No-one talks about going to the toilet and yet we all have to do it multiple times a day. Well, actually, people always ask about the toilet if you go camping or if you car camp. In most motorhomes and caravans there is always a toilet, be it a flushable one or a composting toilet for the more environmentally friendly campers.
The one thing most of us dread is the toilet breaking down. No-one wants to have to rush to the campsite loos or be driving around looking desperately for a public toilet. We all want to go on our own toilet, be it a caravan toilet or our toilet at home.
The toilet of choice for 99% of caravanner’s is the Thetford toilet. The Thetford consists of a base with what they refer to as a cassette in it. I’m old enough to know that was what we recorded radio 1 on when I was a kid, but this refers to a box in the base with a pipe on the end and a hole in the middle. The waste matter goes down the hole, into the cassette, where there are chemicals to neutralise the waste. It turns the product into a clear matter. You take the lid of the hose and you tip it down the drain at the campsite.
The thing is, things can go wrong with your toilet and that isn’t a good thing, not at all. So here we have some spares that you might want to consider:
Table of Contents
Some of the most common caravan toilet spares
The Thetford toilets have a holding tank plate – it’s like an adjustable lid to the cassette. Sometimes they need replacing and this is one of them. Although it says a right-handed plate, if you turn it 180 degrees it works as a left-handed plate – neat huh! It’s important that you get the right holding tank plate, check which toilet you have before you buy one because they are not all the same.
This set consists of a new cassette and a toilet seat with a cover. It doesn’t have the toilet unit as part of it. If you have an old toilet and you want to just freshen things up without renewing the whole thing, you can use one of these sets, providing you have a C200 toilet.
Customers are happy with this set. If you buy a second-hand caravan or mobile home and it has one of these, you might decide just cleaning the loo isn’t enough. Particularly if the seat is stained…. eww! So, when you buy this, you can just throw away the old cassette (I don’t know where you would throw it, perhaps just dump it late at night at your local recycling centre.) and put in one of these new ones. It would definitely make things feel fresher. And with a new loo seat, well you don’t know who sat on the last one, do you? We all need a new loo seat when we move homes.
Single level sensor for Thetford C250 cassette toilet. The sensor senses that the toilet is full. We all know some people that could use a sensor like that!
If you don’t mind fixing toilets you can take off the old sensor and put in a new one.
This is a flusher for a toilet – a Thetford C200 to be precise. Everyone who buys it seems to like it and it isn’t difficult to fit. Toilets are generally better with a flusher.
Now this is a replacement seal. It goes under the plate, you need to unscrew the little screw near the triangular bit that moves, then unscrew the screws around the plate over the whole.
Once you have that off, give it a good clean and then you can fit the seal. It is a good idea to use seal lubricant – or olive oil makes a good substitute. Then you put the thing back together. When you put the screws back, take care not to over-tighten them, they just need to be hand tight. Otherwise, the screws damage the plastic. There are some good YouTube videos on it.
This pump is generally considered easy to fit. It does require a screwdriver and a welding source, but it’s simply connecting the positive and negatives correctly.
This isn’t the right place for explaining exactly how to fit the pump, but if you look on amazon, in the questions, some kind person gives a very good explanation of how it’s fitted.
If you even the slightest bit handy you will manage to fit this.
If a pump can be wonderful, then this one is. Everyone loves it. It’s easy to fit, and it works. If you have light sleepers in your caravan, then this can be flushed and it’s very quiet. So, you won’t have tired people the next day, which will definitely make your holiday better. See, I said it was a wonderful pump!
You know there are always things that get lost? Well, this is one of those things. Perhaps it’s because you are concentrating so much on emptying, the cup is easily forgotten.
Let me explain. This cup goes on the end of the pipe that delivers your waste product into the dump pipe at the caravan park. You take it off to dump waste and to measure the right amount of chemicals that you leave in the cassette. So, you take it off, take off the cap on the pipe, and tip the waste away. Because it’s small and you are so glad that the emptying is over, you swagger back to the ‘van and put the cassette back.
You leave the cap behind and drive off without it.
You can see it’s easily done. But then you do need a new cap, so here you go!
This is easy to fit and works well. It’s the control panel and it triggers the light, too. These things can corrode, so occasionally they do need to be replaced. This is the replacement you need. Customers say it came in a timely manner.
This page is written to help you find the right spares for your Thetford toilet, but these are not the only spares you can buy for it. Please always check that you can use the right spare with the right toilet as all Thetfords are not the same. Most of these spares are easy to fit and if you don’t know-how, take a look on YouTube as there are lots of helpful videos there.