Cat litter trays look simple until shape, wall height and cleaning access begin to matter. The recorded test covered 19 trays across several updates and settled on the GarPet Jumbo Schalentoilette for most households: an open design with a high pan and high clip-on rim that kept litter and urine inside during the test while remaining straightforward to scoop and strip down.
What follows is recorded testing, translated. Nobody at Truthful Reviews has used these litter trays. This guide makes no animal-health or welfare claim; it sticks to dimensions, mechanisms, construction, cleaning access and observed product behaviour.
Open, hooded or top-entry?
An open tray gives direct access for daily scooping and has no flap or hood to remove. Its weakness is equally plain: odours can spread without a cover or activated-carbon pad, and a low rim gives determined digging more opportunity to throw litter out. A high-sided open tray combines that easy access with more containment, provided the join between pan and rim does not create a channel where urine or litter can collect.
A hooded tray contains more of the digging and may carry an activated-carbon filter. It also adds parts: the hood, door, clips, handle and filter recess can all create edges and cavities that complicate a full clean. A front flap needs enough clear room to swing, and the recorded cats did not accept every flap equally readily.
Top-entry trays use a roof opening above a deep bin. They kept almost all litter inside during testing, and perforated lids caught grains from paws as the cats climbed out. The trade-off is acceptance: the Zooplus Big Box came close to winning, but entering through the roof did not suit every cat. Across all three types, smooth uninterrupted surfaces were much easier to clear than decorative textures, braces, deep seams and uneven floors.
How the trays were assessed
Each tray was used for several weeks to several months in a household with three adult cats whose habits exposed different design weaknesses: one perched on tray edges, one urinated against the walls, and one preferred separate places for different jobs and favoured enclosed designs. The usual litter was used in every model except the PeeWee EcoDome XXL, whose two-pan mechanism requires its matching pellets.
Waste was scooped daily and any litter escaping through openings was recorded. During regular full cleans, the pans, hood joints and swing-door areas were checked for trapped urine and litter. That makes the most useful findings unusually practical: whether a rim stayed attached, whether a flap moved freely, whether a pan tipped, and whether the scoop could follow the shape of the floor.
The picks
Top pick — GarPet Jumbo Schalentoilette
The GarPet combines an open top with the containment of a much taller tray. A high, smooth plastic base takes an equally high, broad rim that curves inwards and clips at all four corners. The join held firmly, and even urine aimed directly at it did not enter the gap. Clumping litter also stayed inside despite energetic digging.
All three cats took to it quickly. The broad rim remained stable when used as a perch, while the lowered front section provided the entry. Daily scooping needed no door or lid to be moved; for a full clean, buttons at the four corners released the rim from the pan. Build quality felt robust throughout.
The drawback is the open design: there is no hood or filter to contain odours. Jumbo in the name is relative, too; the source flags that exceptionally large cats may need more floor space. For most cats, though, the balance of stability, containment and uncomplicated cleaning made this the winner.
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Best top-entry — Zooplus Katzentoilette Big Box
The Big Box nearly took the top spot. It consists of a tall, bin-like pan and a clipped-on lid that doubles as a paw mat. The square roof opening looks modest but was adequate for medium-sized cats, and the grid holes let common litter types fall back into the box.
Almost no litter reached the floor. The high pan contained both digging and urine directed at the walls, while grains left on paws tended to land on the perforated lid. For daily cleaning, the lid can be unclipped or the tray can be scooped through the opening. Both pan and lid avoid needless grooves and seams, so a full clean is simple. The sole reason it is not the overall pick is that roof entry required more persuasion for some of the recorded cats.
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Best enclosed tray for large cats — Rotho MyPet Bea XXL
The Rotho was the largest tray in the recorded group, with a 58.5 × 47.9 cm footprint, a height of 51.5 cm and an entry 14 cm above the floor. Its tall, smooth-sided box has no internal support struts, leaving few places for litter or urine to lodge. The lightly translucent swing flap closes with a small magnet, while side handles incorporate activated-carbon filters.
The lid simply lifts away with one hand and can be left off. That makes both daily scooping and a full clean unusually easy for a hooded design. Rounded corners can be awkward with some straight-edged scoops, but the supplied rounded scoop follows them properly.
Assembly is the compromise. The large flexible shell takes some alignment before its stabilising upper frame, flap and lid sit together, and the finished tray feels less substantial than some rivals even though it stands steadily. It also demands considerable floor space and more litter to cover the broad pan. Those costs buy the roomiest enclosed option here.
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Best large open tray — Savic Aseo Jumbo
The Savic Aseo Jumbo is one of the biggest open models in the test and was accepted by the cats faster than any other tray. It is light, roomy and easy to clean, while the high rear and side walls contained urine directed at them during recorded use. With enough litter in the base it also stayed steady when a cat perched on the edge. Its only meaningful shortcoming against the GarPet is that especially forceful digging occasionally sent a little litter over the lowered front.
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Best two-pan system — PeeWee EcoDome XXL
The EcoDome XXL looks like an ordinary hooded tray but puts a perforated pan above a solid one. Its mechanism depends on PeeWee wood pellets: contact with urine breaks them down into sawdust, which falls through to the lower pan, while intact pellets remain above. Clumping litter is not compatible with that arrangement.
Only solid waste needs removing from the upper pan each day; in the recorded routine, the lower pan was emptied roughly weekly and a handful of pellets added at about the same interval. Both pans were well finished, removable and roomy enough for larger cats, although the entry may be high for smaller ones. The hood includes a swing flap and activated-carbon filter, and a scoop is supplied. It can also be removed and replaced with an open surround. Cleaning the complete tray does mean taking the hood off, and the dedicated pellets make this a system purchase rather than a standalone pan.
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Also tested
Iris Ohyama CLH-12 — quickly accepted and supplied with a scoop and holder, but the floor slopes towards the edge, making a level scooping pass difficult; more seriously, the stepped join between its high lower pan and clip-on rim collected urine during wall-directed use and could let it reach the outside and the floor below.
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Feandrea PPT001G01 — a roomy folding box with front and top entry and a drawer-like lower pan that helps daily scooping; assembly was fiddly, and the internal support ribs create many edges and grooves where urine collected, turning a full clean into a lengthy job.
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Catit Jumbo Katzentoilette — a very large, sturdy hooded tray with a light clear flap, a substantial activated-carbon pad, four sliding clips and a top handle; the generous pan and easy-moving door worked well, but its many seams, corners, braces and handle recess made a complete clean laborious, and the flap needs clear space in front.
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Modcat XL Katzentoilette — a large, heavy pan with optional front and top entry, but the front step did not stay secure, the liner hangers repeatedly came loose and the top flap fell into the tray once; the glossy rigid plastic may also crack if dropped, while replacement liners were notably costly.
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Catit Pixi Katzentoilette — a spacious top-entry model whose perforated hinged lid lets loose litter fall back into the smooth, high and flexible pan; the rear carry handle is useful, but the front plug fastening felt uncertain and the pivoting lid supports looked like possible long-term weak points.
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Trixie Berto — three pieces turn the whole tray into a sifting system: dirty litter is poured from one lower pan into the full-width sieve so clean litter lands in the second pan; it can work with a suitable litter and routine, although the large sieve often meant carrying the complete tray to the bin to avoid spills.
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Curver Style Katzentoilette — hides a scoop and activated-carbon pad in its basket-weave hood and adds a pull-out lower tray with a removable internal paw mat, but none of the three cats took to its shortened, relatively cramped interior and small flap; the textured outer shell was also difficult to clean.
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Petgard Ecktoilette Nestor Corner — a compact corner hood with a clear, light flap and a thin activated-carbon pad; its hinged front allowed daily scooping, but the adult test cats found the interior too small and barely used it.
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Petmate Top Entry Litter Pan Katzentoilette — the unit actually tested was the slightly less rounded predecessor to the current model, so that attribution matters; its paw-mat lid hinged up conveniently for scooping, though the holes were too small for the eco litter used and the tray sat at the expensive end of the group.
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Trixie Ecktoilette Maro — promised a large interior in a space-saving corner form, but assembly clips and the rear scoop recess fought installation, the filter handle could twist out when lifting a loaded tray, and the flap would not swing far enough inwards; the cats avoided it and daily scooping effectively required removing the hood.
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Verdict
The GarPet Jumbo Schalentoilette is the best-balanced choice: direct scooping access, high walls, a stable inward-curving rim and a close pan-to-rim join that resisted both scattered litter and urine during the test. Choose the Zooplus Katzentoilette Big Box when top entry suits the cat and maximum litter containment matters.
For genuinely large cats, the decision is open versus enclosed: the light, simple Savic Aseo Jumbo is the open recommendation, while the Rotho MyPet Bea XXL supplies the largest recorded footprint, a removable lid and smooth internal walls. The PeeWee EcoDome XXL is the specialist option, separating intact wood pellets from wet sawdust through its two-pan mechanism, but committing the buyer to the matching pellet system.
