I’ve used Thetford products for many years as there is little choice in the market for boats and caravans. I specified their Aspire cooker for my new narrowboat. On collecting my brand new boat, however, the grill didn’t stay alight and the oven thermostat didn’t work. Thetford’s response was that they would send a service engineer in 10 days! When the service engineer eventually met us, he couldn’t fix the fault.

Eventually Thetford agreed to provide a new cooker that would be tested at works before despatch. Weeks later, a replacement cooker was fitted but this had large gaps around the top frame and the electronic igniters didn’t work on the grill and oven.

After further complaints, Thetford investigated, with their engineering and quality manager taking several weeks to respond that this had occurred in transit. I am still waiting for my replacement cooker.

My experience of Thetford is poor product performance and poor customer service.

It is high time Thetford develop a toilet unit that is convenient for liveaboard boaters. Apart from the china bowl version, units are plastic with lots of nooks and crannies, making it difficult to keep their standard narrowboat toilets properly clean.