Who writes this

Jean-Benoit Buisson

Every page on this site is written and signed by one person. This page says who, how the judgements are reached, and — just as importantly — what he is not.

How I got here

I did not plan to write about pet equipment. I started reading specification sheets because every page I found before buying had the same shape — a ranked list, a score out of ten, and not one figure I could check. None of them said what a sensor threshold actually was, what the consumables cost across a year, or what happens to a device the day its app is switched off. Those are the things that decide whether something is still in use eighteen months later.

So this is the page I wanted and could not find. I read what manufacturers publish, I check every reference market by market, I follow what things actually cost rather than what they are listed at, and I say plainly when a figure is not published at all. That last part matters more than it sounds: most of the disappointment in this category comes from a number nobody printed.

I do not have a laboratory, and I do not pretend to. What I can do is read carefully, compare honestly, and tell you which figure the maker left out.

Ce qui est vrai des huit réseaux et peut rester : la méthode. Je tiens des notes sur la spécification honnête de chaque famille, l'endroit où la notice contredit l'argumentaire, le consommable qui va avec quelle machine, et l'erreur d'achat que chaque catégorie provoque. Ce site est ces notes, mises en ordre, en cinq langues — parce que la même question se pose en français, en allemand, en espagnol et en italien, et reçoit une bien moins bonne réponse dans quatre d'entre elles.

What this site covers

Everything listed here is taken from the catalogue of this site, and each entry links to its own page. When the catalogue changes, this list changes with it. It is a list of what is covered — not a list of what I own.

What I care about

Three things, and they shape every page here. The number that gets quoted is usually the wrong one — a litter box sold on app features rather than on the weight its sensor detects, a grooming vacuum sold on a suction figure measured at the motor rather than at the comb, a tracker sold on hardware price with the subscription in a footnote. The consumable decides more than the machine — the litter, the cassette, the filter, the blade. And the thing that matters is not on the specification sheet at all: whether the animal will use it.

What I am not

I am not a vet, a veterinary nurse, a professional groomer or a behaviourist, and I have never worked for a manufacturer or a retailer. I hold no qualification in any of this, and nothing on this site is veterinary advice. If you are looking for someone whose authority comes from a job title, this is not that site — what each judgement rests on is stated on the page it appears on, and you can read how this site reaches a verdict in full.

How I work

Every figure names its source: a manufacturer specification, a manual, a standard, or the weight of long-term owner reports.
No price, product reference or specification is ever invented. Where a figure is missing, the field is left empty and the gap is stated on the page.
Product references are verified against Amazon before publication, per market. Where a model is not sold in your country, you are sent to a local search rather than to a page that does not exist.
Where the cheap option wins, the page says the cheap option wins — and where the honest answer is a €6 seal, a different litter or a manual tray rather than a machine, it says that instead.

Why this site exists

Because this equipment is sold on the wrong numbers. A litter box is advertised on its app and its capacity rather than on the weight its sensor detects and the litter it will actually sort. A fountain is sold on how it looks, when what decides two years of ownership is whether the pump comes apart and what the filters cost. A tracker is sold at a hardware price that the subscription overtakes inside a year. And the consumables — litter, cassettes, filters, blades — are treated as afterthoughts when they are usually the actual fix.

There is also a part of this that is not about buying anything. These machines move on their own, in a room where the only occupant cannot read the manual and does not get a vote. A weight threshold, a cycle delay, a collar that has to break away under load: those are the specifications that matter most and are photographed least. That is the subject a page full of exciting gadgets is guaranteed to skip. It is not skipped here.

Correcting me

If something here is wrong, tell me and I will fix it and date the correction on the page. Write to [email protected].

Jean-Benoit Buisson · Montrollet, France

Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.