Chemical toilets and porta potties are key ways to deal with being far away from traditional plumbing. While they are often the best way to handle the problem, it's also true that many people make mistakes when it comes to using them. Here are a few mistakes people make when using chemical toilets, including how you can avoid this issue in order to use this critical tool.

Forgetting to Deodorize and Disinfect Initially

Before you even start clearing a toilet for use by yourself or others, you need to make sure you treat it with the right chemicals. In many cases, there should be a powder that has an aqua color located somewhere near the toilet. If you pull out the handle and can see something with a blue-green color inside the toilet base, then this has already been done.

Otherwise, you need to find deodorant and disinfectant for the toilet. This will be either liquid or powder, and it should say on the bottle how to use it. Generally, though, you need to pull the top apart from the bottom, slide out the waste reservoir, and then put in the disinfectant. Then, you need to put the top back on and flush the toilet a couple of times to make sure it's primed and ready to go.

Using the Wrong Amount of Cleaner

It's easy to just dump in some indeterminate amount of disinfectant when you first start preparing the toilet, but this is a mistake. You can't really eyeball things properly. You'll risk not putting in enough and could potentially end up allowing in bacteria. You also might use too much and make the toilet too saturated with chemicals to be totally ideal.

Obviously, it's important to stick with whatever the package says, but in general, you should use about ten percent of the dry powder packet you see in there, or about 10 percent of a bottle. If it has neither, you definitely need to contact whoever you rented the toilet from to make sure you remedy the situation and end up with what you need.

Emptying in the Wrong Place

It's actually illegal to empty your toilet in the wrong area, so it's important to be sure about this. In general, you can dump the contents into a septic tank nearby that's marked for the purpose or any other receptacle designated by an RV park or other area. Often, you'll need to pay a fee for this. It's also often possible to get a vehicle to come by and let you dump. 

Talk to a company such as Road Runner Waste Service Inc for more information.