I used an Elsan for the first time today...

[Wanderer Vagabond]

As others have said, the proper dosing with Blue is essential. I have emptied ours hundreds of time now and cannot sat that I've ever really noticed much of a smell other than Blue has a vague smell of bananas . I do have a bit of an advantage in that a number of years ago I worked in the delivery of ammonia (amongst other choice chemicals) and having been once enveloped in a cloud of anhydrous ammonia gas from an adjacent lorry driver generously venting his tanker on a hot day (yes, we did have strong words ), I haven't got a particularly strong sense of smell.

 

Even with a diminished sense of smell however I have gagged one one occasion. I entered the Elsan point after another user, who clearly was using no solutions at all, and by the time it took him to empty his cassette (25 minutes) I would guess he was only putting solids in it. In consideration of other users he should have left a note on the door saying something like 'You'd best give it half an hour to clear'

Edited October 4, 2016 by Wanderer Vagabond

[alan_fincher]

The other thing to learn is blue stops working after about 4 days so if you haven't filled/emptied the cassette within that period, it needs dosing again.

 

This seems to be a new idea that I have seen repeated more than once now.

 

I can't say I have ever experienced it though. Ours are regularly left with the tank part full for weeks at a time, and not noticeably worse to empty than one used only for a few days.

 

So the suggestion puzzles me.

I am sure PB will not mind me telling the wider world what he once told me, that as a child he used to follow the tanker round his village as it emptied the septic tanks, and decided that was what he wanted to do when he grew up. I have never let him forget this, and consequently, have never emptied a toilet.

 

I did actually work as mate on a cesspit emptying lorry once as a summer job.

 

Some time ask me to tell you about the one time I got things horribly wrong.......

 

........though not if we are eating at the time!

[MtB]

 

This seems to be a new idea that I have seen repeated more than once now.

 

I can't say I have ever experienced it though. Ours are regularly left with the tank part full for weeks at a time, and not noticeably worse to empty than one used only for a few days.

 

So the suggestion puzzles me.

 

I started it.

 

Coasty once suggested I'd forgotten to put the dose of blue in when she emptied a cassette which utterly stank. I took exception to this as I'm, err, anal about the dosing of cassettes.

 

On reading the instructions on the AquaKem bottle it says it works for up to five days, or something similar.

 

What make of 'bloo' do you use?

 

 

 

Speeling edit.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Mike the Boilerman

[pquinn]

Fear not, my friend, we have you covered. Practical yet fashionable and think of all the delightful conversations it's bound to invoke with all those lovely single ladies as you march boldly to your place of disposal..............

[steve hayes]

Mate of mine (honestly not me ....) dropped his full c200 cassette at an elsan a couple of years ago, it exploded on impact with the concrete floor and covered everything in the proverbial including him.

Not the nicest mess to clear up, no body would go near him for days

[Scholar Gypsy]

I've emptied toilet cassettes hundreds of times from the basic el San bucket to the Thetford C200 type slide-in. Never seems to bother me although once when I did one which had been sitting around for a few months with no chem in it the air quality became a bit poor for a time.

 

Takes all sorts I guess.

 

My "solution" to this issue, at the age of about 15, was to operate the lavender boat that was servicing the boats for the IWA rally in Oxford, in about 1974.

 

Nobody else wanted to volunteer for this role. It involved about 50 toilets, of varying designs (one was literally just a bucket) being passed up to me for emptying into the tank. That seems to have cured me for life...

[Ben69]

Thank you everyone for responding and for providing solutions.

 

Note to self : grow a pair, switch to blue , empty toilet regularly and use Vicks and an air freshner. I already press the anti glug glug button and use the (rotating) evacuation pipe.

 

Reading the instructions for the chemicals (aqua kem green ) it appears that they only work for 4 days counteracting the odour. TBH I had readied the toilet a week before it was used. The toilet was used over a 4 day period and only emptied a week later. My bad

Edited October 5, 2016 by Ben69

[alan_fincher]

On reading the instructions on the AquaKem bottle it says it works for up to five days, or something similar.

 

What make of 'bloo' do you use?

 

Always Elsan Blue - I can't recall ever trying any other type, though.

 

The Elsan web site seems to lack any detailed specification or instructions, and I don't have any at hand to see what it might say on a container.

[Martin Megson]

I use Odourloss instead of blue or green. Much better and hardly any smell.

[Guest]

 

Always Elsan Blue - I can't recall ever trying any other type, though.

 

The Elsan web site seems to lack any detailed specification or instructions, and I don't have any at hand to see what it might say on a container.

 

 

We use both Elsan Blue and Aqua Kem blue - depending on which one we can get.

 

Both are fine.

 

Elsan Blue comes in double concentrate version too which we buy if we can get it.

[alan_fincher]

The Elsan web-site says......

 

Elsan Blue and Double Blue are the only fluids you can buy that exceed British Standards.

 

..... though goodness knows exactly what a British Standard for toilet fluid might be!

 

Whether this means anything at all, or is just marketing hype I have no idea.

 

I've never had trouble buying it, hence never needed to try any other.

[Chertsey]

Thank you everyone for responding and for providing solutions.

 

Note to self : grow a pair, switch to blue , empty toilet regularly and use Vicks and an air freshner. I already press the anti glug glug button and use the (rotating) evacuation pipe.

 

Reading the instructions for the chemicals (aqua kem green ) it appears that they only work for 4 days counteracting the odour. TBH I had readied the toilet a week before it was used. The toilet was used over a 4 day period and only emptied a week later. My bad

 

So it could be a lot better next time then

Some facilities are easier to use than others...

 

[Athy]

Unpleasantness at the emptying point tends be caused by the inaccuracy of those who have, er, gone before you rather than by your own decanting. I have encountered facilities where the previous user appears to have been doing the hokey-cokey whilst emptying his (it must surely be a "he") tank.

 

I am puzzled, nay, perturbed, by references to an "anti-glug button". We have a Thetford loo with a cassette which slides out from the back, and I have never noticed such a button. Am I missing something? (not in the sense of the people in the first paragraph, I hasten to add).

 

So it could be a lot better next time then

Some facilities are easier to use than others...

 

That looks suspiciously like the one at Shackerstone Rally which, after a sole encounter, I refused to use. I emptied the cassette into one of the Portaloos instead.

The one at Alvecote falls short of being high-tech, but at least you can reach the darned thing without donning arm extensions.

[magnetman]

The thetford slide- out cassettes (C200 type) can be emptied without using the button but its smoother of you do press it. Its a yellow button about an inch diameter which presses down about a quarter of an inch. One way valve which allows air in (not out) to help the material flow out smoothly.

 

Typo edite

Edited October 5, 2016 by magnetman

[Laurie Booth]

I can actually entertain myself for a good hour watching YouTube vids of first-time campers et. al. emptying their cassettes for the first time and vomming profusely.

The best one was a gang of burly Aussie blokes who couldn't hold it together whilst the women present weren't batting an eyelid.

I am weird about vomit etc., I find it hilarious.

 

[alan_fincher]

I am puzzled, nay, perturbed, by references to an "anti-glug button". We have a Thetford loo with a cassette which slides out from the back, and I have never noticed such a button. Am I missing something? (not in the sense of the people in the first paragraph, I hasten to add).

 

Yes, if you have a standard thetford cassette, and are not deploying the (usually) yellow button as part of the emptying process, you are indeed doing it wrong.

 

(But it seems you are getting away with it!)

[Chertsey]

Unpleasantness at the emptying point tends be caused by the inaccuracy of those who have, er, gone before you rather than by your own decanting. I have encountered facilities where the previous user appears to have been doing the hokey-cokey whilst emptying his (it must surely be a "he") tank.

 

I am puzzled, nay, perturbed, by references to an "anti-glug button". We have a Thetford loo with a cassette which slides out from the back, and I have never noticed such a button. Am I missing something? (not in the sense of the people in the first paragraph, I hasten to add).

That looks suspiciously like the one at Shackerstone Rally which, after a sole encounter, I refused to use. I emptied the cassette into one of the Portaloos instead.

The one at Alvecote falls short of being high-tech, but at least you can reach the darned thing without donning arm extensions.

 

That was the one at Woking, a great improvement on the one at Droitwich in 2012, which required a ladder as well, and necessitated the invention of the Patent Droitwich Funnel, which can be seen in use in the photo (it's a traffic cone with the end cut off). Bearing in mind that this was a historic boat gathering, and many historic boaters prefer the more traditional type of Elsan that doesn't have an emptying spout!

 

Best ever elsan point was at Penton Hook, apparently there was even hot water for rinsing out!

[dogless]

A yellow button which, when depressed allows air into the cassette as the contents empty. I don't bother with it, it's not essential.

 

I've never quite been able to grasp why people are so squeamish about a simple task. After all it is your own contents, and you were present when it went into the cassette, presumably without gagging.

 

Have to agree regarding using blue. The 'eco' green stuff just doesn't work. Quality blue for us every time.

 

Rog

[Athy]

 

Yes, if you have a standard thetford cassette, and are not deploying the (usually) yellow button as part of the emptying process, you are indeed doing it wrong.

 

(But it seems you are getting away with it!)

Yes, it seems so, but thanks for the hint, I'll try it next time (for I am, it seems, the designated Thetford cassette operative on Trojan).

I do have a secret, though: I always point the nozzle away from myself during the operation. The scenes which I have discovered in various sanny stations suggest that not everyone has yet learned this trick.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Athy

[magnetman]

A yellow button which, when depressed allows air into the cassette as the contents empty. I don't bother with it, it's not essential.

 

I've never quite been able to grasp why people are so squeamish about a simple task. After all it is your own contents, and you were present when it went into the cassette, presumably without gagging.

 

Have to agree regarding using blue. The 'eco' green stuff just doesn't work. Quality blue for us every time.

 

Rog

Quite possible the op had guests - not sure how they would have felt if he was "present when it went into the cassette"

[Athy]

Whoops, post deleted, sorry.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Athy

[Chertsey]

Quite possible the op had guests - not sure how they would have felt if he was "present when it went into the cassette"

 

Also fresh is a bit different from matured.

[pquinn]

The yellow button on the top right hand corner [anti-glug button]

[IanM]

The yellow button on the top right hand corner [anti-glug button]

 

It's in a similar place on the 'normal' Thetford cassettes too.

[MtB]

There is a similar anti-glug button on an ordinary Porta Potti 165 cassette. It's not yellow though, and it isn't a non-return valve. When pressed it as as capable of passing liquid out as letting air in, so press it with care.