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3 years ago, James posted a YouTube video where he shared a cassette toilet adapter he was working on — anyone remember that? We wanted a solution so we could dump our new RV’s cassette toilet into a regular dump station, without having to see, smell, or risk any contact with the contents.
Years before that, I had vowed we’d never own an RV with a cassette. We had tested out a cassette-toilet-like Porta-pottie back in 2017 and were traumatized by the dumping experience— all captured in a video where we were comparing our compost toilet to the porta-pottie, anyone remember that one?! And then since the universe likes messing with us, Winnebago came out with the most-perfect-RV-for-us EKKO. Which, of course, had a cassette toilet. So much for my public cassette toilet renunciation. All that got me was lots of razzing from friends who think its hilarious I now have an RV with a cassette toilet.
Luckily, I’m married to an engineer. After James shared that video of his cassette adapter idea, he received such overwhelming response to it, he ended up taking the journey to getting them mass-produced. It was around that time James also applied for both a trademark on the adapter’s name, the “Americanizer”, and also a design patent for it. He’s been selling them on Amazon for a couple years now, waiting on the patent.
So! Now that you’re all caught up on the Americanizer saga, we hope you’ll celebrate with us…
The Americanizer JUST received its official patent!!!
And what fun timing! James was just on the Beyond the Wheel podcast this past week, and the topic was the Americanizer; how it went from an idea in James’ head to an item on Amazon. It’s a fun story, we hope you’ll give it a listen! Thanks Kenny & Sean for inviting James on!
CLICK HERE FOR THE “BEYOND THE WHEEL” PODCAST!
And while I’m thanking people, thanks to all of you who supported James once he initially shared his idea! So many of you told him to go for it, and many even promised you’d buy one if he could bring them to market! It’s what drove him to make it happen, and I’m so grateful for the comments you left nudging him on. And another thank you to everyone who has since purchased an Americanizer! It’s no easy thing inventing something, and then navigating through how to manufacture and sell it. It becomes a labor of love, really. Truly & sincerely, we couldn’t have done it without you. ❤️
Now go listen to that podcast!
Wishing you love, health, and all the good stuff,
Stef
Congratulations! Listened to the podcast and appreciate so much more the work involved in bringing this to the market. Thank you for that effort. We appreciate our Americanizer.
When you do get around to the next innovation – your hint at the end of the podcast presumably to relieve the full complexity of scent from the cassette – count me in as a “friend” willing to test your new invention.
Thanks! Glad you like yours.
I actually remember the video when you’ve been traumatized by the cassette toilet. I watched it when I was just starting out and wanted to find influencers to work with. Needless to say I never contacted you. lol
Thank you to the universe for doing what it did to make you buy an EKKO. And the rest is history! 😉
LOL, Nadine! I’ll never live that cassette toilet video down. I’ve since learned to be very careful about throwing around those “nevers”. Because, ya know, the universe is listening, lol!
Wow! I’ve been waiting 3 years for this. I guess I missed the memo that it was selling on Amazon. Thanks, James, for going the extra mile for us all.
Sorry you didn’t get the memo! Consider this your notification. 🙂
James, I listened to the Beyond the Wheel podcast. Who would have thought that a one hour podcast on a RV sewage attachment could be so intriguing? But it was. It was fascinating to hear the entrepreneurial journey on The Americanizer. Congratulations.
I know, right? I listened to the whole thing, too, and really enjoyed it! Of course I am married to James, so there might be a little bias, lol!
Congratulations! But….last year California outlawed certain chemicals in cassette waste odor treatments that used to keep the smell in check. Last summer our cassette smell was untenable so we swapped over to a composting toilet and couldn’t be happier! No more smells.
James wrote a detailed post about the new formulas in holding tank chemicals, and explained why the new law came about! If you’re interested you can find it here: https://www.thefitrv.com/rv-tech/comparing-rv-holding-tank-chemicals-the-new-formulas/
We had a compost toilet for 5 years; there’s certainly good & bad with both compost and cassettes; neither is perfect. One thing I do miss about the compost toilet is the no-smell thing, that was awesome. But ugh, all the work with changing the compost; it’s what burned us out on them! Glad you’re happy with the change though; it’s great we all have options!
Our experience was that as long as the composting toilet was working properly, there was no smell. It really was remarkable.
However, if it wasn’t working at 100%, there were… problems.
Here’s hoping yours keeps working as it should!
I bought one the minute I read that it had been created. A simple and brilliant idea! Frank F.
Appreciate you being one of our Americanizer pioneers! ❤️