In this video Kathryn "Kat" Bird of Wandering Bird addresses a common pain point for motorhome and campervan owners – unpleasant toilet odors. After receiving a free sample of Solbio, a plant‑based toilet treatment, from a representative at the NEC Show, Kat tests the product over several months, including a period where the toilet was left unused for about a month. She reports that the product completely eliminated odor, leaving a pleasant eucalyptus‑mint scent. The video includes a brief interview with the Solbio representative explaining that the product contains no harsh chemicals; instead it promotes the growth of non‑smelly bacteria that outcompete odor‑producing microbes, and it is scented with natural essential oils. Kat demonstrates the product’s concentration, dosing method (a 2‑second squirt equals one dose), and the fact that a single 40‑dose bag costs £24.99, making it comparable in price to conventional blue chemicals. She also highlights additional benefits: it can be used in grey‑water, flush‑water, and waste tanks; it is biodegradable, safe for the environment, pets, and children; and it does not require large volumes of water, which aligns with the goal of extending the time between emptying the cassette. The video concludes with Kat’s strong personal endorsement, encouraging viewers to try the product and linking to a purchase site, while also reminding new viewers to subscribe for more motorhome tips.
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I'll be honest, this is going to be a bit of a strange video because I'm about to tell you how good something smells. Hey, I'm Kat, and welcome to Wandering Bird, where we share tips and tricks for motorhomers and campervanners for your touring around the UK and Europe. And today is all about smells. One of the most common questions that I get asked is, how do we stop our toilet smelling. And I know that many people don't like to talk about this. It's not one of these pleasant topics of conversation, certainly not something you're going to discuss around the dinner table. But today we're going to be talking toilets because it's something that if you're in a van or a motorhome that's got a toilet, then it's just an issue that we all have to deal with. Now, when I was up at the NEC Show, I got chatting to the guy from Solbio, and this is a little toilet cleaner. And he gave me a bag because, I'll be honest, he was telling me all the virtues of this product. And I've got a little video of him explaining how it all works. And I was a little bit skeptical. The problem is I'm really skeptical to pretty much any salesman about anything ever. And if anybody ever says, oh, we're going to send you this product and test it, my response to them always, if it's something anything to do with motorhoming or campervanning, is always, sure, you can send it, and I'm certainly going to use it for several months, try it out, and see if it's any good. So we've had this since February. Now, as you may or may not know, we've had some issues in the last month or so, certainly with Mr. WB's illness. And we put this in the van on our trip, which happened, oh gosh, maybe a couple of weeks before he got poorly, and we put it into the toilet and then we went somewhere and we didn't empty the toilet. And again, I apologize for anybody he may or may not be eating of this, but hey, the subject of the, uh, the title should have given this away. But we left it in the toilet and we didn't empty the toilet when we came back from our trip because we were planning on going away within a week or two next, and then obviously he got unwell. So we left a toilet with things in it for near enough a month, and I'll be honest, we were both dreading coming back to the van because we were like, it's going to stink, it's going to be disgusting, the whole van's going to be permeated with this smell. And we opened the door, nothing. Like, nothing. Nothing. We went into the bathroom, you couldn't even smell it. And I know that this is just me on a video telling you that this amazing product that I got given for free is amazing, but I swear it is really amazing. We have never had a toilet product that you can put in— it smells lush, it just, it just smells so good— but you can put it in the cassette, and even whilst you're using the toilet, it still smells really good. It's, it's the most bizarre, amazing thing I think we've ever had. It's probably gonna hit my top 5 awesome products in the motorhome because it genuinely works, and it worked for like a month. So it's really, really easy to use. I will put in a bit of footage here about the gentleman from Solbio Explaining to me how it's used, because he'd get it better.
So this is sorbitol. So this is essentially a replacement for the blue chemical that you put in your toilet.
Yep.
This is very different to the blue, or actually even the green products that you will normally see on the market. There are no chemicals in this at all. This is 100% natural plant-based. And it works in a very different way to the other chemicals. The other chemicals will try and kill all the bacteria that exist in your toilet cassette, whereas this promotes bacterial growth, bacteria that do not smell. They outcompete all of the smelly bacteria, and so therefore it neutralizes the smell.
So basically smother the bad bacteria, is that roughly how to think of it? Exactly right.
What that means though is inside your toilet cassette it is actually being composted and it's being cleaned at the same time. So on top of the product that does the job of the blue chemical, you will get the smells of eucalyptus, mint, thyme. If you want to have a little sniff of it—
Go on, let me have a little sniff of it. Oh, oh, there are things. Oh wow.
So you can have a little I'm intrigued.
I'm smelling toilet product.
This is random.
Oh my goodness, is that genuinely what it smells like?
So because, because there's no harsh chemicals in it, we can make it smell what we want it to smell like, which is a nice pine eucalyptus scent.
So that's what that smells like?
That's what that smells like. This is very concentrated, so your van won't— it won't overwhelm your van. I mean, for an example, I've been pouring this on my hands since Tuesday. It'd be You smell it?
Yes, I smell my hand.
I don't smell anything.
No, you don't.
So it dissipates. It's not going to overwhelm you.
No, no, it's lovely. The smell is amazing.
So it's, it's all very nice that it's an environmental product. Yeah, it's fantastic. Of course, you can empty it wherever you like.
Yes, that's the biggest thing.
No chemicals in it. But some of the practical benefits of this are you can decant it into something So when I go away, I take a 120ml bottle.
Yes.
It's got 3 doses in.
Yeah.
Leave that at home.
So how much is a dose? Like, how long would one of these bags last for, do you think?
It's got 40 doses in it.
Okay.
Again, because it's a plant-based product, it's totally safe. We can take all the water out of it.
Yeah.
So it's very, very concentrated.
Yeah.
You dilute it at the other end, so you're not carrying around litres and litres of water.
Yeah. So how do you know you've put enough in? Because you've also got the nozzle thing.
It's got a measuring thing on the back.
Oh cool!
But basically 2 seconds would be 1 dose.
Okay.
You can get it over your hands, you're not going to turn yourself into a Smurf.
Good, yes.
If you've got pets, you've got kids, it's safe.
Oh, I'm excited! So how much does one of these retail for normally?
So these are £24.99, which sounds like a lot for toilet chemical.
Yeah.
But when you bear in mind that there's 40 doses, it works out roughly around the same price as the standard ones. That's really cool. You can also use this if you've got a grey water tank, it will clean that up. Will it?
So does it cut through the grease or does it—
It will, and it will keep it clean as well. If you have a flush water tank, if you've got a separate tank for your toilet, and you put it— so it's multi-use. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Obviously its main use is normally the toilet cassette, but you don't have to carry sort of 3 or 4 different products around. One of the things you need to do is when you're moving over to Using Solbio instead of your blue chemicals, uh, is you need to, uh, make sure it's fully clean. Chemicals in blue stuff will kill the bacteria, so it will stop it working the way it needs to. So take your, uh, toilet cassette, uh, flush it out a couple of times, and then you need to, uh, basically fill your container 3/4 of the way up with water, put about 100ml of Solbio inside, and then fill it right up to the top.
Okay.
foam because it's a soap. Yeah, and the foam will hit the top of the container and clean the top. Leave it for a day or two, um, and then flush it out. Yeah, it would have got rid of 99% of it, at which point it'll be effective, and then, then you won't— you will not need to clean your toilet for 2 days.
But I'll tell you what we do. There's a tap and a bag, and the bag— Mr. WB likes the bag because it just hangs in the bathroom, really straightforward. And there's a little pump here, and we put one squirt of this In the toilet cassette. That's it. Now on the back it tells you to do a squirt of this and mix it with some water. We've never ever put water down our toilet cassette because our aim always is to make it last as long as possible between having to empty the thing, so filling it with water just seems counterintuitive, so we don't. We literally just put a squirt of this and then use the bathroom, and it's just—
Brilliant.
Amazing, genuinely amazing. What I love about this is it's suitable for many of the campsites, especially in Europe. They don't like you putting chemicals down there, so there are no chemicals in this, absolutely 100% chemical-free. It's natural, and it has got natural soaps in it, natural essential oils in it, and botanical extracts. But you can use it for your flush water tank, you can use it for your wastewater tank, you can use it for your waste tank. And it's self-cleaning, so it prevents the buildup of limescale, waste, and urinary solids. What's that face for? Putting it in our waste tank? Yeah, let's put it in our waste tank. We're gonna try it out. And it is organic and safe to be used in the forest. Very important. I— yeah, I cannot recommend this highly enough. If you have issues with a, a pongy toilet, grab a bag of this. And put a link to it below where you can buy it from But yeah, absolutely recommend it. Right, I hope that wasn't too painful for you to sit through, and if you were eating, really, really apologize. If you're new to the channel, hi, welcome, and you'd like to get more tips, by all means hit subscribe. Thank you for your time and attention during a slightly delicate topic, and I'll see you on the next video. Bye!
