Talk to me about Porta Potties............

[Trish]

I am very excited inded cos I ordered a Kampa Portaflush 10 online yesterday & have just had an email to say it's on its way yippee!!

How sad I am. But it is a teeny tiny size fitting easily into our bog cupboard (cupboard 33cm h, 37cm w and about 50 cm deep), apparently you can stand on it and it flushes up to 50 times, so should withstand a weekend away with the kids

Got it from outdooraction.co.uk for a jolly reasonable £37.95. Had looked at a porta Potti 135 and Elsan Visa 238, both same size as this Kampa, but both cost appreciably more!

[Mr Bean]

[quote="Trish"]I am very excited inded cos I ordered a Kampa Portaflush 10 online yesterday & have just had an email to say it's on its way yippee!!

How sad I am. But it is a teeny tiny size fitting easily into our bog cupboard (cupboard 33cm h, 37cm w and about 50 cm deep), apparently you can stand on it and it flushes up to 50 times, so should withstand a weekend away with the kids

Many moons ago we let ours get overfull with the result that lifting it our of its stowage to empty it became something of a challenge. We now add emptying the bog to topping up the water tank at each oportunity just in case places to do it suddenly dry up so to speak. Nothing gives the game away as much as trying to be discrete when carrying the bottom half of a Porta Pottie into a not quite appropriate place in a severe emergency.
Cheers
Wolfie

[TravellingChick]

cool! will check measurements and order one of them I reckon!

[Trish]

Just tried the Kampa Portaflush 10 in the van. DOESN'T FIT IN THE BOG CUPBOARD Is a bit too wide . Checked measurements, should fit but when I opened the box the loo looked bigger than I thought it would. Wondered if they had sent me the Portafluch 20 instead, but there's no label on it and the box says Portaflush 10.

So it looks like an expensive Elsan Visa then , I know that fits for certain but did not want to fork out that much money!

Sorry if anyone has ordered the Portaflush 10 on the recommendation of my previous post. However it may possibly fit into another conversions cupboard I suppose, just too wide for our Autosleeper.

Its going to be a bucket and spade for our camping trip at the w/e!

[shanco73]

I think we are going to buy the 10l LaPlaya from JK, its £50 so not the cheapest but i think it will fit under our buddy seat. In fact they sell a bundled kit with toilet tent and chemicals and easy degrade bog roll fro 80 quid i think we will buy the whole thing.

When we picked up our new van last week, (leasuredrive crusader, is nice) it has a toilet in the buddy seat already (er) but i think we will be wanting a new one.........

have never had a toilet in our van before.

[koopsi]

omg, i didnt realise there was sooooo much choice being very new to this camping scene, i have a couple of questions:

an earlier post stated one type of toilet could go a long weekend without needing to be emptied.... is that with no.1's AND no.2's in (soz, trying to be polite here ) ? and, does it begin to smell after a couple of days, especially being in a confined space (apparently i can stink the 'whole' house out on a good day - i cant smell a thing )? also, do they have to be emptied in a certain place ie where do you empty it if 'rough' camping (when roughing it in the woods, the shovel pictured earlier is all ive used ) ?

sorry if these are newbie questions, but i must admit to being strangely (as one poster put it) enthusiastic about this topic

[Trish]

omg, i didnt realise there was sooooo much choice being very new to this camping scene, i have a couple of questions:

an earlier post stated one type of toilet could go a long weekend without needing to be emptied.... is that with no.1's AND no.2's in (soz, trying to be polite here ) ? and, does it begin to smell after a couple of days, especially being in a confined space (apparently i can stink the 'whole' house out on a good day - i cant smell a thing )? also, do they have to be emptied in a certain place ie where do you empty it if 'rough' camping (when roughing it in the woods, the shovel pictured earlier is all ive used ) ?

sorry if these are newbie questions, but i must admit to being strangely (as one poster put it) enthusiastic about this topic

From our experience camping with a Porta Potti 145 ( which wouldn't fit into our bog cupboard in the new van but used to double up as a buddy seat in the last one! )our answers would be-

-can be no 1's and 2's, and if you use a camping loo with a sealed bottom bit such as a Porta Potti, will not smell over a long weekend, provided you keep the valve to the bottom part firmly closed.
-on many campsites there is a dedicated waste removal point, best used where available in case toilet leaks on way home, and it's far easier and pleasanter aiming the waste pipe down a large receptacle than aiming down your toilet at home! When rough camping or at a site without disposal facilities it is recommended you take the waste home and empty it in your toilet. Might still need your shovel for then!

Use plenty of flushing fluid for the top of your Potti and deodorising fluid (Elsan, Thetford etc) for the bottom bit (where the no' 1's and 2's end up) to make sure your Potti smells as fresh as a daisy all weekend!

[hayley]

sorry if these are newbie questions, but i must admit to being strangely (as one poster put it) enthusiastic about this topic

Hi there,

Just to continue the noobie questions... (sorry if this is a Hijack, but I didn't want to start a new topic with this one still going).

We've just bought a westy joker, and there is no room to store a porta-potti without buying a buddybox. is it the kind of thing that we will get used to just sitting in the corner behind the passenger seat? I'm not comfortable at the moment having a toliet in my bedroom/kitchen/living room - but will i get used to it? the other option is to get the bag disposable type - which seem very expensive at about £8 for 4 bags.

any comments will be great.

[Trish]

Our last van was a Westy Club Joker and we didn't have a buddy box for it.

I am usually very fastidious (to the point of OCD! ) but, as we have 2 kids under 5, we had to have a loo within easy reach.

We tended to put the Porta Potti in the corner of the awning ( not by a see thru bit! ) in the daytime, and bring it in at night for middle-of-the-night ablutions.

As our captain's chair would not turn around, the Porta Potti then doubled up as a chair for me to sit on when having breakfast (lid closed of course). I would never consider eating breakfast sat on a toilet at home, believe me! Funnily enough, I have very fond memories of the four of us eating breakfast in the van, it was one of the times which seemed to bring us together sat round while we woke up properly....until the 4 year old would push me off the seat cos he needed a poo.......

[koopsi]

Trish, many thanks for the most excellent reply

My mind has been firmly put to rest and as soon as i start the interior, i will be getting a porta potti. i kinda have a plan to disguise it as a fold out buddy seat for the table (although i definately wont be using both at the same time ).

thanks again

[Trish]

No problem...potties seem to be a pecialist subject of mine!