Motorhome Toilet Talk – Thetford Loos Exposed
Thetford cassette toilet with SOG unit installed
It normally takes an hour. Maybe two. Add in a few splashes of wine, and you can be fairly sure any newly-found gaggle of motorhomers will soon be talking toilets. Why? Who knows. I could hazard a guess, but that’s all it will be. Toilets, after all, have evolved in our world to be out of sight, out of mind, and out of earshot. They’re off in some distance place in the house, and for most people water simply washes away the contents, never to be seen again. With a motorhome toilet (or caravan or some narrowboats for that matter), things become a bit, ah, more complicated? Could the humble cassette be a talking point, since it represents the fact we’re edged closer to the fringes of society? The subtleties in how we each use the ubiquitous plastic box might have become a proxy for ‘job talk’. Instead of weighing each other up by asking about jobs (since many of us no longer have one), we carefully question about the loo instead? Nah. Well, maybe?
Hmmmm. Anyway, having lived with the use of a chemical loo for a couple of years, and we’re still using one, I thought I’d refresh the info we have on the pesky thing. Feel free to comment away below, you know you want to!
What is it? OK – it’s basically a plastic box, usually made by Thetford. There’s normally a sit-on loo in the motorhome, which is distinct from your average porcelain contraption, since it contains no water. Instead you open a circular trap door and the body processed food, also known as ‘black water’, makes its way into the box through the wonders of gravity. You then close the trap door, and the deed is done. At some point, the box will need emptying. To do this you open a door, usually on the outside of the van, remove the cassette and go and pour it down a suitable drain to the sewer or a pit. Voilà.
Sound awful? It isn’t. The lack of water does mean you have to clean the inside of the loo more that you would normally do, but it’s no big deal. Emptying it takes minutes. I timed myself once. Being close to the emptying point I managed to remove our cassette and empty it and put it back on 16.87 seconds. OK, OK, I’m kidding, but it doesn’t take long.
Both number ones and number twos? Oh yes. We started off years ago with an ‘only number ones’ rule, which I (Jay) broke somewhere isolated, and we’ve never looked back. Over time I’ve found number ones are the most problematic in terms of filling the loo up in no time (especially after several cans of Lidl’s finest), and smell.
What about the smell? Normally, there isn’t much of a smell. It’s called a ‘chemical toilet’ as most people control the whiff using either chemicals made for the purpose, or clothes washing liquid or some other liquid or powder they’ve found works for them. On our two year stint, we used chemicals, biological washing liquid, washing powder, you name it. It all worked to a degree, but 40°C heat and a loo that’s not been emptied for days would require a peg to the nose. These days we have a SOG unit (install video and photos here), which means no chemicals are needed. It’s worked well, nigh-on no smell, but we’ve not really tested it in a heat wave yet!
Would you recommend the SOG? Yes. With it I have no qualms about emptying the loo every day without pouring away potentially polluting and expensive chemicals, which helps us avoid ending up with a full loo and nowhere near to empty it. So far, it’s worked a treat controlling the smell, and the contents seem as well broken down as when we used chems. It takes fractionally longer to remove and refit the cassette, but it’s very simple to do. The cost was around £100 as I fitted it, which feels well worth it for long term use.
Blade open or blade closed? Whichever suits you sir. For a couple of years we’d place ourselves on the loo, vacate oneself, then open the blade to let the contents fall into the cassette. After a long discussion one night in Morocco with fellow travellers, we were advised to leave the blade open so wee didn’t sit on the blade when in use, prolonging the life of the blade. Since then we’ve opened the blade before using it (which also kicks off the SOG unit fan helping keep the evil smell too). I’m not sure it makes much difference either way.
What about the, ah, noises? Weirdly, despite the fact the loo is only separated from the rest of the van by a thin door, the noise doesn’t seem to travel. ‘Tunes to poop to’ are sometimes requested to retain one’s dignity – music played at a suitable volume and tempo by our in-van entertainment stereo.
Where can you empty? Thousands of places. Campsites are the first obvious point of call for most of us Brits, but out on the continents they’re not normally needed. Dedicated emptying facilities exist which you can use for free or for a few euros. Have a look at park4night.com, campingcar-infos.com, Vicarious books All the Aires guides, the camperstop book or any other list of aires, sostas, stellplatz etc, and you’ll get the idea.
Can you pop it in a rucksack? I’ve heard about this. I’ve wondered about it. The idea is you bag up the box, carry it into any public loo and empty it discretely. The problem with this is, you can’t do much about the smell. Even if the loo doesn’t smell in use, it will most certainly honk when you empty it. I’ve avoided this approach so far for that reason.
Do you use gloves? Controversially, no. I’m careful to empty the thing slowly (there is a vacuum release button which controls the speed at which it empties). I usually then clean the loo with an anti-sceptic wipe when placing it back, and then give my hands and forearms a thorough wash. I’ve not become ill yet using this technique. Maybe if I had a cut to my hand I’d be more careful about using gloves.
What do the emptying points look like? Wellllll. There must a hundred designs. There are commercially sold service points which either have a lift up flap at the bottom, or a door which you pay to open. There are custom-made service points with a pipe at waste height which you pop the stuff down. There are gaps in grey water grills in the ground, which we’ve seen mainly in Italy. There are pits covered with man-hole covers (weighing a tonne), a large wooden disk, or even a rock. That last one was in Morocco, and served as much to camouflage the hole as cover it.
Do you need to swill the cassette with water after emptying? No. Not normally. I once stood behind an Austrian chap who washed his cassette out literally 15 times. I wondered if he planned to use it to store drinking water? If the cassette has some ‘awkward solid matter’ then I pop in a few litres of water, put the cap back on, fling it about a bit then empty it again. One some occasions I’ve needed to do that 2 or 3 times. Usually I don’t rinse it at all, as it’s back in use within hours.
Which tap is which? Oh man. It’s an eye-opener when you first see someone swill their cassette using water from the drinking water tap, the one you just used to fill your on-board fresh water tank. We make the assumption people do this all the time, so (a) we never drink unboiled water from the on-board tank and (b) we clean down the fresh water tap with an anti-sceptic wipe before we take in fresh water.
What about servicing? We don’t service our cassette, other than pouring a bit of vegetable oil onto the blade and seal every week or three, and wiping the outside down, we don’t service it in any way. In 30 months, we had to change a seal once. On our old panel van a tiny fuse went a couple of times which stopped the flush from working. We’ve popped some general instructions for Thetford repairs here for reference.
Hang on, what do you mean ‘flush’? Well, there is a kind of flush on these things. It either takes water from the fresh tank, or from another small tank which you can pop a nice sweet-smelling pink liquid in along with water, and squirts it around the edge of the bowl. It really hasn’t ever done much on our loos.
Can you always find somewhere? Yes, almost. The only real difficulties we had were in rural areas with few tourists out of season – southern Italy and the Greek Peloponnese spring to mind. But in around 30 months of being on the road we’ve only had to resort to digging a hole twice. Neither time felt like the right thing to do, although both times were distant from people. My aim is to always find access to the sewer, which has led to some interesting situations. At one point I needed the key to a youth hostel loo in Tunisia. Explaining to the chap who ran the place what was in the cassette, was an interesting conversation. In one disastrous scenario in Greece, I started to empty into a public loo at a marina, only to find the ancient thing simply poured the contents back out on the floor, and out the door onto the street. Cue much fun cleaning it up.
How long can you last? We just had a chat about it, and we reckon we’ve stretched out a cassette for maybe 8 days. Ideally we empty every 2 or 3 days, which gives us flexibility in terms of capacity and avoids risk of ‘aged wee’ smell. When we’re in places with few facilities, I use the ‘wee in a bottle’ technique to stretch things out, quietly emptying the bottle in drains or on grass away from where people go. Another obvious option is to buy a second cassette and store the full one. A more extreme option is to pop a bag in the loo, fill it, and dispose of it in a bin. As folks have pointed out to us, this isn’t much different to leaving dog poo in a bin, but my feeling is that’s just a step to close to the edge for me.
Will it freeze? I guess so, under some conditions. We’ve had this van down to minus ten and it’s not frozen, but it has a double floor which the gas heating keeps warm. In a less insulated van, it will probably freeze at some point, but I’ve never heard of it causing big problems, unless you know different?
Do I need to buy this fancy paper? No, save your money for Lidl beer blow-outs. Buy cheap paper though. Not the stuff that’s as thick as a duvet, as that stuff will clog your cassette right up, leading to the need to swill like that Austrian chap.
Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, feel free to add ’em below. Keep them clean(ish), we might be eating our tea when they arrive!
Cheers, Jay
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Haha excellent – emptying is definitely a ‘she’ job in our van
Excellent! Jason at his best! The idea of arriving at the restaurant with our cassette in our backpack had us both rolling about!
Extremely well written and hugely informative
Emptying is unfortunately a ‘Blue’ job in our van! Still its not as bad as I had imagined.
This is the inside information we all need to hear!!
There is more Tim, but it’s locked in a box marked ‘only open after minimum one 75cl of 14% wine has been consumed, per person)’! I write stuff like this as I can remember a few years back being out off the idea of camper travel because I’d have to deal with the loo. It really is next to nothing now. Thinking about it, you’ve inspired me to go empty ours now, weirdly at a disposal point at Imola just out of sight (out of respect perhaps) of the corner which killed Senna. Cheers, Jay
Best talking sh.t I’ve ever read ! Some great tips there especially regarding the fresh water tap and oil on the blade. Thx for that.
A very informative and humorous guide on toilet habits. We are still at the number ones only stage even after all these years. The rule being ” do the poo, you empty the loo”.
I really feel for the poor lady in this video, but it makes me titter every time I see it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmokg9N7zO0
I don’t find the ‘no gloves’ approach contraversial at all … perhaps because I’m with you on the glovelessness. Soap and water soon sorts the hands out.
I am in the rinsing camp, though (my theory: carrying the cassette to the emptying point causes poo-residue to coat all of the inside walls of the container, with the danger of pong unless rinsed) – but if there’s only one tap then I do use a water bottle to transfer water into the cassette; I could never bring myself to put the cassette near a drinking water tap.
Gah! I meant ‘controversial’ not ‘contraversial’.
Haha, no worries, we reread our old posts from time to time, finding typo after typo… Cheers, Jay
Excellent article and very reassuring. We are now only weeks away from our journey, with my retirement on 1st April (no fool me). The’number one’ only ‘rule’ applied up till now, will go and this has been a major concern.
Our albeit limited experience with sites in the UK, has not been great with generally poor waste drains, but I’m sure we will soon get the hang of it and it will become the non-event it appears to have become with you.
I suspect that within our division of labour, this will be my responsibility, and so far as the glove issue is concerned, I favour no gloves but good hand and forearm washing. By the way, how do you dispose of the anti-septic wipes? Regular bin?
Thanks very much for a really usefull article on a really fundamental issue.
Hi Neil. It does become a non-event in no time. The wipes go in with the non-recyclable waste. Cheers, Jay
How can you enjoy an article on toilets? Well I did and it’s comforting to know that generally we are moving in the right direction! We are members of the swill it round with fresh water brigade, have a special pair of gloves kept in that locker and occasionally put in a small drop of “additive”. We do have a SOG and are generally happy we invested in it.
Fitted SOG yesterday and on tour today. Daughter has upset stomach so will hope for the best. Thx for article. Regards
This is brilliant and we will have to steal a whole chunk for our version! We are trying to write on each of the issues that a first time Motorhomer will face. So we will owe at least a six pack of Lidl’s finest, after our version!
Though we do have Spanish rules in the van.
Work that one out.
Ha! Nick away, spread the love guys! Hmmm, Spanish rules? Unless it’s something to do with flamenco, which there barely seems room for, we’re mystified!
We extend our usage by peeing in as many bars and restaurants as we can … an excuse to stop for a coffee / vino. Also peeing outside as much as possible … I have joined the boys’ stand up and aim at a bush brigade … proud owner of a Sheewee :)
Very useful! It feels weird to have to ask google about pooping but needs must lol!