A few hints and tips on motorhome toilets…from a man’s point of view
Scratched seat
When traveling the toilet lid rubs against the toilet seat and scratches the plastic. Not only do the scratches look naff but they hurt your arse when you need to meditate (man thing!. So, find a little bit of foam, I used some draught excluder which I had and stick it to the inside of the lid. One piece on either side of the lid should do nicely! It also stops the toilet seat from slamming shut if it’s left up when you drive away (another man thing!)
Loo Flush Button
Our last motorhome when you flushed the loo it had a reasonable button to press which activated the flush. On this motorhome however the button is flat and part of the surrounding panel, so if one of you gets up in the night you can make lots of noise fumbling around trying to find it. Or even worse, turn the light on and blind everyone. The solution, I had a pile of those little rubber pads you typically get with Ikea furniture for cupboards etc. Stick one on the toilets flush button to make a proper button like they should have done in the first place. Cost nothing as I had some anyway.
Cleaning the toilet
What else, oh yes the lovely job of cleaning the toilet cassette (the box where all the number 1’n’2’s go) Every couple of months I clean the inside thoroughly to keep any nasty niffs at bay, You get a build up of limescale inside which seems to act like a sponge for… well take a guess. The top of the cassette comes off very easily so it’s easy to access the inside. The top mechanism is particularly prone to limescale build up so with the aid of some limescale remover, a scouring pad, an old disused toothbrush and a bit of elbow grease it looks as good as new inside now so that too will be ready for another clean when we get back home.
Keep it fresh
We have noticed that if you add a little fabric softener to the toilet cassette after cleaning it, it reduces the limescale build up (acts as water softener) and has a pleasant odour to boot. I usually use the stuff from after washing our clothes as it only gets wasted otherwise. All goes to keeping the pennies in our pockets.
I am loving your blog. I follow it every day.
We are planning a 7 month journey in Europe starting in February. Since you are the King and Queen of Wildcamping I had some questions.
In our Hymer (it looks a similar vintage to yours) if we use nothing else our loo is full in two days. We have bought a second cassette to enable us to stay away from sites for 4 days.
What do you guys do to
1. Maximise the time it takes to fill the loo; and
2. Empty it. Obviously you can empty at campsites and most Aires/Sostas, but what do you do when you are wildcamping? Do you empty in public toilets, garages? Do you ever just dig a hole in a remote location and empty there?
I hope you can give me some tips.
Hi Tim, I bet you are looking forward to setting off and good to hear from you again.
In terms of using the loo we just use as necessary. At first, we were more cautious and analysed the loo visits to death. Trying to work out how best to keep the ‘need to empty’ at bay and how many cups of coffee we were permitted lol. Now we do not even think about it. There are so many places to empty it is not worth the hassle but these are only things you learn over time.
There are a couple of things we do in order to help the overall ‘horrid but essential’ chore
1. We never use any chemicals (we have a Thetford sog unit)
2. We never place toilet paper in the loo
3. We empty every day
4. Rinse it clean with fresh water
It depends on the country but most countries have service stations whether it be in town, a petrol station, a dedicated site or public services. If the services aren’t available then you learn to find and locate lift up drains. At first you never see them but now, its part of our ‘loodar’.
Having no chemicals and toilet paper makes life a lot easier when emptying. Also emptying everyday prevents the build up of smell and believe me in summer, it can get quite unpleasant.
As we wild camp most of the time we tend to move daily, so part of the move includes – ditch the dirt and fill with fresh.
Hope that helps Tim and good look with the preparation.
Hi Guys,
Just found your blog very well written & constructed. We are not full timing but do wild camp four or five months a year. We have spent a lot of time perfecting our loo habits. First I built a home made Sog like extractor total cost 50p as I used the fan from an old computer I got at the tip then took back after I had taken all the bits I needed. The 50p was for the micro switch. The wire was mainly from the computer.
Second we never use the electric flush we use a squirty bottle like you use for spraying flowers ours was from a used Lidl glass cleaner. This we fill with water with disinfectant and a tea spoon of Bobby Dazzler car rinse which makes the surface really slippery and stops anything sticking on next use. We also use cheap Tesco or Asda bio washing powder (Omo in Morocco, remember that?) a coffee scoop in the empty cassette without any water the pee is enough. Although every few empty’s we use half a cup of water to first wash the bowl thoroughly with the water and powder using an old dish washing brush with the shutter closed first before letting it into the cassette. We never empty till nearly full and the bio action breaks everything down to a liquid including the paper, we prefer Lidl best. and there is no smell or limescale build up. Emptying is almost a pleasant chore It can also safely be emptied into sceptic tanks.
We find that we can go five days between emptying especially when in the wild and the odd bush can be used for a male pee. Of course if we come across a convenient place to empty then we do. The powder is so cheap.
The Bobby Dazzler liquid I also use in the windscreen washer bottle as it improves the efficiency of the wipers.
Hope this is of interest from a veteran, we have been Motorhoming for nearly fifty years now. Camper vans to start with of course.
Steve
The OldAgeTravellers
Sorry for the delay in replying Steve but had a few bad weather days, which have impacted the wifi signal. Absolutely loved reading your comment. So practical but also it made us smile…not just us then who think of all sorts! Computer fan just genuius! We have heard of Bobby Dazler but never seen it. Will have to keep a look out for it when we get home.
Thanks for the wonderful tips and if you have any more to share, please feel free to comment or drop us a note. Motorhomers everywhere will certainly benefit from your years of experience x
We are still enoying catching up with your blogs and are into the 3rd month of travel in Europe. We appreciated the tips about installing a Gaslow system and SOG unit. Wifi booster has been a good investment.
I do have a query tho, is there any tip about countering the smell from the unit? Even after emptying and a good clean and with hot water I can detect the smell especially on a warm day when I step inside. Worse of course if it has been a couple of days between empting opportunities. Not that anyone is going to die or anything but no smell would be nice, I have tried some oxygen type powder but didn’t help.
Our system is an inbuilt system within the toilet, so slightly different to the SOG unit. We have the option of keeping the fan on but still get the odd smell especially on warmer days.
In addition, to a good wash have you checked the limescale build up? We find the water is really hard and so the limescale soon builds up. This collects smells especially urine. We give our toilet a good clean and then let it soak in limescale remover (lidl €0.99). We keep swishing it around until we feel the limescale has gone. We find this is the biggest eliminator.
Check the carbon filter. To be honest, we have just removed ours completely and it seems much better.
We always put a reasonable amount of water in a clean toilet, so to dilute the urine.
Do not try and kill the bacteria in the toilet, find something that works with it. A good clean but no detergent. Its Like a fish tank, it can become self cleaning but it takes time.
Oh nearly forgot. We also put a cap full of fabric softener in the toilet. It keeps the water softer and helps reduce limescale build up but also helps it smell a little better. Get the strongest, nicest smelling softner you can buy but…do not use the one that you use on your clothes because eventually end us hating the smell of your clothes lol