Changed to a Cassete Toilet

[Reebavic]

Has anyone changed their camper regular black tank toilet to a cassette toilet (ex. Thetford c220)? Would seem easier for our kind of traveling.

 

[Joe917]

Cassettes are horrible switch to a composting toilet

 

[IdaSHO]

Yep. No black tank in our custom camper (by design)
We started with a chemical toilet.

On one of the best things we have ever done is convert to a composting toilet.
Chemical toilets make the camper smell like an outhouse every time its used
Essentially zero odor with a composting toilet

 

[DirtWhiskey]

I have a cassette and am looking to switch to a "composting" toilet. Although the better units are not really composting. They are urine-diverting dehydrating toilets. Lots of options out there. Way easier and less gross to handle than a cassette. I think cassettes are better than black tank systems but I really don't like hauling around combined, sloshing, er, biohazards to find a place to empty.

Separating liquids from solids is the key. Some have a negative pressure fan that tamps down on smell and helps with drying.

 

[Sparse Gray Hackle]

We have a composting toilet. Would never go back to a black tank.

 

[andy_b]

Agree with everyone who recommends not going with a cassette toilet.

We’re using the Wrappon toilet which is neither a cassette or a compositing. It is amazing but its operational costs are highest of the three types and its need to store consumables makes it tougher to take on longer (1m or more) trips or with large groups. The flip side is it is easier to keep clean, human waste is easier to manage, it is smaller/lighter and can be packaged easier, and no need for exterior perforations (for the cassette itself or the vent fan tubing for composters). It is more of a niche rather than “best” option though. We wouldn’t do it differently but I get why others would disagree.

 

[SimplyAnAdventure]

I would agree with the above post. We use a Wrappon and tbh it’s light years ahead of any other toilet solution…. For our uses.

We have ours installed in our Supertramp camper and we camp maybe 45 nights a year. The Wrappon is super sanitary and user friendly. Where it falls flat is cost and environmental impact (seals waste in plastic).

I wouldn’t chose any other solution personally. FWIW I have a friend that uses a composting Trelino toilet and has nothing but good things to say about it.

 

[Herbie]

Cassettes are horrible switch to a composting toilet

This falls into the range of "there's an ******** for every seat". I, personally, prefer a cassette toilet over composting.

Given the nature of our use, the length of our trips, etc., a cassette toilet works best for us. (Note, we use a "porta potti" style cassette, not the kind that has an installation portal in the RV.)

With the family being me, my wife, and daughter, the nature of the places we visit, and all trips <15 days in length, with multiple weeks of non-use in between trips, plus our typical mix of liquid vs solid waste, there would be zero advantage to composting. Most trips would not be conducive to the composting timeline (you'd be dealing with un-composted solid waste at the end of short trips), and we'd have to deal with the separated liquid waste at least as often, if not more often, owing to the volume of that portion.

With a 5-gallon capacity Thetford "Curve" model, on a normal trip (during which some portion of restroom visits are done at gas stations, restaurants, etc.), we've gone as long as two weeks before needing to empty the tank. Typically, I will proactively empty the tank after ~1 week if there's a convenient vault toilet or the like at a trailhead, or if we land in an established campground. About 75% of the time, our trips are short enough that the tank just gets emptied when we get home at the end of the trip.

Emptying (either in a vault toilet, or at home) is less of a big deal than most folks make out (certainly, changing a baby's diaper is 1000x less sanitary). The only concession we've made for ease-of-use at home was to install a handheld bidet sprayer in the downstairs bathroom, which facilitates easier rinsing when I'm cleaning the tank for storage between trips.

I also like that we have minimal consumables, and that I can pick up extras at any RV store or Wal-Mart along the way. Technically the Curve will operate without any chemicals except water, but the enzymes make everything easier to rinse clean, so I keep an extra 4oz bottle of the tank liquid in the truck (enough for two additional tank volumes), which takes up less space than the 2nd roll of TP. Aside from dropping in one of the "extra foamy cleaning" pod things a couple of times a year, I've got very little other maintenance.

 

[Sparse Gray Hackle]

We have a black water toilet in our hard side camper, and a composting toilet in the travel trailer. The composting toilet is by far the easier to deal with when on the road. If you take advantage of public toilets when available, it’s easy to go 6 weeks before needing to clean out the compost chamber. The fluids bottle needs emptied after two or three days, depending on how much beer you rented.

The black water tank is easier to dump, but needs done far more often. The compost chamber takes about 30+ minutes to dump and recharge, but dumpsters (or your garden at home) are easier to find than a dump station.

 

[Joe917]

Herbie your usage pattern is actually perfect for a composting toilet. There is no reason to empty it after a short trip. The contents will actually compost!

 

[Herbie]

Herbie your usage pattern is actually perfect for a composting toilet. There is no reason to empty it after a short trip. The contents will actually compost!

We just came back from 2 weeks around the southwest. Due to school and work schedule, the next trip will not be until desert season starts - I don't want 2 weeks of our waste composting in a cabinet inside the living space of my camper in our SoCal driveway (90°+) until late October. Hard pass.

 

[68camaro]

Black Tanks Matter......the Wrappon would be second. I looked into both composting and cassette and both had drawbacks that were deal killers, based on our uses/needs.

Give me my porcelain water flush goddess or give me death!

 

[StenchRV]

A 30 plus year RV'er here. I have had cassette. regular, porcelain high $$, .36 diesel pusher home type.
Never again a black tank! Switched to composting, easy and 45 plus days on solids. Looks like miracle grow! 3 or 4 days on urine bottle, SIMPLE. A computer fan and ZERO oder. I would do it again in a heartbeat, but to each his own!

CHEERS!!

 

[henrys]

Composting toilets like air head or natures head have a fan that is constantly pulling the stank out of the toilet to the outside via an external vent. I switched from cassette to an air head and for how I use my camper its a game changer. Zero smell and I can easily go 3-4 weeks of actual use between dumping. I am a weekend camper and can just leave it "full" as long as I want without having to find a place to dump. All the material just turns into dust eventually.

 

[GR8ADV]

This falls into the range of "there's an ******** for every seat". I, personally, prefer a cassette toilet over composting.

Given the nature of our use, the length of our trips, etc., a cassette toilet works best for us. (Note, we use a "porta potti" style cassette, not the kind that has an installation portal in the RV.)

With the family being me, my wife, and daughter, the nature of the places we visit, and all trips <15 days in length, with multiple weeks of non-use in between trips, plus our typical mix of liquid vs solid waste, there would be zero advantage to composting. Most trips would not be conducive to the composting timeline (you'd be dealing with un-composted solid waste at the end of short trips), and we'd have to deal with the separated liquid waste at least as often, if not more often, owing to the volume of that portion.

With a 5-gallon capacity Thetford "Curve" model, on a normal trip (during which some portion of restroom visits are done at gas stations, restaurants, etc.), we've gone as long as two weeks before needing to empty the tank. Typically, I will proactively empty the tank after ~1 week if there's a convenient vault toilet or the like at a trailhead, or if we land in an established campground. About 75% of the time, our trips are short enough that the tank just gets emptied when we get home at the end of the trip.

Emptying (either in a vault toilet, or at home) is less of a big deal than most folks make out (certainly, changing a baby's diaper is 1000x less sanitary). The only concession we've made for ease-of-use at home was to install a handheld bidet sprayer in the downstairs bathroom, which facilitates easier rinsing when I'm cleaning the tank for storage between trips.

I also like that we have minimal consumables, and that I can pick up extras at any RV store or Wal-Mart along the way. Technically the Curve will operate without any chemicals except water, but the enzymes make everything easier to rinse clean, so I keep an extra 4oz bottle of the tank liquid in the truck (enough for two additional tank volumes), which takes up less space than the 2nd roll of TP. Aside from dropping in one of the "extra foamy cleaning" pod things a couple of times a year, I've got very little other maintenance.

What he said.