Chemical toilet - sorry, I'm being thick but please help!

[megmagmog]

I've just bought a chemical loo for our camping trip and the instructions are pants, so to speak. I can't work out if you're meant to put water in with the blue/green chemical in the waste tank, or just put water in the top part. Instructions seem to suggest water in both parts, but then wouldn't the waste tank overflow once you'd flushed a few times? Am usually brighter than this, honest!

Yes it goes in both parts but not loads of water in the bottom part. This is so that the chemical is diluted with water and then a chemical sludge is formed with the waste!

Oh, thank you. Hmm sludge - can't wait to empty that!

You will probably be putting about 100ml chemical in each part? The top part should have a bit of chemical but a lot of water (to flush) this keeps the flushing water fresh. The bottom part has chemical and a little bit of water to get it started, this neutralises whatever you put into it. We usually put about equal so 100ml chem and 100ml water in the bottom part. Then as you flush, the bottom part will fill with wee/whatever AND watery chemical from the flush tank. In our loo the bottom part fills before the top part empties but as we empty it every day anyway it's always fresh. HTH.

Depending on the age of your DCs you could have a house rule that only wee goes in the tank and anything more 'solid' needs to go in the campsite loos? We do this, but we don't wild camp so there are always reasonably nice loos onsite, and our DCs are a bit older and can judge when they will need to poo. Also think it's worth paying the extra for the specialist loo paper if you can afford it, it dissolves in the chemical so you are emptying very thin sludge whereas normal tissue tends to go gloopy and bulk up, making the tank harder to get empty/clean.

That's really helpful, thank you. Yes, I think there'll have to be a "wee only" rule, as it's the thought of poos floating around that grosses me out. Before I bought it I thought they dissolved in the chemical but apparently not