Using the right toilet chemical?

It is not the cost of the chemicals Phil, but the harm they can do to the environment.

The "environmentally friendly" toilet chemicals such as Odour-b-Gone are just Sodium Percarbonate. Totally safe to dispose of once fully activated. I'm sure you have seen My Blog.

The totally additive free way to go is not to use any additives at all. Many do this after fitting a SOG system, but it can be managed by emptying on alternate days.

Probably pay to read the label on the pre soaker.

Safe in septic systems
Been told it is not good to use with iPads, iPods, iPhones or kindles.

Ok in portable expresso makers though. Guess that has something to do with the price of eggs somewhere in the world.

Just a thought.

We just use the the commended ones.

Sorry but haven't read any blogs at all. Not into all this social media stuff. I haven't even clicked on a podcast. Don't even know what they are and aren't really interested. All I do is this forum, 4x4 forum and a bit of youtube and photobucket for the grandkids. Not a Borg member.

Catchya

Phil

Hi Phil.
You answered my post responding to my comments about affording items like the "correct" chemicals. "Its only a few dollars"
My wife and I own our homemade 11ft caravan. No cappacino machine inside, we don't buy Latte's, no TV, microwave, our cooking is a twin burner stove, no iPods in fact we have two Telstra buzz phones $69 each. No PlayStation's and mixing caravan parks with free camps we've been able to tour around oz.
No chopper flights, jet boats, no national parks as we have a mini foxy dog (do you think we can cut back on her kibble?)
Our car is a diesel Hyundai i30. 5.5L/100 km or 8.5L/100 km towing our 450 kg tare van.
Yes we have that luxury of a toilet and shower in our tiny van. But you claim "just a few dollars" that we can afford those chemicals. Our disability pension dictates what we can afford.
You can post generalisations as you please. No I'll feelings.
PS whats a diff lock? Must be one of those things I can do without. I'll search the car for it...it could be a luxury this hypocrit could do without...lol

And good on you. Nice to see the van finished and you two are soon on the rtoad. A shame that you had to sell the trike.

But you missed my point. Would you rather we all poison the sytem or whould we make allowances for where we go and do the right thing. It's a cost that has to be born by all for the betterment of the environment. Yes for those on minimal incomes it means something else has to go. I suggested a coffee and in your situation it is up to you to find the extra few dollars every few weeks. It's not as if it is a daily "few dollars" It's only when you replenish your chemicals. We have only after last years Simpson crossing have had to buy a new bunch. My wife looks after that part. She budgets and the sets priorities for when we can go for a drive and how much we spend right down to whether I have plain toast or raison toast for brekky.

We have a mobile phone and also a satellite phone for emergencies only (we go solo to the deserts), both are prepaid and we have only made three calls on the mobile in two years and one on the sat phone in five years. Budgeting.

Yet we still manage to pay the extra for the recommended chemicals. Priorities mate. I even had to forgo a couple of local week only club trips this year for the same reason. So only one trip this year. Bugger

We do our bit.

Phil

Just get a SOG system and no chemicals and no smell, on previous and current
Van ??????????

Re napisan being environmently friendly, many moons ago camping had a porti pottie, and on one occasion emptied contents under my darlings native frangi, and her mango tree ;o (( oops they both died.
Many a day in the dog house
Cheers Ric

If used in the correct proportions Ric, the nappy powder would have been a very minor percentage of the cassette contents. Hard to blame that one substance.

Arhh Phil,

You just proved you ain't such a grumpy bloke after all.

Tony

I just enjoy Australia and I believe totally that we should do our damndest to look after it. And if that means I have to spend a few quid more to do so then I will. Needless to say that something else has to move aside.Well so be it. Just get on with life, forget the worries and have a ball.

Yes, I do have my moments. Once a month on a Tuesday I am a grumpy and bad tempered as even you can get. That's the day after my chemo infusion, which happens every 4 weeks. Six bloody years of it so far.

But I am alive and kicking, maybe a bit slow and weak, can't even lift the spare now so have a winch, but alive and doing my best to see as much of this great country as I can and hopefully, leave it a bit better when I leave.

Tnx mate

Phil

Don't you just love this bloke!!!

The benefit of the shared knowledge here Eaglefree is that looking after the environment is as easy as buying a simple laundry product. I chose the products at first because I have a passion for the environment. Being lower cost than stuff sold to a 'captive market' (sometimes using the same active ingredient), that the product worked better than the expensive stuff was a surprise bonus, and cost advantage is a third benefit.

Keep on enjoying this great land. You are living the life many of us envy :).

Brand name Napisan has/had other superfluous additives for toilet use, probably to perfume and/or soften fabrics. But all laundry soakers with the active ingredient of Sodium Percarbonate it will do the job. The store brand formulations have less of the fancy stuff therefore a greater percentage of the active ingredient. If you follow the links from My Blog you can read the MSDS sheets.

Those who do home brewing and purchase straight Sodium Percarbonate for sterilising bottles use a small quantity of this to gain the same results in their toilet cassettes.

The bottom line is, it is safe to use, easy to use, and doesn't harm the environment.

Read this extract from Professor Ian Jenkins (retired Professor of Chemistry and now Professor Emeritus at Griffith University):

"Today, Napisan contains sodium carbonate (30-60%), sodium percarbonate (10-30%), sodium sulfate (10-30%) and small quantities of surfactants. The ‘look-alikes’ appear to consist of very similar mixtures. The active ingredient in all cases is sodium percarbonate, made by mixing sodium carbonate (washing soda) with hydrogen peroxide. It has the formula 2Na2CO3.3H2O2. When dissolved in water, it forms sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide oxidises smelly thio compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, dimethyl sulfide, and nitrogen-containing compounds such as skatole found in human waste [H. Sato et al, Journal of Health Science, 2001, 47, 483]. In the absence of organic material, hydrogen peroxide decomposes slowly forming oxygen and water. By the time you empty your portable toilet, there would be very little hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate remaining (hence it should have a negligible effect on septic systems). Sodium percarbonate is often used in eco-friendly cleaning products, and is the active ingredient of Odour-B-Gone. According to the labeling, the surfactants present in at least two of the Napisan look-alikes (‘Ultra Booster Everyday Plus Laundry Soaker’, and ‘Laundry Soaker and Inwash Booster’) are biodegradable."

The link has been given in Chooky and Wobbles' reply.

When I have seen these signs they seem to refer to those who happily empty their night buckets into the wash basins where others clean their teeth! Apparently this has been a common practice eech! Lynne

Yuk! How could anyone do that John and Lynne..that is revolting! I have seen those signs and wondered why they were necessary.

Although given the state of some toilets in amenity blocks i think some people use the flush toilets like squat ones and balance with their feet on the seat! I always double check the ones with black seats and they can hide nasty deposits left on top!

cheers Heather

Maybe the splashing on the seats is from people emptying buckets?.

Its more than splashes Shaker!

I lived I in a caravan park and every morning at 05:30 I would hear someone come in and empty his p iss pot in the shower cubicle.
One morning I caught him in the act, and asked "why in there and not down the toilet."
His reply, "I can't get it under the tap in the hand basin too rinse it out."
My reply was, "if I catch you again you will wear it.

Maybe he waited til later, but I never heard him again.

To me that was just plain disgusting.

Cheers

There is no such thing as legal or illegal, but sodium percarbonate (generic nappy soaker) is safe and effective. I suggest about 1 teaspoon full per day into the tank. More is not necessarily better.
It is also available cheaper and in higher concentrations from brewing suppliers.
The approved commercial product "Odour-be-Gone" is the same active ingredient.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Camping stores and certain brands of portable toilets will push their own products
Richard. Some do not say what the ingredients are - tread with caution. Sodium Percarbonate will not harm your cassette or septic systems.

You have the choice of what to use. My choice was in favour of the environment, and it works. The bonus is it is readily available (although a container lasts a long time), and is economically priced.

Motherhen
What is it exactly you use

Can you provide a brand name etc and how much you use please.

Richard

Hi Richard

I currently have Woolworths Homebrand Laundry Soaker & Inwash Booster, but similar products from Coles or discount stores are just as good. The container cap is used for measuring, and for laundry soaking the directions are half a level lid measurer for 7 litres of water. With a cassette of maximum capacity of 20 litres (it will be emptied before it is at full capacity) I use a level lid measurer which is probably about a desertspoon full. Or you can follow Peter's good advice above of adding a teaspoon full per day, keeping the activation fresh, so that is probably a better way to go.

You can read more and about suitable similar products and other alternatives and lots more on using portable toilets on My Blog.

Rich,
just be aware that many of the brands have cut back on the percentage of sodium percarbonate in their pre soaker products.

I just use the one that has the highest percentage and they are often the cheapest ones.

My mix is 1lt warm water, half teaspoon eucalyptus oil and 40 to 50mm of pre soaker. I mix it then pour straight into the cassette. Works well for around 3 days with 17l cassette.

As per my article the Woolworth Homebrand I have has been cut back to 28% but they assure me the formulation is just as effective. The pack looks the same as the one I have pictured, but mine is the 34% older formulation.

MH, for you info, I just checked the coles pre soaker and it is still 33%.

Thanks Eagle. I check every time I go to Coles and Woolworths, but that is not very often.