Choosing a Camper Toilet
Poop. There. We said it. Don’t tell us you haven’t been thinking about it.
Going to the bathroom while living in a camper van is probably the one thing that can make you miss “normal” living quarters. But there are some camper toilet solutions available to make you feel a bit more comfortable and at home. But fair warning: every option is going to have some level of gross. So it’s best to just accept the fact of feces and move on.
1. Dometic portable toilet
The Dometic camper toilet below is the van toilet has the most features of the bunch. It’s relatively clean and odorless, but is also the most expensive. You get some “at home” luxuries like a flush button and a separate sealed container (these are also known as “cassette toilets”). All of the toilets listed here are portable toilets, meaning you don’t need to deal with a built-in sewage tank in your van that you’d need to empty at a RV dump. The Dometic portable toilet is no exception, as the “cassette”, or the tank at the bottom, is easily detached and can be emptied in any bathroom toilet. It’s compact, which is great for a camper van, but that means that it’s storage tank is limited (there are 2.5 and 5 gallon versions). Expect to have to empty and clean the tank every other day with normal use. Additionally, more moving parts and nooks/crannies just means more places that “stuff” can hide, and eventually stink up your close quarters.
2. Folding portable camp toilet
The Cleanwaste portable toilet is a collapsible toilet thats sturdy and space-saving, with less bells and whistles. You load a Wag bag into the mesh bag base, do your business, tie up the bag and toss it in the nearest dumpster. The nice thing about this is you can really use any plastic bag in a pinch, but the branded wag bags are heavy duty and contain odor-fighting enzymes.
This camper toilet is clearly a little more catered towards those who are either camping or vandwelling in slightly more remote areas, and also makes for a great “emergency” setup since its packs down so small. But it still offers the comfort of a normal toilet seat, raised off the ground, and supports a heavy adult with its well-constructed legs.
3. Reliance Self-Contained Camper Toilet
Lastly, the Reliance Hassock Portable Lightweight Self-Contained Toilet is as bare-assed as it gets. Its a bucket with a seat-shaped opening. The lid also has a convenient little toilet paper roll holder underneath. Similar to the above, if you’re mainly going to be using the restrooms at gas stations or public restrooms along the way, this would be a good “Plan B” option to keep aboard. Since its a big empty bucket, it’s not entirely a waste of space, as you can store other items in it and simply empty before using.
Bonus: Make your toilet green
If you’re down to drop your brown into a bucket like above, but you want to keep the world green, you might want to consider building your own composting toilet, which based off of Build a Green RV’s composting toilet post, doesn’t smell if you treat it right.
Think your sh*t don’t stink? We wanna hear about it! Leave a comment below. Looking for more camper van comfort items? Check out our comforts section!