First of all, this is NOT an advertisement.  I'm just relating to all my fellow
lazy humans that hate to handle the LB everyday about a "discovery" I just
found.

I've owned several littermaids over the past 7 years, b/c the damn things keep
breaking, but even though its cost prohibitive, I keep buying a new one b/c I'm
lazy and Hank likes a clean place to do his business.

The most annoying thing about the littermaid (to me at least) is the damn thing
going off at 2am and getting stuck on a tough clump -- and then the rake goes
back and forth until I get out of bed and correct it.  I was browsing on ebay
and stumbled across this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2358063127&category=29853

It's basically a more powerful transformer that does indeed have A LOT more
power then the standard transformer.  The seller claims it has worked for 1.5
years with no problems, and I'm willing to accept that claim, but I don't know
about their claim of having triple the power is accurate (see my calculations
below).

The thing costs $40 shipped, which is a bit pricey, so since I bit the bullet
and bought one, I'm going to share the technical specs so if you want to find
your own elsewhere (for a lot less $$$ I bet) feel free to do so.

Booster (24V 600ma) vs. Littermaid (12V 500ma)

-----
Power calculation follows:

the booster generates 24V *.6A = 14.4 Watts
littermand std generates 12V *.5A = 6 Watts

14.4/6 = 2.4, so the booster is 2.4 times more powerful than the one that comes
with the littermaid.

I don't know why LM uses such a "weaker" adapter, but production costs and
safety might come into play.  Please don't blame me if your kitty gets hurt in
the thing if it goes off while he is in it.