By Cheri Sicard
Nine different RV toilets? I never knew there were so many!
Of course, through the years I have used several incarnations of the typical Thetford foot flush RV toilet installed by most RV manufacturers. And I have heard of composting toilets. We have even featured a video comparing the two in the past. But I had no idea there were so many different variations of RV toilets beyond those.
If you didn’t either, check out the video below from Marc and Julie Bennett of RVLove.
The pair enlisted help from some of their full-time RVing friends who invited them to check out these intimate spaces. In each instance, they discuss what they like and what they do not like after using each of the toilets in their RVs while full-timing.
Yes, many of the commodes are from Thetford, but that is just the nature of the RV toilet industry. It’s not an ad or endorsement.
Plastic bowls, porcelain bowls, simple pedal flush toilets, electric toilets, composting toilets, macerating toilets, vacuum toilets, and cassette toilets—check them all out.
Along the way, the owners share tips and tricks they have found along with issues or problems that might have come up with that particular toilet.
For instance, the VacuFlush is so loud it might wake up your campground neighbors in the middle of the night!
As all these people are full-time RVers, everyone in this video has actual long-term, hands-on experience with the toilet they are talking about.
Well… not literally HANDS on, but you get my drift.
RV commodes covered in the video
- Thetford Plastic Foot Flush
- Nature’s Head Composting Toilet
- Thetford Porcelain Foot Flush
- Thetford Tecma Electric Macerator
- Thetford Porcelain Electric Flush
- Dometic 320 Porcelain Foot Flush with Hand Spray
- Wet Bath RV Toilet
- Dometic VacuFlush 706
- Wet Bath Cassette Toilet
##RVT1067
Nicely done and very informative.
We have 2 of the Tecma toilets and have had no trouble with them for 8 years.
There is a “secret” that is in the operator’s manual, but most owners I have met do not know about it: If the black tank level indicator light goes to red which indicates the tank is full, then it will not flush UNLESS you hold the flush button down for 5 seconds to obtain an “emergency” flush. We have done this on occasion with good results. It depends on the original installer placing the tank electrodes positioned such that the red light comes on when the black tank is not totally full which allows for a couple more middle-of-the-night flushes.
Thank you, Cheri. We had two of the Tecma toilets that Kayla demonstrated in our 2016 American Revolution and a 40 gallon black tank. If we followed the “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down” edict, we could almost make 4 days of boondocking. Great toilet for RV parks, horrible for boondocking. Our 2022 Newmar also has a 40 gallon black tank, but it has a Dometic toilet with adjustable water/flush levels. It is similar to the Thetford Porcelain Electric Flush demonstrated in the video. We add some water if going #2. If going #1, then we add none. The water use difference is huge. We can boondock for two weeks with the Dometic toilet that Newmar installed.