Toilet fluid alternative
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+1 on that AD. I had been reading about it for a while on CT before giving it a go when we switched to a MH in 2019. We have been using them ever since. Besides working equally as well, if not better than the toilet fluid, they are also much cheaper if you go for the Lidl variety. Plus of course you can also use them to do your laundry, which is not advisable with the blue liquid😂.
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Never tried it, but I'll add it to my list of things to try.
However, we to have a 'top-tank' alternative. When we are only on site for 2-3 nights, we often don't set up out 'top tank flush'. For a short period, I often find we end up either not putting enough water/red stuff in the top tank, or we put in too much and end up throwing it away at the end. (We always travel with empty tanks) As an alternative, I have a 'spray bottle' with diluted red stuff, and a jug. We just spray and put water in the jug from the washroom tap to 'flush'. It works for a short period....
Soms folk also reckon it's not a bad idea to use plain water in the top tank, from time to time, to avoid black bits...
David
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Fabric conditioner in the flush tank, small cap full, top up with cold water, splash of chemical stuff in cassette, onboard toilet primarily reserved for night time use, "no poo please we are British" except in an emergency, empty cassette every 2 days, less weight to carry/lift, have a small sack trolley should facilities be a hike away.
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empty cassette every 2 days, less weight to carry/lift,
The benefit of the Lidl pods is that they are cheap enough that I can empty it daily, that way it never gets that heavy. Although the cassette has wheels, they are fairly useless on anything but tarmac. There always seems to be a Lidl we can call into to resupply.
Nothing in the flush tank, as we don’t have one and fabric conditioner in the drinking water wouldn’t be good.😉
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There seems to be some suggestion that the caking agents in the wash tablets are not good for toilets. Also check whether bio tabs are ok if septic tank drainage. When we had a septic tank at home we had to be very careful what detergents went in.
We always use green toilet capsules. Usually Thetford green aqua chem. I prefer capsules rather than liquid, easier to store, easier to dose. They do work out a bit more expensive but even changing the loo every two days, sometimes every day, not much higher cost over the season as a whole. Especially compared to what many spend on their vans and trips away.
As for use of loo, we use it all the time, rarely use site facilities even if there are any where we are. We prefer sites e.g. CLs with no loo blocks.
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each to their own, I have a 5 berth caravan and for many years we had 3 Gchildren in tow, and believe me if we all used the onboard toilet all the time, I would probably have had to empty twice per day and no amount of pods would have re-acted with what was in their in such a short space of time, any way it was good exercise for all including the dog walking to the facilities block, and at times quite sociable, yes there are some exceptions and i often use my bike if the facilities block is a stretch away and give a concession to my OH
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"As for use of loo, we use it all the time, rarely use site facilities even if there are any where we are. We prefer sites e.g. CLs with no loo blocks"
this was us when we first started out some 20+ years ago, today we like to take it a little easier and enjoy the luxuries of what caravanning gives us
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I just use a splash of blue in ours .... the toilet is used predominately for night time No2's however, it is used to its full potential if need be 🙄 . I normally use the Thetford blue but last time we were in Go Outdoors I picked up some of their blue .... surely blue is blue!? The toilet is the best place for it ..... it's rubbish!
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" When we had a septic tank at home we had to be very careful what detergents went in."
got the tee shirt for screwing up the septic tank when we lived in Scotland by putting the contents of the cassette down the indoor loo after we had used the caravan as a guest bedroom, 2 x rabbits, 1 x pheasant, (road kill) down the hatch and all good some weeks later.
The blue stuff i am using just now, Blue Diamond, says it is environmentally friendly
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"I dont actually understand the septic tank remarks, is one not allowed to do any washing in the home using bio detergents either?"
I think you will find that most products today are sceptic tank friendly, but back in the day household products such as Domestos (kills all known germs) was a no no, some biological washing powders a def no no, but today they are ok, on some sites Thetford Blue was a no no but today i believe it is ok, however, some sites are still not ok with the blue stuff, has to be green. Never used Bio pods and today we do not have a sceptic tank so no real issues.
p.s. sceptic tanks work using bacteria and some of these products killed off bacteria
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I have tended to use Thetford Blue toilet liquid chemical. It can be a bit messy when adding to the tank unless you are careful. For a short period I used the Thetford sachets which look a bit like large tea bags! I quite like those but it seem they have stopped producing them in favour of what looks like washing tabs. Quite what is in them compared to an ordinary washing tab I don't know but I would imagine they would be very much more expensive? Maybe I will try the Bio washing tabs again. Last time I used them in the cassette they did seem to foam a bit which is odd as the last thing you want in a washing machine is a load of foam.
David
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I always use the screw cap on the cassette as a measure, fill that and pour it into the spout. Sometimes when you go to empty empty the cassette and unscrew the cap there is a residue of blue.
David
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We use the Lidl variety the same as Kj and also have had no issues with foaming, even when traveling as Lutz mentions. We use just one tab. I would think it like the washing machine at home, where we use liquid rather than the tablets. As long as you do not use to much, everything is fine, over pour and you get lots of foam.
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We always used Lidl pods. Always travelled with some liquid in there, maybe actual.use, took our MH off site, used whilst out too, but never had a foam issue.
I think i seem to recall nelliethehooker, adding 2 and hot water on his journey home to clean the cassette.
Interesting.
Oh course Merves wonderful thread, albeit l-o- n-g, how to make our hobby cheaper is probably lost in the depths of CT unsearchable archives 😢. Anyone have an update about him?
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You'd drop the Lidl/Aldi tabs into the cassette via the main opening flap. Definitely no mess.
This can be done outside the van before slipping the cassette back into place, or by opening the blade from inside the washroom after it's been inserted.
I always check the flap opens and closes properly after every empty/recharge..
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No, but It does vary
If it was half full before a move, I would empty it, purely from the extra weight aspect, but it is always ready to use on a journey, with a pod and a couple of litres of water added, and a few litres in the flush tank, only plain water.
With the wash pods working out at less than 15p each, I do not worry about emptying the cassette a bit early. We use our own facilities most of the time so would normally need to empty every 24-36 hours anyway.
The ordinary Formil bio pods are becoming a little more difficult to get in our nearby Lidl since they introduced the 3-in-1 pods with fabric softener, which also cost more. We never use fabric softener in our washing machine.
Don't know whether that affects the working of the pods in the toilet, or maybe causes foaming.
We have one original container we keep for the caravan, OH has adapted it slightly to be easier to open than the new containers, and she fills that up with as many pods as possible before each trip.
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...but some (not you....or me in old days....) find spout filling 'messy' whereas dropping a tab into a large hole shouldn't be tricky for anyone🤷🏻♂️
save a fortune, too💷
clean cassette, too....
no reliance on site shops😉 (topical)
for those with 'blue' and wishing to use the measuring cap, you can still do this but pour the liquid into the large hole (rather than the spout hole) and shouldn't be too messy that way??
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