To pee or not to pee . . .

In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. – Benjamin Franklin

Except, we also need to pee. Franklin forgot about that one? But what about in a camper van? Are you self-contained? Do you have a black water tank? A cassette toilet? Sealable bathroom bags? The woods? Now that we made a decision on a van, do we go with the included portable cassette toilet or opt for something different?

Black water tanks and cassette toilets

We’ve used an RV with a black water tank – the “on board” sewage that you need gloves, a sewer house, and a dump station to empty. We weren’t the owners of that RV and only had it for a week. Not much to worry about, and we didn’t have to maintain it.

We haven’t used cassette toilets before but did learn about them during the preparation phase of our New Zealand trip. We shifted to renting a camper van after we discovered that most RVs in New Zealand had cassette toilets, and the concept most certainly did not appeal.

So, what exactly is a cassette toilet? Rather than connecting to a black water tank, cassette toilets have, well, a removable cassette. Essentially, they provide their own portable black water tank. Fixed toilets have cassettes that are accessible from the side of the RV – often times, these are on wheels. Portable cassette toilets are smaller and have a small cassette that can be carried to the dump station.

Storyteller’s choice: Dometic portable cassette toilet

The Storyteller MODEs come with a 2.6L Dometic portable cassette toilet that is small enough to fit in the FlexSpace. We haven’t used it yet, but we’ve read about how to use it, and it requires water, manual pumping, and chemicals in addition to being emptied into a dump or toilet.

From what we understand, it’s basically an “emergency use” toilet. Okay. We’ve been there before. We’ll technically be self-contained and when boondocking (i.e., dispersed or wild camping) where there is no other option, this will be beneficial – particularly in the morning. Certainly not the worst. But we used those toilet bags and a stool during our cross-country trip, and there was something to be said about being able to just pitch the trash.

Composting toilet?

In reading about what others do, we noticed a bunch of very happy owners with Trellino composting toilets. Now, we had composting toilets at camp as a child. They were notorious for being stinky. How could that possibly work in a camper van? Everyone says that these don’t smell, really?! As it turns out, this toilet is different . . . it separates solid waste from urine, which helps with cleanup and with odor. It’s actually rather simple:

1. Place a bag in the solids bin and about two cups of litter – small animal litter is recommended but other materials like sawdust can work too. The litter serves as a moisture absorption agent and provides some odor control as well.
2. When using the toilet, urine goes into a small urine container at the front, and solids – including used toilet paper – go in the back. A little litter to cover the solids, and that’s all.
3. For cleanup, the solids bag is tied up and thrown away anywhere you can throw dog poop. The urine container can be dumped into a toilet. It’s small, has a sealing lid, and can be easily emptied.
4. For daily cleaning, a little spritz of a 7:1 vinegar and water mixture keeps things tidy and prevents urine scale buildup.

After a bit of research, we settled on the Trellino Evo S, which is approximately the same size as the included Dometic toilet. While at it, we also purchased the plug for the urine separator to help minimize odors. We’re still doing our research on the litter to use but will likely grab some pine-based small animal litter as our trial. The toilet is light but sturdy, and I can see some advantages it has over the toilet bags we’ve previously used. I still think it’s going to be more of an emergency use thing, but I’m far more comfortable with this option than the cassette toilet. We’ll report back after we take it for a spin.

We’ll likely be peeing in the van and look forward to the simplicity the Trellino will offer. Of course, we’ll also carry some of those sealable bathroom bags – you know – just in case.