How We Research

This page describes exactly how an article on kittynex is produced, and — just as importantly — what our method cannot tell you.

Last updated: September 21, 2026

The starting point: what we do not do

We do not own or physically test every device we write about, and we do not claim to. We are not a test laboratory. We do not have a bench of litter boxes running in a room, and we will not write as though we do.

That admission matters, because it is the difference between a source you can calibrate and one you cannot. Everything below explains what we rely on instead, so you can judge how much weight to put on any claim on this site.

Step 1 — Manufacturer documentation first

For every product we cover, we start with what the maker publishes.

  • Specification pages for dimensions, weight ranges, capacity, power requirements, and connectivity.
  • Owner manuals and support articles for cycle behaviour, maintenance intervals, consumable part numbers, error codes, and reset procedures.
  • Warranty terms for duration, what is covered, what voids it, and who pays return shipping.
  • App and firmware documentation for what the app actually does, what happens offline, and whether features sit behind a subscription.
  • Consumable pricing for refills, filters, odour cartridges, and replacement liners.

When a figure is not published, we say so rather than estimating it. “The manufacturer does not publish the drawer capacity in litres” is a legitimate and useful sentence. A guessed number presented as a fact is not.

Step 2 — Aggregate owner reporting

Published specifications describe a product on its best day. Owner reports describe it over two years.

We read reviews and discussion across retailers, forums, and manufacturer communities, and we look for patterns rather than anecdotes:

  • Which complaints recur across many independent owners, and which appear once;
  • Whether a failure mode is concentrated in one production batch or firmware version;
  • Whether a problem is a design limit or a unit defect;
  • What owners say about support, parts availability, and warranty handling when something breaks.

One angry review is noise. The same failure described by forty owners is a signal. We report the pattern and its strength, and we do not fabricate individual quotes or invent reviewer identities.

Step 3 — Cost of ownership modelling

Purchase price is the least useful number in this category. Two machines with the same price tag can differ by hundreds of dollars over three years.

We model, and disclose the assumptions behind:

Component What we model
Purchase price Current listed price at the retailers we check, on the date checked
Consumables Proprietary refills, liners, filters, odour cartridges, litter consumed, at the price we found
Replacement parts Parts with a known finite life, and their listed prices where published
Service life A realistic ownership window, stated explicitly in the article
Subscription costs Any app or cloud feature that requires a recurring payment to keep working

Assumptions are printed in the article, not hidden. If a cost model depends on a variable we cannot know, such as local litter prices or how many cats you have, we say which figure we assumed and let you substitute your own.

Step 4 — Cross-checking and conflict reporting

Published sources contradict each other constantly. A spec sheet says one drawer interval; owners describe another. A retailer lists a bundle that no longer matches the product page.

When that happens we do not silently pick the flattering number. We state the conflict and explain which figure we consider better supported and why. Where we cannot resolve it, both figures appear, labelled.

What we label, and why it matters

We use a small set of explicit labels so you can see the evidentiary status of a claim rather than having to infer it:

Label Meaning
Published specification Taken directly from the manufacturer’s documentation, with the source listed
Reported by owners A pattern in aggregated owner reporting, with the strength of the pattern described
Calculated Our own arithmetic from stated inputs, with the inputs printed
Unverified A claim we could not confirm against a primary source. It appears in the article only with this label
Not published The manufacturer does not disclose the figure, and we will not guess it

Our sources

Every article ends with a Sources list containing the URLs we actually consulted. If a claim in the article cannot be traced to that list or to a label above, treat it as an error worth reporting — and tell us.

What our method cannot do

Being clear about the limits is part of the method:

  • We cannot tell you how a specific unit will behave in your home. Litter type, cat size, cat count, humidity, and floor levelness all change how these machines perform.
  • We cannot test durability over years. Nobody can, quickly. We can report what owners experience and what the warranty actually covers.
  • We cannot verify every listing continuously. Prices and bundles change after we publish. Always confirm at the retailer before buying.
  • We cannot assess a product we have no credible information about. In that case, we say so rather than filling the gap.

Corrections

If you find an error, email editor@kittynex.com with the article and the source you are relying on. We verify against primary sources, correct what is wrong, and record what changed under our Editorial Policy.