This might help
Dometic Group SaniPotties

DW's first trip was with a friend who had one and she liked the idea of not having to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  I said if it will make her happier, I'll get it.  We have taken it with us to sporting events and concerts.  When DS starts to be potty trained, you can bet that will be a permanent fixture in the back of the minivan. 

I knew when I bought it that I was going to be the one emptying it.  It isn't difficult.  Just detach the top, unscrew the cap and press the vent valve and pour into either your toilet at home or the dump station at the campground.  Technically you can dump it down the toilet at the campground but people don't like that so better to take your "stuff" home with you or the dump station.

I bought a bottle of "blue stuff" when I first got it and it lasted me.....2 seasons.  You fill the top portion of the potty with water so you can flush and then you pour the "blue stuff" in the tank with some water.  I never measured it, just poured a little bit.  I never had a problem with it smelling.  I bought some self contained packs last time.  The blue stuff really stains and the bottle I had was leaky so I kept it in a ziplock.  We'll see how I like these packs.

There is a special RV TP that is supposed to biodegrade super fast, but if you don't have it, cheap single ply works as well.  I have no problems dropping the deuce in it.  The blue stuff helps break it down.  I have found that if you let everything "brew" for a week after you come home, it is mostly broken down and is just a matter of pouring it out and then hosing it out. 

You do not want to store the potty where it has the potential to freeze.  The flush mechanism has little plastic pipes and pumps that you will probably never get all the water out of.  It will freeze and break.  You don't want to find out you can't flush when you really need to flush  🙁  I usually store it in the camper in season and then in the basement in the winter. 

As for the walk at French Creek.....you are not far.  Probably a 30 second walk from your site.  It would probably take you 2-3 minutes to walk the whole loop.

I never thought about the RV antifreeze in the potty.  I have plenty of room so I just bring it in when I bring the powerwasher in.

Cindy,

Even if we're camped close to the shower house, we always had the porta potty with us. I don't mind a middle of the night walk, but DW isn't as fond of that. And, if it's raining or cold, it sure beats having to pull on a raincoat or warm clothes!

When we had the Flagstaff we'd always set up the potty at night and put it away in the morning. Now that we have the Niagara we don't have to be as concerned with distance to the potties, but it also means waiting in line at the dump station.  🙁

John

I read something not too long ago about the different additivies and here's what I got out of it:

They almost always fall into three categories which I'll denote as blue, green and orange, even though they can come in other colors.

The "blue" uses chemicals, including formaldehyde, to kill bacteria and deodorants to kill the smell.  It usually works pretty well, but it's not particularly good for the environment.  The biggest problem here is that when you dump your porta-potty or RV black tank, it quite often goes into a septic tank.  These chemicals go on to kill the bacteria in the septic tank, which isn't a good thing.

The "green" (example: ) is just a more environmentally friendly version of the blue.  From my experience and reports from others, it doesn't work as well.  The septic tank problems are slightly reduced, but still present.

The "orange"/enzyme (example: ) uses or encourages bacteria to actually break down and consume the waste, is probably the most environmentally friendly, and I seem to recall reading it actually helps septic tanks.  The only drawback that I've seen is that it doesn't seem to take care of odor immediately when you first drop it in the tank like the other two.  It seems to take a little time to start working if you're just adding it to a black tank/porta-potty that hasn't been used in a while.  You also can't switch back and forth because the small amounts of chemical additives left over from the blue/green will stop the "orange" from working.

We switched to an enzyme additive last summer when the Thetford EcoSmart Green drop-ins we were using didn't seem to be cutting it.  Ever since then, we haven't had any problem with odor and it might actually be slowly cleaning our black tank level sensors off because they're starting to work again without any other action on my part.  I'm not sure which one at the moment, so I'll need to check in the camper if you're interested.

The additives can come in a lot of forms, including large bottles, single-use bottles, and pouches.  So don't think the only form is the 36oz bottles I linked to above.

Cindy,

You don't want to use the single serving size with a porta-potty. Those individual packets/bottles are sized for a full size RV's holding tank, which can be as large as 40 gallons. Your porta-potty is, at most, a couple of gallons.

We used to use the blue stuff but switched last year to the orange, since it's supposed to better for the environment. We buy the smallest bottle we can, which is probably in the 16-24 oz. range, and try to reduce amount to fit the size of our tank. When we used the porta-potty we just splashed a little into the bottom holding tank. I think the recommended amount (again, for 40 gal.) was 2 oz. With the full bathroom in the Niagara we use more, but still far less than the recommended dose since we have just a 9 gal. black tank.

When we switched to the orange stuff we bought a bottle of Camco TST Orange Power. Most Wal-Mart stores stock it.

John

First response for me. Stand Back. The best for smell is the cheap Camp-a-chem at walmart. Best toilet is Coleman potable flush toilet large version, fresh water flush ok somtimes sucks air, regular seat height a big plus. We empty every day and TP goes in trash bag.