Composting toilet: rules, regulations, and "real life" use etc.?

[PeterSz]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Yup, gonna test this in our garage before sending a boat buck to C-head.

A local distributor has the Separett seat and it’s only a fancy dinner out in cost. The garage test starts shortly!!

This will also test whether going churnless is fine or whether we really need a mixer.

Hmmm, still wondering whether I could DIY. No offence to newhaul, but I’m no ship right and I don’t want anything too ugly in our boat. Also need to consider the air-secure outer shell.

We live in Auckland (we live aboard) and we have just converted our electric toilet to NH. I’ve never seen my wife spending money on the boat as happy as she was when we bought the NH.

We have friends who live aboard in Whangarei. They have an NH. When we stayed for a weekend I had the opportunity to try it out. Zero smell, nothing, nada. I couldn’t believe it.

We bought our boat a few months ago with two electric toilets. One (in the bow)smelled terrible, even the forward (owners) cabin smelled very bad. The port side head was a bit better. First we got rid of the forward head. Toilet, holding tank and all the plumbing gone. What a big relief! Than we bought the NH and got rid off the another one too.

No more embarrassment (because of the smell) when our (non boater) friends come aboard.
So far we are very happy with the NH. I am also not a big fan of the lot of holes on the hull. We had 5 holes per toilet. I can’t wait to fill them up ones we put the boat on the hard.

You are welcome if you want to visit us.

Peter

[smj]

From our experience, if the C-Head is difficult to churn its time to change, has nothing to do with being to dry. C-Head also comes with the hose and fitting to install a vent fan but recommends trying without as most of the time it isn’t necessary. From what I’ve heard C-Head is now the top selling composting head! I’m sure the price has quite a bit to do with this. We have owned and used extensively all 3 top selling composting heads and prefer the C-Head, but honestly all 3 are great designs and each has its positives and negatives.

[Panope]

Originally Posted by Copacabana

Panope, I have to say that your DIY composter is the nicest I've ever seen.

Thanks. It was a fun project.

Steve

[CGirvan]

Originally Posted by smj

From our experience, if the C-Head is difficult to churn its time to change, has nothing to do with being to dry.

Thanks for this info it's nice to hear from other users. I was starting to wonder if we were doing something wrong. I'm thinking the somewhat short duration between changes for our CHead is more due to the mode of stirring rather than anything else. Do the Natures Head and Air Head tend to clump the deposits like the CHead, thereby making the churning action difficult or do they produce a more compost consistency product.

[Copacabana]

Originally Posted by CGirvan

Thanks for this info it's nice to hear from other users. I was starting to wonder if we were doing something wrong. I'm thinking the somewhat short duration between changes for our CHead is more due to the mode of stirring rather than anything else. Do the Natures Head and Air Head tend to clump the deposits like the CHead, thereby making the churning action difficult or do they produce a more compost consistency product.

The Natures Head, in my experience, crumbles the solids until it has the consistency of potting soil. Every time the handle becomes harder to turn, I've found the mixture was too moist (either from too many people on board using it or because it was time to dump the solids bin). I think the composting bin can never be too dry.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by CGirvan

Thanks for this info it's nice to hear from other users. I was starting to wonder if we were doing something wrong. I'm thinking the somewhat short duration between changes for our CHead is more due to the mode of stirring rather than anything else. Do the Natures Head and Air Head tend to clump the deposits like the CHead, thereby making the churning action difficult or do they produce a more compost consistency product.

Happens with my Nature’s Head sometimes. Seems to happen around mid-cycle, so at the two to three week mark. Material can get packed into the corners. It doesn’t happen every time, and I believe it has to do with moisture balance. But it’s not a big deal. I just use a small trowel to move it away. Takes less than a minute, and only seems to happen once in the cycle.

Given that the NH basin is rectangular, it seems likely that this will happen given a rotating churner. Maybe having a round container would be better, but then the holding space would be smaller… always tradeoffs.

[fxykty]

Wow, thanks everyone for the feedback, this shows how awesome this forum can be!

Churnless or churning? Anyone using a DIY or the C-head churnless feel that mixing would be better? Or does the addition of peat immediately after work just fine?

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by smj

From our experience, if the C-Head is difficult to churn its time to change, has nothing to do with being to dry. C-Head also comes with the hose and fitting to install a vent fan but recommends trying without as most of the time it isn’t necessary. From what I’ve heard C-Head is now the top selling composting head! I’m sure the price has quite a bit to do with this. We have owned and used extensively all 3 top selling composting heads and prefer the C-Head, but honestly all 3 are great designs and each has its positives and negatives.

What exactly is the urine diversion like on the C-head? Is it an integrated pan like the others or a separate funnel component?

Why did you choose churning rather than churnless?

[smj]

Originally Posted by fxykty

What exactly is the urine diversion like on the C-head? Is it an integrated pan like the others or a separate funnel component?

Why did you choose churning rather than churnless?

It's an integrated pan. The only difference is the C-Head doesn't have a trap door over the solids.
Never considered a churnless as it wasn't an option that I know of when dealing with the top 3 production models.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by fxykty

What exactly is the urine diversion like on the C-head? Is it an integrated pan like the others or a separate funnel component?

Why did you choose churning rather than churnless?

shirtless is a diy option the commercial models all have churning.
I'm designing a diy churn option for my composter this weekend I should be able to post a few pictures of the demo model .

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by newhaul

shirtless is a diy option the commercial models all have churning.

I'm designing a diy churn option for my composter this weekend I should be able to post a few pictures of the demo model .

Does that mean churnless hasn’t worked out for you?

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Does that mean churnless hasn’t worked out for you?

no it has worked fine just add a handful of peat on deposits no problem .
Adding a churner will just eliminate a step for those that want to add it to the diy I posted.


Also I intend on doing a full cost breakdown if you had to purchase all of the parts. ( 90% of mine is recycled / repurposed materials

[Panope]

My DIY composter has NO churn. I tried the "dump and cover" technique but I did not care for handling the media so frequently. I use coconut coir and it is dusty, leaving crumbs all over.

My solution was to find an nice stick during a beach walk and trim it's length so that it fits in the solids bin. I call it the "$hit Stick".

Dump and stir. Simple.

The stick stays in the bin, ALWAYS. The end that I grab NEVER gets soiled because it stores off to one side, under the diverter flange. I suppose a violent, explosive, liquid type of deposit might be a problem. In that case, a crappy stick is the least of your problems.

Without a doubt, the process of wiping ones own azz places your hand in far closer proximity to feces than manipulating the $hit Stick.

"Dump and cover" is always available for the faint of heart (hand).

Steve

[RainDog]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Wow, thanks everyone for the feedback, this shows how awesome this forum can be!

Churnless or churning? Anyone using a DIY or the C-head churnless feel that mixing would be better? Or does the addition of peat immediately after work just fine?

We use a churnless, ventless, DIY system for years as full-time liveaboards. There was a bit of a learning curve (maybe one month) but after that no issues, no odors, no problems.

The main part of the learning curve is learning to keep the solids absolutely dry. This especially means starting with very dry media. Details here: https://raindogps34.wordpress.com/20...ur-dry-toilet/

More details on how we built ours here: https://raindogps34.wordpress.com/head-project/

[daniTS]

This is our second season with a Nature's Head (weekends and the odd week). We really like it (I especially like it as emptying is 10000% my hubby's job haha, though he constantly reassures me it's easy and not gross). My only complaint, and something I haven't seen mentioned in the thread, is that, possibly in combination with the way our boat is built, it's sort of made for giants and I have to do a little hop to get up there (I'm 5'3 with short legs). Other than that and based on our experience so far we would absolutely rip out an existing system and replace it with a nature's head on any future boats.