Composting head?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I was factoring in time to hydrate a brick. There's also some invariable cleanup of coir dust and such.

Ah well... If I add in the hydration process then I'd say the whole thing takes hours. Hydrating and breaking apart each coir brick certainly takes a lot longer than emptying and recharging.

Cleanup varies... depending on how messy I've been . If I do it right, there is minimal cleanup.

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Mike - a couple questions (I too have a Nature's Head):

First, you use less than a full brick for each charge? For me, even a single full brick seems a bit light so I've been using closer to 1.5 bricks. I forget, do you deposit TP for #2 in the solids bin? Using less coir might make sense then, but wonder if TP gets twisted on the agitator.

I estimate that I use a bit more than 1/2 the 626 g brick to start each new cycle. About 1/2 way along -- usually around the two week point -- I will start adding a handful of coir, approximately with every other deposit. I do it based on my sense of the moisture level in the pile. Basically, if it seems too moist, or too stiff, I'll add a bit. It just lets me tweak things along.

By the end of the cycle I'll have used the whole brick (more or less... I'm not measuring in detail), but I find that starting with a little less gives me the tweaking ability.

I do deposit our feces-soiled paper in the bin. Urine wipes from my spouse gets diverted to the garbage. I believe the added paper helps with the desiccation process. It's added fibre, afterall.

NOTE: We come from a wilderness camping background where one learns how to 'get the job done' with minimal paper. Not to get too detailed, but I usually use two to four sheets; standard two-ply, nothing fancy. I do think adding too much paper will gum up the system, and certainly get all wrapped up in the churner.

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Second, I believe you mentioned hydrating the coir brick in a Ziploc bag. Guessing you have a pretty large bag. I have been using a 5-gal bucket but something malleable such as a bag would be better......but size matters.

Yes, I use one of those monster ziplock bags. The extra, extra large versions that you can buy at hardware stores (Canadian Tire up here). Barring that, I think a standard plastic garbage bag would work, as long as you can seal it well.

Sealing it, and leaving it in the sun for hours, lets me use minimal amounts of water. I probably use about a 1-2 cups of water (again, I'm not measuring these things). It's way less than what is recommended for standard hydration of the coir -- just enough to be able to break it apart.

Originally Posted by mvweebles

FYI - bricks all seem to be close to same size, but here's what I've been using lately.

https://www.chewy.com/zoo-med-eco-ea...onut/dp/123767

Looks about the same, but I couldn't see a weight measure. My current bricks are 625 g, but I did have a bunch that were 1/2 that size. In that case, I used two for each cycle.

I note again that the instructions on your bricks say to add a lot of water (3.4 litres!). That is WAY too much. The point is to have the coir as dry as possible.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Best I can tell, the bin on the nature's head is quite a bit bigger than either the C-Head or the Ogo, both of which I looked at for my camper van due to space considerations.

Yes... As I recall, Nature's and Air Head bins are about twice the size of C-head. I think Ogo is about the size of C-head.

[dlj]

I have two OGO heads, have traveled with women crew and had no complaints. I just picked up a second female crew and will specifically ask her how she like the head in a few days. She just arrived to my boat a few hours ago.

dj

[sesmith]

When talking coir bricks there are different sizes by weight. I get the 5kg bricks on Amazon. I break chunks off the brick with a screwdriver, fill 1 gal zip locks with the chunks, then add some water and put the bags out in the sun a couple of days.

[sesmith]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Women mostly have hated the urine diverter. It would be nice if one invented something new they liked

Sandy Graves (the original maker of the C-head) took a stab at that. I think he called it the Lady Ladle. It was just that, a big plastic serving spoon from Walmart with a hole cut in the center to direct the flow. I asked my wife at the time if she wanted one of these ground breaking new products. She declined.

[jcapo]

We have a C-Head that I installed in 2015. Its been in daily use by two people since then.

I buy ~2kg blocks of coir on Amazon and chip small pieces off of the dry block with a knife. One chipped up block fills two Sterlite containers. Takes about 30 minutes. We use 1lb a week in the C-Head.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by Franziska

We have one.
Usually, two people are permanently onboard.
Mediterranean climate.
DIY built, works flawless.

Ducted computerfan removed any minute odor efficiently and runs all the time nonstop. They last almost forever.

Spray household vinegar into the liquid side funnel once you're done with business. Keeps any odor from that side at bay, too.

Works for men and women well.

It just takes a while to get used to "flushing" with peat moss or wood shavings instead of water.

We empty the 20l liquid reservoir every few weeks. The solid side about every two weeks.

Offshore, we dump it overboard. It's all only biological and not worse than what comes out of the animals of the sea.

Inshore, we find a toilet or, in the worst case, the city drain for the liquid and a dumpster for the double baged solids.
Sometimes, we just burry it without bags deep under a bush.

Sounds pleasant...

[Symphony]

Originally Posted by dlj

I have two OGO heads, have traveled with women crew and had no complaints. I just picked up a second female crew and will specifically ask her how she like the head in a few days. She just arrived to my boat a few hours ago.

dj

Dj, how did she like the dry head?

[kayakerChuck]

My other half thinks the AirHead is the best upgrade we've made to the boat. It replaced a Jabsco electric.

[dlj]

Originally Posted by Symphony

Dj, how did she like the dry head?

So far I've had three women using the OGO composting head and all three have said they had no issues - all have also commented on how much nicer my head smells compared to other boats they have sailed on.

So I would say so far it's a complete success story.

dj

[Symphony]

Thanks DJ and Chuck!