more of a nuisance than helpful.

Update: After speaking with customer service and troubleshooting all the hardware, litter, and components of the physical product, the issues were still present in Whisker . Customer service told me to revert to the old app and I haven’t had any issues since doing that. Hoping they’ll continue supporting the old app for awhile because the new one is just not ready (fwiw, I am on most recent version of iOS on iPhone 12 pro max).

by Jxz140630

How, I ask you, can you charge $499 for a Litter Robot and lull me into a false sense of happiness with the old app (Little Robot) working perfectly fine, then make it obsolete and tell me to download Whisker that DOESN'T WORK. Seriously I can’t get my litter robot to cycle now from the phone or reset it. I have to go back to the buttons on the machine now. Worst of all I don’t know when it’s full via push notifications anymore so sometimes it doesn’t get cleaned right away. Please fix this. If this machine ever breaks I’ll probably be better off replacing it with a $5 plastic bin unless the functionality I originally paid for and HAD WITH THE OLD APP MADE OBSOLETE FOR NO REASON is brought back.

Edit: To the developer’s reply: You’ve got to be joking. The old app works, the new one doesn’t. How about you alpha test instead of beta and stop blaming customers for your awful app.

by Applestar Tech

I bought a new litter robot 3 and I successfully connected it to the this app app. Because I was still having my cat transition to this litter robot, I kept it turned off and would turn it on only when I needed to cycle it. Since my cat seemed to be getting used to its cycling mode, I decided to keep it powered on and to use the this app app to control it. But when I tried to do that, it was saying that my litterbox was “offline.” So I tried to reconnect it several times without success. It would always say “litter robot is connected.” But when I check Whisker , the litter robot is not there so I have to add the litterbox again and again and again, registering it again and again and again. Very frustrating. How can it say it was successfully connected and yet there’s no litter robot showing on my this app app? Furthermore, it’s supposed to cycle after connection, but it did not. It just went directly to the home button (turned blue). Is my litter box registered and showing up in another person’s app? Because it’s saying it’s connected, but to whom? It’s certainly not connected to my app. So I think Whisker is hacked or corrupted. I would really appreciate your help. This is the most expensive litterbox I’ve ever bought and I feel depressed right now knowing that it’s not working the way it’s supposed to and I keep thinking it’s hacked or corrupted by some kind of malicious software. MGB 😔😿

by KJLuLo

Update to my review: it’s been several months and despite the issue with frequent notifications about the robot being full allegedly being resolved, it is still happening. It’s unbelievably frustrating.
***

I had virtually no issues with my litter robot until about two weeks ago. There was no software update or anything but since then, I’ve been getting notifications randomly about every hour about the robot if it’s full. In the middle of the night too! Up until this point, I would only get the notification if the cat went into the box and then Whisker reminded me it was full and would not be able to cycle. Now it is constant and not related to if the cat has used the box or not. It’s driving me crazy! I also get the notifications on my Apple Watch, meaning I’ve literally been woken up in the middle of the night from it vibrating due to one of these random notifications when both cats have been in bed sleeping next to me for hours. Please fix this bug, it is unbelievably annoying.

by Airiezhou

First time buyer of the Litter robot. This review is mainly on the registration process.
1. BLE Connection : Bluetooth connect does not work on mine. Keep showing error.
The series number shown on the bluetooth connection settings and series number on my LR mismatch. Could be a problem only on re-conditioned unit?
2. Wifi connection: The instruction is slightly confusing after you connect to the LR wi-fi manually. You see a second time Wi-fi selection, which you’re suppose to select your own Wi-fi. Why can’t Whisker auto opens up the wi-fi selection and ask you to select LR ? then open up selection again and ask to select house Wi-fi?

I was confused as I was trying to find LR wi-fi on the list.
3. The registered LR did not show on the main page immediately after “registration Success”.
It took so long that I tried 3+ times to redo the process and started furiously writing this review.
Then I reopen Whisker to look for bug report, one unit finally shows up on the main page, with the wrong name. (probably pick the name I used in the last few tries). Or because of #4 issue, I didn’t even remember how many names I have used.

4. “Back” button returns you all the way to the start. It’s just a lazy implementation I feel like. I don't want to scan and type name again just because some error happens in one step.

Bottom line, Registration somewhat works. But the user experience is very bad.

by Laura3884

When an error occurred with the litter robot, the original app allowed me to click the error and see what type of error it was. Kind of helpful to know if the error is simply that one of our cats re-entered the litter box during countdown (I can ignore) or if something else has occurred and I should go check it out (like the time it was tripped halfway through a clean cycle, paused itself mid-spin with the robot open to the waste drawer, and had to be reset).
It’s also annoying that when I go into “Notifications” Whisker now defaults to the feeder robot as the first screen I see. The old App did not have anything about the feeder robot. Probably because we don’t have one. So, I just find it an odd inconvenience that a device I do not own is now my default page when I open that section. Minor, but seems like another area they could have left alone.

by TSJPink

Previous litter robot app = no technical issues; perfect functionality. New auto pets app = worked upon initial setup but will no longer connect to the litter robot so I get no notifications. My wifi works just fine - all other devices in my home are able to connect. Of course followed the reconnect instructions, numerous times, but if fails every time and the status remains “offline.” Its now been offline for weeks. I was worried at first that my actual litter robot wasn’t working but thank goodness it’s working properly - not so good is that I have to constantly monitor it since I no longer receive notifications via Whisker . The point of paying extra for the connect functionality is to actually be connected. This NEVER happened using the old app. Completely frustrating.

by Ldyhwk1

I have several cats and we decided to make our life a bit easier by getting a robot. In many was it has done that and in others it has been a bit of a headache. Not having to scoop dirty liter is a big plus. Being able to just pull a drawer out, lift a bag out has been even greater. That is the second plus. Unfortunately there have been some down sides. I call them the glitches. The robot notifying us the drawer is full or not notifying us when it is full. Also, we have found it will just up and decide not to empty for no reason. Not a pretty thing to happen. We have reported this many times to customer service with no solution. I do have friends that have robots some are over the moon others have the glitches also. Not as bad as ours but similar. The real downside is we can’t leave the cats for more than a day in case something goes wrong. Or we have to set up other litter pans to cover it. I think we may have gotten a lemon and have no recourse to fix it.

by Disappointed Cat Dad

When it works, it is great, but I find I’m dealing with more issues than solutions with my litter robot and Whisker . Many times I’m not getting notifications when the drawer is full or there is a malfunction. I notice a lot I’ll get a notification of it cycling, but no notification that it is full for some reason. Because of that, the cats use it until the litter is one big glob because it won’t cycle since it is full and I don’t think to look at the litter (that’s the point of having upgraded to the LR that sends notifications) The cats then go do their business around the house because there is no more litter. It gets quite annoying dealing with this regularly. At times I find myself wondering if I should just go back to a normal litter box with a routine of scooping it daily to avoid this problem. Like I said, when it works, it’s great. But majority of the time it is unfortunately a headache.

by RussHampton

Couldn’t figure out how to update my previous review, so here’s a new review on version 1.0.6 of Whisker .

The developer addressed my concerns about the graphing (history). In the previous version, while the “Recent Activity” had the correct date/time for events, the graph was completely off... it appeared to not use the correct date/time for counting & plotting cycles *and* the scale of number of cycles was completely off (and essentially unreadable on my iPhone). The graph now shows the correct information in a proper format... a big step in the right direction! I upgraded my review from 2 stars to 4 stars.

Now, hopefully, the developer can address other shortcomings in the next update (things like the FAQ, Customer Support, etc. links not working.

by BeltwayKate

No value, it shows the shop and home icons, no tray gauge. Cannot log out. Asked company for help, they suggested cleaning the litter robot. Really??? Well I did still NO APP FEATURES and still cannot logout…. It just keeps repeating “logging out”…very disappointing

9 April 2022 update. Tried again with whiskers support. Delete app. Did it. Turnoff phone did it. Reinstall app. No go. Delete Whisker from ICLOUD. Impossible. Call Apple to have them delete Whisker . Impossible. Still same problems app shows and I am logged in and whiskers can see the robot and gets messages, but I cannot see the gauge, cannot log out and cannot delete the robot from Whisker . Not an Apple friendly product. Nice customer service, useless app. Waste of money for the connect.

April 21 Update: Whisker mysteriously started working this week. Now I am happy, no longer having to constantly go check if the robot is working. When Whisker works I can work. Cats are happy!

by ParkerBatterson

my setup was a liiiiitle buggy. when initially connecting, Whisker didn’t show my preferred wifi network and since i was too lazy to retrieve wifi passswords for visible networks, i decided to try and connect via the litter robots wifi network. it was never worked so i found the password and just connected over my home wifi network without any trouble. it’s been working great ever since, i just wish i could tune the settings more to my liking. for example, i wish i could program the box to cycle every OTHER time or like every three times (rather than every time) it senses my cat because sometimes she’ll just hop in there and sniff around and won’t even go. the preset 8-hour sleep time is fine but again, wish i had more control and could save a little more electricity

by MGutterman113

The Litter Robot is awesome for convenience and helps your cats stay nice and clean. However, Whisker /communication from Litter Robot device to my mobile phone is usually inaccurate. I literally just emptied the drawer and still telling me the drawer is still full even after emptying the drawer and pressing reset. This happens more often than I’d like to admit. I’ll be honest, the mobile app communication/technology is absolutely horrible in comparison to mobile app functionality that I’ve experienced elsewhere. I hope somewhere down the line, there’s an update or release that fixes all the bugs this mobile app has.

by Rikkitikki4

I had a litter robot years ago, 2005ish and loved it. Then we moved and no longer had room for it. I sold it. Years went by, kitties got old and passed and we were almost a decade without a cat (torture, right?).
I hit my limit and demanded we get another cat last year. We quickly went from manual scoop litter box, to a rake style automatic one (I’d rather scoop manually!), and finally broke down and bought a refurbished connect. I loved the old model, but man, what an upgrade!! This thing is awesome! I can literally load it with fresh litter and then forget about it until a notification tells me it’s full, or there’s a fault/interruption (I have a cat that likes to ride it when it’s cycling… 🙄)
Wonderful product for the lazy cat mom, thanks!! 😊

by Mtbl07

Update: Although this issue occured for 3 long, stressful, exhausting weeks, it does seem to have been fixed. And I’m thankful for that. It’s one less major thing I have to worry about. Upgrading from 2 stars to 5. Whisker is great when it works, devastating when it doesn’t. Most of us purchase the Connect version because we need it, for the same reason we have security cameras. It brings peace of mind when we are away from home.

I have been having serious issues with Whisker as of late. Ever since the update, now it frequently goes offline. Doing a hard reset usually works, but to have to do this several times a day is exhausting. Also, I am not at home currently and just tried to pull up Whisker to see the status of my robot, and it is prompting me to “add robot” and go through the whole set-up process! I’ve had this for 7 months, and never encountered such ridiculous and time-consuming issues until recently.

by Jonn DC

This is hands down one of the best items that I have ever purchased. My cat is fascinated by it and watches with happiness as it operates, and I am still amazed at how incredibly convenient and enjoyable it is. I can’t give it high enough praise. It takes all of the hassle out of taking care of a box and minimizes the smell that you typically get from a standard box. It is also extremely efficient. It honestly . Pays for itself in its efficient use of litter, especially if you also use sifting bags or liners. I will never go back to those days. Try it and you will be happy that you did.

by TheInsuranceLady

I’ve had cats all of my life. I am not kidding but I’ve had probably 40 cats in my entire life and I don’t know what I was waiting for. I thought that I had to put in expensive cat litter and that it would just run the bills up but in the meantime I developed a ganglion cyst in my right wrist that won’t go away now and it hurts to shovel cat clumps so this is wonderful because there’s no more pain, there’s no more shoveling and the best part as I can use any litter I want! Bravo to the developers and the marketers, thank you so much. Please don’t raise the price because I feel this is the max limit for most of us as it is a treat for us cat lovers and our spouses, lol! If I had only asked my husband 9 years earlier to shovel cat clumps I would’ve gotten this much sooner😘