Toilet Additives

ID

Idaho Adventurer

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Joined
Sep 14, 2022
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13
Last fall we made the plunge and bought a 2006 Trailmanor, and thanks to this forum and info on YouTube, we have been able to make a lot of improvements and repair to it through the winter months. Just last week we got back from our maiden voyage trip with it to Yellowstone. We love it, and everything worked well except for one thing: The toilet stinks!

It has the standard recirculating toilet, and this is new to me. Before our trip, I did enough research to realize that no one seems to make an additive with formaldehyde in it, which seems to be the secret ingredient to recirculating toilets. With not knowing what else to try, I decided get and use Aqua Max. Thank goodness I had our portable dump tank with us, because after two day of only going #1 with a family of 5, the smell was unbearable.

In the past, with our old travel trailer black tank, I used "Happy Campers" with great success. Would that work in a recirculating toilet? Or is that not enough? With everything now being "formaldehyde free" what are you all using with success?

Thanks for your great wealth of experience and knowledge. -Kyle
 
I have a stockpile of single serving Aqua-Kem 6-packs from when they were on clearance at WalMart. Aqua-Kem was the toilet chemical that Thetford recommended for the recirculating toilet. Yes it has formaldehyde. I now have the SeaLand toilet and I think I want something that will liquify waste instead of keeping it solid so it stays in the recirculating toilet’s wire cage. Let me know if you’re interested in some.
 
You asked about Happy Campers. We are now trying it. We used it a few times last season and now 2 trips this year. It is the best product so far of the ones without formaldehyde. It doesn't have a perfume smell. There is still a not so pleasant smell with #2s.

We tried the Camco TST single use bottles, and Pure Power Blue. Both were not very good. The Pure suggests 2oz, we ended up using 8oz on the last trip with it and that still didn't seem to be enough.
We are using the rest of the TST bottles to freshen up the toilet after we dump. Mix in with 8-9 gals of water, run the pump a little, dump, then close up.

You do need to spend some time dissolving the Happy Camper. I use a pitcher filled with water and slowly sprinkle it in. Then rinse the pitcher a couple times and the toilet is almost at the charge level.

There are two other products we have heard about and plan to try after the Happy Camper is done: Bio-Kleen M01709 and Inca Gold..

Mike
2005 3124KB
 
Guys remember if you use the Thetford recirculating toilet you want a toilet treatment that keeps solids pretty solid (like formaldehyde) so the solids stay within the cage. Using things like Happy Camper or enzyme based treatments dissolve solid waste and TP into a sludge, which can either get gunked up in the wire cage or worse pass through the cage and then get sucked into the pump. Ew.
 
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Shane - I think you may have found the reason Therford stopped producing recirculating toilets. Without formaldehyde the screen and pump may become a warranty issue for the company.
Dick
 
Does anyone know what they use in port-a-potties (like the ones you see at events and construction sites)? I'm no expert on them, but it seems to me that it takes a lot to make them really smell, and they don't appear to be using anything that dissolves in them.
 
Shane826 said:
Guys remember if you use the Thetford recirculating toilet you want a toilet treatment that keeps solids pretty solid (like formaldehyde) so the solids stay within the cage. Using things like Happy Camper or enzyme based treatments dissolve solid waste and TP into a sludge, which can either get gunked up in the wire cage or worse pass through the cage and then get sucked into the pump. Ew.
Click to expand...

Shane,
Thanks for the comment about solids staying solid... We have used Happy Camper for years in our motorhome and the TM's. It honestly never crossed my mind that breaking down the stool was a problem. You are, however, correct! We always just rinse the bowl down with a splash of water from our bidet nozzle...that gets rid of the "brown water" that we pump.

Now...to find a deodorizer that won't break down the poo!
 
marend37 said:
There are two other products we have heard about and plan to try after the Happy Camper is done: Bio-Kleen M01709 and Inca Gold..

Mike
2005 3124KB
Click to expand...

I looked into the "Inca Gold" and was pretty intrigued by what I read, as it seems to be designed for use in recirculating toilets on a commercial level, but can be purchased from a few places on a consumer level. We have a week long trip coming up near the end of July, so I ordered an over priced sample of it off ebay to try. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Thanks for the ongoing replies. I'm sure all this info will be helpful for a good number of folks who still use the recirculating toilets.
 
I have been able to buy Aqua-Kem (with formaldehyde) on Amazon recently. I wasn't happy with Happy Campers in the recirculating toilet. Aqua-Kem works best of all the treatments I have tried. I would try Inca Gold if I could find it.
 
Funny thing. The gallon size one I ordered on Amazon came today. I opened the box and found Aqua-Max. So I put in for an Amazon return. It was non-returnable, so instead I got a refund - so basically free Aqua-Max that was this link:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BJEYSY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
A few weeks ago I did get the real Aqua-Kem on Amazon, albeit at a pretty expensive rate for the equivalent of 4 little bottles:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AXYLP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have not opened the bottle but it says Aqua-Kem and “contains formaldehyde”
 
inghamm said:
I have been able to buy Aqua-Kem (with formaldehyde) on Amazon recently. I wasn't happy with Happy Campers in the recirculating toilet. Aqua-Kem works best of all the treatments I have tried. I would try Inca Gold if I could find it.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Aqua-Kem Original (the one with formaldehyde) suddenly seems to be available from many sources, which it was not a few months ago. For example, the Amazon ad says "Sold by RV Wholesale Direct". If you go to their web site, sure enough, there it is. Their price is considerably less than Amazon, and it also has free shipping.

A simple search on "Aqua-Kem Original" turns up a number of sources, some of them in the 64 oz bottle rather than the 32 ounce unit. All of them are pretty coy about the formaldehyde component, but all of them show the "Danger!" label on the front in their pictures.

I'm not sure what is going on, but the good thing about Amazon, of course, is their return policy. "Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice!"

Bill
 
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Bill said:
Interesting. Aqua-Kem Original (the one with formaldehyde) suddenly seems to be available from many sources, which it was not a few months ago. For example, the Amazon ad says "Sold by RV Wholesale Direct". If you go to their web site, sure enough, there it is. Their price is considerably less than Amazon, and it also has free shipping.

A simple search on "Aqua-Kem Original" turns up a number of sources, some of them in the 64 oz bottle rather than the 32 ounce unit. All of them are pretty coy about the formaldehyde component, but all of them show the "Danger!" label on the front in their pictures.

I'm not sure what is going on, but the good thing about Amazon, of course, is their return policy. "Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice!"

Bill
Click to expand...

I'm not finding "Aqua-Kem" with formaldehyde in it like you are. Just the new "Aqua-Kem" that's biodegradable and without formaldehyde. Can you share a web link where you're finding it? Maybe I'm just missing it. Thanks.
 
As Bill has eluded to, be careful when purchasing products advertised as Aqua Kem. I recently ordered a 32 oz bottle of Aqua Kem from an Amazon seller only to have the product arrive as Aqua Max. I contacted the 3rd party seller and received a quick reply. They apologized for the inconvenience and agreed to refund the purchase price but said it was not necessary to return the Aqua Max. Their excuse for sending the incorrect product did not make any sense. Something to the effect; a mismatch, where the website misreads our suppliers inventory and uses the wrong product description.
Dick
 
Idaho Adventurer said:
I'm not finding "Aqua-Kem" with formaldehyde in it like you are. Just the new "Aqua-Kem" that's biodegradable and without formaldehyde. Can you share a web link where you're finding it? Maybe I'm just missing it. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Fair question. To the best of my knowledge, you need to search for Aqua Kem Original, the secret being in the the word ORIGINAL. A search for "Aqua Kem" brings up a couple dozen hits, all of which say No Formaldehyde somewhere in the listing. A search for "Aqua Kem Original" brings up a few hits, one of them being Amazon. All of them show a big "Warning - May Cause Burns, Blindness, Death, etc" on the front label and urging you to check the ingredients on the back label. And they don't show the back label. No mention of formaldehyde, yes or no, anywhere in the listing. But in the Users Comments section, there are numerous reviews saying "Wonderful stuff, yes, it has formaldehyde".

So as I said originally, I don't know what is going on. Maybe some warehouses have received permission to clear out their stock. And a lot of it is showing up on eBay, of course. The big picture doesn't make sense to me, but listings for Aqua-Kem Original disappeared for a while, and are now back.

Caveat Emptor.

Bill
 
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