01 — Camp / Roundup

Best camping toilets

Everyone shops this category on tank capacity. The spec that actually decides your trip is where you are legally allowed to empty it, and that varies by style.

By Brijon M.Last updated November 3, 2026How we pick

The short answer

The Thetford Porta Potti 365 is the best camping toilet for most car campers: a 5.5-gallon waste tank, a 4-gallon fresh tank, a piston pump flush and a 16.06-inch seat height. For dispersed camping where nothing can be emptied on site, the Cleanwaste GO Anywhere is the pick, and the Reliance Luggable Loo does the basic job for a fraction of the price.

Trail & Terminal earns a commission when you buy through our Amazon links, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products we pick -- see our affiliate disclosure and selection method.

Our picks at a glance

Best camping toilets -- ranked picks
#	Product	Best for	Key spec	Price
1	Thetford Porta Potti 365A genuine flushing toilet with a sealed tank and a near-household seat height. The most civilized option here, and the heaviest commitment to carry.	most car campers, and anyone who wants a real flush	5.5 gal waste, 4 gal fresh, 16.06 in seat height	Check price on Amazon #ad · How we earn
2	Camco Portable Travel Toilet (5.3 Gallon)A 5.3-gallon detachable holding tank, a 2.5-gallon flush tank and a bellows pump, for noticeably less than the Thetford. The slide valve is the known weak point.	the most waste capacity per dollar	5.3 gal waste, 2.5 gal flush, about 11.5 lb empty	Check price on Amazon #ad · How we earn
3	Reliance Luggable LooA 5-gallon bucket with a snap-on toilet seat, about 3 pounds. There is nothing to break, and nothing to contain odor either.	the cheapest, lightest thing that genuinely works	5 gal, about 3 lb, snap-on seat	Check price on Amazon #ad · How we earn
4	Cleanwaste GO Anywhere Portable ToiletA folding frame that opens to a full-height seat and collapses to roughly briefcase size. Designed around bagging and carrying waste out, which is the rule in more places than people expect.	dispersed camping, river trips and anywhere you must pack it out	Folds to about 19 x 14 x 5 in, about 7 lb, rated 500 lb	Check price on Amazon #ad · How we earn
5	Thetford Porta Potti 135The 365's architecture at about three-quarters the height: 2.6-gallon waste tank, bellows flush, 13-inch overall height. A real flush, sized to fit.	a flushing toilet in a car that is already full	2.6 gal waste, 3 gal fresh, 13 in tall, 12.75 in seat	Check price on Amazon #ad · How we earn

Ranked by the criteria in how we pick. We hold no live prices, so every button goes straight to the current Amazon listing.

Every pick, in full

The picks

Best for most car campers, and anyone who wants a real flush

Thetford Porta Potti 365

A genuine flushing toilet with a sealed tank and a near-household seat height. The most civilized option here, and the heaviest commitment to carry.

This is the pick because the thing people actually want from a camping toilet is for it not to feel like a camping toilet, and a water flush into a sealed tank is what delivers that. Odor is the failure mode of every other style, and a sealed tank with a slide valve is the only design here that genuinely contains it between uses.

The cost is volume and logistics rather than money. Roughly 16 inches cubed is a serious claim on a trunk that also has to hold a tent, two sleeping pads and a cooler, and when the waste tank is full you have 5.5 gallons of liquid to carry to an approved disposal point. If your car is already tight, read the Porta Potti 135 pick below before this one, and our car camping gear page for how the volume budget works.

Specs

5.5-gallon waste water tank
4-gallon fresh water tank
Piston pump flush
16.29 in H x 15.07 in W x 16.81 in D
Seat height 16.06 in
Sealed, detachable waste tank with a rotating pour-out spout

Good for

A real water flush and a sealed tank is the difference between a toilet and a bucket, and it is the entire reason this category exists above bucket money
A 16.06-inch seat height is close to a household toilet, which matters more than any other spec for anyone with a bad knee, a bad back or a long trip
5.5 gallons is genuinely several days for a couple, so you are not planning the trip around a dump station

Bad at

You must carry roughly 9.5 gallons of tank capacity and the water to fill it -- full, this is a heavy, awkward, sloshing object you do not want to lift alone
Thetford does not publish an empty weight, and the dimensions mean it claims a permanent, inflexible block of trunk space
Emptying it is a real chore with real rules: it needs an RV dump station or an approved toilet, and you cannot pour it into a vault toilet or on the ground

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Best for the most waste capacity per dollar

Camco Portable Travel Toilet (5.3 Gallon)

A 5.3-gallon detachable holding tank, a 2.5-gallon flush tank and a bellows pump, for noticeably less than the Thetford. The slide valve is the known weak point.

If the Thetford's price is the thing stopping you, this is the sensible compromise rather than a downgrade in kind. It is the same architecture -- bowl, slide valve, sealed detachable tank, pump flush -- at a lower build standard, and 5.3 gallons against 5.5 is a rounding error in practice.

Be realistic about the valve. Owners report it sticking or seeping when the tank approaches full, and the fix is to empty it earlier than the capacity suggests. Treat 5.3 gallons as about four, keep the valve seal clean and lubricated with a silicone spray rather than a petroleum product, and it is a perfectly good toilet. Ignore that and it becomes the reason you stop using it.

Specs

5.3-gallon detachable waste holding tank
2.5-gallon flush water tank
Bellows-type flush pump
Sealing slide valve between bowl and tank
About 11.5 lb empty per retailer listings (one lists a 13.1 lb shipping weight)
Seat opening listed at 8.5 in W x 9 in D

Good for

Nearly the Thetford's waste capacity for meaningfully less money, which is the honest reason most people buy this one
The detachable holding tank separates cleanly from the bowl, so you carry the tank to the dump point rather than the whole unit
11.5 pounds empty is published, which is more than Thetford will tell you, and it is light enough for one person to load

Bad at

The sealing slide valve is the most commonly reported problem and it sticks when the tank is near full -- which is exactly when you need it to work
Retailer dimensions disagree noticeably (listings range from about 15.5 to 16.9 inches tall), so measure your intended space against the specific listing you buy
A 2.5-gallon flush tank is half the Thetford's, so you refill fresh water about twice as often

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Best for the cheapest, lightest thing that genuinely works

Reliance Luggable Loo

A 5-gallon bucket with a snap-on toilet seat, about 3 pounds. There is nothing to break, and nothing to contain odor either.

The honest case for this is that a cheap toilet you bring beats an expensive one left in the garage. At 3 pounds and bucket money, there is no decision to make about whether it is worth the space, and for overnight and weekend trips with a liner bag it does the job without ceremony.

What it does not do is contain anything. The whole category above this price exists to solve odor, and a lid does not solve odor. If you use it, use gelling waste bags designed for the purpose rather than a trash bag, tie them off after each use, and store them outside the vehicle. Pair it with a privacy shelter if your sites are open -- the bucket is the easy part of this problem.

Specs

5-gallon bucket with a snap-on molded toilet seat and lid
About 3 lb empty (listings give 2.96 to 3.00 lb)
Roughly 13.5 x 13 x 15.5 in per most listings
No flush, no tank, no valve -- designed to be used with a liner bag
Seat weight capacity listed at 220 lb on one retailer listing; other variants list 350 lb

Good for

About 3 pounds and a fraction of the price of anything else here, which is why it is the one that actually gets packed
Nothing to fail. No pump, no valve, no seals -- the only failure mode is a cracked bucket after years of sun
Doubles as a gear bucket on the way in, which is a real advantage in a packed car

Bad at

No odor control whatsoever beyond the lid. Used without a gelling liner bag in warm weather it becomes unpleasant within hours
The published seat weight capacity is low and inconsistent between variants -- 220 lb on one listing, 350 lb on another. Check the listing rather than assuming
The bucket sits low and the rim is thin, so it is noticeably less comfortable and less stable than a molded toilet, especially on soft ground

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Best for dispersed camping, river trips and anywhere you must pack it out

Cleanwaste GO Anywhere Portable Toilet

A folding frame that opens to a full-height seat and collapses to roughly briefcase size. Designed around bagging and carrying waste out, which is the rule in more places than people expect.

This is the pick that most buyers skip and that a meaningful minority of them actually need. If you camp on BLM or Forest Service land away from facilities, raft a river with a pack-out requirement, or camp above treeline where burial is not permitted, a liquid-tank toilet is not merely inconvenient -- you have nowhere legal to empty it. A bag system is the answer, and this is the most comfortable implementation of it.

It is also the right pick for anyone whose constraint is trunk space rather than money, because 5 inches of folded thickness is a completely different proposition from 16 inches cubed. Pair it with a trowel for the days you do not want to carry a kit, and check the land manager's rules before the trip -- our camping checklist has the pre-trip pass, and backpacking tents covers the shelter end of going somewhere without facilities.

Specs

Folds flat to roughly 19 x 14 x 5 in (retailer listings vary between 18 and 19 in)
About 7 lb
Rated to 500 lb per retailer listings -- the highest here by a wide margin
Opens to a full-height seat with a built-in carry handle
Designed for GO Anywhere waste kits (gelling bag systems), not a liquid tank
Made in the USA

Good for

A 500-pound rating and a full-height seat make this the most genuinely stable and comfortable option here, which is not what you expect from the folding one
Packs flat to about 5 inches thick, so it slides behind a seat or under a bin instead of claiming a cube of trunk
It is the only pick here that solves the problem you actually have on public land where ground disposal is prohibited and there is no dump station -- the waste goes in a sealed bag and leaves with you

Bad at

Running cost. Every use needs a waste kit, and over a long season that adds up to more than the toilet cost
No flush and no liquid tank, so this is a bag system with a good seat rather than a toilet in the household sense
Published folded dimensions differ between retailers and we could not find a manufacturer spec sheet to settle it, so treat the 19 x 14 x 5 in figure as approximate

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Best for a flushing toilet in a car that is already full

Thetford Porta Potti 135

The 365's architecture at about three-quarters the height: 2.6-gallon waste tank, bellows flush, 13-inch overall height. A real flush, sized to fit.

The case for the small one is simple: the best toilet is the one that fits in the car you own. A 365 that stays in the garage because the trunk is full is worth nothing, and the 135 keeps the flush, the sealed tank and the slide valve while giving back three inches of height and nearly 3 gallons of carried capacity.

The seat height is the trade and it is the one to think hardest about, because it is the spec that makes a camping toilet pleasant or not. 12.75 inches is roughly a low stool; 16 inches is roughly a household toilet. If you or anyone on the trip has knees that object to getting up from a low seat, buy the 365 and find the space, or buy the Cleanwaste, which has the tallest seat here.

Specs

2.6-gallon waste water tank
3-gallon fresh water tank
Bellows pump flush
13 in H x 15.07 in W x 16.81 in D
Seat height 12.75 in
Same sealed detachable tank design as the 365

Good for

13 inches tall against the 365's 16.29 means it slides under a cargo shelf or beside a cooler instead of competing with it
You get the thing that matters -- a water flush into a sealed tank -- in the smallest package Thetford makes it in
A 2.6-gallon tank is lighter and far easier to carry to a dump station than 5.5 gallons, which in practice means you empty it without dreading it

Bad at

A 12.75-inch seat height is low. It is a squat rather than a sit, and that is a genuine problem for anyone with knee or hip trouble
2.6 gallons is roughly two days for a couple, so a longer trip means mid-trip emptying rather than one trip to the dump station
Thetford's site lists no price or buy option and directs you to a dealer locator, so availability is worth confirming before you plan around it

Check price on Amazon

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01 — Compare

The picks at a glance

Capacities, dimensions and seat heights are published figures. The last column is the one that decides whether a toilet works for your trips at all: where you are allowed to empty it.

Pick	Waste capacity	Seat height	Weight empty	How you empty it
Thetford Porta Potti 365	5.5 gal	16.06 in	Not published	RV dump station or approved toilet
Camco 5.3 Gallon	5.3 gal	Not published	about 11.5 lb	RV dump station or approved toilet
Reliance Luggable Loo	5 gal (bag-lined)	Low -- bucket rim	about 3 lb	Sealed waste bag in the trash
Cleanwaste GO Anywhere	Per waste kit	Full height	about 7 lb	Sealed waste kit in the trash -- packs out
Thetford Porta Potti 135	2.6 gal	12.75 in	Not published	RV dump station or approved toilet

02 — Selection criteria

The criteria that decide a camping toilet

Every listing in this category leads with tank capacity, which is roughly the fourth most important thing about a camping toilet. These criteria are ordered by how often each one turns out to be the reason a purchase worked or did not.

How and where you can legally empty it. This is the first question and it eliminates whole styles. A liquid-tank toilet needs an RV dump station or an approved toilet connected to a sewer or septic system. If your trips are to dispersed sites with neither, you need a bag system, not a bigger tank.
Seat height, because it decides whether anyone enjoys it. A household toilet seat is about 15 to 17 inches. The Porta Potti 365 is 16.06 in; the 135 is 12.75 in; a bucket is lower still. For anyone with knee, hip or back trouble this outranks every other spec on the page.
Packed dimensions, not capacity. A camping toilet competes for trunk space with the cooler and the tent, and it does not compress. Sixteen inches cubed is a real sacrifice; five inches folded is not.
Odor containment. This is what separates a toilet from a bucket. A sealed tank with a slide valve, or a gelling bag tied off after each use, contains odor. A lid on an open bucket does not, and in warm weather the difference shows up in hours.
Full weight, not empty weight. Water weighs about 8.3 pounds a gallon. A Porta Potti 365 with a full waste tank is carrying roughly 45 pounds of liquid plus the unit, and you have to walk it to the dump point.
Running cost. Bag systems cost money every single use. Tank systems cost a bottle of holding-tank treatment every few trips. Over a season of regular camping this gap is larger than the difference in purchase price.

03 — Disposal rules

Where you can actually empty a camping toilet

This is the part the product listings leave out, and it is the part that decides whether the toilet you bought is usable. Human waste is sewage, and the rules on it are not advisory.

A liquid waste tank goes to an RV dump station, or to a toilet connected to a sewer or septic system with the land manager's permission. Dump stations are common at private campgrounds, many state park campgrounds, some rest areas and some gas stations, and they are frequently free or a few dollars. Plan the route around one before the trip rather than hoping.

Never pour a waste tank into a vault toilet or pit toilet. Campground vault toilets are pumped by truck and the chemicals and solids from a portable tank foul the system; many agencies prohibit it explicitly and post signs. Never empty one into a storm drain, a creek, a lake, a trash can, or onto the ground, including in a hole. That is illegal in most places and it is the behavior that gets dispersed camping areas closed.

Bag systems go in the trash, and this is by design. Gelling waste kits of the kind the Cleanwaste system uses are built to solidify liquid and are accepted in regular municipal waste in most of the country. That is what makes them the right answer in the backcountry and on rivers with pack-out requirements -- the waste leaves with you in a sealed container and goes into a normal waste stream.

When there is no toilet and no bag, bury it properly. The established standard is a cathole 6 to 8 inches deep and at least 200 feet from water, trails and camp, with toilet paper packed out or buried with it depending on local rules. Some environments -- alpine zones, deserts, narrow river corridors, heavily used areas -- prohibit burial entirely and require pack-out, which is exactly the gap a bag system fills. Check the specific land manager's rules before you go; our camping checklist covers the rest of the pre-trip pass.

Do I need chemicals in the tank?

For a liquid-tank toilet, yes in practice. Holding-tank treatment breaks down solids and controls odor, and without it the tank becomes genuinely unpleasant and harder to empty. Choose a formaldehyde-free product -- many dump stations and septic systems prohibit formaldehyde-based treatments because they kill the bacteria the system depends on.

Can I use regular trash bags as a liner?

No, and this is the most common mistake in the category. A trash bag holds liquid for a while and then leaks, and loose liquid waste in a trash can is both a health problem and prohibited in many places. Use gelling waste bags designed for the purpose: they solidify the liquid, which is what makes disposal in regular trash legitimate.

Do I need a privacy tent?

If your sites are open or shared, yes -- and the shelter is often the part that makes the whole setup usable rather than theoretical. A pop-up shower and toilet tent is a separate purchase of roughly the same bulk as the toilet itself, so count it in your volume budget from the start rather than discovering it later.

How often does it need emptying?

Rough planning figure: a 5.5-gallon tank is three to four days for a couple, and a 2.6-gallon tank is about two. Empty earlier than the capacity suggests. On the Camco in particular, owners report the slide valve seeping or sticking when the tank is near full, so treating 5.3 gallons as about four is the practical approach.

04 — Matching the trip

Which style suits which kind of camping

The three designs here are not better and worse versions of the same product. They solve different problems, and buying the wrong style is the main way money gets wasted in this category.

Developed campgrounds with a dump station nearby: a flushing tank toilet, and the biggest one your car will take. You have somewhere to empty it and the comfort gain over the alternatives is large. This is most car camping, and it is why the Porta Potti 365 is the overall pick.

A car that is already full: the smaller flushing toilet. Three inches of height is the difference between fitting and not, and the 135 keeps the flush and the sealed tank that make the category worth paying for.

Dispersed camping, BLM or Forest Service land, rivers, alpine sites: a bag system. Not because it is nicer but because there is nowhere legal to pour a tank, and a tank you cannot empty is dead weight that gets worse every day.

Overnights, festivals, a backup you keep in the car: the bucket, with gelling bags. It costs almost nothing, weighs almost nothing, and the fact that it is always in the vehicle is worth more than a better toilet you left at home.

05 — Honest limits

What a camping toilet is bad at

This category oversells itself more than most, and knowing the limits before you buy is what stops a toilet becoming an expensive bin in the garage.

Being pleasant to empty. There is no version of this that is not a chore. The design question is only whether it is a two-minute chore at a dump station or a ten-minute one.
Backpacking. Nothing here is carryable on foot in any serious sense. The lightest unit is 3 pounds of rigid bucket. On the trail, a trowel and a bag weigh ounces and are the correct answer.
Cold weather. Liquid in a tank freezes, and a frozen slide valve does not open. Winter trips mean a bag system or a drained tank, not a full one left out overnight.
Privacy. The toilet is the cheap half of the problem. A shelter is a second purchase of similar bulk, and most of the disappointment in this category traces back to not budgeting for it.
Replacing campground facilities. If your sites have flush toilets a short walk away, this is volume spent on avoiding a walk. That is a legitimate thing to want, but be honest that it is what you are buying.

06 — Honest limits

What we did not test, and what that means

We have not used these five toilets, measured odor over a weekend, cycle-tested a slide valve to failure, or weighed any of them on our own scale. Doing that properly needs repeat multi-day trips, a controlled way to measure odor, and a willingness to destroy several units, and we have none of it.

So there are no star ratings from us on this page and no measured figures. Every number above is the manufacturer's or a named retailer's published specification. Where sources disagree -- and they do, on the Camco's dimensions, the Cleanwaste's folded size and the Luggable Loo's seat weight rating -- we have said so in the pick rather than quoting the flattering figure. Thetford does not publish empty weights for either Porta Potti, so the table says "not published" rather than guessing. The known slide-valve issue on the Camco is a pattern in owner reports, not our finding.

What is ours is the reasoning: that legal disposal is the first question and not the fourth, that seat height decides whether anyone is willing to use the thing, that packed dimensions matter more than tank capacity in a loaded car, that a lid is not odor control, and that the privacy shelter is the half of this purchase people forget to budget for. We publish no prices. Every buy link opens a live Amazon search for the model named, so you see the current price and whether it is in stock rather than a number we recorded weeks ago. Full method at how we pick.

Questions

Frequently asked

What is the best portable camping toilet?

The Thetford Porta Potti 365 for most car campers: a 5.5-gallon sealed waste tank, a piston pump flush and a 16.06-inch seat height that is close to a household toilet. For dispersed camping with no dump station, the Cleanwaste GO Anywhere bag system is the right answer instead.

Where do you empty a portable camping toilet?

A liquid waste tank goes to an RV dump station, or a toilet connected to a sewer or septic system with permission. Never into a vault or pit toilet, a storm drain, a waterway, a trash can, or onto the ground. Gelling bag systems go into regular trash, sealed.

Can you empty a camping toilet into a vault toilet?

No. Vault toilets are pumped by truck, and tank chemicals and solids from a portable toilet foul the system. Many land managers prohibit it explicitly and post signs. Use an RV dump station, which is usually free or a few dollars at campgrounds and some rest areas.

Do portable camping toilets smell?

A sealed tank with a slide valve and holding-tank treatment does not, between uses. An open bucket with a lid does, within hours in warm weather. Odor containment, not capacity, is what you are paying for above bucket money.

How big a tank do I need for camping?

Roughly, 5.5 gallons is three to four days for a couple and 2.6 gallons is about two. Empty sooner than the rating suggests -- valves seep and stick when tanks approach full, and a full 5.5-gallon tank is around 45 pounds of liquid to carry.

What is the difference between a camping toilet and a WAG bag?

A camping toilet is the seat and structure; a bag system is the disposal method. Gelling kits solidify waste so it can go in regular trash, which is why they work where tanks cannot be emptied -- rivers, alpine zones and dispersed sites. Systems like the Cleanwaste GO Anywhere combine a full-height seat with the bag.

Can I use a camping toilet for backpacking?

No. The lightest unit here is about 3 pounds of rigid bucket and the rest are heavier and bulkier. On foot, a trowel, bags and a properly dug cathole 6 to 8 inches deep and 200 feet from water are the standard -- or a packed-out waste kit where burial is prohibited.

Do I need a tent to put a camping toilet in?

If your sites are open or shared, yes, and it is the part people forget. A pop-up privacy shelter costs roughly the same trunk space as the toilet itself, so budget the volume for both at once rather than discovering the problem on the first trip.

References

Back up a level

This page sits in Camp -- campsite kit: shelter, sleep, kitchen, light and power.