Chemical toilets - how often and where do you empty them?

DoubleEnder

DoubleEnder

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I see more and more smallish sailing boats fitted with chemical loos rather than sea toilets, and I can see the advantages in cost & absence of through hulls. How often do they need to be emptied and where can you do this? I’m thinking of a situation where realistically the loo will be used by one or two people over a weekend, so unlikely to be any where near full. Is it ok to leave it like that over a period of say 4 weeks, and empty it then? Or will it be smelly and horrid, brewing up explosive pressures and noxious fumes?
Also, can the cassette simply be emptied in to a toilet ashore? At a marina? Yacht club !? Or does it need a special facility?

Maybe a bucket is better…
 
Having not used one for many years (and only for camping), my instinct would be to empty it at the end of the weekend. Most (all?) marinas have dedicated facilities for disposal i.e. a manhole cover to the drains and a tap, I guess it is possible to empty down normal loo (albeit probably not welcome by the management), but there is the question of washing out out the container afterwards.
 
It all depends on which, if any, chemicals you put in it. Emptied frequently you really don't need chemicals, so it can be disposed of 'anywhere.' Leave it for any length of time and it will begin to smell. The green chemicals are allegedly safe for disposal into clargesters etc., the blue stuff should really only go into mains drainage and probably not even there in truth.

A good reason to empty it frequently is that the whole boat can begin to smell of the toilet chemical, the blue stuff in particular.

When living aboard I quickly got fed up with the thing and fitted a sea toilet...

Composting ones are apparently becoming popular, but I don't think we have the infrastructure for them here yet.
 
We had one on a couple of our early boats and a cassette on the caravan. Only ever used by two but emptied every two days without fail, if you use enough blue fluid then it shouldn't smell but they can become surprisingly heavy and unmanageable.

As for leaving it for four weeks before emptying it...................WHY? 🙈🙈🙈🙈
 
I have one (replaced once) on my boat for 25 years...
As long as you put the chemicals in it, just empty it when it's full.
No smell and no bother...

You will be surprised how quickly it will fill up if you are staying on board for the weekend, but for day sailing it will last a fair few weeks..

Don't do what I did once in Shapards Marina (Cowes) though: I was taking the bottom part to be emptied and as I lifted it over the guard wire the handle that pulls the flap open got caught.

You can imagine the rest💩💩💩
 
I have had on a boat ... Snapdragon 23 ... it leaked !! That got thrown on the fire !!

But I have had cassette loos in caravans .. and have one in my workshop now ...

Best is to use the recc'd fluid in the water .. it breaks it down ... without the fluid - it will smell and also clump up in the bottom tank. Also best to empty each few days .. or if just a weekend jaunt - at end the weekend ...
Even with fluid - they do start to smell - but its the fluid chemical smell .... seems to get stronger !

As to getting full ? The cassette one I have now - which is the mid size ... I reckon could easily go a week - 10 days for 2 - 3 people ... as long as flusihing is kept to minimum .....

Where to empty ? If you use the recc'd Fluid - then its usual to empty to dedicated point .. if not provided - then into toilet ashore. The biggest hassle is carrying the tank when full ... so my advice DON'T WAIT for it to be full ...
 
Use the blue chemical - and double dose during the Summer - and then you only need to empty when full. Can go down any public loo when you're ready. I have two of those 25 l grey water containers adapted with larger fill up holes so I can empty the Portapotti into those if I need to be away from shoreside facilities. I don't tip it overside - I like swimming!
 
Andrew_Trayfoot said:
Don't do what I did once in Shapards Marina (Cowes) though: I was taking the bottom part to be emptied and as I lifted it over the guard wire the handle that pulls the flap open got caught.

You
Click to expand...
Back in the days of supersonic flight Concord made a visit to Exeter Airport as the runway was one of the diversion airfields.

They were running two flights round le golfe de Gascogne, the first flight arrived back, the passengers departed and then there was a LONG delay.

My then boss was getting just a tad bored called the tower as the aircraft was still on the ground some 45 mins after its planned departure time and the second tranche of passengers had not embarked.

He replaced the telephone in its cradle and with a rye smile announced that somebody was in deep shit. A service vehicle had accidentally blown rather than suck when emptying the black water tank; the office exploded into fits of laughter.

The flight departed two hours late. To this day I don't know if the passengers were advised what the technical problem was!
 
I had a porta potty on my last boat, great when I went around the French canals, I took the 'receptor tank' to a public toilet and emptied it down the loo, I also took a container so after emptying I could put some water in to flush it out.
I used the blue chemical, it didn't need much, but if you're going to empty after a w/e's use then you're wasting your time using chemicals as they take time to break the waste down. In home waters, I was on a swinging mooring, so the loo only got emptied when I went into a marina.
PS you're best practice would be to put loo paper in a bag rather than the loo,as I've just remembered why mine needed flushing out!
 
Last edited:
harvey38 said:
We had one on a couple of our early boats and a cassette on the caravan. Only ever used by two but emptied every two days without fail, if you use enough blue fluid then it shouldn't smell but they can become surprisingly heavy and unmanageable.

As for leaving it for four weeks before emptying it...................WHY? 🙈🙈🙈🙈
Click to expand...
Because the boat is on a swinging mooring
 
I can understand why someone with a small boat that never had a functioning sea toilet would want one but why anyone would remove a functioning sea toilet and replace with a chemical one to me is beyond belief and I include the possible or desirable requirement to fit a holding tank to the existing sea toilet as not being a good reason to switch.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
I can understand why someone with a small boat that never had a functioning sea toilet would want one but why anyone would remove a functioning sea toilet and replace with a chemical one to me is beyond belief and I include the possible or desirable requirement to fit a holding tank to the existing sea toilet as not being a good reason to switch.
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That is exactly what i did...
Because sea toilets smell, get easily blocked, are a pain to service, and are often miss used used by crew...
 
Fr J Hackett said:
Rubbish
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Well that's a well thought out intellectual argument...

When I purchased my boat it had a sea toilet that smelt...

I pulled it all out, cleaned it, serviced all the parts and replaced all the consumables. I also replaced all the pipe work with sanitary grade pipe.

Within a few weeks it smelt...

Crew blocked it with loo paper and it exploded in my face when I tried to clear it.
Sorted that out and it constantly gave me issues so in the end I replaced it with a portapotty.
No hassel, no faffing about with sea cocks, no pumping, no poo going into the sea. Win, win, win, as far as I'm concerned.

A good few members of my club have done the same...

But each to their own...
 
Andrew_Trayfoot said:
That is exactly what i did...
Because sea toilets smell, get easily blocked, are a pain to service, and are often miss used used by crew...
Click to expand...

I have instructions pasted to back of loo door .... with large red letter section warning that they who cause problem - shall have the job of dealing with it !
 
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