NOTHING TO DO with the town in Norfolk (the Thetford in this case is actually in Michigan in the USA), American-owned Thetford is now a major provider of toilets, fridges and cookers for caravans and motorhomes, and is headquartered in Europe in the Netherlands.

For 2021 its focus is on its new Indus toilet system.

This works by using grey water to flush the toilet, and then uses three different additives which are added automatically to break down the macerated waste. This can then be disposed of at any grey water disposal point provided it is connected to a mains sewer, which Thetford says most are.

A specially created app lets you know when the toilet needs emptying, and can direct you to any one of 25,000 disposal points it has listed across Europe. You don’t even have to unload the waste tank manually yourself: that can be done automatically at the push of a button through a 2m hose connected to a dosing module that looks a bit like a plunger.

Thetford says it has designed the new system, which was five years in the making, to save water and to eliminate guesswork which it says has caused motorcaravanners in the past to empty their toilets far more frequently than they need to.

For the 2021 season the system, which cannot currently be retrofitted, is only available in new Bürstner Elegance models, although it is hoped it will be included in a wider selection of motorhomes in years to come. For the moment it is not available for caravans.

This season the company has also launched a new range of 12V fridges, including two models that are specifically designed for campervans.

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