Good afternoon from some beautiful undisclosed location along the Colorado
River here in Arizona! If you haven't watched us before, we are Ben and Rebecca
of His and Hers Vlogs! For the last year, we've been living in Denny, the
Expedition Vehicle you see behind us! Before we share with you what we're
going to do for a video today, I do want to do the obligatory plug for our
website... www.hisandhershub.com We've got courses, ebooks, magazines, newsletters... You
can watch our videos there... The list goes on, check it out!... Today though, we are
going to do a video about; "The dirtiest secrets of having a cassette toilet!" And
if you're wondering like... "What is a cassette toilet?" It's a pretty nifty
little device! In some ways, it's kind of a very fancy porta-potty... Yeah... Yeah, it
molds right into wet bath... It would probably be the most common location! And...
The cassette of the cassette toilet part is really cool because... You can just pull
a cassette right out and take it and go dump the materials inside!... So cassette
toilets come in many shapes, sizes, and styles! Some have electric water pumps...
Others, you have a knob so there's no electricity... Some hold their own water
for cleaning... Others draw water from your onboard water tank storage!! We do use
ours for number one and number two! I know some people just do one or the
other or both but... If we're gonna be giving you a testimonial, we need to let
you know how much we use it!... Well, let's start out with the things we like about
this cassette toilet!... Number one; It is very simple! Both to use and to dump!
Secondly, it does not require electricity! And for us, we like that! Because
electricity is a commodity when you're out on the road!... Well, it's always a good
idea to put on some nitrile or latex gloves! But I'm going to talk about the
freshwater aspect of this toilet! This is where you fill it up! It's
simply unscrews and amazingly enough, it actually accepts water really, really
fast! So you're not just standing here for 20 minutes... I'm not gonna do it right
now... Because I don't need to winterize it but
before we left Alaska, there was a point in time where I had to drain the water
out of it! And it was so simple! I literally unhooked it from here, pulled
this off dropped it down and all the water drained out, easy!
And speaking of winter, we just traversed the Alaska Highway in like minus 18
conditions... And granted the box is heated while we were driving... But we did not
have any issues with aspects of this freezing up! And it was bitterly cold!
While driving minus 25, while camped... Minus 18 and that's Fahrenheit!... Alright
well, I think we're done in here! One thing Ben forgot to mention that
freshwater lasts for the two of us for about two weeks! So you don't have to
fill it up very often! The other thing I really like about this toilet is that
you can use any kind of toilet paper you want! So, I'm a charming girl who was never a
fan of the Scot toilet paper when we had the RV... So this is a nice change for us!
So the final thought for things that we really like about the cassette toilet is...
And we have not had to do this one yet ourselves... But you theoretically could
dig a hole out in the wild and dump it and then refill in the hole! Which i
think is a lot better than what somebody here at this campsite did before us!
Moving inside the camper, let's talk about the things we don't like about the
cassette toilet!... First off; In where requirements, the underside of our lid
condensates! Really Pleasant when you sit down!
We don't really like cleaning the inside of the cassette toilet very much! The
outside is surprisingly easy because it's in a wet bath and you just kind of
host it all off! But the inside is problematic! Because there's a little
squirter... There's little nooks and little crannies that just get dirty... But the
worst part... And we are not alone in this one... Skid marks!!... They happen! They're not
easy to clean off! You know in this environment ... You know, a home has a
regular traditional toilet brush, you don't have room for that!
Because this is going to be spilling... It's nasty... And we have found and we were
shocked when some other traveling friends of ours said they do the same
thing... You just kind of got to wad up a chunk of toilet paper, just kind of stick
it in there and work it around, around... Not all that pleasant but I still like the cassette toilet!... My
number one biggest beef with this toilet is that... Being a male, my junk touches
the bowl!... But you're here doing your business and all that...But you got to tuck it in and it touches...
Just not all that pleasant!... As we mentioned before, dumping the cassette
toilet is pretty easy to do! It's not hard to find a place to do it because
you don't need a traditional dump station... And in fact, we actually prefer
not to use a dump station because hitting a hole about this size from way
up high... Very hard to do! Tends to be messy unless you can wash it away! Our
preference is to use vault toilets or porta-potties! And apparently in Europe
they're actually set up for dump stations for these cassette toilets... So
someday we look forward to checking that out!
So like Beck said, we prefer outhouses or vault toilets! But the characteristics of
those are what we like... The long drop and what that does is that it eliminates
splashes! That segues into... Do not go into somebody's house and dump this toilet!
It really, truly is not polite! There's splashes, it's messy... There's better
places to do it then... Like a residential bathroom!... Let's talk about the logistics about
dumping and maintaining this cassette toilet... First off; We tend to recycle our
gray water whenever we're dumping to rinse out the tank! And since this is an
adventure vehicle, we don't have a traditional gray tank! We have a tank up
here, attached to this hose... And we're able to just quickly turn it on! That
lends itself to dumping out the toilet, the cassette... Then filling it with a
little bit of water... Slashing it around... Making sure
everything gets out... Re-dumping it and putting it away, nice feature! We've tried a
couple of different things to keep the toilet smelling fresh... Including vinegar
which really didn't work all that well... And we have gone back to using the same
treatment that we used in our RV toilet! We call it the orange stuff and it
smells really good and keeps everything fresh between changes!... So now that the
cassette has been dumped, the orange stuff is in... Everything is smelling all
fresh and clean... How long does it take for us to fill it back up? Well, if it's
the two of us and it is the sole toilet that we are using in three days... That gets
infinitely longer if I can kind of step outside and water the bushes and stuff of
that nature... Or if you are using public facilities... As we close this video out...
We're gonna give you a few last-minute tips to make your a cassette toilet
experience a little more pleasurable! Starting with... Always keep a stash of
nitrile gloves!... This tip helps keep odours down when you're in the process of using
the cassette toilet but... Drop the contents into the bowl of the toilet and
then... Drop them into the cassette! You can use water... Obviously, water helps but
don't let that linger, it just adds to the smell!... Another tip for dumping the
cassette toilet... When you're actually ready to take it to a place to dump it...
Go ahead and open and close that gate again that Ben just showed you... Make sure
that there are no remnants that are gonna be left on the top of the cassette
when you pull it out of its housing! Just a little messiness!... This tip is in
regards to the nature of the contents inside the cassette toilet... When you are
at a campsite for several days... It's not sloshing around... So the solids kind of
remain solid for a while and the paper doesn't get all broken up but... The minute
you drive around and it's sloshing... It just becomes a very soupy, ugly mess! But
that soupy, ugly mess is nice when you are dumping the cassette because it
minimizes splashes... So just a little food for thought!... A really important factor to
having a pleasant experience in a bathroom without a door... It is the max fan! You
gotta make sure that you put it on in the right direction though... So you want
it to be blowing air into your rig... Open the window into your bathroom and the
odour will blow out!... A couple more tips in regards to dumping the cassette... It's
always best to dump it sooner rather than later! If it gets too full... It gets
really messy guys! Enough said! In regards to a full cassette... Well, did you know you
can have two?... If your rig is big enough, they can be made! So there's an extra
compartment right there for a spare cassette which doubles your time!... Alright...
Thank you so much for watching; "Our dirty secrets of cassette toilets!" Hit that
SUBSCRIBE button... Head over to hisandhershub.com for more engagement... But
Beck has one final lesson about the cassette toilet that was learned the
hard way... Yeah... Don't hit the vent button unless you know what it will do and your time right!