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One Year With Our Thetford C223 Cassette Toilet

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When we started looking into toilet options for our van, we found a lot of reviews where people said they didn’t have any smells but “we don’t poop in our cassette”. Well, that’s not very useful. And it begs the questions, where do you poo then?! So, if you are also frustrated, this is the post for you! But beware, we will probably be oversharing!

After many hours of research and conversations with van-lifers, we landed on the Thetford C223 Cassette toilet for our van build. Let’s talk about why!

In the interest of transparency, please be aware that the following may contain affiliate links and any purchases made through such links may result in a small commission for us at no cost to you.   We appreciate you shopping from these links!

Man emptying a Thetford C223 cassette an RV dumpstation.

Why Did We Go With a Cassette Toilet?

For years, we have lived on a boat, and a very popular conversation amongst liveaboard boaters is around toilets. Everyone is trying to be sure they aren’t missing out on a better option because, honestly, none of them are that great. We’ve had a lot of conversations about composting toilets with other boaters over the years, and we knew before this build that we had ZERO interest in going the composting route.

The first reason is that composting toilets are not a great option for folks whose bowel movements tend toward the looser side. When we first dug into researching this for the van, I had yet to receive my colon cancer diagnosis or have that cancer removed. And let’s just say, this immediately ruled out a composting toilet for us. But even if you’re situation isn’t quite as extreme, looser stools can be a serious issue for composting toilets and it’s not talked about enough. It can certainly add to the smell, and requires significantly more substrait, and potentially can lead to poo in the pee which is DEFINETLY an issue with smells.

The second reason: many women struggle with composting toilets because we can sometimes struggle to “separate” our pee and poop. Pee in compost area, or poo in the pee jug can both cause issues with composting toilets! I really didn’t want to have to be worried about it!

The third reason: bugs. I know that if you are taking care of a composting toilet and cleaning it regularly, it’s less likely, but I’ve seen enough magots in the composting toilet videos that it was a hard no from me.

And the last reason, after watching a lot of video, the cleaning process for the composting area looks absolutely miserable. Way worse than the emptying process for a cassette.

We also ruled out a more conventional RV toilet with a black water tank because we just didn’t have space. And the twisty toilets, I don’t know what else to call the ones that are essentially just a plastic bag that twists, are crazy expensive for what they are, and the idea of having to make my pee solid is weird.

So we landed on cassette!

Why the Thetford C223?

It was important to me that our van toilet be as close to a household toilet in height and feel as possible, and we were also looking for the highest capacity cassettes. This sent us toward the Thetford cassette toilets. Andy also felt very strongly about being able to access and empty the cassette from outside the van. He really didn’t want to have to carry the full cassettes through our living space. And that pretty much left us with the Thetford C223 or the Thetford C402. The C402 is MASSIVE and we would have needed to install it east-west in the van which didn’t make a lot of sense for our build. The C223 worked best in our space, and since the two had the same cassette capacity (4.75 Gallons), it was a no brainer.

Thetford C223 Toilet inside a campervan.

How does the Thetford C223 work?

Using the Toilet:

Using the toilet is pretty self-explanatory. It operates similarly to a household toilet. The only thing that might be a little different is that if you’re planning to go number 2 without peeing first, you may want to add a little water to the bowl first to make flushing easier.

Once you’ve done your business, you flip the lever at the front of the toilet and everything will drop into the cassette below. You can then use the built-in flush to rinse the bowl, or we use a hand-held bidet to make sure the bowl is clean. We then do a final “flush” and add just a little water back to the bowl to help keep smells down. That water acts similarly to the P-trap in your sink or toilet at home.

And that is it! For the first three months we were not flushing toilet paper and wrapping it up in dog poo bags, but we decided to experiment with flushing toilet paper and we have not noticed a difference in smell or ease of emptying the tank. Since it didn’t seem to make a difference we even flush out toilet paper now! Just like your home toilet, it is NOT a good idea to flush anything like feminine hygiene products, wet wipes, paper towels, etc. Those are not meant to breakdown the same way and will cause issues with emptying your tank, and potentially with the sewer systems where you dump.

Emptying and Cleaning the Cassette:

The cassette can be emptied at any RV dump site. One pro of the cassette’s portability is that it can also be emptied in a regular toilet. We don’t necessarily recommend emptying into a toilet, as it can stink the place up and splashback is a very real possibility, but it is possible. Be sure to clean up after yourself if you choose this option!

To empty the tank you’ll need:

  • Gloves
  • Water (DO NOT CONTAMINATE POTABLE WATER SOURCES FOR THIS PURPOSE)
  • Tank Chemicals

Emptying is easy. Just unscrew the cap, and slowly pour into the dump hole. Pushing the vent button on the cassette will keep the liquids flowing smoothly and prevent glugging and splashback.

Once emptied, we recommend rinsing with a non-potable hose until the water runs clear. Usually this takes 2-3 rinses while shaking the water about in the cassette each time. You can also open the top flush door and spray water in from that direction. Additionally, we take both the tank level indicator and the vent assembly out and rinse them every few weeks.

Before replacing the cassette, we add a little bit of water and 4 oz of Thetford Aquamax toilet chemicals. We’ve tried going without the chemicals, both on purpose and on accident. Oops! We are pretty confident in saying that they do work. They help with breaking down solids and toilet paper. This makes emptying the cassette easier. They also help with smell, though not significantly.

Man adding chemicals to a cassette toilet.

Cleaning the Toilet Bowl:

Cleaning the toilet bowl itself is best done just before you empty the cassette. We prefer to use the Thetford foaming toilet bowl cleaner because we know it’s safe for the seals, and it won’t react with the cassette chemicals. It also does a great job of breaking down any buildup at the bottom of the bowl and just needs a quick wipe out when it’s finished!

Cons of the Thetford C223:

While overall we’ve been extremely happy with our Thetford C223, this wouldn’t be an honest review without some downsides:

  • The tank is pretty small–We’ve found we can go about 4-5 days with the two of us. We have purchased a second cassette that is stored in our garage and we can swap it in if we get full without having a place to dump. We’ve only used both tanks a handful of times, but it has been a lifesaver when we have needed it.
  • It will smell when it gets SUPER full. Especially if you have the windows open. But 99% of the time you won’tsmell anything.
  • The tank level indicator doesn’t always work. This is the one thing we’ve found that toilet paper may be affecting. But as you use the toilet, you will start to be able to tell how full the tank is by the sound when you flush. Also, you can always just open the flush door and take a peek if necessary.

Pros of the Thetford C223:

Here are the top four easons we would recommend the Thetford C223 for your van build:

Exterior Cassette Removal

Not having to haul your waste through your living space is the number one reason we would recommend at Thetford C223. The access door is easy to install and operate. We’ve never had issues with the cassette leaking, but knowing that even if it did, it wouldn’t be leaking into our living space gives us peace of mind.

Thetford 223 cassette door looking from outside in.

Functions Similar to a Household Toilet

We love that the Thetford C223 looks and operates similarly to a household toilet. When your van is your full-time home you don’t want to feel like you’re camping every day. Our toilet feels civilized and I will choose it over many public restrooms. We love not having to worry about keep pee and poo separate or having to carry around substrate.

Ease of Emptying the Cassette

Emptying and cleaning the cassette is so easy. We are typically in and out of a dumping station in under 5 minutes. The design allows you to just swish some water around to rinse it out and you’re good to go again! We’ve heard complaints about it being difficult to aim the funnel portion of the cassette into the small dump station drain holes. We have not had issues. It does take a little practice to get confident with it but we’ve never spilled!

Capacity

We love that we were able to expand the capacity of our system with a second cassette. Some folks also use the larger portable waste tanks to extend their cassette. We’ve found that with our travel style, moving every 3-4 days, the nearly 10 gallons of two cassettes is plenty of capacity. We’ve gone as long as two weeks between dumps when using both.

There you have it! Our honest opinions about the Thetford C223 Cassette toilet! We are happy to answer questions if you drop a comment below! And if you’re interested in our full DIY van plumbing set up we recommend our van plumbing post!

Six Things We Regret About Our Second Van Build

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We’ve been living and traveling in our van for six months! We recently posted about the things we love about our DIY van build, and we think it’s just as important to talk about the things we haven’t been as happy with so that you can learn from our mistakes. Overall, we are very happy with our tiny home on wheels but the following are our regrets about our second van build!

In the interest of transparency, please be aware that the following may contain affiliate links and any purchases made through such links may result in a small commission for us at no cost to you.   We appreciate you shopping from these links!

Toilet Door Fail

For the last ten months, we have been doing our “business” on the toilet out in the open because of an issue with our original plan to create some privacy for our toilet space.

We made a measuring error when designing the cabinet that our toilet sits in and we didn’t realize it until we received the cabinet doors and tried to install the door. Turns out, the cabinet is wider than our “hallway” so a door would not have been able to open. Our original privacy plan had included using that door to block the view from our bed to the toilet area.

We are still trying to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve long walks or noise-cancelling headphones!

Outdoor Shower

Our outdoor shower was already a compromise because we had an indoor shower on our wish list for this build and just couldn’t fit it. But the first setup we used for the outdoor shower setup just wasn’t practical.

We initially used two shower curtains and two poles that mounted to the rear doors. This setup had a lot of issues, including not being private because the curtains would blow around in the tiniest bit of wind. Having the rear doors open let in a ton of bugs into the van and also, even with the second curtain, we were still getting some splashes on our bed and on the fabric-covered back door panels. In other words, it was a disaster all around.

After that frustration, we have decided to go with a pop-up shower tent! It has its own downsides, mainly that it has to dry out after use. But, it is overall a much nicer setup especially from a privacy standpoint!

Maxxair Fan

After a ton of research about what the best fan on the market is for a van build, we landed on the Maxxair Maxxfan 7000. When you look at the other options, it really is the best of what’s available. That said, we are still not super happy with this fan.

We have two main complaints:

  1. The first is that it has a terrible high-pitched squeal when run in humid conditions. Like, think the noise that a dentist’s drill makes. After reading online, apparently, this is a common issue and Maxxair has said that their instructions say to run the fan on high for 24 hours to seat the brushes. We did not find that information in our instructions, and now it appears there isn’t a fix once it starts.
  2. Our second complaint is around the remote. This one is a two-part. The battery life is horrendous. We have been in the van for just six months and have already gone through four sets of batteries in this remote. We believe it’s related to the thermostat feature, but we don’t know that for sure. And the second issue is that it doesn’t work from one side of the van to the other. What is the point of a remote that you cannot use from less than 10 feet away.

We won’t be making any changes with this issue because there isn’t a better option on the market at this time. But we reallllllly wish there was! Let us know if you find one!

Too Bright Overhead Lights

This next issue is entirely one of our own making. We installed led puck lights in the ceiling. They are super bright, which is great when you want to cook or work, but not so great when you want to chill out and create a cozy environment.

We stupidly bought dimmable LEDs but never installed a dimmer. It’s a pretty easy fix that we will be tackling soon. But our advice is that, while having the ability to have crispy bright lights is great, you will probably want the option to dim them or have a set of cozier lights like the string lights we installed around our bed!

Countertop Wear and Tear

This is the fourth time we have installed butcher block counters in a project. Twice in our houses and twice in our vans. We have done just oil, we have done just poly, and we have done stain and then poly. This time around, I was very excited when I saw stain and poly combo product. I am a big fan of working smarter not harder so using a 2 in 1 product seemed like a great idea.

I really should have known better. We have been really disappointed in how this combo product has held up. After just six months, you can already see a ton of wear and tear on it. On the counter top, that I had stained and then poly’ed in our house, we had none of these issues, even using the same brand, which leads me to believe it’s the combo product.

We’ve since sanded off the combo product and redone the counter with stain and then polyurethane and it is so much better! Easier to clean and it’s not wearing nearly as quickly.

Flooring Peeling and Scratching

And the item that we have hated the most is…..Our flooring. We thought we bought the same peel-and-stick vinyl flooring that we used in our last van build, the TrafficMaster brand. But we actually used a different brand–Style Selections.

Here in Penny, with the Style Selections, we have had issues with shrinkage which has caused there to be gaps between the pieces. We also have several areas that are pulling up and, for whatever reason, this floor has been scratching a lot.

We switched back to the TrafficMaster peel-and-stick flooring we used in our Chevy, and it is exactly as we remembered it. We have not had any issues, and it’s been extremely durable!

We hope talking about our issues helps someone out there who is starting to plan their build. Overall, we are extremely happy with our setup, and most of these are easily fixable, many of which we’ve already taken care of. Now we just need to figure out how to poo in private!

How Much Did It Cost? Promaster Van Build

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Updated on June 21st, 2025

It can be difficult to document these van builds because you start with very clear delineation between types of projects, but as the build goes on, everything starts to bleed together. Electrical blends with kitchen set up, aesthetics and carpentry are one big pile of paint at some point. Consider this the catch-all post for all the little projects and costs that we haven’t been able to cover in the other posts of our van build series.

In the interest of transparency, please be aware that the following may contain affiliate links and any purchases made through such links may result in a small commission for us at no cost to you.   We appreciate you shopping from these links!

Kitchen Appliances

We’ve put together a comprehensive kitchen set-up post that covers all of our favorite gear. We recommend checking that out if you’re looking for a deeper dive into our kitchen! We are also not including “household contents” in our budget because this will be drastically different from person to person. That leaves us with kitchen appliances, the stovetop, oven, and refrigerator.

We went with the RecPro 4.4 Cubic Feet 12V Refrigerator. This fridge holds so much food! It keeps really consistent with temperatures in both the fridge and freezer areas and we have packed it full.

For our stovetop and oven, we knew we wanted to go with a fully electric kitchen in this build since we had such a huge battery bank to work with. We went back and forth on one burner or two for our induction cooktop, but ultimately ended up with a single burner for space reasons.

Our oven might be one of my favorite parts of our build. It’s so cute and it fits the space so well. We have the Our Place Wonder Oven, and we love how quickly it heats up! It does a great job doubling at an air fryer too!

I’m also adding our backsplash here. We wanted to have a magnetic backsplash to hold our Gneiss Spice spice rack, but we knew we could add other things as well. The piece of stainless steel we ordered was cut to size and works perfectly!

**All prices in this post are based on our costs in 2024:

The “Office”

It was important to us that, in this van build, we both be able to work at the same time. This meant we needed to create two distinct work stations. We achieved this with a combination of one static “desk” that we built out of scrap from our countertop with a bench seat we built from scrap plywood from cabinets. This desk has a mounted monitor that can swivel and doubles as our TV when we want a movie night.

The second station is made up of swiveling our passenger seat and a lagoon table that we had salvaged from our first van build. We decided to swivel both seats, but to be transparent, we only swivel the driver’s seat maybe once a week. We went with the Scopema swivels as they added the least height and modifications necessary.

  • Scopema Swivel Seats–$768
  • Lagoon Table–$0 (Salvaged from Previous Van Build)
  • Bench Seat Lumber–$0 (Left Overs from Cabinets)
  • Monitor Mount–$39.99
  • Desk Surface–$0 (Scrap from Countertop)

Making the Bed

Our bed is built on a platform and is not a “standard” size. To combat any potential moisture issues caused by the platform we used Hypervent. We have used Hypervent on both of our boats and our previous van build, and it does a fantastic job of keeping air flowing under the mattress and keeping things dry.

The other way we prevent moisture issues is by using latex foam mattress toppers as our mattress. We used this exact setup on our boat Ecola, and the bed was so comfortable, so we knew it would work here too! We use a combination of a 1″ firm topper as our bottom layer and 3″ of medium topper as our second layer. We then cut the toppers to the right size. If you have a more standard mattress size, Sleep on Latex has standard mattresses as well.

Window Covers, Bug Nets, and Seat Covers

I said I wasn’t going to include household contents in our budget, but we really do not think that window covers, bug nets and seat covers fall under household contents and could be considered a requirement for a van build.

We have the VanEssentials window covers for the cab, and they are just about the best thing since sliced bread. For the slider window and our bunk window, Andy made us covers from leftover reflectix and fabric.

We are from New England, and we knew that bug-nets would be in place nearly 100% of the time we were in the northeast, and we have dreams of someday taking our van to Alaska. We decided to go with the Living in a Bubble bug nets for the slider and the back door. We’ve really loved them.

Part of the reason we were able to get such a great deal on our van is that it had already lived a good portion of it’s life as a contractor van. The seats were gross, so we invested in some really nice seat covers that we highly recommend if you have a promaster!

Flooring

We have had great luck with peal and stick vinyl in other projects. It is durable and super easy to install! Unfortunately, in this build, we used a different brand than usual and it hasn’t held up well. I won’t link it here, but you should buy your peel and stick from Home Depot, not Lowes.

  • Vinyl Flooring–$77.60

Ceiling

During this build, we were trying to reuse and recycle as much as we could to keep costs low. We found a ton of whitewashed tongue and groove pine in the loft of my dad’s garage and decided that we could cut the tongue and groove off to make our ceiling! The pieces are backed with fabric that we had left over from another project and screwed into furring strips in the ceiling.

We installed puck lights into the ceiling to give us nice downlights for cooking and working.

  • Pine Lumber–$0 (Recycled from Family)
  • Fabric–$0 (Left overs from another project)
  • Puck Lights–$50.66

Other Misc Costs

There are a few other items that didn’t make it into other posts for this build:

  • Slider Window–$493.60
  • Bunk Lights–$45.42
  • Moon Shade Awning–$500.00
  • Random Assortment of Adhesives–$52.20

Let’s Tally It All Up!

The links below will take you to the post that has a full breakdown of each category! A reminder that our goal was to build this full-time van for less than $30,000.

Grand Total: $27,951.15!!

It is worth noting that we had not originally included an air conditioner unit in our initial $30,000 budget, and we planned to eventually put on when we could save up a little more money. But we were so under budget when we finished that we decided to go back and install one right away.

We are incredibly proud of our build and how well-equipped it is for our budget! We were fortunate that we had a lot of materials that we could repurpose during this project, which helped us stay on budget!

Our Gourmet Van Kitchen Set-Up

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Updated on June 21st, 2025

One of the biggest differences between our first and second van builds, besides a toilet, was the van kitchen set-up needed to be ready for full-time living. After two van builds and two boat galley renovations, we’ve learned a lot about small kitchen set-ups, and with this build, we wanted a gourmet kitchen in our tiny home, and we prioritized it in both space and budget allocations!

In the interest of transparency, please be aware that the following may contain affiliate links and any purchases made through such links may result in a small commission for us at no cost to you.   We appreciate you shopping from these links!

Drawers Over Cabinets

The first thing we did in this build to make the kitchen space as functional as possible was to primarily use drawers instead of cabinets. When done well, drawers are a much better use of space than cabinets because they allow you to use more vertical space. They also give you a much better visual of what you have, and make it easier to reach things.

In our van, we have five drawers dedicated to the kitchen and two cabinets. We also built our largest drawers so that they could handle the weight of canned and dry goods. The drawers are so much easier to see and retrieve items than the cabinets, and we’ve actually considered adding a slider to our “breadbox” cabinet because it’s such a pain to reach items in the back.

Refrigerator

One of my biggest complaints about our previous van was how small the fridge was. And one of my biggest complaints about our boat kitchens is having top loaded fridge and freezers. So with this build we chose to allot a decent amount of space to have a front load and larger fridge.

We settled on the RecPro 4.4 Cubic Feet 12V Refrigerator. This fridge holds so much food! It is really consistent with temperatures in both the fridge and freezer areas and we have packed it full. We also have had no issues with ice buildup, but I will say that we’ve spent most of our time in drier climates.

We’ve also found that it is pretty efficient. Drawing closer to 5A when the compressor is running vs the 13A listed in the specs as rated current.

Our one complaint about the RecPro 4.4 Cubic Feet refrigerator is that it didn’t come with mounting hardware. Andy was able to 3D print some brackets that hold the feet in place and keep it from sliding. We’ve made the print file for those brackets available in our store.

If you are considering purchasing the RecPro refrigerator, you can use our discount code ABRTRVL to get 5% off your purchase.

Induction Cooktop

When designing this van kitchen we knew that we wanted to go fully electric with our appliances. This meant finding an induction cooktop that would work with our planned 2000W inverter. We originally thought we would want a double burner cooktop, but after measuring, we found that a single burner was going to fit our planned space best.

We went with the Nuwave 8″ Heating Coil Induction Cooktop, and we love it. The precision temperatures are great, and it cools down fast so we are able to store it soon after we finish cooking. It fits in our top drawer, so it is stowed when not in use, and that gives us more counter space when we are prepping to cook.

Oven

We were on a mission to find the smallest, functional toaster oven possible for this build. We were originally set on being able to fit a 9″x13″ pan, but as soon as I saw the Our Place Wonder Oven I was in love. It is just so cute!

It is definitely on the small side and can only fit a 8″x8″ pan. But it makes up for its size with its power usage. Because the interior is so small, it doesn’t take very long to pre-heat (less than 2 minutes for 350), and it doesn’t have to run at full power to maintain those temperatures.

Our biggest complaint is with the bakeware that comes with the oven. The finish has worn pretty quickly, but we’ve been able to keep using them by using aluminum foil or parchment paper. Our Place also sells replacement bakeware, and they have a Baker’s Kit that has a muffin pan that fits in this little oven!

Screenshot

Small Appliances

With space at a premium, any additional small appliances must be multifunctional. Over the years we’ve really narrowed down what we use for small appliances and for the van we’ve narrowed it down even further. We use the following small appliances in the van:

  • Breville Immersion Blender–This is the workhorse of our small kitchens. It functions as a blender and a food processor. It also has a hand mixer attachment that doesn’t get used very often but will work in a pinch for things like whipped cream. It doesn’t take up very much space, especially for how useful it is!
  • Instant Pot Duo 7-1–This electric pressure cooker does it all! Pressure cooking, slow cooking and rice making are the primary ways we use it! One of our favorite things about using the Instant Pot is that we can release the heat outside of the van. So we can still cook a big meal, but not release a bunch of hot, moist air into our living space. The instant pot uses a lot of power on start up with pressure cooking but very little once it pressurizes.
  • Blackstone 17inch Griddle–For outdoor cooking our blackstone is our number 1! It’s great for the usual grilling like burgers and hotdogs, but there is so much more you can do with it! Some of our favorites are fried rice, stir-fry, pancakes, and Philly-cheesesteaks!

And that’s it! We’ve found that just those to additional appliances give us a ton of flexibility with recipes that are available to us!

Cookware and Tools

Just like with everything else in the van, when it comes to kitchen cookware and tools, space savings is the name of the game. Our favorite van kitchen cookware and tools:

  • Sensarte 17 Piece Ceramic Pots and Pans–These pans are so great. They are incredibly easy to clean, the neatly stack in one another, and come with pads to set between each pan. My favorite part is how little space the lids take up. They also come with left over lids so you can just pop the whole pot in the fridge instead of dirtying a separate pan. And because of this these pots do double time as mixing bowls for us.
  • Stacking Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons–These sets have tiny little handles that really cut down on how much space they take up. And unlike the collapsible measuring cups they are durable.
  • Magnetic Utensil Holder–This utensil holder stays put on the counter with a strong magnet, and keeps all those cooking utensils out of the drawers!
  • Silicone Cooking Utensils–Silicone utensils don’t rattle when you are on the road and they don’t scratch non-stick surfaces! That’s a win-win in our book!
  • Gneiss Spice Magnetic Spice Rack–This spice rack is one of my favorite kitchen items ever! The jars are magnetic and fit together perfectly with their hexagon design. The jars keep spices super fresh and are just plain old cute!

Dinnerware

The main features we were looking for with our van dinnerware was easy to clean and easy to stack. We were also trying to avoid melamine. And lastly we didn’t want anything that would rattle when we were on the road. I found this Grow Forward dinnerware set that checked all of our boxes! The colors are cute, they are easy to wash, and they stack really small! After a year of everyday use they are starting to show some scratches from knives but are still in great shape!

There isn’t much we would change about out van kitchen, and it has been a pleasure to cook in it over the last year! Like most things with our van we are really happy with how it turned out!

Van Plumbing: This Time With a Toilet!

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Updated on January 15th, 2026

In our first van build, we had a very simple van plumbing set up. It consisted of 5 gallons of water, and a tiny water pump, and that was about it! When we started designing for this second build, we knew we would be spending a lot more time in the van and would need a lot more than just a running water sink! And most especially we were going to need a toilet this time!

In the interest of transparency, please be aware that the following may contain affiliate links and any purchases made through such links may result in a small commission for us at no cost to you. We appreciate you shopping from these links!

Fresh Water

Let’s start with the fresh water side of the plumbing system. We have a 28 gallon fresh water tank from Northwest Conversions. This tank is filled from the outside using a gravity fill. We have chosen a locking water fill so that there is no way anyone can mess with it. Not that we would expect that but just in case.

Fresh water van plumbing set up, including water tank, water filter, outdoor shower mixer and water pump.

The tank draw is located at the bottom of the tank and runs to a 3 gallon per minute 12v pump. From the pump the water then runs to a household carbon filter. From the filter the system starts to split. The first split sends one pipe to the bathroom area and the other towards the kitchen.

Cold water is then sent to the bathroom bidet, the kitchen faucet, the rear outdoor shower, and to the water heater using pex tubing. Yes, you read that right, our hand held bidet is cold water only, but we primarily use it as to flush the toilet so it’s not as big a deal as you might think. It allows us to use less toilet paper and less water to “flush” than the built in flush option on our cassette toilet.

water pump and water filter in a van plumbing setup

After we spent the first year living on our Alberg 30 without hot water, I said I would never go without it again! We have a 2.5-gallon electric water heater. It runs off the AC side of the electrical system and it draws 1440W so we do need to be a little careful about what else is running on the inverter at the same time, but it is significantly less complicated than some of the other choices for hot water. Two and a half gallons may not seem like much, but we are used to taking “Navy” showers so for both of us to shower only uses about 1.5 gallons of water total.

The output from the water heater goes to both the sink and the shower.

To turn on our shower you turn on the shut off valves, and then set the mixer temp, and set the pressure. Then the water can be turned on and off on the shower head itself. We typically feed the shower head into our little pop-up shower tent so having that control on the shower head is really handy!

Man wearing glasses, poking his head out of a pop-up shower tent in a field.

Our sink faucet is the same faucet we’ve used in both of our boats. It is a pretty low flow faucet, which you want when you are trying to conserve water. BUT my favorite feature is the button on the faucet head that allows you to “hold” the water. It really cuts down on water usage which is important when you only have 28 gallons!

Our faucet flows into a huge sink! I wanted to have the biggest and deepest sink we could fit. This sink is 22″ x 18″ x 9″. My only complaint about it is that the bottom is just a little too flat so we do end up with standing water sometimes. I love the filter cup and the grate at the bottom! The size makes doing dishes super easy, and the sink can double as a basket for items on the counter in a pinch.

Gray Water

The sink drains into a 5 gallon sceptor water tank that we use as a gray water tank. We carry an extra of these tanks so our total gray water capacity is 10 gallons. We have an RV adaptor on the sink drain and then Andy designed an adaptor for the tank so that the tank is fully sealed and the hose has no way of coming off when we are on the road. It also allows us to easily disconnect the grey water tank to dump it! This adaptor is now available in our store!

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Black Water

For the dreaded black water, we decided to go with a Thetford cassette toilet. The version we have allows for the cassette to be removed from the outside of the van, so it isn’t necessary to drag it through our living area. This Thetford toilet also has a built in flushing system that can be hard plumbed but over the years on the boat we’ve found that a handheld bidet does a much better job in these low-water situations.

The toilet empties into a 5 gallon cassette that can be emptied at any dumping station, or in a pinch a household toilet. We have a back-up cassette that give us a total of 10 gallons of black water capacity. We’ve found that we do not smell the cassette at all until it is very full and yes, we do use it for #2.

We will do a full breakdown and review of this toilet in a future post, as we’ve found it to be incredibly easy to use, dump, and clean! We think it’s a great option for campervan toilets!

Cost Breakdown

Note: All Costs are as of April/May 2024

Previous Costs: $23,587.36

New Costs: $1,122.04

Total Cost: $24,709.40

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DIY Roof Rack for Promaster Campervan

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Updated on January 21st, 2026

Roof racks for campervans can be super pricey! Since we are building on a budget, we knew we needed to create a DIY roof rack that was both effective and inexpensive. We managed just that with the roof of our Promaster 157 DIY roof rack.

Maxxair Fan

In a previous post, we talked about how we installed our Maxxair Fan. It’s worth mentioning here that we installed that fan as far to the rear of the van as we could to give us plenty of space for solar panels. Installing it as far back as possible also gave us some flexibility when we had to make some roof layout changes late in the build.

Solar Layout

We knew we wanted to fit as much solar as possible on this build since we have 900 amp hrs of lithium batteries that will need to stay topped up and a fully electric kitchen. We have had awesome luck with Rich Solar Panels on both of our boats, so we started looking at what Rich Solar formats would fit best. We landed on their 250-watt panels, which fit perfectly width-wise. We knew we could fit 3 panels with all the space we had. This would give us 750 watts of solar, with the potential to squeeze in a smaller panel when we were done.

Man installing solar panels on a DIY roof rack on a white van.

DIY Roof Rack

The next step was figuring out how to mount the panels to the roof without spending an insane amount of money for a roof rack.

The promasters have t-studs on the roof for roof racks from the factory. When Andy started looking at the options on the market for mounts to use the studs, he was really not happy with what was available. Most of the options put pressure down on the sheet metal roof and up on the t-stud. This can cause problems if they are overtightened, and can trap moisture and dirt under them.

Andy ended up designing a brand new mount that we are calling the Penny Promounts. The Penny Promounts sandwich the t-stud between layers of stainless steel and don’t trap dirt or moisture. They make it easy to attach two unistrut rails where we could attach solar panels. The total cost was just over $200.

We wanted to provide the DIY campervan community with a more effective and less expensive alternative to what was on the market. We’ve spent the last year testing and perfecting our roof mounts and we’ve now made our Penny Promounts available for purchase in our store!

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Solar Panel Brackets

Now that we had somewhere to attach the solar panels to, we had to tackle the how! Andy also designed up solar panel brackets that made it super easy to attach our metal framed solar panels to the unistrut using unistrut nuts.

We’ve also made these solar brackets available for purchase in our store. They make installing metal-framed solar panels so much easier!

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Air Conditioning

We thought we would eventually put in an air conditioner unit, however we didn’t think it was in the budget right away. After our first shakedown trip, I quickly realized that I was having a ton of anxiety around leaving Aiden in the van. Even in just 65 or 70 degrees. We also came in around $5000 under budget initially, so we decided to take some of that money and install an air conditioner.

We picked the Dometic RTX 2000 because it was the only model with good reviews that would fit without us losing any solar. It wasn’t pretty, and the interior of the van looked like a scene from dexter for two days. We had to shift the solar panels around to make space. There were also some real Gwen and Andy shenanigans involved in getting the 70 pound unit on the roof without breaking any solar panels or ourselves.

A man and a woman using a tractor to lift an air conditioner next to a white van.

Installing the AC was one of the best decisions we made in this build. I can’t imagine not having it. We can leave Aiden without worrying and it’s really great for days you’re stuck in the van working when it’s hot.

Starlink Mount

The last item on our roof is starlink. Starlink is a necessary evil in our life. It’s the only form of reliable internet we’ve found for Andy to continue with his job on the move. We knew we wanted to have it mounted to the roof so he could work while I drove, but we also wanted to be able to move it off the roof if we had obstructions like trees.

We have modified our Gen 2 dishy to sit in a wedge mount that was designed by Jason over at Everlanders. That mount has magnets on the bottom, and then additionally is clipped to the unistrut rail. The extra wire is curled under the wedge mount so we can just pop the dishy off the roof, unravel the wire and set the dishy in a more open area. It has worked great for us! We rarely have to remove it from the roof but in places like Shenandoah, or here in New England it’s been incredibly useful to be able to move it around.

Man on a ladder showing a magnetic starlink roof mount.

Ladder Access

The very last roof-related item, is our collapsible ladder. We decided against a mounted ladder. Primarily because of expense, and this collapsible ladder has turned into one of our favorite pieces of gear we carry with us! It is super light, easy to stow, and gets pretty tall! It costs a fraction of what a mounted ladder would have cost and still gives us all the access we need to be able to inspect, clean, and shovel the roof!

Man on a collapsible ladder next to a white campervan.

Cost Breakdown

Note: All Costs are as of April/May 2024

Previous Costs: $20,647.45

New Costs: $2939.91

Total Cost: $23,587.36

Check out our other Van Build Posts here!