92 out of 100 Exceptional
The odour specialist of the supermarket aisle, and a clay that earns its place at No. 6 with ninety two through sheer relentlessness. Arm and Hammer Clump and Seal builds the brand's signature baking soda into a moisture activated clay that, as the name promises, seals around waste and smothers the smell before it can rise. On the bench it is hard to fault.
Odour is a perfect five, the seal holding a multi cat box clean through days of neglect, the single quality owners prize above all others. Clumping matches it at five, the clusters setting rock solid and lifting whole, scooping a genuine pleasure rather than a chore. Dust comes in at four and a half, low and clean on the pour, and tracking scores the same, the firm clumps resisting the scatter that plagues softer litters.
Sustainability sits at four, a touch kinder than the clay floor, but the truth of the material remains: this is strip mined bentonite, discarded rather than renewed, and that is the ceiling on its ambitions here.
The recurring caution, as with its Hardball sibling, is the scent, which is powerful and moisture released, a blessing for homes that want every trace of cat erased and a trial for those that do not. It is worth seeking the lighter scented options. What you are buying, in the end, is one of the most complete odour defences money can buy at a supermarket price, in a clump that lifts like stone. It promises a spotless, near odourless box, and it delivers exactly that, asking only that you make peace with the mine and the fragrance. A formidable everyday clay.