Who here actually uses a porta potty?

ProDave said:
well if this is going to be "show me your heads" here's mine:

heads.jpg


I think something missing from this conversation is WHERE is your porta potti.

Unusually for such a small boat, mine is in a compartment (okay cupboard) with a curtain for a modecum of privacy. That's one of the reasons we bought this boat. So many of this size either have nothing, or it's under one of the bunks with no privacy at all.

The shelf above my potti slides back out of the way when you want to use the pot. And you don't quite hit your head on the VHF when seated.
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Safe as houses wedged in there in a seaway, if you did get in trouble you could radio for help & I note you have the 165 Elegance model. Nice...:D
 
Giblets said:
After reading through this thread I have a strange feeling that my old Ball Head contraption will be coming out this year and a nice new Porta Potti Qube 365 being fitted instead! :D
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Probably a good idea - even a porta potty is better than a 3" (or whatever it is) hole in the bottom of the boat, opening directly into the cabin. I thought all those things had been condemned long since.

Pete
 
Market opportunity?

I have a thetford porta thingy in my 26 ft TS.
I had avoided using it for what Billie Connolly calls "jobbies" as there are easily accessible toilets ashore in my local (abel tasman national park) cruising ground. Until one day use was unavoidable!
Turns out that the use was OK and so was the later emptying!
Not my activity of choice but clever design and good chemicals make it not too unpleasant.
On the national park coast direct discharge close to shore is illegal so with a marine toilet you must have a holding tank.

Now it seems to me that a standard marine toilet with holding tank and diverter valves, seacocks, breathers etc is rather complicated and takes up quite a lot of space.
The Thetford uses minimal flush water, the chemicals keep it (almost) sweet smelling. But physically lifting out and dumping the tank is a chore and a bore.
What i would like is a porta potti type loo but with an option to install and connect a pump in situ so that i could pump out the holding tank when a suitable distance off shore.
Follow through with a bucket or two of sea water would be no problem.
Has anyone done this or know of a such a product?
Seems to me that it would be a good simple system.
cheers
 
Seajet said:
Giblets,
I fitted wooden fiddles around the base and an elastic shock-chord over the top to keep the thing in place when not in use.
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I use upholstery flat elastic strapping between tghe toop and bottom halves , which allows the strapping to stay in place in use.
 
Zagato said:
Brought up with Porta Pottis and have them in the caravan and Drascombe, no problem with them - just get on with the JOB and stop being squeamish!
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+1. Compared with digging a hole and emptying the contents of a privy, as my father had to do during WW2, disposing of the cassetted contents of a Porta Potti would be childs' play! I might add that sitting, as a youngster, on a privy was nowhere near as salubrious as the throne of the plastic wonder that is a P-P. No connection, just a satisfied customer.
 
Kurrawong_Kid said:
+1. Compared with digging a hole and emptying the contents of a privy, as my father had to do during WW2, disposing of the cassetted contents of a Porta Potti would be childs' play! I might add that sitting, as a youngster, on a privy was nowhere near as salubrious as the throne of the plastic wonder that is a P-P. No connection, just a satisfied customer.
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Kurrawong_Kid,

fair enough; another plus factor is I've always thought if anything dramatic happens to the boat, a porta potti should make a good raft to cling on to.

However knowing aircrew it might be better to go down with the ship rather than have a photo of oneself hanging onto a bog on the wall of every crew room.
 
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My tiny cabin cruiser is on the very upper Thames. There's trout in the water and a sea toilet would just be unacceptable. It's not too dreadful to empty a portapotti but others have said that. I wanted to pass on a tip from my friendly lock keeper, since cassette capacity is limited, ignore the instruction to add water to the cassette with the green fluid - providing a pee will proceed a poo. Or at least coincide with it. I have followed this advice this year and can confirm it makes the cassette contents no more horrible than if space was waster with clean water.
 
John the kiwi said:
What i would like is a porta potti type loo but with an option to install and connect a pump in situ so that i could pump out the holding tank when a suitable distance off shore.
Follow through with a bucket or two of sea water would be no problem.
Has anyone done this or know of a such a product?
Seems to me that it would be a good simple system.
cheers
Click to expand...

As it happens, much the same idea has been going through my mind

Thetford, rather frustratingly, manufacture and market a marine version of the 365 (and a couple of other models) which not only has moulded in fix down tags but also a take off point from the holding tank for a pump out fitting. The frustration stems from the fact that these marine units are not available in the UK or Europe and the cost of importing one from the states would be prohibitive

The above notwithstanding, eventually it dawned on me that I was going to be adding an awful lot of complication just to avoid the occasional chore of dragging the holding tank out to the cockpit and dumping the contents overboard.

Moxon said:
My tiny cabin cruiser is on the very upper Thames. There's trout in the water and a sea toilet would just be unacceptable. It's not too dreadful to empty a portapotti but others have said that. I wanted to pass on a tip from my friendly lock keeper, since cassette capacity is limited, ignore the instruction to add water to the cassette with the green fluid - providing a pee will proceed a poo. Or at least coincide with it. I have followed this advice this year and can confirm it makes the cassette contents no more horrible than if space was waster with clean water.
Click to expand...

I would partially concur with the lockie - I would definitely recommend a splash of fresh water into the tank along with the Aquachem (blue or green) but I do mean a splash, about a cup full will do the job ... unless the process happens to coincide with the need for a leak of course! Thereafter, assuming a reasonable volume of, er, liquid to go along with the, er, solids, don't waste holding tank space with fresh water flushing

That said, if you operate a general policy of bucket and chuckit for gents peeing as we usually do, if there are no ladies on board it pays to add some liquid from time to time by one means or another
 
Ok, yet... in tens of thousands of miles with lots of crew and lots of heads usage. I guess I'd have spent a good deal more time emptying a glorified bucket even if I ran into a spate of blockages.
Anyway, there's no way the seabog is going now. I'm far too keen to experience one of these mooted crapper lightning strikes!

This new forum software is junk. Where did all those colours come from, and why does the page changer randomly vanish and reappear when using the mobile site? Bonkers.
Fantasie 19 said:
"Yet"?? Touch wood when you say that! :)
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John the kiwi said:
I have a thetford porta thingy in my 26 ft TS.
I had avoided using it for what Billie Connolly calls "jobbies" as there are easily accessible toilets ashore in my local (abel tasman national park) cruising ground. Until one day use was unavoidable!
Turns out that the use was OK and so was the later emptying!
Not my activity of choice but clever design and good chemicals make it not too unpleasant.
On the national park coast direct discharge close to shore is illegal so with a marine toilet you must have a holding tank.

Now it seems to me that a standard marine toilet with holding tank and diverter valves, seacocks, breathers etc is rather complicated and takes up quite a lot of space.
The Thetford uses minimal flush water, the chemicals keep it (almost) sweet smelling. But physically lifting out and dumping the tank is a chore and a bore.
What i would like is a porta potti type loo but with an option to install and connect a pump in situ so that i could pump out the holding tank when a suitable distance off shore.
Follow through with a bucket or two of sea water would be no problem.
Has anyone done this or know of a such a product?
Seems to me that it would be a good simple system.
cheers
Click to expand...

I don't know if this thread is of any interest to you? http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?343627-Fitting-a-quot-holding-tank-quot&highlight=
 
Seajet said:
There was a saying about officers on the recent Invincible class aircraft carriers; those who pee in the sink, and liars !
Click to expand...

Similar saying in Russia, a place where (formerly) hotel bathrooms were few and at the other end of a very long corridor:

"Only a dead man does not piss in the basin" :)

Pete
 
It's probably been a while since some of you used or seen modern chemical toilets. They are so much better now and you can get eco friendly chemicals now too. Have a look at the Thetford Excellence range. Look like normal toilets, electric flush plus it has an added accessory of a bolt down floor plate for boat & RV use.

Thetford-Porta-Potti-Excellence-Electric.jpg
 
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