RV Toilet Buying Guide

Toilets are essential to your comfort on the road. Yet with so many technologies and features to choose from, selecting the perfect toilet for your recreational vehicle (RV) can be confusing! We’ve put together this guide to assist you in making the right choice for you and your RV:

THERE ARE FIVE POPULAR TYPES OF RV TOILET:

Gravity flush – this is the most traditional toilet; tried and tested in RVs for decades. It uses the simplest method of flushing – bowl contents drop directly into a large holding tank – ensuring reliable, straightforward performance. The gravity-flush toilet must be installed directly over the waste holding tank.

Macerating flush – motor-powered blades macerate waste into viscous slurry before the waste goes into a large holding tank. This flushing technology allows the toilet and waste holding tank to be positioned apart from each other. As a result of maceration, holding tank effluent is more fluid. This reduces “mounding” of waste while also making discharge from the tank easier and more thorough.

Vacuum flush – bowl contents are powerfully pulled from the toilet bowl through a stored vacuum vessel and macerating vacuum pump, and then pumped to a large holding tank. Like macerating toilets, this flushing technology also allows the toilet and waste holding tank to be positioned apart from each other. This allows a vacuum toilet to be located virtually anywhere in a motorhome.

Cassette – primarily designed for caravans and campervans, this toilet technology provides a compact toilet bowl that’s permanently installed over a small, removable “cassette-style” waste tank. When flushed, the bowl contents drop directly into the waste tank. When the waste tank is full, it is manually removed through a service door and emptied into a standard toilet or other waste disposal station, then re-installed under the toilet bowl.

Portable – popular in small campervans and also for tent camping, portable toilets are composed of a lightweight plastic toilet bowl and small waste tank. When the tank is full, you remove the lower tank from the upper seat and bowl, empty it into a standard toilet or other waste disposal station, then re-connect it with the toilet bowl.

In many cases, the primary cause of a smelly toilet is when the waste holding tank is located directly under a gravity-flush toilet. Toilets that open directly above the tank are likely to allow tank odor to penetrate into the bathroom. Two good options to prevent this from occurring are the installation of a macerator toilet or vacuum toilet. These two types of toilets are installed without a direct path from the tank to the toilet bowl, isolating smells from the user.

With a macerator or vacuum toilet, there is still the small risk of smells penetrating a flexible hose if one is used for connecting the toilet to the waste holding tank (odor will not permeate PVC pipe). So make sure the waste line drains properly into the tank to avoid sewage remaining in the sanitation hose after flushing.

In gravity-flush toilets, the water that stays in the bowl acts as an odor seal between the bowl and the tank.
To continue performing this vital job, the seal and flush ball or valve must remain clean and smooth so that water does not leak down and out of the bowl. Be aware that it takes regular cleaning to ensure this function remains effective. Mineral and waste build up can damage the seal, meaning the protective water seal cannot function.

To avoid bad smells from a cassette or gravity toilet, use tank treatments that are designed for those toilet systems. Proper waste tank ventilation is also important to make sure that tank treatments work properly and odor is kept to a minimum. Also bear in mind that a cassette toilet’s waste tank is technically inside the vehicle. So any odor may be more noticeable if the waste tank is not properly treated or ventilated.

Toilets of all types benefit from tank treatment solutions. Whether in liquid or drop-in packet form, they effectively combat odor.