Best composting head?

[zachduckworth]

Hi all,
I'm continuing to make and plan incremental improvements to my 1984 Islander Bahama 30. One big one is to get rid of the traditional marine head and install a composting head. The hoses in my boat area already starting to smell, and the complexity of the plumbing on the Islander makes my head swim. I want to get rid of all of that s*&^ (haha, get it) before it becomes an issue I need to deal with.

Ok, that said, I am looking at composting heads. The high end option seems to be the Airhead. The big advantage of this one seems to be the electronic fan feature and the little turning wheel. I was wondering for those who have had one whether this extra feature is worth while. I've been on boats with them before and the smell isn't too bad, but it seems like the fan and even the vent by itself would reduce the smell to near zero. Anyways, I'd love to hear some opinions on whether this is worth while. I consider my plumbing a time bomb that I would like to head off before time runs out.

[Ratel]

I can only comment on the OGO. We looked at all available designs and decided to buy two units for our new catamaran.

Compact with a small footprint, looks the best (in my opinion), well designed and excellent customer service from the company.

It comes with an electric stirring mechanism and fan. As a trial we used it exclusively for about 8 days in an enclosed bathroom in the house, there were no objectionable smells. I am going to use an activated charcoal filter as an added measure on our catamaran.

The only objectionable smell was emptying the urine container, but that is over in a few seconds. We subsequently bought a product to add to the urine container, it effectively eliminates the smell.

https://ogotoilet.com/

[MWGDVC]

I considered the Airhead, Nature’s Head, and the C-Head. After talking to a few people who had each I decided on Airhead for the following reasons:


1. Replaceable seat and lid, standard marine head size, or household size, commercially available. Nature’s Head has a molded in seat, and a proprietary lid. If it is uncomfortable, too bad, if the lid breaks, 1 source for replacement. C-Head uses a household seat and lid, with a hole drilled in it.
2. Fan and ducting included. A fan kit is offered by C-Head, at additional cost.
3. Fan location; Airhead locates the fan at the end of the hose, where any dust generated by the stirring of the coir is less likely to reach the fan. The others locate the fan in the unit itself.
4: Compactness; Airhead offers a hull shaped cutaway to allow it to be mounted closer to the hull, so as to be less intrusive into the available space. Nature’s Head offers something similar, but due to the design, servicing of the solids or liquids containers requires tilting the top back, so it needs room behind the unit to allow this. C-Head seems to have discontinued a cutaway model they used to offer.


I like C-Head’s approach of using many components available from household sources, but I think their product is best suited for stationary locations.


Just an observation, include in your facilities brief to guests, to shut the solids flap prior to cranking after a type II deposit. People seem to crank like they were trying to start a model T, flinging coir into the bowl, which will clog the pathway to the liquids container, with unpleasant results.

[MWGDVC]

Ratel,
We put a small amount of vinegar in the liquids container after each emptying, it seems to reduce or eliminate the unpleasant odor at the next emptying.

[mvweebles]

Not sure C-Head is still an option. They seemed to have gone dark last year.

[rtoner]

We had several friends change to composting and all focused on the main ones. We decoded on the OCO after using it in a small camper. The compact size and no bits outside was nice. Only complaint some folks would have is it needs power. The auto sensor light coming on before the tank is full is a very nice feature.

[phorvati]

We are a family of 4 that lives aboard about 5-6 months per year. We've used airhead since 2018. Its pretty good, no complaints. I ordered a spare urinal to help when a bunch of of my wife's girlfriends comes to have cocktails for the evening. Also be careful what you use for bricks. We tried different bricks with various success. One type we got on amazon, i forget which one, introduced bugs(small no-se'em type flies) in the compost and it wasn't good. So I stick with ones you get from the Airhead's website directly. With 4 of us(2 boys me and my wife) I swap solids about once per month. So my now 6 year old boy learned to go potty on this. Have been using it since he was 2. Took a while to make him aim for the two front holes when he goes #1. And he loves turning the crank after going #2. But keep urine out of compost, I learned the hard way as i didn't realize he was doing it wrong without telling us. So he would open the solids compartment and pee in there without telling us.

[smj]

Have owned 3 C-Heads, 2 Naturesheads and 1 Airhead. Like them all much better than a holding tank system but preferred the C-Head over the other two. Sadly as someone said, C-Head appears to be out of business.
The Airhead and Natureshead to us were pretty comparable but it was more of a pain in the ass to remove the Airhead because of the thumb screw setup. I see they may have changed that.

[Pegu Club]

We have been using a Natures Head for eight years, cruising full time for the last four years, works as advertised, On our way to the Bahamas as I type this. So much easier maintenance wise as compared to a Marine Head. We removed the marine head, hoses, holding tank and all upon purchase of our B-29.9, never looked back.

Fair winds,

[Mike OReilly]

I chose Nature's Head back when I was making the decision about a decade ago. For me, it came down to capacity and price. My choices were Air, Nature's and C-head. I quickly discounted C-head because its holding bins are basically 1/2 the size of the others.

Comparing the remaining two, Nature's Head had slightly (ever so slightly) larger holding bins compared to Air Head. It fit a little easier in my existing space, and at the time it was priced significantly cheaper than Air. Not sure if that's the case anymore.

These days there are many more options. Sadly, it appears C-head has ceased operations (at least this is the news I read on these forums), but luckily there are a number of newer choices which are similar to C-head; OGO being one.

Personally, I think someone selecting a composter should first understand their usage pattern. Air and Nature's are larger, and are designed to go a longer time between emptying. The old C-head, and most of the newer offerings, are designed with smaller holding bins, therefore need to be emptied more frequently.

As a full-timer, I prefer the less frequent emptying cycles (we go about a month for two adults). But if I was only using the head occasionally, or for short periods, then this might not matter.

Air/Nature's require active venting, which means running a vent hose, and operating a small fan most the time. This ensures zero smell, while also promoting desiccation and composting. But it is slightly more complicated than units that don't vent.

Anyway, here's a list of the current composters out there that I know about. Are there others?

• Air Head
• Nature's Head
• Sun-Mar
• Separett
• Compoost compost toilets
  
• CUDDY™ | Compo Closet
• OGO™ Compost Toilet

[kayakerChuck]

"Best" is a tricky term.

I'm installing an Airhead today. It looks simple, robust, there's not much to break, and it fits nicely in my space. The Nature's Head also checked all the boxes, but is just a bit too tall for a nice fit in my boat.

[AKA-None]

Where do people run their vents, active or otherwise?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Where do people run their vents, active or otherwise?

I ran mine out through the deck plate which was formerly used for pump outs. I fitted a simple mushroom vent which can be closed off during big seas.

[capt jgw]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Not sure C-Head is still an option. They seemed to have gone dark last year.

Wow. Just checked the website and yeah, it's offline. I think that was kind of a one man operation so not real surprising.
I bought one a couple years ago and we like it. Well made and fit the space well. The pee container is just a milk jug so extras are basically free. Solids container is a standard 3 gallon bucket and I had a couple of those left over from a drywall job a few years ago. Makes it easier if you have to store the stuff for a while. Extra containers for the other brands are $$$.

[SVTatia]

All of the commercially available composting heads are too large for the space I have, and only because of their integrated liquids bucket.
So I built my own, the liquids go to a new 4 gallon p tank located where the 20 gallon holding tank was. No vent, zero smell.