The Best Travel Potty Seats this Year (Tested)

My Carry Potty

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A cute and fun travel option that we tested is the My Carry Potty.

The My Carry Potty can be ordered in a variety of cute, kid-friendly styles and looks like a small suitcase. The seat opens up to have a small potty opening that allows kids to use the restroom from anywhere. This is very helpful during potty training when your little one may not have much control and needs to go quickly.

We liked that this potty chair is cute and very discreet. When traveling with the My Carry Potty, it looks so much like a kid’s suitcase that nobody would think twice when seeing it. It’s very small when folded at about 10 1/4″ tall, 9 1/4″ wide, and 5 1/4″ deep. It can easily slide into the trunk of a car or even be used as a personal item on an airplane.

Because it sits directly on the ground, we felt that the chair was very stable. However, it is very low to the ground. The seat itself is only about 4 inches off the ground once opened up, so taller kids may have to adjust the way they are sitting to ensure they don’t make a mess when going to the bathroom.

The My Carry Potty includes a locking mechanism and a leakproof seal to keep contents trapped inside. When we tested the chair, we poured juice inside, closed it and shook the folded container around without any leaking. We wouldn’t necessarily recommend keeping the liquids inside if you do have the capability to dump it, though.

This is a seat that kids will love to pick out and use. Besides the dinosaur theme that we tested, the seat can be ordered in other animal designs like a ladybug, fox, or penguin, or also in solid colors like pink or blue.

This was the highest price option we tested a little over $30, so you will want to make sure it fits your needs and lifestyle before purchasing.

Value

Potty seat covers and travel potty chairs, in general, are not very expensive products. The prices of the potties we tested ranged from around $10 to the mid $30 range, with an average of around $15-$20.

Standalone potty chairs tended to price a little higher than the seat covers, with the most expensive option being the My Carry Potty. We did not really think that the price point affected the quality of the products, as there were many great choices in a range of prices, giving you lots of options when it’s time to potty train.

A potty seat can make a great, budget-friendly gift option for a baby registry or baby shower.

Product Price Performance

Why You Can Trust Us

Our team of professionals has researched hundreds of children’s products over the past seven years. We have used much of the baby gear ourselves as parents and grandparents.

Our team extensively researched the most popular travel potty seats on the market. After purchasing the products, we read multiple buyer’s guides to find out exactly what people are looking for when shopping for a travel potty.

In addition, we read hundreds of critical customer reviews of the highchairs to learn common complaints. We based our extensive testing criteria on all of these findings.

We purchased all the products in this review at retail prices and did not receive any incentive or compensation from manufacturers. All recommendations and opinions are strictly our own.

How We Tested

Some of the most common complaints we noted when researching these potty seats are that they are unstable, difficult to clean, and too big or small.

Other common complaints were that they trapped a lot of urine or that they pinched kids’ legs when seated.

Based on this information, we geared our testing criteria toward four different categories:

Design Quality (30%)
Cleanability (30%)
Portability (20%)
Usability (20%)

We set up each individual seat and performed a myriad of tests on them to determine the best overall chairs and seat covers.

Product Ratings, Tests and Specs

Testing Categories

Design Quality

In this category, we tested the design aspects of each potty. We set up each one and had a child sit on it to test its stability. We took into account if it had any stabilizing elements, such as grip pads or suction cups. A child should feel secure when using the restroom, and many critical reviews complained that kids felt like they were going to fall when using a potty seat.

We also tested the practicality of the design in this category, noting if it was too bulky to really be considered “portable,” if it had seams on the seat that could pinch a child’s legs, or if a child could easily slip their fingers under the seat and pinch them.

For example, we liked the Maliton Green Frog potty seat a lot, but the front ends could easily be pulled up and one of our test subjects did slip her fingers underneath and get pinched.

Here are the overall scores in the Design Quality category:

We were pleased with the features of many of the seat covers. Some, like the Jool Baby Foldable and the Homsis came with suction cups to secure the cover to the toilet seat. Others, like the Gimars and the Maliton came with rubber pads to help stop sliding.

The Hippypotamus included bands that slid over the seams of the seat to protect a child’s legs and bottom from getting pinched. This was a feature we wish was included on more of the seat covers.

Generally speaking, the freestanding potty chairs were more stable than the seat covers since they sit directly on the floor and are low to the ground. We did notice, though, that the chairs tended to be very low to the ground and were not always as comfortable.

We also noted whether or not potties that may hold liquid would leak. One such style of potty is the OneDone Urinal. This cute, boys-only cup includes a funnel that slows down any potential leakage. When we filled the urinal with liquid, closed it, and shook it up, a few drops leaked out, so we would recommend dumping it as soon as possible, but it does well at keeping liquid contained under normal conditions.

Cleanability

In this category, we tested each potty to see how easily it could clean when taking on inevitable messes. To keep things sanitary, we used a squirt bottle of apple juice and sprayed it on and in the seats. We tested if the chair potties were easy to empty or dispose of messes. Potties that have cracks or crevices that trap urine are more difficult to clean.

A couple of seats, like the OXO Tot, included absorbent pads in their disposable bags. We liked these better than potties with just plain bags because the absorbent pads prevented splashing and made clean-up much easier. All of the seats with any kind of bag, though, were very easy to keep clean.

Seats like the BabyBjorn Smart Potty and the Summer Infant Play had removable bowls that could be easily dumped into a toilet after use. We did find, though, that seats like these tended to have crevices where the bowl met the seat that could catch liquid and either drip or be harder to clean up.

Standard potty seat covers that simply rest on the top of an adult toilet seat were overall the easiest to keep clean since they are not collecting any waste themselves. There was also less splashing with these kinds of seats, since there was more distance between the seat and bowl than with a shorter potty chair.

Something else we took note of was whether or not a potty included a splash guard. Many critical reviews complained that they didn’t feel like their boy could easily use certain seats because of the lack of a splash guard. Many of the portable toilet seats did not include a splash guard since several of them folded into quarters and were open at the front. All of the non-folding seats did include splash guards.

We were pleased that most of the potties did wipe clean pretty easily with a damp cloth.

Portability

In this category, we tested to see if the potties could easily be used in travel.

Most of the seat covers came with some kind of storage bag. These not only helped keep them contained but also helped keep things sanitary by keeping the seat folded into a clean, confined space.

The folding potty seat covers were by far the most portable option we tested. Those particular seats fold to a quarter of their unfolded size and can easily slip into a diaper bag, backpack, or even the seat pocket of a car.

Though a portable toilet seat is certainly more travel-friendly than a freestanding chair, the chair-style potties did have decent portability. They could all easily fit in the trunk of a car for use on the go.

Even some of the non-foldable options came with carry bags for easy transport. The Logie and Gray Poppy Potty, though a freestanding potty chair, folds into a compact circle that slides into a canvas drawstring bag for travel and storage.

Usability

In the usability section, we tested how user-friendly each of the potties was. We set them all up, had children sit on them, took them down for storage, and determined their universality.

Most of the potties were pretty easy to set up and did not have very many components. The only ones that required much assembly were those that included disposable urine bags, and that setup process is generally very simple.

Here are the usability rankings for each seat:

We had child test subjects sit on each of the seats to see if they were size appropriate and comfortable. A lot of the potty chairs, like the BabyBjorn and the My Carry Potty were very low to the ground, and the test subjects, especially the three-year-old, seemed a little uncomfortable.

The seat covers did not have the issue of being too low to the ground, but if they slid around at all on the regular toilet, the children did not seem as comfortable sitting on them. We felt that the Gimars and the Kalencom when folded out slid around on the toilet the most.

We tested the disassembly of each potty, especially the seat covers, to see the process. If you had to touch the actual toilet to remove the seat cover, we docked a few points. This was a common complaint among critical reviews, as people wanted to avoid touching the toilet, especially in public restrooms. Seats like the Homsis with its pry bar scored higher in this area.

Finally, we tested the universality of each potty, both in gender usability as well as how seats fit on various types of toilets. Certain ones, like the OneDone Urinal, scored lower in this area because it cannot be used by both boys and girls. However, the OneDone can be ordered in styles suitable for girls. Our preference is potties with features like splash guards or that can easily be used on toilets of different shapes.

Travel Potty Seat Safety

We are not aware of any credible research on the safety of travel potty seats, nor are we aware of any statistics directly related to accidents or injuries while using one. We did find one seat that was recalled because of lead paint many years ago.

When testing these products, though some slipped around a bit, we did not feel that the designs of any of the potties were unsafe. All of the potty chairs were low enough to the ground to prevent danger, and even the seat covers that slipped some never felt like they would fall into or off the adult toilet.

For any seats that have included instructions, is it important that parents follow the directions when setting up the travel potties. Additionally, regardless of the safety measures taken by manufacturers, an adult should remain nearby for safety while a child is using a travel potty.