{"id":5611,"date":"2026-08-17T11:14:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T11:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=5611"},"modified":"2026-08-17T11:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T11:14:36","slug":"whisker-litter-robot-5-pro-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=5611","title":{"rendered":"Whisker\u2019s AI-powered litter robot thinks my cats swapped bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The greatest invention in pet tech<\/a> in recent years is the litter robot. A machine that scoops your kitties\u2019 poop so you don\u2019t have to \u2014 what else could a cat owner possibly want? How about insights into your kitty\u2019s litter box usage that could flag health issues? Sign me up. But I have two feline friends\u2026 No worries, kitty facial recognition can handle that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At least, that is the idea behind the Litter-Robot 5 Pro<\/a>, the highest-end model from the OG robotic pooper scooper company Whisker. Boasting a dual camera system and an array of sensors to literally sniff out your cat\u2019s deposits, all wrapped up with AI algorithms and machine learning, the 5 Pro promises to not only deal with my boys\u2019 bathroom habits but also accurately monitor and track them<\/a>. It failed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Who<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Who could get these two precious faces mixed up? Smokey, left, and Boone, right, are indoor\/outdoor kitties who love their Litter Robot, even if it can\u2019t tell them apart.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I spent six months testing the $899 Litter-Robot 5 Pro, alongside its budget counterpart, the $599 Litter-Robot Evo<\/a>, both of which launched late last year<\/a>. These ingenious devices work using sensors and motors. The cat goes into the large globe lined with litter; the sensors register him while he does his thing, and once he\u2019s left, the robot rotates the drum to filter and sift the waste into the sealed bin below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This takes away a yucky daily chore; you only have to empty the drawer about once a week, and it hides the gross litter box itself from view, while containing most of the smell. A fully featured app gives you remote control of most of the device\u2019s functions; you can also check the waste and litter levels and see your kitty\u2019s weight thanks to an onboard scale. A litter robot is a great gadget if you travel a lot, as it leaves your kitty with a cleaner place to go during his abandonment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Litter Robot Pro 5 is very large and almost 30 inches tall. It takes up a good deal of room in my small laundry room. Its globe is roomier than the Evo and LR4 making it suitable for more and larger cats \u2014 up to 5 topping out at 30lbs!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Whisker currently has four models: the Litter-Robot Evo, the Litter-Robot 4<\/a>, the Litter-Robot 5<\/a>, and the 5 Pro. They all work this same way to \u201cscoop.\u201d Today, I wouldn\u2019t recommend paying the premium for the 5 Pro\u2019s AI features \u2014 because they just don\u2019t work. I was also disappointed in the tradeoffs that come with the Evo compared to the Litter-Robot 4.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I wouldn\u2019t recommend paying the premium for the 5 Pro\u2019s AI features \u2014 because they just don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There\u2019s no litter-level monitoring on the Evo, so the app doesn\u2019t alert you when it\u2019s low; it supports fewer and smaller cats, has a smaller bin, and no night light. It also doesn\u2019t work with the litter hopper accessory<\/a> Whisker sells.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While the Evo\u2019s footprint is better for tight spaces, its build quality didn\u2019t feel as sturdy, and its waste drawer is finicky and doesn\u2019t always shut properly. I do like that it has an LCD screen to tell you what it\u2019s doing, as does the 5 Pro. These are both better solutions than the confusing LED indicator lights on the LR4.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Evo has a similar footprint to the 5, but it\u2019s shorter and slightly narrower. It fit neatly into the corner of a small bedroom in my house. Though the litter mat had to go. The Evo is suitable for 1 to 2 cats who are under 19 pounds. This is Osa, a female kitten who joined our family a week ago. She\u2019s too little to use the robot without supervision.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As a pooper-scooper, the Litter-Robot 5 Pro dispatches waste superbly. Its bigger bin, more intuitive controls \u2014 including that LCD screen \u2014 and larger dome make it a better robot overall than its predecessor, the $699 Litter-Robot 4. But the smarts are seriously lacking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I have a middle-aged fur baby, and the appeal of this significantly more expensive device was the promise it could keep him healthier for longer by catching possible issues earlier. Thankfully, Smokey is currently fit as a fiddle, but in my time using the 5 Pro, its $8-a-month Whisker Plus subscription<\/a> that covers its AI health features and video storage didn\u2019t deliver one actionable or useful insight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Its new WasteID system<\/a>, which purportedly can tell the difference between #1 and #2 and dispatch the latter faster to reduce odors, repeatedly failed to accurately identify waste, and its two new cameras couldn\u2019t tell my large gray and white tabby from my small, sleek tuxedo kitty, getting confused between them and eventually merging them into two identical cats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I was also disappointed that I couldn\u2019t use the camera to watch my kitty poop. Yes, I\u2019m weird, but I\u2019m also not alone \u2014 the Litter-Robot 4 has a camera mount accessory<\/a> for exactly this reason! Getting an inside look at what\u2019s happening in the litter tray before the results are whisked away is valuable data for many cat parents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While the front-facing camera records visits, the interior cameras only allow a live view; catching a cat in the act is very hard (I only managed it once). The advertising for the product<\/a> implies you\u2019ll get recordings from both, but even with the monthly subscription, only the front-facing camera, which catches the kitty coming in, records anything. Whisker tells me the poop-view is coming soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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1\/3<\/strong>

The 5 Pro has two cameras and several sensors to keep track of your kitty.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The camera wasn\u2019t totally useless; I did appreciate being able to remotely check in and make sure there wasn\u2019t a kitty trapped in the litter box if I received a \u201ccycle interrupted\u201d or an obstruction detected alert<\/a>, a features that stop the globe rotating if there\u2019s any activity detected while the machine is rotating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The robot still thinks my cat is lighter than he is; I wish my bathroom scale did that<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Just be very careful where you place the litter robot. It took me about a week to realize that where I had put mine, the front-facing camera not only caught my kitties\u2019 bathroom trips, but also those of anyone who used the powder room across the hall. There is an option to turn on recording only when a cat is spotted, but \u2014 as many cat parents will know \u2014 feline friends like to accompany their owners into the bathroom!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For me, the 5 Pro\u2019s biggest letdown was the kitty facial recognition feature, called Cat ID<\/a>. The front-facing camera is supposed to recognize which cat is entering<\/a> and then assign any business to that cat in the app\u2019s history section. It can apparently keep track of up to five cats, but it struggled mightily with my two who don\u2019t look a lick alike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After a week or so of use, the app presents a PawPrint setup option, Whisker\u2019s name for facial recognition, where it shows you images the camera has captured of your cats, and you pick the two best \u2014 mine were all fairly bad. Whisker does sell a $29 RFID PetTag<\/a> to help with cats that look similar; my cats don\u2019t wear collars, but a $900 machine advertising facial recognition shouldn\u2019t need a wearable to tell two different-looking cats apart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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1\/3<\/strong>

These were the images PawPrint presented to me to set up CatID. There was no option to change them or upload my own. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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According to Whisker, things like poor lighting and bad initial imaging can throw the camera off, and when it\u2019s not sure, it will use other signals, such as its onboard scale, to guess. All this is apparently why my 13.4-pound Smokey lost 2 pounds overnight, with his weight recorded as Boone\u2019s when the robot mistook his scrawny younger brother for him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Whisker says my unit\u2019s feces-sensing gas sensor was off<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The robot didn\u2019t correct itself either, and a week later both cats were still registering as the same weight. I knew this was an error, but false information can lead to false conclusions, and a robot guessing my cat\u2019s weight is not helpful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Getting things back on track \u2014 resetting the weights in each cat\u2019s profile, reassigning incorrect visits, correcting video logs \u2014 was a lot of work to help this nearly $1,000 machine do its job. And the camera still doesn\u2019t correctly recognize either cat. Whisker says the system is built to learn, so it should get better. The company also told me that they have \u201cimproved the enrollment process so it\u2019s more selective about the images it uses for facial recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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1\/3<\/strong>

The app keeps track of each pets visits. Clicking on their name takes you to an insights page. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then there\u2019s the health monitoring. Beyond assigning the cats the wrong weight, WasteID consistently failed to recognize the type of waste and often couldn\u2019t provide the weight of each deposit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Whisker says my unit\u2019s feces-sensing gas sensor was off, something they were able to correct it remotely. When that didn\u2019t improve things they determined that my unit\u2019s scale was off, which possibly contributed to both the WasteID and the PawPrint issues. That would require a whole new machine to fix.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The good news: The company recently rolled out a new feature called Patterns that goes some way toward the actionable insights I was looking for. It summarizes each cat\u2019s day: \u201cYesterday Smokey weighed 12.52 lbs, visited the Litter Robot 1 times and spent .9 minutes in total, everything in range\u201d (The robot still thinks he\u2019s lighter than he is; I wish my bathroom scale did that). But there are still no details here about waste type.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Patterns, along with several other updates to improve the core features, have arrived several months after the product launched \u2014 which means 5 Pro owners have been paying $8 a month for features that didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 5 Pro has a very spacious globe and a night light.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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While the AI features are clearly still a work in progress, the Litter Robot 5 Pro does its main job very well. My litter robot experience is limited to this brand, having tested the LR4 before<\/a>, but I would never go back to life with a manual litter box. Instead of scooping twice a day, I just empty once a week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My cats also both took to it immediately; Smokey jumped right in and did his business, and Boone followed suit. He\u2019s younger, however, and does love to play with it. I\u2019ve caught him waiting for it to cycle, then batting at the inside to throw it off. He also shredded the optional litter mat accessory within a week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Litter Robot is amazingly quiet, so much so that I tested the Evo in my daughter\u2019s room, and she said it never woke her up once because of noise or smell. The 5 Pro, however, is bigger and much taller \u2014 taking up roughly the same room as a side table. It\u2019s still as quiet. For both, you need an outlet nearby, but if you have the space, it will earn its spot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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1\/3<\/strong>

The Evo is compact enough to fit in a small bedroom.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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AI aside, if you like the idea of having a camera as a safety feature and have a large cat (up to 30lbs) or five furry friends, the Pro 5 will serve you well. However, I suggest you save yourself $100 and go with the regular Litter Robot 5. This ditches the camera but gets you all the other features \u2014 including WasteID.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you don\u2019t care about the WasteID tracking and have up to four kitties, the $699 LR 4 does an excellent job without any AI at all. I\u2019d recommend it over the cheapest model<\/a>, the $599 Evo. Unless you are really tight on space, this isn\u2019t worth the $100 savings; its build feels flimsier, and it constantly threw off errors, particularly around phantom bonnet detachments. Whisker told me this was likely a hardware error with my particular unit, so your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Litter Robot was a fantastic invention, but with the 5 Pro, Whisker has fallen into a trap I\u2019ve seen many smart home companies stumble into; it put too much faith in AI\u2019s potential capabilities. Once AI is out in the wild, it behaves very differently than in the lab. This is especially true in the home, where the variables are endless.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s possible the 5 Pro will eventually do everything it promised at launch. But as readers of The Verge<\/em> know well, never buy a product based on the promised future updates. Today, the AI just isn\u2019t ready.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Photos, video, and screenshots by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy \/ The Verge<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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