K.B.
Victoria and I have similar experiences. I removed the water from the top to keep my son from continually flushing the thing. I also, sometimes, would forget to empty the container but for me it wasn't that much of a big deal, I would just put it in the shower and rinse it out with some cleaner.
It helped my son because it allowed him to stand while urinating and he could do it like daddy. The sitting down was never successful for him and he has never used an actual potty or potty seat even though we have bought many.
I have now passed the torch (the peter potty) on to my sister whose son is almost 3. Her son was so excited about the peter potty he tried to pee in it right away and would not get dressed becuase he wanted to keep trying.
They even rang me up on the web cam to show me how excited he was. They couldn't even get it all the way out of the box before he wanted to try.
Some suggestions of course is try to have a specific time each day that you decide to empty the container so it becomes a habit. This will keep you from having any accidents.
See how your son does with the flushing mechanism and if he is a flusher just don't put water in it.
Sometimes you may want to take a small cup of water after he is done and pour it down to keep the potty from smelling or staining.
Be patient. It will come in time and when it does I have found through my experience it will stick. When I didn't pressure my son to potty train and let him go at his pace he has not had any major accidents. He has been out of diapers for almost a year and has only had one major accident in his bed (when he was first starting) but it was our fault.
Good luck. In my opinion the petty potty is the way to go for little boys.