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Toilets, toilets and more toilets


Berticus

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There are so many toilets out there for camping and RVs, Whether retired and live aboard to the weekender or the full time Boondocker, what is the squatter use to take a squat?
I have made my self dizzy, researching the world of toilets, from the $1000 composting, to the $15 poop in a bag concepts. I won't have access to "hook ups", so I have decided to install one of the portables, as the toilet in my RV will only be used for emergencies or weekend jaunts around the state. When I take off on my 2 year trip I will reinstall the Black/gray and fresh tanks, but for now...

What do you use or recommend for the weekend warrior?

B

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Edited by Berticus
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I don't know why you think a portable would be easier. If you keep your regular toilet and your at a campground you just empty your tanks at the dump. Are you going to remove it and seal up the hole and then reopen it when your ready to travel? Where are you going to throw your bag of poop. garbage can at home? Doesn't flushing down into a sewer system where it will be treated sound more sensible.

Linda S

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"I wont have access to hookups"

- I am assuming he wont be camping in a campsite with hookups from that line.

That being said, to answer lindas question the portable nautical size toilets are nice and they have a mini briefcase sized pooh tank that can be hand carried right into a rest stop bathroom and dumped arguably more easily than a standard RV hookup linda.

I actually own one of these said portable toilets and prefer it in areas where the pooh may be around inside with me a day or two such as in a cabin in winter (where i don't care to venture to the outhouse in 3 feet of snow) Now that being said assuming the RV has its standard tanks you should have a 3 day range before needing to dump tanks on average.. i cannot say i have ever used my portable in my rv for this reason.  when out on my boat i use the cabellas standard contractors bucket toilet seat top ($14) that attaches to any standard contractors bucket, but is not hermetically sealed though it does close well enough to keep flies out and most smell from roaming. the bucket by far is the easiest to toss somewhere.

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You don't need hookups to use your toilet. You just need to go to a dump station. My tiny tank in my Sunrader lasts a week easy with just me using it. Yes you can get a cassette toilet. Cost tons of money and it's way more messy than putting a hose on and dumping my tank. My friend said one campground even stopped her from empting the cassette in their bathroom because they claimed that it would clog their toilets. Of course with a regular porta pottie you can just toss it in the garbage. Let the poor guy who empties the garbage deal with your crap. YUCK

Sanitation systems were developed to keep our waterways clean and protect us from disease. Our RV's come with toilets that we can directly dump into sanitations systems. Always the best choice

Linda S

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8 hours ago, linda s said:

 Are you going to remove it and seal up the hole and then reopen it when your ready to travel?

Linda S

My toilet is in pieces, and yes, the hole is sealed up right now. Although the last owner said it did work before they switched over to a dry camping rig.

 

5 hours ago, Totem said:

"I wont have access to hookups"

- I am assuming he wont be camping in a campsite with hookups from that line.

 

You are correct!

I have a brand new 25gal fresh tank and new pump.. but no grey water, or black tank. I am only 16' feet long, and storage and weight are way more important to me right now.

So that is one for re-hooking my water system up... and one for the poobucket. :P

I was looking into those 2.5 gal portables. I am assuming those are what is known as a cassette, (?) that you spoke of.

Any brand recommendations?... or other types I should think about?

B


 

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The brands Dometic, Thetford, Coleman are all good. Even some of the not well known brands are OK. But on any of them eventually after 10 or 15 years the gaskets get hardened and the smells leak out.

The big issue with the small 2.5 gallon toilets is they are low in height which makes it difficult to sit down and stand up again.

The "cassette toilet" that is popular right now  is not a portable toilet. It is bolted in place, wired and plumbed to water for the flushing. Then you slide out the tank part out through an outside access door on the RV.

 

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When I go camping it's to enjoy my self dealing with waste is not a particularly enjoyable task. One way or another it has to be dealt with. A dump hose is a very simple device and gets rid of a weeks worth of  problems in about 5 minutes. 

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In the end your choice is going to be made taking into account what you can live with and what is in the budget.  From what I've read, you would have to rebuild the waste system from scratch.  A basic RV toilet is around $120.  When I rebuilt my RV, I replaced the toilet along with the gate valves which were leaking.  They were not very expensive.  If you have tanks, it would certainly be worth the effort to restore the waste water systems.  It should be easy enough to find dump sites unless you are very much outside the beaten path.

I do use a portable toilet for the early winter months we are still fishing but I don't want water in any of the systems due to freezing.  It is a pain even just for the overnight fishing trips we take.

Most state and federal parks I visit view gray water dumping as pollution.  The park I was at this weekend even prohibited outdoor showers even if to just rinse the ocean salt off.  So you may find it problematic to deal with dish water and such and remain environmentally friendly.

I totally get it.  You are at the beginning stages of rehab and it can get overwhelming.  I took a year to rehab mine to get it on the road and am still working on it 6 years later. 

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Since he doesn't have an operational black tank system I would recommend the Thetford units.

That's what I use at my cabin and I can say with out a doubt they are damn near bulletproof.. I have abused mine leaving it freeze several times and it never failed cracked or anything. I even left it outside for a whole winter and its gaskets are still supple and good.

It also has hidden storage inside of it for the blue tank crystals (which it comes with a free pack of crystals, nicety that others don't) and also has a fresh tank to pump flush with. They are $100 for a decent model and if you dont like to squat low just place it on a wooden 2x4 box you can build. I would say with one person it can last a couple days but with 2 or more people you will need to briefcase dump every day or so. Keep some latex gloves in the crystal compart ment; no biggie.

Best option if the pooh will be riding with you for a bit.

-My 2 cents worth is: I hear ya, space and weight on a 16 is precious, don't let the crew in here gang up on you and bully you into putting in tanks if you don't want to or cant with floor plan. Thetford toilets are great.

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Hey, wait a minute.  Who's bullying?

Made a couple valid and perhaps an important point.  The main one at the least is with regard to being ecologically responsible.  OP states " I have a brand new 25gal fresh tank and new pump" but indicates he has no grey or black water tanks.  He also stated he has plans to visit 49 states.  The question remains, even if you pick up a compost or cartridge toilet, what are you going to do with the grey water?  We can argue the ecological part all you want but there are still going to be plenty of places that are going to frown upon you dumping out your dish water and such.

I took a look at pricing on one of the Thetford cartridge toilet and it's nearly a grand.  The Natures Head dry compost was about the same.  I didn't price out the entire system but did look up the current cost of a toilet and even a black water tank (17 gal for $119 and Prime shipping).  I still contend it would be a hell of a lot cheaper to buy a couple tanks, a toilet and the plumbing bits.  It likely ends up at less than half.  You can always go with a cheap disposable port a potti for a temp camping solution. 

I read what you wrote.  Plan to move to AZ.  Want to weekend getaway for now.  Plan to eventually reinstall the tanks anyway.  Short of the cheapest option, I contend you are wasting your money on a expensive temp solution.  These thing tend to get done now, later or never but the options are nearly unlimited during the planning phase.  I spent a lot of money on mine and it helped to have the end game in sight and I'd advise not spending money that doesn't advance where you want to get to with the restoration. 

And no, I'm not bullying anyone, it's called advice and what was asked for.  Maybe it's bad advice or doesn't fit your needs or budget.  Ignore it, I'm cool with that.

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are you a bully? If not you have nothing to feel guilty of. Thetford.. $78 he has a 16 footer ; its tiny. But i too am curious... Where does the sink drain to? 

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6 hours ago, Totem said:

are you a bully? If not you have nothing to feel guilty of. Thetford.. $78 he has a 16 footer ; its tiny. But i too am curious... Where does the sink drain to? 

Home Depot, contractor orange, 5 gallon bucket holding tank of course. It is a classic and they also make a composting toilet version.

I drive a Honda, its 4wd, bought it used in 2008, it is a 2006 and it has needed zero repairs so far except for that air bag recall and that was free. You don't scare me Derek :ph34r:

Edited by snail powered
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Not to derail the original topic (notice I'm going to do just that) but what is the deal with the Honda reference?  Is this something that goes way back as I've not really seen any evidence of much discussion with regard to Honda except the occasional generator discussion.  What's the deal?

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7 hours ago, snail powered said:

Home Depot, contractor orange, 5 gallon bucket holding tank of course. It is a classic and they also make a composting toilet version.

I have the $25 upgrade to the orange bucket system.  It is more stable to sit on as the base is square and bigger.  Use it for overnight winter fishing.

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as mentioned the "Luggable Loo" is the fastest quick and dirty toilet you can make. Its $20  (but can be had on sale in the bargain cave)

http://www.cabelas.com/product/LUGGABLE-LOO-TOILET-SEAT-BUCKET/1723735.uts?productVariantId=3714696&WT.tsrc=PPC&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=03795386&rid=20&gclid=CJ-fxbKHls0CFYI9gQodWisE6A&gclsrc=aw.ds

and clips on to the standard orange bucket .  It is NOT, as mentioned, hermetically sealed; but the clip shut is fairly decent and will keep flies out and stink in mostly.. well mostly... :unsure:

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I looked at those on Amazon before buying.  Decided the wife would be less than thrilled with the bucket.  We buy the little blue deodorant packs and they do a fairly decent job.

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  • 1 year later...

Hello team. I have  been researching composting toilets and am now just deciding which unit to go for. There are basically four options as I see it: The C-Head http://www.c-head.com/  (approx. $600) which I think is the superior manufactured design and it comes in a "shorty" version which is 15" tall and thus the same dimensions of the stock toilet in my 88 Sunrader so it would be an easy swap. Then there is the Airhead http://airheadtoilet.com/ which is quite spendy ($1,100?) and the Nature's Head http://natureshead.net/ which is a similar design to the Airhead and also kinda spendy ($950-$1000). Both the Natures head and the Air head are 19"tall which would necessitate some carpentry work to make it sit down inside the floor of the bathroom if I wanted to still have access to the cabinets and drawers in there - so if I were to go with a manufactured design I would go with the C-Head as the reviews are quite favorable on this unit and I could install it fairly easily or so it seems. And it is the most affordable of the three. It is also simple and made of parts that can be easily repaired or replaced wherever I might be. The Natures head and Air head are both more complex and made of specialized parts. Not easy to repair in the field. 

The option I think I am going to go with though is DIY. There is a kit offered by these guys: http://www.ecovita.net/privy.html which gives you the specialized hardware to create your own "urine diverting' composting toilet and it will cost you $129. The kit comes with three different sets of plans to build your own system. People on the boating forums have built these and report no-stink toilet living aboard their vessels full time for years.

The substrate these kinds of toilets produce is apparently not smelly as you add coconut husk, peat moss, sawdust - any kind of moisture soaking substrate to the poo tank after each use. The poo tank is a five gallon bucket and the urine diverter hose goes to a pee bottle that can be removed and easily dumped on a fairly regular basis. The turds can usually go for a month before being bagged and tossed into a dumpster. THe sailors on the boating forums site the legality of throwing feces in the garbage in the form of adult and baby diapers, colostomy bags and the like. Since there is no urine in the solids tank and since you are adding the drying agent, apparently the resulting turd mixture is just sawdusty dry lumps that are odor free and innocuous. 

I'll post any progress I make on this project. 

Huzzah!

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