Product Review – OLPro Bottom & Top Plus

Yes, another title that’s sure to force a snigger or two. Of course, this being – largely – a caravnning blog, we are talking about nothing more lurid than that unexciting but essential caravanning necessity, toilet fluid. 

OLPro are a young British company formed only in 2011 who supply a wide range of products for the camping and caravanning world. Their marketing people recently got in touch offering to send over some stuff to have a look at. Ever on the look out for a freebie or two, we once again said yes.

As the name would suggest it’s quite quite erm, versatile (stop it you lot) in that it’s used in both the rinse and cassette of your caravan loo. So, lets have a closer look. Oh please, you lot get worse…

So, what have we got? A 1 litre bottle of blue coloured fluid with a pleasant citrus smell and  is the double concentrate version of their standard Bottom & Top. Instructions for use suggest 50ml of product in a waste tank of up to 20 litres in capacity. For rinsing,  the same ratio – 25ml to 10 litres of fresh water is suggested. The integral measuring system makes dispensing the right amount easy, although  - note to the manufacturers - the neck could be a little longer to help prevent dribbles when filling the rinse tank.

Right, to the testing. Now, like many I suspect, we have generally only used the caravan loo for those nocturnal visits brought about by a busy evenings’ researching in the local hostelries. Given that, I’ve only even used half the amount of fluid recommended by the makers of whatever brand of fluid we’ve had at the time. We have, in the past always used the traditional separate pink and blue variety, normally  Elsan Double which can sometimes be found in 2  x 2 litres twin packs on special offer. It lasts a long time and we’ve been happy with it, although the pink rinse can leave a bit of a residue around the corners of the pan at times.

To test the Bottom & Top thoroughly, obviously we had to throw everything at it – although not literally, that would have been messy – and smelly.  You will be pleased to know that there are no photo’s of either us er, testing the product. Suffice to say, that we’d been out and about busy researching the pubs and bars in Crystal Palace the evening before….

Having gone out for a walk and a late breakfast we returned around lunchtime. There were no unpleasant smells in the ‘van, apart from my deodorant that is, but  the citrus aroma of the fluid was just evident in the bathroom, a little more so, when the cassette flap was opened. I was hoping to give it a full 24 hours but having seen, on opening aforementioned flap, mounting evidence that the tank was nearly full decided I’d better empty it.

Ok, emptying a container full of human waste is never going to be an experience to savour but the product done it’s stuff and the tank soon rinsed clean - with no lingering odours. Having decided that one days thorough testing was enough, normal service was resumed with only half the recommended amount of fluid being added – and this worked just fine too, although obviously it had less to erm, deal with.

Right, so we’re happy it works.  Carrying a bottle of this instead of 2 separate ones is certainly a weight saving, giving extra capacity for those caravanning essentials like booze and in my case, long leather coats, jeans and boots!

A 1 litre bottle of this used in both tank & rinse at the quantities suggested will give you about 13 ‘loads’. Use less in the tank if you use your loo like us and that rises to 20. The product is currently on sale on the OLPro website for just £7.99 which I believe makes it excellent value too. But is it worth changing? Well, we certainly will. I was well impressed with this stuff and it’s also worth mentioning that it is is formaldehyde free so can be used on sites where it is banned.

All in all, a great product from a British company that’s well worth a look when you are next in the market for those loo chemicals. Check back soon for more reviews on other OLpro products.