Best Portable Camping Toilets (And How to Avoid a Hygiene Horror When Using Them)

There are a lot of good reasons for wanting a portable toilet for camping.  You can’t squat, hate using outhouses, the campground bathrooms are too far away and you want something closer…  Also, if you camp with kids, it’s not fun to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

A portable toilet can solve all of these problems.  But, if you don’t know how to use it properly or get the wrong type, the portable toilet can be incredibly gross.

Here I will go over the best portable toilets for camping by type, as well as info on how to use and empty them without it getting gross.

 

Best Portable Camping Toilets

Below are the best camping toilets, broken down by type.  There are actually a lot of different models (obviously I haven’t tried them all myself).  I only included ones which I’ve tested or other campers actually recommended.

Portable toilets without a lid did not make the list. You need a lid to contain smells and keep insects away.  Toilets with small waste chambers also didn’t make the list because you have to empty them frequently and splashing can occur when the chamber is really small!

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5 Gallon Bucket Toilets

Choose If: You want something simple and cheap.

What they are: These are the simplest camping toilets: they are a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat attached to them.  Make sure the toilet seat has a lid you can put down to reduce smells and keep insects away.  I’ve heard them called “rocket boxes” before too.

Because they have a small base, bucket toilets aren’t very stable. You need to be somewhat careful when sitting down and getting off of one so it doesn’t topple over.  However, 5 gallon buckets are usually very strong.  Since they are designed to be stacked, most can easily support over 300lbs

Recommended:

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Portable Toilets

Choose If: Stability matters, such as if you have mobility issues that make it hard to get on/off the toilet.

What they are: These are the most similar to real toilets in terms of comfort and appearance.  They consist of an outer chamber with a lidded seat on it. There is a separate bucket inside the chamber for holding waste.

Compost toilets (like the BOXIO toilet) also fall into this category. The difference with these is that they have a urine-diverter which funnels liquids into a separate chamber.  This makes cleanup a LOT easier since you can just dump the urine onto the ground or into a toilet.  Since there aren’t any liquids mixed in with the solids, it doesn’t turn into a sloshy gross mess.

Recommended:

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Folding Toilets

Choose If: Your main priority is saving space.

What they are: There are several styles of folding toilets.  The original ones were just folding chairs which have a hole cut out of the seat.  You attach a bag to the seat to catch waste. I do not recommend these ones.  The waste bag just hangs underneath, which is pretty gross and opens you up to the possibility of leaks.  And they aren’t the most stable.

There are also newer designs of folding toilets which are essentially folding buckets.  They are larger and many have lids. However, the bag still hangs inside the toilet.  In theory, you could put a bucket inside the toilet, but that defeats the entire space-saving feature of these.

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Cassette Toilets (aka van or RV toilets)

Choose If: You will also use it indoors, such as in a van or RV, and don’t mind dumping nasty waste.

What they are: These are multi-chamber portable toilets. The top chamber is the toilet bowl.  Some models even have a flush feature for helping to empty the bowl.  When you “flush,” the waste goes into a second chamber below.

This second chamber has an outlet for dumping the waste.  A lot of people put chemicals inside the chamber to help breakdown the waste and reduce smells. There is an outlet which you open up to dump the waste in a toilet or RV dumping station.  It is absolutely disgusting to watch your waste flow out of the tank and splattering definitely can occur!

You’ll need to use special biodegradable RV toilet paper with one of these toilets.  However, it’s best not to put paper inside the toilet at all.  It can get stuck in the chamber and then you’ll have to clean out by sloshing water inside it and dumping.  Yuck.

The main benefit of these portable toilets is that the chamber contains smells.  This matters when your toilet is in a confined space like a van, but less so when camping outdoors.

 

How to Use a Camping Toilet (So It Isn’t Gross)

If you don’t want your camping toilet to get gross, you should:

1. Line the Bucket with TWO Bags

If the inner bag leaks, then the outer bag will catch it. When it’s time to throw away the waste, tie up just the inner bag.  If you notice leakage when you lift out the bag, then throw away both bags.  If there isn’t any leakage, then just toss the inner bag.

 

2. Pee in the Toilet as Little as Possible (better yet, don’t pee in it at all!)

The average person produces 2.8 to 7 cups of pee per day but only produces a small quantity of poop. The pee by itself isn’t gross and doesn’t smell too bad.  However, when pee and poop get mixed together, it creates a nasty slurry.

When the waste is full of liquid slurry, there’s a higher likelihood of leaks.  It also starts to smell bad quickly.

Compost toilets (like the Boxio one recommended above) actually have a urine diverter for this very reason. They are expensive though. If you don’t want to buy a toilet with a urine diverter, you can use the two-bucket toilet system instead.

 

 

3. Cover poop with sawdust, shredded paper, cat litter or a bio-gel.

Each time you poop, cover the feces with a bit of absorbent organic material.  There are a few brands which sell bio-gel or “poop gel” specifically for this.  Reliance is the most popular brand. It works amazingly well but is fairly expensive.  If you are on a budget, just get some sawdust (pet shops sell it). You can even use shredded-up newspapers, but who reads newspapers anymore? 🙂

Again, it really helps to keep pee and poop separate.  Otherwise you’ll have to add a LOT of sawdust/bio-gel to turn the slurry into a solid.

 

Where to Dump Waste Bags?

If you use the two-toilet system to keep pee and poo separate, you can just dump the pee in the campground toilet.  Or, if backcountry camping, dump it on the ground somewhere far away from camp.  Do NOT dump pee at a campground campsite.  It will start stinking quickly!

As for bags of poop, you have to dump these in a trash can.  Do NOT dump poop bags in outhouses/pit toilets.  Even “biodegradable” poo bags shouldn’t go in these.

Pro Tip: Get a vinyl bag for holding the poo bags while you walk or drive to the dumpster.  If you have an RV, you can get a Trasharoo bag which attaches to your spare tire.

 

Important: Not All Campgrounds Allow Portable Toilets!

Be sure you check whether a portable toilet is allowed before you make your reservation.  A lot of campgrounds don’t allow them.  I’m guessing they don’t like cleaning up all the “splash” from people emptying their cassette toilets in the campground toilets.

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Image credit: “Gravel bar comfort” (CC BY 2.0) by BLM Alaska