If you’re in the market to buy a pontoon boat, or perhaps you’ve booking a vacation trip on a pontoon, you might want to know whether there is a bathroom on board. It’s a particular concern for those with young children, or perhaps elderly passengers. Here’s the answer below.
Standard sized pontoon boats for the leisure market do not have toilets built in but many will have the space under the Bimini to erect a changing curtain behind which a porta-potty can be placed. Bigger pontoon boats such as Party Huts and Party Cruisers will have built in heads where portable toilets can be added. Some large commercial pontoon boats that you can book vacation trips on might have bathrooms, but you will need to check with the tour operator.
Is There a Bathroom on a Pontoon Boat?
It really depends.
There are large pontoon boats that come with heads, such as the Party Hut and Party Cruiser. In this small room, you simply pull down the privacy curtain and will need to use a portable toilet.
You can see examples of those two pontoon boats with have the potential for bathrooms in the images below.
These larger pontoons have more privacy options for bathrooms and toilets.
For most pontooners with smaller boats, you can have changing room curtains to offer privacy that will hang underneath the Bimini area, or use those pop-up changing room tents that are found on campsites.
This is the way in which pontoon boat owners overcome the issue of not having a toilet or dedicated bathroom on board.
The majority of pontoon boats that you see out on the lake have large decks, but no room to place a holding tank. That means regular marine toilets are not common on pontoons, unless it’s a large party barge built for commercial purposes – such as vacation sight-seeing trips.
Update: Since writing this article, I discovered the Southland Pontoons Liberty HRV with built-in sleeping quarters and bathroom. Read my review and see photos in this post.
Do Pontoon Boats Have Toilets?
It really depends on the boat owner.
If they feel that it is required, then they will buy a small portable potty, such as the ones popular in the camping world, and then place that behind a hanging curtain or inside a collapsible changing room set-up.
How Can I Place a Bathroom or Toilet on a Pontoon?
If you already own a pontoon boat, or are thinking about buying one, then don’t despair, as you will be able to fashion a bathroom area, as it’s a very common requirement.
What you will need to do is create a pontoon boat toilet enclosure, and it’s simple to do just by buying a few simple accessories and items.
The options for pontoon bathrooms are as follows:
- Buy a collapsible or pop-up potty room
- Buy drop down Bimini changing curtains
- Create your own DIY pontoon bathroom
Options 1 and 2 are most preferable, and I’ve outlined what you need to buy in my guide to pontoon changing rooms. Go read that and you can see a very short list of the cheapest, and best value for money changing rooms that you can place on your boat.
In addition to the changing room set-up, you will also need to purchase a portable potty.
The best one in my opinion is the Camco Portable Toilet available on Amazon. It has amazing reviews, in fact over 1,000 at the last count, and doesn’t cost too much money either.
As well as using it as a bathroom on your pontoon boat, you can also take it on camping trips, so hopefully outdoors types will get a lot of use out of their purchase.
There is virtually no installation required with one of these porta potties, you just unpack it, place it down in the boat’s changing area behind the curtain or pop-up and it’s ready to use.
When you get back home or back to the dock and marina, take it out of the boat and empty it into a proper toilet. And of course, make sure you clean it properly too.
As a family man, I consider a portable potty toilet a must-have accessory. I will often have weekends with kids and friends on boat, including mixed sex guests so for me it’s essential to pair a portable toilet with a changing room curtain.
Handy Hint: For more toilet choices read this guide to toilets and bathrooms.
