Marine Toilet Paper

[Bud Cook]

This may be an age old question, but I understand septic tank tolerant toilet paper is safe for marine use (eg there is a note on the Charmin package that it "is safe for use in your sewer or septic system"). What about single versus 2 ply?Bud

 

[Steve Dion]

The rule of thumb!

The old rule of thumb is that if you did NOT eat or drink it, do not put it in the head.We use TP in our head. The best way to see if it is head safe, is to put some in a glass of water. If it disolves in a reasonable amount of time 10-20 min. it is PROBABLY okay.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Septic tank safe doesn't necessarily mean

it will break down fast enough to keep from clogging up a holding tank discharge fitting. If you're in doubt about whether a toilet paper is ok to use aboard, tear off a sheet and put it in glass of water overnight. If it's still an intact--or mostly intact--sheet in the morning, keep looking. But if the water is milky and all you see is "snow" when you stir it, it's the same thing as high priced "marine" toilet paper. Two ply or single, same test applies.However, marine toilets cannot handle large wads of ANY toilet paper. It must be used sparingly, and occasionally "intermediate flushes" may be called for to keep from overloading the bowl with waste OR paper...or both.

 

[Mike Busher]

Angle Soft Bath Tissue the Best

I have been cruising for years and must say that Charmin is about the worst. There is a technical reason for this. The paper is so soft and weak, that P & G adds a "temporary wet" strength to the product to help it stay together while in use. I plugged both heads on a Charter some years ago when we used it.My profession and only claim to fame was manufacturing tissue products. I can tell you that some of the bath paper with fancy camping type lables on it is not really much different than normal bath.At anyrate, we normally use Angle Soft and it works great. Believe it or not, we actually ran flushability tests on all the competitive tissues, and Charmin did not do well.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

If it doesn't completely break up overnight,

I wouldn't use it in a marine toilet--electric OR manual. More importantly, I wouldn't risk clogging up a holding tank, or a treatment device with it.Practical Sailor ran tests of several different toilet papers...Charmin was the most indestructable, but NONE of the "premium brands" were considered acceptable for use in marine sanitation systems.