Portable Flushable Camping Toilet

A portable, flushable camping toilet makes camping most anywhere into a far more civilized experience.

For while established camp sites and camping grounds will almost always have a toilet block you can use, preferably with showers as well... those luxuries won't be available when you choose to camp for the night at some place remote from civilization and the comforts of home.

A Porta Potti or a Porta John type of portable flushable camping toilet is a plastic toilet that you can sit on comfortably to defecate or urinate into with a minimum of fuss.

Just like the W.C. at home or the "loo" in an interstate bus or on an aircraft, your waste drops into the bowl and can be flushed into a holding tank below. And when you have finished and flushed it by operating a hand pump, you then operate a lever to close a sliding trap door, thus sealing the tank. This prevents unwanted odors from being shared by the next visitor to the toilet. It also prevents leakage when the lower compartment is picked up and carried.

Once the tank is close to full, the two halves (top and bottom) can be separated, and the holding tank is carried away for emptying and cleanout. This can be at a designated campsite waste facility or it can be taken home and flushed down the toilet there.

For more detailed flushable camping toilet cleaning instructions, read How to Clean a Flushable Camping Toilet.

These portable camping toilets are available at any camping store, and from most from K-Mart or Walmart camping departments. At the time of writing this page, prices seem to range from about $150 to $250 new. You may find one a bit cheaper second-hand, but this is one case where I definitely prefer to buy the thing unused.