Hi. Still busy getting our van ready for the road. We have a cassette toilet and I've been looking at chemicals online. From comments posted on here it appears that Elsan is preferred to Thetford. The question is - How much do I buy. No point having five litres if it's never going to get used, if you see what I mean. But would there be enough in a small bottle to last.
depends on how many trips you are going and how many times you would use the toilet in the caravan ,we buy the small bottles and just replace them if we need to we only had small bottles last year and still have some left in them,its up to the individual i suppose and how often you use your van
------------- wynnie
Discounted Insurance Quotes for UKCampsite.co.uk visitors! Up to 12.5% off!
I always use Thetford chemicals and have no cause for complaint about them. As to how much I suppose it depends on whether you use the caravan toilet as a main toilet or only as an emergency. We tend to use all our facilities in the van and if we go to Europe for say 60 days I reckon we would use 2 X 2litre bottle of toilet chemical.
This is really strong concentrated stuff, & you need to only use half the amount compared to the thetford stuff (even though it's about the same price), even less when comparing it to the cheaper brands. I always used to use thetford aqua range, but have been converted with this stuff, would never go back. I've purchased cheap brands where you use 100ml per 10L dosage, this stuff is dosed at 30ml per 10L, & aquarinse is 66ml per 10L (100ml per 15L). I don't carry the 2L bottles with me, I just keep on topping up smaller bottles I have. If you're planning to tour for the next couple of years or more it's well worth buying this.
I'll give that a try this season Michael, thanks for the link. We've always used Thetford fluids & as we only use our loo for waterworks I've often wondered if we were wasting money.
we buy the large bottles from our local dealer( blue and pink ),whatever is the cheapest at the time ,then fill up 1pt plastic milk bottles and keep them in the front locker as back
I carry three chemical and one pink small bottles that fit in the four compartments under the cassette and top them up from my big bottles that stays at home in my garage. If I run out of pink its not a problem, never ran out of chemical yet.
We now use only the sachets of powder for the holding tank, either Elsan or Thetford, whichever is cheapest.
We use our own toilet quite a bit, so usually need to empty every 36-48 hours. I allow 1 sachet per 36 hours for our trips, just to be on the safe side. Works out at about 30p per day overall.
More expensive than the fluid, but much lighter to carry, which is important on a 3 month trip. Very easy to use too, just open the blade, drop in the sachet and add water via the flush.
For the flush tank we use either plain water or the double concentrated Elsan pink.
This is going to look like I work for fenwicks now as I just posted about there cleaning fluids! But this is my choice as it is eco friendly too. We stayed on a CL site last year and could only use the CDP if we had used Fenwicks top and tail as it does not destroy the organic balance in a septic tank.
I know Thetfords do the green fluid but I found this to be a bit stinky if the toilet is used fully. Have also tried Elsan which does seem cheaper than Thetfords but you seem to need more of it to overcome smells. Thetford blue if your not bothered about tipping formaldehyde down the sluice, and your not very keen with the emptying process
------------- July 1-9 Nantcol Waterfalls meet Sept naturist week Sept SVR w/e Oct Secret meet Nov hopleys meet
Quote: Originally posted by Viggo on 01/3/2011
One-Chem is my choice - one bottle, very concentrated, I like the smell and it does the job! It's British, too, unlike Thetford.
We've just started using this and it seems to last for ever ! The main thing is it has a measuring thingy on it so you don't slosh too much in. 5ml in the flush, 15ml in the bottom - 20 ml a fill up - 50 fillups in one little bottle (I think it says 40 on the bottle) ! Marvellous ! And as above it smells very nice indeed ! Thoroughly recommend it.