Porta Pottie > Reviews > Gotta picka potti or two?

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Durability
Style
Value for Money
Ease of Use
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Advantages:	Doubles up as an excellent temporary toilet
Disadvantages:	Can be a bit heavy when it's full !  And beware of "splash back ! "

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Thetford Porta Potti 465 - to give it its full name - has been a godsend!

Now, I'll 'fess up straight away. I am not a caravaner, and the last time I went camping was in the 1970s when I was a kid.

So why have I spent over a hundred quid on one of these?

We've been having an extension built, and have lost the use of the bathroom and toilet. So, I installed a porta potti on the upstairs landing for Mrs Tweaker - who's heavily pregnant - while I, being less choosy, use the honking, festering builder's bog out in the garden.

So what are the advantages of a Porta Potti? It's small, so you can tuck it away in a corner. It's fairly easy to keep clean, and easy to use.

Think of it as two containers: the bottom one takes the waste, and the top one - which you sit on - takes the water for flushing.

My Porta Potti has a little electric motor which pumps liquid into the bowl when you press a button, but cheaper, more basic versions are available.

When you've done the business, you simply reach between your legs, pull a small lever which opens the trap in the bottom of the "basin" and this consigns your heap to the reservoir below. Flush, re-close the trap, and you're off.

If only this were the end of the story. But of course it isn't. Some poor swine needs to empty it. Guess who it is in our house? Yep. Yours truly. And this is where you have to watch out.

The top part - seat and flush water container, simply unclip from the bottom part - which contains all the nastiness. That trap I mentioned earlier stays shut when you carry the tank, stopping it swilling out everywhere. When you get to your destination, in my case a manhole cover which leads to the sewers - you place the tank on the ground, on its side. There's a large bore pipe which folds up wards - think periscope - and when it is in this position you unscrew the cap. If the pipe is still pointing down, beware, you'll get poo on your shoe.

Once you've unscrewed the cap, carefully, and I mean carefully, tilt the tank down toward the drain, or wherever you want it to go. If you do this too fast, it'll come out in a great sloppy whoosh, and you'll get a splash back tsunami of slimy brown slush splattering you all over. I can tell you, once this has happened, all subsequent emptying are done with a lot more care and caution.

Another problem when emptying is blockages. Paper and solid matter - hope you're not munching on a mars bar as you are reading this - can clog the pipe. So give it a gentle shake if this happens - again watching out for that splash back - and it should continue to glug away.

You then add a couple of cups full of Blue chemical for toilets to the bottom tank, plus about a litre of water, and clip it back onto the top seat. Don't forget to add some flush chemicals to the top water tank.

Here's a few top tips to make using this device easier: Buy disposable rubber gloves - the sort surgeons wear - to use when emptying it. You'll need them in case of any little spillages/accidents.

Buy your toilet chemicals in bulk - large blue 4 litre bottles from Elsan cost about 2/3rds the price of Thetford's own brand chemicals. Don't allow this blue concentrate to get into the trap seal - that's the thing which closes and keeps the smell inside. It can rot the rubber gasket which helps it to remain fairly airtight.

Don't put anything down it other than liquid waste, solid waste - poo - and toilet paper. If you do, you'll have the a nightmare blockage scenario of having to stick your fingers up the pipe to try to clear it.

Observe scrupulous cleanliness - I use anti-bacterial wet wipes to clean the handle, seat etc after use and after emptying. And finally, if you are having problems persuading your toddler to use a grownup toilet, this may be just the thing. It's a good halfway house between a pottie and a loo, there's no loud frightening flush sound (just a gentle whirr) and it's not too high off the ground. Plus it can be sited in a convenient place.

So there it is, The Thetford Porta potti. It's a product which seems to have cornered a niche market, and from where I am sitting it's certainly made having an extension built much less of a bummer.

Prices start at about £60, rising to about £120 for the delux model. Available in most caravaning and large camping shops.