If you’re just getting in to organizing overnight river trips, you’re likely wondering which river toilet (groover) is best. The answer will depend on how much you’re likely to use it, how many people you need to support, and your budget. We have experience with several of the most commonly used types of groovers, from the humble ammo can groover setup to deluxe editions costing several C-notes, which I’ll review below.
Table of Contents
Recommended river toilet systems
Let’s discuss the pros and cons of the most popular and time-tested river toilet systems, plus a couple of additional solutions for specific situations:
- Eco-Safe Toilet System
- Coyote Toilet
- River Bank Toilet by Selway Fabrication
- SDG River Gear toilet
- Jon-ny Partner by Partner Steel
- Cleanwaste GO Anywhere Toilet Kit Waste Bags
- GoPee funnel
All the groovers reviewed here meet BLM, NPS, and USFS requirements for a washable, reusable toilet system—except for the Cleanwaste GO Anywhere kits and the GoPee, which are meant for specific situations but not as the main toilet system for a multi-day river trip. All can be cleaned in a SCAT machine, or at an RV dump. For more information about river toilet systems that are approved by the BLM, check out the BLM’s Rogue River “Scoop on Poop” document, which has a helpful list of groovers that are compatible with SCAT machines and other helpful information such as determining the groover capacity you need based on your party’s size and river days.
Eco-Safe Toilet
The Eco-Safe toilet is one of the most commonly encountered river toilets. A lot of people like it because it fits into a pair of rocket boxes, making it easy to pack into your raft, and because it comes with a comfortable seat. It is also fairly inexpensive. It is easy to expand capacity by buying additional tanks, and you only need one seat setup.
However, there are a few drawbacks. The seat must be stored separately from the tank while it is disassembled, and the design of the seat piece includes a flat surface under the seat, which is difficult to clean when disassembling the toilet each morning. The many corners also make it difficult to get completely clean when emptying at an RV dump. This is the only toilet I’ve ever seen fall over—the base is fairly narrow because it fits in a rocket box.
Finally, the RV dump accordion hose attaches to the tank for cleanout using a hose clamp. The only groover cleanout disaster I’ve ever personally witnessed involved a clog in the RV dump hose causing the hose clamp to pull off the cleanout valve, dumping the contents of the tank. For that reason, I prefer a more secure connection between the cleanout valve and the dump hose.
- Eco-Safe Toilet System by Pacific River Supply
- Capacity: 50 uses
- Price (at time of publishing): $197, before buying the ammo cans (rocket boxes)
- Pros: Inexpensive, easy packing, can expand capacity by buying extra tanks
- Cons: Difficult to clean, narrow base of support
Coyote Toilet
The Coyote toilet is a pared-down, single-wall design that takes up less space than other toilets reviewed here. This was my original river toilet, but I never loved figuring out how to rig the separate seat piece. It now comes with a special strap for keeping the seat and the tank together. I also felt that it was difficult to get a stink-proof seal on the top lid and hose fitting. When rowing with the groover in the gear boat, I could often smell it. I see that the new version has a redesigned gasket that might solve the stink problem.
- Coyote Portable Camp Toilet System by 4Corners Riversports
- Capacity: 60 uses
- Price (at time of publishing): $219.95
- Pros: Inexpensive, compact
- Cons: Separate seat piece, many corners to scrub out
River Bank Toilet by Selway Fabrication
Selway Fabrication’s River Bank toilet is my current river toilet. It is a double-wall design, with an inner tank that sits in an outer box with a lid and seat assembly. It is appealing because it packs into a single, easy-to-rig package, covered with a toilet seat lid. I also appreciate the secure hook and bar locking system that attaches the cleanout hose to the tank. If extra capacity is needed, it’s possible to buy additional tanks—you only need one outer box and lid/seat assembly.
While I really like this toilet, it does have drawbacks: the tank has corners that require scrubbing, and it can be difficult to turn the washers used to secure the top lid.
- River Bank II Full Toilet System by Selway Fabrication
- Capacity: 60 uses
- Price (at time of publishing): $484.95
- Pros: Double-wall design, secure cleanout hose, no extra parts to clean and rig
- Cons: Top lid difficult to get sealed, corners to scrub
SDG River Gear Toilet
We don’t have direct experience with this toilet, made by a manufacturer based in Grants Pass, OR, but it has some compelling features. It has the same dimensions as a rocket box but is made of aluminum and allows for “direct deposits,” as the web site describes it. The seat lid is designed to eliminate insect intrusions. It is SCAT-machine compatible and even includes bungee cords for strapping the toilet into the SCAT system. It also includes a canister for toilet paper, attachments and hoses for cleanout at an RV dump station, and a separate pee bucket with a lid.
- SDG Gear Toilet
- Capacity: 50 uses (same size as a 20mm rocket box)
- Price: $945
- Pros: Aluminum construction, convenient size, SCAT-machine compatible, and additional features such as a pee bucket
- Cons: One of the more expensive options
Jon-ny Partner
The Jon-ny Partner is the Cadillac of river toilets, but the price is steep. The all-aluminum construction means it doesn’t pick up stink over time, unlike the plastic tanks. The top lid seals using a collar clamp that feels very secure. It comes with a special attachment for cleaning, which means that while you’re on the river there is only one seal to worry about, rather than several. The unique shape of the cleaning attachments directs high-pressure water from the hose into every corner, making cleaning it out a nearly scrub-free experience. The only drawback is the separate seat piece, which must be cleaned and secured in your load each morning.
- Jon-ny Partner Toilet System by Partner Steel Co.
- Capacity: 50 – 60 uses
- Price: $1,050
- Pros: Stink-free metal tank, innovative design, easy to clean
- Cons: Separate seat piece, expensive, bulky, and heavy (definitely not an option for a minimalist trip in kayaks and canoes)
Cleanwaste GO Anywhere Toilet Kit Waste Bags
Daytime emergencies happen on river trips, and if nature calls when you’re not in camp, you need a disposable waste bag. Cleanwaste GO Anywhere Toilet Kit Waste Bags are designed for use with the Cleanwaste Portable Toilet System (which isn’t suitable as a main river groover but is used for boating and camping). These waste bags are especially useful for river trips with small children. Using a disposable waste bag is an excellent alternative when digging a cat hole is hard or impossible. The bag contains a powder that turns waste into gel and removes odors. The double-bag construction is puncture-resistant, and you can toss used bags into the trash. Consider tucking a few of these into your dry box or in dry bags on the kayaks.
- Cleanwaste GO Anywhere Toilet Kit Waste Bags
- Capacity: For use on river trips when you’re not in camp, consider each bag as a single-use solution
- Price: $2.95 for single bag
- Pros: No setup needed, great for emergencies when you’re not in camp
- Cons: Small capacity, only suitable for occasional use on a multi-day river trip
GoPee
Women who have always wanted to be able to pee off the boat have it made with the GoPee, a funnel device that allows them to pee without dropping their pants. It’s also useful for river trips when you need to pee below the high-water line to avoid ecological damage, but the camp beach is completely exposed and you want to maintain some decorum. The GoPee makes peeing at the bank much more discreet—and safer than squatting at night in the dark. Also great for use when you’re bundled up in a dry suit.
- GoPee
- Capacity: Unlimited
- Price: $14.95
- Pros: Funnel allows pee to be easily directed
- Cons: Another piece of gear to manage
No matter which river groover you choose, make sure to get familiar with how it works and how to clean it before taking it on your first trip. Most issues can be prevented by using the right products and taking a few minutes before packing up each morning to ensure your groover doesn’t let you down.
Next, let’s talk about how to set up and use your chosen groover.
Setting up your groover (essential tips for river toilet management)
If there’s one topic that generates an outsized amount of discussion and opinions among multi-day river trippers, it’s how to set up and manage your river groover. After many years of overnight trips, we have come up with a system that makes the groover as pleasant as possible. (Check out our multi-day river planning guide here.)
For many permitted rivers, the groover is required in order to minimize impacts on heavily used campsites. Even for non-permitted rivers, if possible, you should plan to bring a groover rather than burying waste: there are simply too many people in our river corridors to make burying waste a reasonable option.
River groover gear list
The most important thing you can do to set yourself up for success is to have the right gear so you aren’t trying to cobble together solutions on the river. Here’s the list of essential river toilet gear:
- River toilet (groover)
- Waste breakdown enzymes, which come in powder or liquid form (you can find these at river outfitter stores or at any RV supply store)
- Deodorizer to spray in the groover tank
- Solar lights (string lights like these work great) to mark the path to the groover for nighttime visitors
- RV toilet paper: do NOT use regular TP in the groover as it doesn’t break down easily
- Handwashing system (this Down River hand wash station is a classic)
- Disinfectant wipes (look for ones that are skin-friendly like these Sea to Summit wipes)
- Hand sanitizer
- Shelter for privacy, either some sort of beach cabana that you already have on hand or a purpose-built privacy shelter
- Trash bags
- Single-use waste bags (for day use and emergencies)
Choosing your groover site
Choosing a spot for the groover is one of the first things we do when pulling into camp. Making sure the groover spot is staked out early is important for people choosing tent sites. The best groover spot is a quick walk away from camp, sheltered from camp by vegetation, with an excellent view.
In addition, we like to get it set up quickly to help folks who might be waiting for it. On some rivers, such as the Rogue River in Oregon, the Bureau of Land Management specifies that groovers should be set up within 30 minutes of the party landing at camp.
Setting up a shelter for your groover
Bring a shelter for the groover in case you end up in a camp where there’s no place to put it that’s out of sight of the camp. A pop-up sun shelter like one you’d use on a beach works well. If you want to go top-end, you can get a shelter that is specifically made for sheltering your groover or for creating a private space for a solar shower, such as this Caddis privacy shelter. (For a discussion of best solar showers for river trips, check out Best Sun Showers for River Trips.)
Setting up the groover
Here are the basic steps for setting up your river groover. Bring a friend for this task, as you’ll need help carrying all the gear, and it makes the time pass more quickly.
- Put on disposable gloves. You’ll go through many of these during a weeklong river trip, so bring a box of 50 or so vinyl or latex household gloves (available at most grocery stores, drugstores, and big-box stores).
- Set up the handwashing system. Although we’ve seen many ingenious homemade setups, sometimes it’s easier just to buy a system that’s specifically made by river people for river people, like this Down River hand-wash setup.
- Place the groover in the shelter.
- Remove the tank lid, wipe off the inside of the lid with a disinfecting wipe, and set the lid someplace inconspicuous.
- Place the toilet seat on the groover. (Check to make sure the toilet seat was cleaned by the previous take-down crew.)
- Add some enzymes and deodorizer to the tank.
- Close the toilet lid.
- Set the essential gear within arm’s reach of the groover: toilet paper, disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer, and small trash bag.
- Throw disposable bags in the trash bags.
- Wash your hands.
Lighting the path to the groover
Remember that sometimes you’ll need to navigate the trail in the dark, so make sure the trail is easy to see. I like to light it up with a few spare solar lights (like these Goal Zero Crush Light Lanterns, which pack down compactly) or string lights. Stumbling down a long trail in the dark is a good way to get injured, so err on the side of putting the groover slightly too close to camp rather than too far away.
Deliver the river groover orientation talk
We generally do a groover talk the first night of camp, especially if we are taking people who are new to rafting. I do a handwashing discussion and demo, so people know how to avoid sickness—you really do not want norovirus spreading in camp. I also show everyone how the “occupied” signal works—I usually use a paddle placed over the path, although other groups I’ve boated with keep the bag of TP in camp and use the presence or absence of the bag as the signal. I also remind people not to pee in the groover and to keep the lid closed. Peeing in the groover is not a disaster, but on most large Western rivers people should pee in the river to save space in the groover.
Assemble waste kits for day use
In addition to the groover that you set up in camp, each raft should have single-use waste kits stowed in the dry box or captain’s bag for emergencies. Especially if you have kids on the trip, these kits can avert discomfort or disaster when you’re still miles away from camp and nature calls. The Cleanwaste GO Anywhere Toilet Kit includes an agent that gels and deodorizes the waste, a puncture-resistant storage bag, toilet paper, and a hand-sanitizing wipe in one neat package.
Taking down the river groover
When it’s time to break camp in the morning, you might as well resign yourself to being the last boat to get rigged if you are carrying the groover. Make sure everyone has a chance to use it—we do last calls in camp and down by the boats. Then, grab a friend to help you carry it. You will want to have familiarized yourself with how the specific system works, so you can break it down quickly.
Here are the basic steps for taking down the groover system:
- Put on disposable gloves.
- Remove the toilet seat and set it aside.
- Add liquid or powered enzymes for breaking down the waste to the groover tank.
- Using disinfecting wipes, remove any waste matter that’s spilled on the outside of the groover, then seal the lid of the groover.
- Wipe the toilet lid thoroughly with disinfecting wipes.
- Set the groover and seat outside the shelter.
- Thrown your disinfecting wipes in the trash bag.
- Wash your hands in the handwashing system and disassemble it.
- Disassemble the shelter.
- Divvy up the gear between you and your groover friend and haul the gear down to the boat.
I usually try to put the groover at the bottom of the load, to keep it cool and minimize odors. Sometimes, though, the only place it can ride is right on top.
Cleaning out the groover
By far the worst part of the groover job is the cleanout at the end of the river trip. The only groover-related disasters I’ve had happened during cleanout.
There are two choices for groover cleanout. The first, and much preferable choice if it is available, is to use a SCAT machine. These machines are located at the takeouts of some popular multi-day trips, mostly in Idaho and Montana. You strap your groover and its pieces in, pay a few bucks, and the machine cleans the groover. If you’re going on a trip that has a SCAT machine, make sure your model of toilet is compatible with the machine and that you have a good supply of quarters or dollar bills. You will probably have to run it a couple of times to get all the way clean. As with any groover-related task, don your disposable gloves before starting the process.
If your trip doesn’t have a SCAT machine, you will have to dump your groover at an RV dump. Your system should have come with attachments for a regular garden hose and an RV dump hose. Make sure you understand how to attach them before you go on your trip, so you’re not trying to figure it out at the RV dump.
Then attach the dump hose, snake the hose into the drain, dump everything out (have one person hold the dump hose into the cleanout, and another person hold the groover up and at an angle to take advantage of gravity). Use the garden hose to make sure everything is rinsed. In my Selway Fabrications groover, I use a last rinse of bleach to make sure everything is sanitized, but beware that if you have an aluminum groover (like the Jon-ny Partner), bleach will discolor the finish.
While being the designated groover person guarantees you’ll be the last person out of camp, and ensures a gross chore at the end, it also means you’ll get invited on a lot of trips.
River groover frequently asked questions
A “groover” is the common term river runners use for a toilet system used to pack out human waste from river trips, a requirement of governing agencies of rivers in wilderness areas and a non-negotiable action for anyone interested in keeping river waterways clean and uncontaminated. For more information about the history of the term “groover,” check out the River Radius podcast episode History of the Groover.
The least expensive system that is acceptable by most river management agencies is a 20mm military ammunition can (or “rocket box”) fitted with a toilet seat. You can buy an ammo on Amazon for about $70, but you can also likely pick one up at a local army surplus store for much less. In addition to the ammo box, you’ll need a toilet seat: An Eco-Safe seat is available for about $70, which would bring the total cost of your system to about $140 (or likely less if you can find a cheap ammo can). The middle-of-the-range price for a river toilet system is about $500 for the highly rated RiverBank system by Selway Fabrications. If you’re looking for a groover that will last a lifetime and is stink-free, go for the Jon-ny Partner, which lists for $1,050 on the Partner Steel site. Side note: Some agencies allow plastic buckets with gamma-seal lids (screw-top lids), but this is not a long-term solution and one that will likely fail sooner than later. Invest in a better system to avoid disasters.
SCAT machines, which are available primarily in the West (Idaho, Montana, Oregon), are a wonderful invention supplied by river management agencies to make river toilet cleanout easier at the end of a river trip. According to the BLM’s Rogue River “Scoop on Poop” handout, toilet systems that are compatible with SCAT machines include 20mm ammo cans, 5-gallon plastic buckets, Jon-ny Partner by Partner Steel, River Bank toilet by Selway Fabrications, the Eco-Safe toilet system. The SDG River Gear toilet is also SCAT-machine compatible and includes bungee cords for strapping it into the SCAT machine.
Every river management entity requires private (and commerical) boaters to pack out human waste and most will inspect your system to ensure that the contents won’t end up in the river in the case of a flip. But even on non-permitted rivers, you should pack out your own waste.
Situating the groover away from camp in a secluded nook is a good option for limiting exposure for the groover user. But you can also bring a pop-up shelter to shield the groover from campers and boats floating past on the river. We’ve typically used a beach sun shelter, but tall privacy shelters are available (these are also used for sun shower shelters). A couple of groover shelter options to check are the Caddis privacy shelter or a simple beach shelter such as this Gorich shelter (much less expensive).
Waste from the river toilet needs to be disposed of properly either at an RV dump station or in a SCAT machine (available at some river take-outs in the West). Most groovers will include hoses that attach near the base for easy dumping at an RV station: You simply attach the waste hose to the groover and turn it upside down to flush out the waste, using a water hose on a second opening near the top of the groover to flush it with water as it empties. SCAT machines have detailed instruction on use, but the general procedures is to remove the lid from the toilet, strap it into the SCAT machine frame (you need to bring your own straps), swing the frame into position, and press start. Most SCAT machines require cash, so be sure to have several dollar bills available when you arrive at the SCAT machine: It might take more than one round to clean the groover, and each round will cost about $2.
Undoubtedly aluminum is the best material for a river toilet as it’s easy to clean and stink-free. However, aluminum groovers such as the Jon-ny Partner are very expensive. Plastic toilet systems work well, too, and you can keep them stink-free by dumping them soon after a river trip ends, using enzymes during the trip to break down the waste, and deodorizing with Pine-Sol or OxiClean detergent after cleanout.
