Toilet Additives

[Idaho Adventurer]

Originally Posted by Bill

Fair question. To the best of my knowledge, you need to search for Aqua Kem Original, the secret being in the the word ORIGINAL. A search for "Aqua Kem" brings up a couple dozen hits, all of which say No Formaldehyde somewhere in the listing. A search for "Aqua Kem Original" brings up a few hits, one of them being Amazon. All of them show a big "Warning - May Cause Burns, Blindness, Death, etc" on the front label and urging you to check the ingredients on the back label. And they don't show the back label. No mention of formaldehyde, yes or no, anywhere in the listing. But in the Users Comments section, there are numerous reviews saying "Wonderful stuff, yes, it has formaldehyde".

So as I said originally, I don't know what is going on. Maybe some warehouses have received permission to clear out their stock. And a lot of it is showing up on eBay, of course. The big picture doesn't make sense to me, but listings for Aqua-Kem Original disappeared for a while, and are now back.

Caveat Emptor.

Bill

I think I found the one you're referring to: "Aqua-Kem sold by RV Wholesale Direct LLC". On the Amazon link I noticed that it says "100% Biodegradable". Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that formaldehyde wouldn't be considered biodegradable. Also, I searched the reviews and questions, and it seems to be that all of the ones that are 2022 or more recent say they either got "Aqua Max" or that what they got doesn't have formaldehyde in it, and all the ones that were earlier than 2022 say it does have formaldehyde. That seems to fit the timeframe of when they outlawed formaldehyde.

[Bill]

Idaho, you make some good points, and I am not in disagreement with any of them. Your analysis of review dates is especially interesting - good catch. I'll say it again - I don't know what is going on. What I do know is that Amazon still has a listing for a product called Aqua-Kem Original. The listing text says "Original" but the bottle in the picture does not say Original. There is no picture of the back of the bottle where the contents are listed. The text in the listing says 100% biodegradable. But the text also omits the big claim, Formaldehyde-Free! which is featured in the text in most other non-Amazon ads. So whatever is being sold, does it have formaldehyde? Can't be sure.

I can find a number of internet sites that say formaldehyde is biodegradable. Others say that at some concentration, it kills fish and marine life as it degrades. A number of sites say that formaldehyde has not been banned, though this is often said in the context of the glue in the plywood that is in your home's walls. California says it is a biodegradable carcinogen, and in 2007 asked that it be banned on the carcinogen basis. Is it banned today? I don't know.

What I do know is that like the rest of us, I'd like to find a good toilet deodorizer. I am personally not having any luck with that quest, but I keep trying. I hope someone will find a good product, and let us know what it is.

I'm tired.

Bill

[Idaho Adventurer]

It's all very interesting and confusing at the same time. Thanks for you're willingness to go back and forth, Bill My goal in life is to try and determine the truth in all matters from toilet chemicals to the meaning of life. To be wrong in either will leave you in a stinky mess in the end

As of right now, I got a sample of the Inca Gold and plan to use it on a week long dry camping trip near the end of July, and I will provide feedback on how well it seems to work.

Thanks, Kyle

[JohnMD]

All,

I recently contacted Inca Gold(Douglas Products) and they sent me some free samples to try. We received four 2-oz bottles and four powder packets. Our next trip is in July and we plan to see how we like it. Previously, we've been using the Cypress scent AquaMax with our recirculating toilet. We like the cypress scent, but it seems to start smelling bad after two to three days, depending on use and temperature. There are just three of us and we limit use to liquid waste only and try to use campground facilities during the day.

For those interested, attached are the product information and pricing sheets that I received from the company.

I also will try to report back with feedback on what we think.

Aslo, I read somewhere (probably on the Facebook page) that someone uses Pine-Sol. I was wondering if anyone here has tried that. Perhaps that could be a complementary additive to support the Cypress AquaMax.

John

Inca Pricing Effective 05-01-22.pdf

F204 liquid gold Appl. Inst..pdf

Port. Toilet Appl. Instr. Powder.pdf

[Shane826]

You also need to remember whatever you use as a toilet additive should also be septic safe. Otherwise you’re effectively nuking the campground’s septic system when you dump your tanks. That’s why formaldehyde based toilet treatment chemicals have been outlawed in several states, which is why Thetford appears to have discontinued Aqua-Kem without saying they’ve discontinued Aqua-Kem, which then probably led to them discontinuing the recirculating toilet.

[JohnMD]

Yep..the Inca Gold products are formaldehyde-free.

John

[inghamm]

Originally Posted by Idaho Adventurer

I'm not finding "Aqua-Kem" with formaldehyde in it like you are. Just the new "Aqua-Kem" that's biodegradable and without formaldehyde. Can you share a web link where you're finding it? Maybe I'm just missing it. Thanks.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[JohnMD]

All,

As promised, here is our assessment on the Inca Gold products (using original recirculating toilet). We were at our first campsite for five nights and at our second site for six nights. For the first half, we used the sample powder packs and for our second half we used the liquid samples. I am not sure there is a noticeable difference between the powder and the liquid, though the powder seems nicer to store and handle to me. Our impression is that it works slightly better than the new Aqua-Max at controlling odor. As such, I will probably finish off my supply of Aqua-Max and switch. However, before committing to an order of Inca Gold, I see somebody else (in a reply to an older thread: https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...ghlight=toilet) recommended the Walex Porta-Pak, which our local Walmart lists as in stock. We have another trip next week, so I will plan to try out the Walex Porta-Pak. I'll try to report back on our assessment.

Also, something else I've noticed, and perhaps you have as well -- When returning from a trip, I give the toilet a nice cleaning by charging and flushing with clean water and a little bit of chemical. I then run just clean water through as a final rinse. However, when I am at parks with no hook-ups, I dump with my tote and recharge after a few days, but I was not doing any "cleansing charges" to flush out residue in between. As such, I notice that my first charge seems to last longer before we notice and odor. Moving forward, I plan to to a "cleansing charge" as well.

Take care,

John

[JohnMD]

For those who are interested in our recirculating toilet chemical trials, we recently finished 6 nights on Lake Michigan. We feel the Walex Porta-Pak performed very well for us and think this will be our "go to" chemical moving forward. The temperatures were fairly nice, not getting much above 80, which may have helped out. However, we've camped in lower temperatures with the Aqua-Max not performing as well. I used only one tablet when charging the Thetford recirculating toilet and we never felt the need to change out the water after six nights of camping. The level actually got up to the low side of the full mark on the gauge. As a summary, the following is our rankings of the three chemicals we've used:

1. Walex Porta-Pak (note: NOT Bio-Pak)

2. Inca Gold

3. Thetford Aqua-Max (Cypress)

Because the Walex Porta-Pak performed so well, we have no intention to try out any of the other products.


Happy flushing!

John

[Kidkraz]

Although I haven't had issues with my TM toilet I did find a product that works in my home. My sister has mobility issues which requires her to use a commode during the night. Even after one night the oder is pretty stout to say the least. I came across this additive and I have to admit it's working well so for. I haven't done that much research on it, but just another option for folks.

https://odornuke.com/