My Van Needs a Separating Toilet

Ry, my 2022 Thor Rize campervan, (now for sale) came with a factory-installed cassette toilet, the Thetford C223-S.

Obviously, a campervan cannot have a permanent connection to the city sewage line. Large RVs typically store sewage underneath the vehicle in large black tanks that must be emptied regularly. Small RVs and campervans usually don’t have space for undercarriage black tanks.

Instead, cassette toilets combine the toilet with a small, removable, black tank, the cassette. When necessary, the cassette is removed then carried or wheeled to an appropriate site where you can empty and clean it.

The upside of cassette toilets is that they are conceptually very simple. The controls are arranged differently, but usage is very similar to flush toilets.

The biggest downside of cassette toilets is that after every few days of use, it is necessary to remove the cassette and dump the contents. I found handling a five gallon container of raw sewage to be extraordinarily unpleasant.

My campervan needs a better toilet.

Sealed bags

Multiple manufacturers make what I call “sealed bag” toilets. With every use, waste is deposited into a new plastic bag that is then heat sealed. Coagulants turn liquid waste into a gel to make it easier to deal with. The sealed bags can be deposited in any waste basket.

Given that everything is sealed up, the disgust factor of using and maintaining a sealed-bag toilet is nearly zero. And they are marvels of engineering.

But marvels of engineering are expensive to buy and expensive to operate. Bag refills and coagulant packets are pricey. And without those, the device is useless.

Worse still, sealed-bag toilets are complicated and have a lot of moving parts. It is likely that something will go wrong with them and very unlikely that I’d be able to fix it when it did.

Sealed bag toilets are not right for me.

Incinerating toilets

Incinerating toilets are extremely rare. They are very expensive, complex to install, and consume a lot of fuel. But they are extraordinary at dealing with waste, reducing it tiny amounts of ash.

For people with bowel issues they are ideal.

But the cost, complexity, fuel requirements, and environmental impact means they are not right for me.

Separating toilets

Commonly called “composting toilets,” separating toilets separate liquid waste from solid waste.

In theory, this enables composting the solids into humanure. If you have a place to store it for a year or so you can make excellent fertilizer (for non-edible plants).

More importantly, separating the liquids and adding an effective litter material such as coco coir eliminates odors and other unpleasantness. Solid waste doesn’t smell when dried

The fanciest and most expensive separating toilets (i.e. Nature’s Head) include exhaust fans and agitators to ensure the waste is dried.

Agitators add a lot to the size and space requirements; add more moving pieces and complexity; make the waste containers more difficult and messier to empty; and add components that need cleaning but are difficult and unpleasant to clean.

Exhaust fans are simpler but still add considerable complexity. In my experience they are unnecessary, even in hot and humid conditions when not emptying the solids for weeks at a time.

The major downside with separating toilets is that they take some getting use to. They are easy to use, but you do need to learn to make sure liquids and solids are separated.

Emptying the liquids is easy and far less offensive than emptying a cassette toilet.

The solids are, by sight and smell, indistinguishable from rich soil. Tying up the bag and tossing it into the garbage no worse than taking out the trash from most home kitchens.

I have been using the Trelino Evo L. It is extremely simple, has no moving parts, and is easy to use and easy to maintain.

Unfortunately, because of how the cassette toilet was installed, I’d need to redo the entire bathroom to replace the toilet.

This is one of the reasons I am selling my campervan. It doesn’t meet all of my needs. For example, I need a gasoline heater.