I would avoid the littermaid at all costs.   Made that mistake a couple
of years ago.
(Badly designed,  jams easily, all my cats were afraid of it, they
stopped burying
their waste.)

If you have only one cat, then Id not try to talk you out of it.. but if you
have more than one, it does tend to scare them.  I had one for my multiple
cat house hold, and you had to change the litter receptacle all the time,
and it totally freaked them out if it started scooping when they were going
to use it.

Never had a problem with any of my cats being scared of my littermaid.
I have 6 cats and 4 LM's.  And I won't be without them again.

LT