The long list of toilet-related debates in the RV community

When we decided to buy an RV, we understood that we'd be thrusting ourselves into the unique position of handling waste. Typically in a house, you do your business, flush the toilet, and never need to worry about seeing your waste again. RVers need to dump their own waste after it sits in a holding tank. It sounds grosser than it is, particularly if you handle the dumping process diligently and sanitarily, but it's still something we've got to do. What we didn't foresee when we began RVing, though, was a 2-month-long ordeal that involved endless toilet repairs and a constant race against the filling of our black tank.

We've tried to spend less time in RV parks this year, opting instead for state and federal parks, many of which don't have full hookups. This means that, without a sewer hookup, we've often been keeping our wastewater in our holding tanks, pushing our limits so we could remain self-contained until it became necessary to find a dump station. But, when toilet issues arose, we ended up filling our black tank much faster than expected, because we'd need to flush tons of extra water during the toilet repair process. This first happened at Vegas Bay, and we needed to hitch up and tow to the dump station before our stay was over. It happened again as we made our way through Montana and into Idaho, when our toilet began leaking water into the black tank chute, and later, filling on its own. As soon as we realized that our toilet issues weren't going away, we scrambled to find a replacement, and we're so glad we did because now we have a newly installed, upgraded toilet.

All of these toilet-related endeavors resulted in plenty of conversations about our bathroom behaviors, something that in other communities might be taboo, but not among RVers. We become intimately involved with our own bathroom habits, as well as the habits of our housemates. With all this toilet talk, it's surprising just how many debates still float around the RV world on what is appropriate bathroom etiquette.

We've already written about a toilet-adjacent debate, and that's whether or not to leave your gray tank open when on full hookups. This is something we've flip-flopped on multiple times, for multiple reasons. Whatever you do, though, don't leave your black tank open because the liquids need to stay in the tank to help break down the solids. Gray, however, shouldn't have as many solids, and those solids aren't toxic waste, so it's up to you on whether you want to let that water flow or not. There are reasons for both choices.

One of the biggest debates we've seen is over whether or not you can use regular toilet paper in an RV toilet. So many people think you can't, but we have done tests, along with many other RVers, that prove that normal, septic-safe toilet paper works even better than RV toilet paper! Just keep your ply count low. We started off buying RV TP to be extra diligent, but eventually we switched to single ply septic safe paper. It's less expensive, and we noticed that it starts disintegrating way faster than the RV toilet paper ever did. We've had some TP brands that will start breaking down before we even have time to flush the toilet! (Costco members: Kirkland single-ply works great!)

Another big debate we've seen is whether or not it's OK to go "number two" in an RV toilet. Of course it is! But yet, some RVers still refuse. Most RVers simply say to make sure you use plenty of water to flush down the solids, and many give an amount of time - 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds - to hold down the flush pedal. We've never understood having a rule of thumb like this, because there are so many variables. What's the water pressure at the campground? What is the texture of the solids? Let's face it, sometimes our number two is more watery than others. This means less water is needed to flush. How messy was your go-time? Was it worthy of just a few squares of TP, or did you need to go back for more? This is why it's best to monitor your own toilet use and come up with a system that works for you and your black tank.

And, completing the trifecta of big debates, is what to put into your tanks, if anything, to break down waste. This is a tough one because there are so many highly recommended products on the market that contain enzymes that break down the waste and supposedly deodorize the tank. Only, over time, this breakdown can lead to more odors because the odor-destroying bacteria is getting broken down alongside everything else. We used to use products like Happy Camper and even Poo-Pourri for immediate odor-elimination, but Anthony's material science expertise + a host of other septic experts led us to the conclusion that less is more. Calgon beads and Pine-Sol is the combination for us. It lubes the tank walls, keeps waste flowing, and smells great.

Just as our toilet treatment routine evolved over time, so has our ability to conserve. When our toilet is functioning properly, we got to the point where we'd be able to push up to over a week and a half on our black tank. As for our gray tank, we've gotten really good at conserving, so now black tends to fill first. So, with black water now being our limiting factor in boondocking, and a new toilet that should help us push our limits even further, we decided to use our sewer-less summer to really put our tank conservation to the test, and stay more hygienic during those boondocking days when we couldn't shower. The solution? We bought a bidet.

When researching bidets online, we came across way too much differing information. Turns out, even bidet use in an RV is a hot debate! Who knew?! First, we needed to figure out once and for all if a household bidet could connect to an RV toilet. The answer is yes, but with a few tweaks. You may need some adaptors because the fittings are different sizes. This is why many RVers just opt for this bidet. We weren't able to use this particular one because of the odd style of our toilet bowl, but we scoured the webpage during our research. This bidet claims that it eliminates poo-pyramids. Even though we found the phrase "pyramid of defecation" mildly amusing, we raised our eyebrows at how a bidet would eliminate build-up.

Poo pyramids tend to occur when there is not a high enough of a water-to-solids ratio, and sure, the bidet means that you're spraying water into the toilet, but build-up could still occur if people aren't flushing their solids with enough water. Another way to get a poo pyramid is if you don't flush out all the gunk during dumping. This is also why you don't leave your black tank open when on full hookups, because the liquids would run through much more easily than the solids, leaving just the solids behind. Bottom line, there are several ways to get poo pyramids, so for this bidet company to claim it would eliminate poo pyramids is a little idealistic.

Another perplexing statement came from RV Geeks. Despite being self-proclaimed bidet lovers, they stated that they would never install a bidet in their RV because they boondock too much, and when boondocking, water and tank conservation is important. This begs the obvious question: Why not install it anyway and simply not use it when boondocking? But then, our logic set in, and another question became even more essential. How would using a bidet actually hinder conservation? Assuming you're using your toilet normally, you would still need to flush the waste and toilet paper. It's important to make sure you're flushing enough water down with the toilet paper, just as you would when flushing solids, because it needs to break down. We understand that, upon initial thought, one might think that spraying water would use more water. Except that's not the whole story. What is the water replacing? Because if it's replacing the use of toilet paper, or if it's helping to break solids down faster so not as much flush water is needed, it would likely be a net gain. We purposely bought our bidet in anticipation of our summer of boondocking, but we couldn't get this article out of our heads. We needed to put our conservation to the test. Could we last longer on our tanks using our bidet, or was toilet paper the way to go? We have our scientific study - and our results - in the next blog post.