Ah, the eternal question: What IS the scoop with the poop?
I spent a lot of time researching this, and looking exhaustively at information about all the available options. I was actually at the point of ordering an Ecovita privy kit and building in a system in the area available. It’s only because the darned things were back ordered last fall for weeks that I didn’t do that. When I found the C-Head it only took me a day or two to decide to cancel the Ecovita kit and order from Sandy.
Given the comparison between the C-Head and the other designs it was so simple and well designed, and seemed to make so much common sense, and the
price point is so reasonable, I was convinced really quickly to try it. Ours came well built and made from a really nice
wood veneer that looks great on our old
school boat.
It has a very simple fool proof system for dealing with the mixing of the solid waste and the dry material. I really liked that the urine collection is in a plain old one gallon milk or juice jug, easily replaceable and easily acquired for back up
storage should you need it. With the C-Head you do not have to order extra, expensive containers that are proprietary to their systems to have additional
storage capacity. Got a 5 gallon bucket? You have a second storage container. Got an empty milk jug? You have additional urine storage. Are they getting yucky looking? Urine containers in particular are going to get a scaly build up in them no matter what over time. I like the idea of just recycling the container and starting with a new one whenever I want. With the C-Head you do not deal with the coffee filters either. Solid waste drops straight down, so no need to prevent skid marks.
Something to keep in mind with ANY of these systems is they are not really “composting” toilets, they are more along the line of “pre-composting” toilets. They manage the waste so that you
wind up with relatively innocuous urine and desiccated fæces. Both of which are easier to dispose of than the usual mess of
water, urine and poop soup that is the result of a holding tank.
You have a few basic choices regarding disposal;
A – Bag up the solid waste and dispose of on land when the opportunity arises, into a garbage can or dumpster. Much in the same way a baby diaper is disposed of, but with the added benefit of not putting the additional non-compostable material into the waste stream that go along with the diaper. Liquid waste can be put into a pump-out station or poured down a toilet.
B- Transport the waste to an appropriate area where you can finish the composting process. Check out the humanure handbook for more about this option.
C- Wait until you are
offshore past the magic invisible 3 mile line and dispose of overboard, where allowed and appropriate.
Currently our head is in the mail being returned to us after a
refit. Since last fall, when we got our unit, and now, Sandy has cleverly come up with a modification to the unit, incorporating a slanted back angle that allows the head to be installed up against the
hull rather than only on the flat sole. We think this change is going to gain us 3” of clearance in the thru
passage to the V-berth. On our little boat this is a sufficiently valuable gain to warrant the annoyance of packing up the head and
shipping it back to Sandy. I am really looking forward to getting it back this week and seeing how it works now. We have traded space in the boat for capacity in the head. The slant back design uses a smaller main container. We are willing to take this
trade off.
The previous capacity was 2 to 3 weeks; I am guessing that it will be reduced to 1 to 2 weeks. The urine collector has to be emptied pretty regularly, every other day or so with either version. I am thinking of putting in a secondary collector for urine that could be easier to pump overboard. Personally, while I am fastidious about solid waste and its containment, I feel that urine, sterile and mostly
salt and water, is a fine addition to the ocean water which, while not sterile, is also mostly water and
salt.
I figure that anytime we will be aboard for longer than 2 weeks with no opportunity to dispose of waste on land we will be, at least some of the time, out past the 3 mile line and can dump overboard.
Way rather have a 5 gallon bucket of dry poop than a waste tank full of poop soup. If the bucket fills up you can just empty into another bucket and move on, but when that tank is full? That’s it, no easy way to fix that problem. **** happens, but holding tanks are optional, and we opted out ; -)