What is the best cassette toilet for the TM?

tgpmd1 · 04-24-2017, 08:55 PM

We had damage to our TM that took out the all the black water pipes, valves and part of the floor. Instead of replacing, I'm thinking of upgrading to a cassette toilet. I've seen lots of posts about upgrades, but some of the posts are quite old and people have had time to evaluate their toilet choices. I don't want to switch to a conventional flush toilet or install a black tank.

Please let me know what you like best about your cassette toilet upgrade. Any and all suggestions are welcome. If you have pics of your upgrades, even better! Thanks everyone in advance!

**ShrimpBurrito** · 04-24-2017, 11:26 PM

By "cassette" toilet, do you mean a toilet where the cassette can be removed from outside the TM by pulling it through a hole in the wall? Or one with a tank that can simply be picked up off the floor and carried out the front door? They are 2 different beasts.

Dave

ThePair · 04-25-2017, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tgpmd1

We had damage to our TM that took out the all the black water pipes, valves and part of the floor. Instead of replacing, I'm thinking of upgrading to a cassette toilet. I've seen lots of posts about upgrades, but some of the posts are quite old and people have had time to evaluate their toilet choices. I don't want to switch to a conventional flush toilet or install a black tank.

Please let me know what you like best about your cassette toilet upgrade. Any and all suggestions are welcome. If you have pics of your upgrades, even better! Thanks everyone in advance!

Thetford Curve here. Very happy with it. Whole unit lifts out if needed, bottom part is holding tank. I leave the top in the bathroom and take the bottom out to dump. No big deal, no permanent mods to the TM, no door cut in the side. Picked up a second one cheap at Amazon ($85), and I plan to have the clean, empty tank on hand when closing down the TM. This way, I don't need to open the bathroom to dump/clean when I get home, the toilet will be ready to go for the next trip before I've closed up for the last trip. "Used" but empty tank will go into the TV or floor of TM, to be "deep cleaned" at home prior to next camping trip. "Deep clean" in this case means leaving it soaking with Happy Camper for a week, then a good rinse in the basement bathroom.

I know others have other solutions, but this was a relatively painless installation and works well for us.

klpauba · 04-25-2017, 11:45 AM

We're also happy with our Thetford Curve ... sure wish I would have grabbed a second one when they were $85 as ThePair did -- the spare tank would be handy.

tgpmd1 · 04-26-2017, 09:07 AM

Thanks for the feedback! Maybe the blowout was a blessing in disguise! I think I'll go with the Curve instead of trying to rebuild the toilet tanks. Not sure until we get the existing toilet out and see what kind of damage is down there.

It also sounds like people like an extra tank. Why is that? Wouldn't you be able to dump the tank in a toilet without having to move the trailer? Also, does it smell if you take the tank out and put in your vehicle?

Love this forum!

tgpmd1 · 04-26-2017, 09:32 AM

Also, does everyone that has the Curve in their TM use the floor mounting plate?

**Sterman** · 04-26-2017, 08:46 PM

There are great posts on this site that show how to change out the original Thetford to the Curve using the floor plate to keep it in place.
Walmart and Amazon currently have the Curve floor plate for about $17.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Thetford-...&wl13=&veh=sem

klpauba · 04-26-2017, 09:24 PM

I used the floor plate on my installation. I just bought a plumbing device to plug the toilet flange and mounted the plate over it.

ThePair · 04-27-2017, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tgpmd1

It also sounds like people like an extra tank. Why is that? Wouldn't you be able to dump the tank in a toilet without having to move the trailer? Also, does it smell if you take the tank out and put in your vehicle?

Also, does everyone that has the Curve in their TM use the floor mounting plate?

Love this forum!

This will be my first summer with an extra tank. When camping, I will not be using it -- I will take the tank out and dump, then put it back for use, as I have done for the past two summers (no need to move the TM -- this is the whole value of the tank being removable). This will be the "dirty" tank. The "clean" tank will be unused for the entire trip. When I am packing up the TM, I will install the "clean" tank in place of the "dirty" tank in the bathroom and fold down the walls. I don't know about smell in the TV, but the tank doesn't smell at all in the TM when sealed, so I'm not too stressed about it.

Why do this? Because in the past, when I got home, I had to open the bathroom walls, remove all the stuff I store in the bathroom, just to get to the toilet to remove, clean, soak, flush, what have you. This takes days, so in the mean time I replaced all the stuff in the bathroom, closed the TM, put it into storage. When the next trip came around, I'd have to re-open the bathroom, remove everything just to put the toilet back in, and then reverse. With an "unused, clean" tank, I can close up the bathroom once when breaking camp, and I don't have to reopen it until I'm setting up camp on the next trip. I got the new curve on sale just to be lazy and not have to unpack/repack the bathroom with each trip. The time and effort savings for each trip was worth $85 to me. Plus, I now have a replacement for the upper housing if the motor/pump ever dies.

And yes, I have the floor plate as well. I plugged the old existing drain, built a small platform over it, and secured the plate to the top. This way, if I ever felt the need, I could reverse the installation. If I had lost the plumbing, I wouldn't have worried about the platform, but I still would have used the floor plate and just secured it directly to the floor.

HoMiPa · 04-27-2017, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tgpmd1

Also, does it smell if you take the tank out and put in your vehicle?

I don't have a Curve, but I do have a very old Thetford porta-potty. It's a hold over from my old Coleman pop-up days. When the kids were small, we kept it in the back of the van, 'just in case' on long, cross country trips. When they were little, and potty training, it was handy to have back there. Quite honestly, I was very thankful for it myself when pregnant with the 2nd child, a few times stuck in horrible traffic due to an accident, and no way to exit the freeway. Anyway, my point to all of this is no, there was never any smell from it, other than the occasional whiff of the toilet chemicals. I still have it, and keep it accessible in the garage, in the event of long term power failure. Although I have a generator, my well pump isn't something I would hook up to the generator unless I was on day 4 or 5 of no power. I have water stored for flushing the toilet, but only enough of water stored for that purpose for about 2 days. So after that I would bring the Thetford into the bathroom and set it up. If for no other reason, having two Curves, so you have a spare tank, would also give you a toilet option in the home during a long term power outage, without having to open up the TM - for me, it would be darn near impossible in the winter to open mine up.