Rig owners often find themselves scratching their heads when choosing the best RV toilet bowl cleaner for their rigs. It’s a difficult task because there are a lot of viable options out there worth considering.
It leads rig owners to ask what separates a top-tier cleaner from a subpar one. Well, this article will break it down and ensure you know the difference. I’ll discuss several relevant topics, which should provide a better idea of what you’ll need to look for in these products.
Some of these topics include different types, biodegradability, using processes, and trusted brands. These discussions will provide much-needed information required to make a suitable, responsible buying decision.
I’ll also offer 10 product reviews of my favorite options. You might even find out one of these 10 is precisely what you’ve been looking for in an RV toilet cleaner. Let’s now begin this process and make sure you find the perfect option for your rig.
Each of these reviews should offer a good starting point for your search. It’ll also help you understand the more complicated discussions taking place later in our article.
The 6 Best Toilet Bowl Cleaner for RV
1. Unique RV Toilet Cleaner
One of the more practical options available would have to be the Unique RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner. The cleaner’s effectiveness comes from its formula featuring an impressive blend of bacteria and effective cleaning agents.
In other words, this formula will have no problem keeping your plastic/porcelain toilet flawlessly clean. But it’ll also ensure beneficial bacteria end up in your holding tank, which will help reduce smelly odors.
Rig owners should find its usage of eco-friendly ingredients appealing, as well. These ingredients make sure using this cleaner won’t cause environmental issues. Therefore, accidentally spilling it outside your rig won’t result in any harm done.
Multiple buyers were pleased with its effectiveness against hard water staining. These stains tend to be a huge, recurring problem in RV toilets. But this cleaner has proven to be a useful tool in making them a non-issue.
This option represents an excellent choice for bulk buyers, too. It earns this distinction through its responsibly priced 3-pack buying option. It’s an easy way to ensure you always have a toilet bowl cleaner whenever the need arises.
I’m also a fan of this product being a US-made cleaner. As a result, the manufacturer had to get through the strenuous testing required for USA products. This type of testing isn’t always a requirement in other countries.
As for its flaws, the only one was its lack of fresh scent. It’s more a preference issue rather than anything worth worrying about too much. But it was the one problem that came up more than once in the customer reviews.
Its lack of fresh scent shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for anyone considering this option. After all, it’s proven to be an effective cleaner against everything that might cause your RV toilet problems.
2. Lemi Shine RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner
One of the most potent options is Lemi Shine’s RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner. This product uses the brand’s patented FunkGuard to deodorize and eliminate smells with ease. It then replaces them with a fresh lemon scent.
You can also expect this FunkGuard to wash away even the most difficult stains. It has a proven track record against grime, rust, hard water stains, and other pesky issues. This cleaner will make sure your toilet looks as good as it did when you first bought it.
It provides this effective cleaning without utilizing harsh chemicals, as well. This product doesn’t contain parabens, bleach, phosphates, or phthalates. It instead uses a harmless filth-fighting formula to ensure your toilet becomes stain-free.
Buyers won’t have to worry about any safety issues, either. This product was manufactured inside the United States, which means it went through numerous tests. There’s no reason to believe its usage will have any negative impact on your life.
This option is another one suitable for bulk buyers. It comes in a 3-pack containing three 24-oz bottles of this excellent cleaner. Rig owners won’t have to worry about buying more toilet bowl cleaners for a long time.
Many customers made sure to praise the product’s directions within their reviews, too, which is always a welcomed sight. I doubt even people like myself who aren’t great at using these types of products would have much trouble.
Some customers did find the lemon scent a little too powerful. If you have a sensitive nose, it might be a smart move to look elsewhere. It’s something every buyer should account for before putting any money down.
3. Star Brite RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Star Brite’s RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner is an excellent product to lead off our list. It’s often near the top of rig owners’ most popular choices because of its many impressive features. One of these traits would have to be its biodegradability.
This aspect is essential in any top-tier toilet bowl cleaner. After all, it ensures the cleaning product will break down naturally and won’t hurt the soil when spilled. It’s just another way to ensure our planet’s soil doesn’t come in contact with harmful chemicals.
I was also impressed with its performance. This product had no issues cleaning, brightening, and removing stains from my RV toilet. Honestly, the cleaner did everything that its product description claimed it could do without any problems.
You should love that this Star Brite toilet bowl cleaner was made with RV and marine usage in mind, as well. It won’t have any problems dealing with these unique situations.
Buyers won’t have to worry about it damaging any valves or seals, either. This product will do its job without causing any type of damage. It’s genuinely a top-tier cleaning product that shouldn’t cause problems for rig owners who are using it.
As for its using process, there was nothing complicated about it. You follow the well-laid-out directions, and there shouldn’t be any issues. Many customers were thrilled by how easy it was compared to their experiences with other cleaners.
But I was a little disappointed to see a few people complain about shipping issues. Thankfully, Star Brite’s excellent customer service was able to sort these issues out without trouble. It’s still worth knowing about before making a final decision.
4. Thetford RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Buyers looking to get a product with an easy-use process should take a long gander at Thetford’s Aqua-Foam RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner. This cleaner comes in 2oz packets, which require only opening them and pouring the contents into the toilet. You then proceed to rinse, and the job is complete.
You also benefit from this option being a foaming cleaner. This aspect allows the product to work in very little water, ensuring it can handle every situation. It’s not surprising that this product has a reputation for being useful in various environments: RVs, boats, campers, cabins, and homes.
Rig owners will find the product working without any hand scrubbing appealing, as well. It’ll penetrate, eliminate grime, and require little effort from the user while doing it. It’s the perfect set of circumstances for a lazy person who hates cleaning like myself.
The products’ ability to work without affecting seals or other toilet components doesn’t hurt its case, either. Users can utilize this product and not have to worry about their toilet getting any sort of damage. It’s a nice feeling to experience, considering the number of scratches I’ve seen come from subpar cleaners.
You can expect the product to leave behind a fresh scent, too, which is always an excellent trait. Many buyers were thrilled with this particular aspect in their reviews. It’s a scent most rig owners would love to have to move throughout their motorhomes.
Another vital aspect is that the cleaning product was designed specifically for RVs and boats. Due to this, users don’t have to worry about it having issues working on plastic or porcelain. It will work with these materials perfectly and keep them spotless.
But it has a higher price than I would expect for this type of product. It’s among the most costly on our entire list.
5. Happy Campers RV Tank Treatment
If you’re experiencing an issue with smells coming from a holding tank, Happy Campers’ Organic RV Tank Treatment would be suitable. This option happens to be one of the most effective products against odors available.
Its impressive odor-fighting ability comes from its potent water-activated mineral blend, ensuring an odor’s removed rather than masked. In other words, this tank treatment will make sure a smell doesn’t linger within your rig’s plumbing system.
I was also intrigued by its effectiveness in extreme cold and hot temperatures. As a result, you shouldn’t encounter a situation where this tank treatment isn’t usable. It ends up being a very versatile cleaning product for a rig owner to own.
The product’s formula is entirely biodegradable, too, which is always a huge positive trait. It’ll ensure its usage doesn’t cause any damage to the environment around your rig. You can relax, knowing spills won’t do any long-term damage.
Rig owners will love this product’s ability to inhibit and clean sludge buildups in their RV’s plumbing systems. Due to this, using Happy Campers’ tank treatment ensures your plumbing system remains in stellar condition.
You won’t have to invest more money into tank treatments anytime soon, either. This option comes with 18 treatments to ensure it can help your rig’s plumbing system on several occasions. It ends up being quite a steal for anyone with holding tank smell issues.
However, I found the included directions to be a bit hard to follow. A few other customers had similar issues and felt the need to mention them in their reviews.
6. Method RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner
The Method’s Antibacterial RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner happens to be our final product, but this position isn’t an indictment against its effectiveness. It actually outpaces several other cleaners on this list with its impressive quality.
After all, this disinfectant antibacterial cleaner will kill 99.9% of all germs that come in contact with it. These germs include the rhinovirus, influenza, a flu virus, salmonella enterica, and staphylococcus aureus.
You can attribute its effectiveness against these serious germs to its usage of ingredients like citric acid. In fact, its ingredients will have no issues dealing with several types of problems such as dirt, bacteria, and grime.
The product leaves behind a pleasant scent after usage, as well. I became somewhat surprised by its potentness when its smell wafted through my RV. It was a welcomed addition that made sure any bathroom smells didn’t impact my rig.
But what stands out most about this product is its affordability. This option comes with six 24oz bottles of toilet cleaner for what one bottle of other choices might cost. It ends up being the best deal for any bargain buyer reading this article.
As a result, you might not need to buy more toilet cleaner for a long time. It makes purchasing this option one of the most cost-effective moves a rig owner could make. These six bottles being extremely storable doesn’t hurt its case, either.
I was slightly disappointed to see a few customers mention the bottle had leaking issues. These complaints were only in a small number of reviews, but still frequent enough to mention. It’s highly probable these end up being isolated incidents rather than a trend.
What to Look for When Buying RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Choosing the right RV toilet cleaner will come down to several different factors. I’ll discuss each of them below to ensure you know what makes up a top-tier option. You’ll then have a better idea about what cleaners fit your particular situation.
Type
Our first step is understanding what type of RV toilet cleaning product would be an ideal choice. In this market, most cleaners that can clean an RV toilet fall into one of two categories: chemical or non-chemical.
Every buyer must understand the difference between these two options before making a decision. After all, your cleaner can affect a lot more than how clean the toilet bowl ends up being: it can also have a massive impact on your wastewater system’s functionality.
Chemical RV Toilet Bowl Cleaners
Chemical RV toilet bowl cleaners are options that have bleach-based or chlorine-based formulas. In other words, these products are what you’d expect to find under your sink at home.
These cleaners will have no issues working well to remove stains and residue from your rig’s toilet. In most situations, mineral deposit build-ups and human waste will be your main culprits. Bleach or chlorine cleaners should knock them out, no problem.
But their effectiveness doesn’t mean they’re safe. Some of these products can contain dangerous chemicals that produce terrible issues for black water holding tanks. In fact, they’re known for the ability to kill off beneficial bacteria in these tanks. This situation can lead to horrible backups and clogs.
As a result, I’d recommend staying away from these chemical cleaners unless they come with excellent reviews and safety certifications. Chemical options with these features should be more than okay to use in your rig’s toilet bowl.
Non-chemical RV Toilet Bowl Cleaner
As you might expect, non-chemical RV toilet bowl cleaners don’t utilize bleach or chlorine chemicals during the cleaning process. Instead, these products feature ingredients that are considered safe for usage in the environment, around pets and people.
Many residential home toilet bowl cleaners fit into this description. For instance, you’ve likely come across pumice or mineral cleaners when looking for home cleaning products. These options would have no problem keeping your bathroom at home clean and spotless.
But most of these cleaners aren’t made for RV usage. In fact, these products can often cause damage to an RV toilet bowl’s porcelain or soft plastic material. These issues can lead to long-term durability and effectiveness problems.
Rig owners will instead specifically look for non-chemical RV cleaners. These products often will be labeled for RV usage in their product description or titles. You can usually expect them to utilize ingredients like tanks boasting microbial cleaners. These ingredients have the added benefit of treating your rig’s black water tank during their cleaning process.
In any case, I’d still suggest looking out for safety certifications and examining each option’s ingredients. These resources will make sure you pick an effective and safe non-chemical cleaner. After all, these cleaning products have a higher chance of being less effective than chemical options.
Price
An RV toilet bowl cleaner’s cost will have a massive impact on your final decision as well. I’m not saying any of these products will be outrageously expensive. But these products do vary drastically when it comes to price tags.
This reason alone makes it advisable to conceive a budget based on what you’re looking for in these products. For instance, an eco-friendly or non-chemical cleaner will be more costly than standard cleaners. It comes from their formulas using natural ingredients rather than cheap chemicals, such as bleach or chlorine.
People who want a non-chemical cleaner will need to account for this increased cost in their respective budgets. It’s the only way to keep them useful and realistic. You can then utilize them to lessen the choices down to a more manageable number.
Product Quality
Finding an effective RV toilet bowl cleaner can be a lot more complicated than people realize. The number of options on today’s market is rather staggering. Knowing how to separate the subpar ones from top-tier options is a crucial step.
An excellent way of separating them is by reading numerous customer reviews for each product. These resources should provide enlightening insight into whether these products are capable of keeping an RV toilet clean.
Honestly, negative reviews are as useful as positive ones. These awful experiences can ensure you don’t end up buying a product incapable of keeping your toilet clean. Nothing makes a customer angrier than a purchase that can’t live up to its promises.
Brand
The product’s brand or manufacturer will have a massive impact on its quality, as well. It’s pivotal to ensure you buy from a company with a reputation for providing excellent performance. Finding these companies can be a little tricky because there are many brands making toilet cleaning products.
I’ve given you a head start by mentioning several top-tier companies in our product review section. Ecos toilet bowl cleaner can be a good choice as well. Each of these brands has a reputation for offering high-quality cleaners and customer service.
If you stick with them, I don’t see any reason to believe this process won’t end with a smile on your face. These companies have proven to provide rig owners with everything they’re looking for in an RV toilet cleaning product.
Easy to Use
Using an RV toilet cleaning product shouldn’t ever be problematic. These cleaners should make your toilet’s cleaning process a breeze for anyone who attempts to get the bowl clean. I’d recommend looking at each option’s product description, which should provide insight into using them.
Reading these descriptions should ensure you have a handle on how comfortable you are using each product. In most cases, the manufacturer will provide extensive details about the process to make sure a potential buyer feels relative ease.
You can also separate a top-tier company from a subpar one through examining their product’s ingredients. Natural or biodegradable ingredients are usually a good sign of a trustworthy company. Cleaners with these aspects included are often among the most effective toilet cleaners available.
Is it Biodegradable?
As I mentioned earlier, biodegradable cleaners are always an excellent choice. These products tend to be extremely useful and aren’t harmful to our precious planet. Honestly, anything capable of keeping our planet healthy should be looked at as positive.
The only problem with biodegradable products is their usage of natural ingredients, which often makes them more costly. But this increased price is more than worth it considering their overall effectiveness and environmentally friendly construction.
Due to this, I’m always going to recommend buying biodegradable cleaners. It’s just a smart and effective route for a rig owner when choosing safe cleaning products for RV usage. Otherwise, you might find yourself with a subpar cleaner capable of doing irreversible damage to our planet.
Who makes the best RV toilet bowl cleaner?
Seasoned RVers attest to the effectiveness of Unique Camping + Marine products in cleaning, sanitizing, and deodorizing their toilet bowls, black holding tanks, and other “smelly” RV waste management system components.
The brand has a proprietary RV Digest-It formula, featuring an ingenious blend of biologically active enzymes and bacteria. This formulation intensifies bacterial and enzymatic action on solid waste, leaving the toilet bowl smelling more pleasant.
Unique’s toilet bowl cleaner for RV and marine vessels features a holding tank enhancer to improve the breakdown of solid waste and decomposition of organic matter.
The formula is also tough on stains while removing nasty odors and lubricating toilet seats. Unique RV toilet bowl cleaners leave the mobile commode sparkling clean and smelling fresh.
Dometic toilet bowl cleaners are also noteworthy. They are ideal for RV owners who use hard water in their toilets. The company’s unique cleaning formula allows it to break down the chemical bonds of hard minerals, lifting them off toilet bowl surfaces.
On the other hand, Star Brite is the go-to brand for budget-conscious RVers. Although their products are cheaper than most RV toilet cleaner brands, Star Brite still maintains quality and performance in its cleaners.
What toilet bowl cleaner is safe for RV toilets?
It can be challenging for RVers to choose a safe toilet bowl cleaner because almost every brand will label its products as safe. RV owners must exercise due diligence in researching a toilet bowl cleaner’s ingredients to determine whether such substances are safe or not.
Ideally, cleaners with natural ingredients are safe. For example, Unique’s proprietary blend of bioactive enzymes and bacteria might put off some people. However, these substances do not harm human health or wreak havoc on the environment.
Other eco-friendly compounds that RV owners should look for in toilet bowl cleaners include plant-based complexes and essential oils.
Some toilet cleaners contain bleach with corrosive properties. Although these ingredients are effective in whitening and cleaning heavily stained toilet bowls, they might irritate the eyes or skin. RV owners who are not careful when handling and mixing bleach with other cleaners might produce harmful gasses they can inhale.
How do RV toilet bowl cleaners work?
How a camper toilet cleaner works depends on its chemical formulation or active ingredients. For example, cleaning agents with bacterial and enzyme blends leverage the natural biological action of these microorganisms in disintegrating and decomposing organic matter, including feces and mineral deposits.
Bacteria gobble up organic matter, breaking them down into their component molecules. On the other hand, enzymes speed up the breakdown of these substances, allowing RV owners to enjoy cleaner, fresher, and more sanitized toilet bowls and holding tanks.
On the other hand, toilet bowl cleaners with citric acid or other essential oils work by killing harmful bacteria, mold, and mildew found on toilet bowl surfaces. They reduce bacterial pH, making its cell membrane more permeable to the cleaning agent’s active ingredient.
Meanwhile, bleach and other cleaning agents with oxidizers work by breaking down the chemical bonds of microorganisms and other surface contaminants. The oxidation reaction also makes such a product suitable as a toilet bowl cleaner for stains. Unfortunately, bleach can damage the RV toilet’s rubber seals.
Can I use toilet bowl cleaner in my RV toilet?
Yes, RV owners can use their household toilet bowl cleaner in motorhome toilets. However, RVers must use only products that do not contain bleach, chlorine, and other corrosive or harsh compounds.
These substances can react with the chemical composition of rubber and plastic seals of motorhome toilets and plumbing systems, damaging them.
RVers who must use a household toilet bowl cleaner should choose a product with natural ingredients or an eco-friendly formulation. Toilet bowl cleaners with biologically active ingredients offer the safest and most effective way to clean, deodorize, and sanitize motorhome toilets and holding tanks.
Citric acid-based toilet bowl cleaners are also safe and effective. Other household toilet bowl cleaners with essential oils and other natural ingredients are also suitable for cleaning RV toilet bowls.
How to Clean RV Toilet Bowls
Cleaning a rig’s towel bowl isn’t a fun experience for anyone involved. But this task remains an essential piece of ensuring a pleasant RV adventure. You’ll be delighted to know the actual cleaning process isn’t the most complicated task. This process will only require a rag, an RV toilet bowl brush, rubber gloves, toilet, and sanitary wipes.
After you’ve gathered these supplies, take the cloth/rag and use hot water or a cleaning supply to wet it. You should then use it to wipe down your toilet’s outer part while paying close attention to the lid and seat.
Move onto the grossest part, which is cleaning the toilet bowl’s inside. This task will require using a toilet brush and cleaner to scrub inside this nasty area. It’s essential to ensure you scrub enough where any waste residue or stains can’t withstand it.
You can then flush your RV toilet to eliminate any dirty water leftover from this cleaning process. Once this action is complete, the entire job is done. It’s something anyone can do, considering it’s relatively simple and straightforward.
Rig owners should make sure to do the entire process regularly. It’s the only way to keep your rig’s bathroom sanitary and odor-free. Otherwise, an unclean toilet can leave behind an awful smell, which makes your rig a stinky nightmare.
Conclusion
Finding the best RV toilet bowl cleaner shouldn’t be much of an issue with all this new knowledge. It’s just a simple matter of using what you’ve learned during the search. If you do, the right choice will become clear.
But sometimes these searches don’t always go according to plan. If a problem or issue comes up, don’t hesitate to leave a post in our comment section. I’ll make sure to answer each one with a detailed response, which will put you back on track.
