Nothing seems to generate more discussion than the Thetford recirculating toilet. There are a many opinions regarding this fixture, but Wayne pretty much spelled it out with regard to the way it works.
In my view it's pretty much a compromise. The toilet has some pros, and of course some cons. It's good in that takes up only a small amount of space, is very much like a home toilet, and works pretty well most of the time.
Unlike your home fixture, you do need to add chemicals - Thetford makes at least two such chemicals for this toilet , one contains Formaldehyde and the other is formaldehyde free. There are also other chemical brands but I've never tried them. I find the chemical smell sometimes noticeable but not horrible. Ambient temperature has a lot to do with odor - the warmer it is, the more you're likely to smell both the chemical and toilet contents, especially if you have not dumped for a few days.
How long you can go without emptying the toilet of course depends on how much it's used. The toilet itself only holds about 6 gallons, plus you might gain another gallon or so if you include the drain pipe. We try to use the campground bathrooms whenever possible, and only use the TM's facilities when absolutely necessary.
Draining the toilet is easy if you're at a campground with a sewer connection - just connect the flexible hose, open the valve at the base of the toilet, then pull the outside valve handle. If you have a city water connection you can rinse the toilet with the nearby bathtub shower hose. Drain the gray water tank after you drain the toilet - it helps rinse the drain hose.
It depends where you camp, but its been my experience that most campgrounds don't offer sewer connections, but instead have a centralized dump station. Most of the state parks in Georgia are like this. You'll either use a portable tank, or drive the TM to the dump station. You don't have to set up the TM again to drain the toilet (as long as you remember to pull the toilet's 'T' handle before you close up).
I have a small (10 gal) tank I can use to drain then and carry to the dump station. If you get a tank that's much larger, the weight becomes and issue with regard to lifting the tank. Some larger tanks are equipped with wheels so they can be pulled with your TV to the dump station. If you do a lot of dry camping (boondocking) you don't have many choices - you empty the tank when you can find a dump station.
Finally the Thetford is more complicated than you toilet at home. It has a 12V motor, a separator screen, a slide valve and various gaskets. If it fails you'll need to either fix it yourself or take it to an RV repair facility. I've taken mine apart to replace a gasket, and it's a time consuming job because space is so tight.
Anyway, this is probably more than you want to know about the recirculating toilet, but these are the same kinds of questions I had a few years ago.
Personally, I would not let the recirculating toilet be a "go" or "no go" decision with regard to obtaining a TM. Hope this helps
Toilet?
Linear Mode
