Plastic litter scoops fail in the same place every time: the thin neck where the handle meets the pan snaps, usually mid-scoop, usually straight back into the tray. Metal removes that failure point altogether. This one is aluminium with a deep pan and a long handle, so it lifts a proper load in one go and keeps your hand well clear of what you are lifting.

The slots are fine rather than wide, and that decides whether a scoop suits your litter. Fine slots sift clumping litter properly and hold on to the small clumps a coarse scoop drops back into the tray, and they cope with finer crystal litter and its dust as well. The handle has a comfort grip, and being metal the whole thing rinses under a hot tap and dries without holding a smell the way porous plastic eventually does.

• Aluminium build, with no plastic neck to snap
• Deep pan for a full scoop
• Fine sifting slots that keep hold of small clumps
• Long comfort-grip handle keeps hands away
• Two sizes, S and L
• Five colours: black, blue, lake blue, green or light beige

On size, and on litter type. Fine slots are right for clumping and crystal litter; if you use large wood pellets, sifting will be slower than with a wide-slot scoop.

Who it's for: Anyone scooping daily — and with cats that means one tray per cat plus a spare — who is tired of replacing snapped plastic scoops.