Composting Toilets

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Yes this has been a great thread. I am on the fence between this or installing a waste treatment system for direct overboard.

But what looks simple may be more complicated and what looks complicated may be more simple .

Does anyone line their compost toilet bin? I found these bags that speed compost with impregnated gauze inside the bag. They use them in third world countries,trying to see if I can utilize this. Peepoobags.com

We got any marine biologists or microbiologist in here? Maybe I need to give one of my friends a call and see what they say, now...how to broach the subject



Cheers
Ocean Girl

I've seen the single use PeePoo bags but not ones large enough to fit a composter. My first thought is that a bag would get caught up in the agitator and it would be impossible without removing the agitator or cut the bag to even insert a bag. I doubt that even if you could find a PeePoo bag that would fit that it would speed up the process enough to warrant it's use. It's not the most pleasant job to empty a composter but it's not that bad either and takes only a few minutes at best.

PS Another great reason for a composting head is that one could easily argue the logic and need to have a few dozen PeePoo bags on any boat with a conventional head system.

[Watercolor]

Knapweed,

I have talked to Geoff several times in the past. We were looking at an Airhead and ultimately it was because of his honest information that we decided not to go with a composting toilet. With his input and some research we reluctantly made that decision.

If you've gone over your needs with him I'm sure you'll find it worth the effort.

Fair winds,

jed Guertin

[boatsail]

Originally Posted by Jedg

Knapweed,

I have talked to Geoff several times in the past. We were looking at an Airhead and ultimately it was because of his honest information that we decided not to go with a composting toilet. With his input and some research we reluctantly made that decision.

If you've gone over your needs with him I'm sure you'll find it worth the effort.

Fair winds,

jed Guertin

What were the reasons that kept you from getting the composting

[hummingway]

His right hand slid down his hip to rest on the butt of his Colt while his right hand pushed up the brim of his stetson to reveal eyes the grey of a stormy sky. In a voice as cold as steel he said, "You better smile when you say that, stranger."

The stranger averted his eyes and muttered, "I must of heard wrong sir, I thought that was what you called yourselves up north."

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by hummingway

His right hand slid down his hip to rest on the butt of his Colt while his right hand pushed up the brim of his stetson to reveal eyes the grey of a stormy sky. In a voice as cold as steel he said, "You better smile when you say that, stranger."

The stranger averted his eyes and muttered, "I must of heard wrong sir, I thought that was what you called yourselves up north."

What? Zaphod Bebblebrox in a spaghetti western? And just WHAt was his left hand doin??

Yer so weird Sir

; -}

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by sarafina

What? Zaphod Bebblebrox in a spaghetti western? And just WHAt was his left hand doin??

Yer so weird Sir

; -}

My GPS has malfunctioned. That was intended for another thread ... I'm reasonably sure anyway.

[mischief]

So I've worked on a number of Big wall projects. A Big wall for you non climbers is a vertical cliff face of substantial size.
The longest I've been on the wall after blast off (where we pull the ropes up and we are on our way) was when we reopened Never never land on ElCap in Yosemite cleaning cracks, rebolted unsafe bolts and added some safer belay stations. (Apearently we were the first to repeat the original ascent). It's a great A4 climb of 34 pitches.
So here's the deal we were on the wall for 21days working. So you may ask, how do you go tithe toilet up there?
Well I tell you, it's not like Tarango towers where its isolated and you can just drop it off your ledge and nobody is below. In Yosemite there are heaps of people around.
The most common strategy is a poop tube that you use as you would a holding tank. Messy and gross. In fact lots of times guys build them from PVC pipe and just discard the whole thing after.
Okay here's the better way as Piton Pete would say. We collected paper bags added a little dry compound in each one then refolded the bags. When you had to go pee, why you went over the edge and well hopefully nobody danced in the rain below but likely from 3000' up by the time the pee hit the deck I'm sure it was a fine vapor or mist in the wind. Okay that's what I tell myself anyway.
Now what about the poo poo. (I have young girls and this is their favorite word at the moment. Go figure girls are so gross compared to boys. Jokes)
So we would unfold a bag roll the edge to hold it open and plop plop then fold the top over and shake. Then tie it up on a tag line and drop it below your gear so it hangs on the bottom of your last haul bag.
No smell no mess and at the top all but the freshest ones could be burned.
Although on that trip JP had to go and free a haul bag and got tangled in the bags and they got pulled off and fell into space but that's another story.

The point is, covered poo without liquid subsides its smell quickly.
Think of it this way. Even a fresh dog doo doo once baked in the sun a little stops to smell enough you don't notice it until you step on one and then you immediately smell it once broken open and exposed to the moist interior.

The dry head is likely the way I will go to. I may have to custom build one as well because of the lay out of space we have. But the point is I know it can work as our bag exercise worked a treat and you had no smell even when pinned in still 32c air against the granite wall. All that separated us from poo was a dry dust on the outside and brown paper.

Do there you have it for what it's worth. Now before you skip the head and just stockpile on paper bags. Think about how that would work when you come off shift in a storm. Soaking wet and need to use your paper bag ;-) yup I think a dry head is better.

I do have a question bit ill put it on another post so it doesn't get lost in my rambling post.

My 3yr old girl: Knock knock.
Me:who's there?
Daughter: Poo poo face
Meoo poo face who?
Daughter: Me!
ROTFL

Her own made up joke and its always a crowd pleaser. One day she will resale e she's calling herself a poo poo face. Funniest is when she tells it to older reserved people because they are taken back at first until the punchline.

Cheers

[mischief]

Here's my question. Btw I know the thread was a bit old but hopefully there's more experiences now.

Question.
How bad is the exhaust vent smell and how far away is the minimum it should be placed to those in the cockpit?
The reason I ask is that our head is placed in the walk through to the aft cabin. We are flush decked and the easiest location to place the vent would locate it on the deck beside the dodger. About 1m from where you may sit in the cockpit.
The other place I could get venting too will be about a 3-4m run through a bulkhead a support and behind furnishings then turn and exit up. Trying to vent aft would be an ordeal and we have 4ports 2 in the transom, 2cowl vents and a mushroom extraction vent in the aft and would worry the smell would go right back in if the head vent is close to any of these.
I'm a bit stumped as to where I can vent one of these heads if 1m is too close to the cockpit. Again that would be about 500mm fore of the cockpit and 300mm outbound and 200mm lower than nose height. Yup pretty close and the air from vent would likely go straight in the cockpit. So you can see my concern.

Thoughts?

[Greggegner]

I used the old vent with adaptors to get the size down. The flow is so low there is no back pressure. Our vent is at the side of the center cockpit, can't be more than 4' away, never have had an odor. Once is a while I have smelled the faint odor of leaves, like when you rake the yard.

[wildshore]

I've never noticed any oder at all coming from the vent. You can only smell it in the head when you're...um...doing it. Afterwards the only thing I've ever smelled is a kind of damp humus smell like garden dirt.

[wildshore]

on the bug issue, we've found there are three things that mitigate this: one, make sure your medium is bug and egg free (we use sawdust from a local mill, so that's not an issue), two, put a gasket beneath the seat and the cover so the top of the toilet is sealed and, three, if you put a vent into the toilet housing (we made our own composter) make sure that vent is screened (as well as the exhaust vent). It really hasn't been an issue for us though.

[ImaginaryNumber]

Originally Posted by mischief

Okay here's the better way as Piton Pete would say. We collected paper bags added a little dry compound in each one then refolded the bags. When you had to go pee, why you went over the edge and well hopefully nobody danced in the rain below but likely from 3000' up by the time the pee hit the deck I'm sure it was a fine vapor or mist in the wind. Okay that's what I tell myself anyway.

So we would unfold a bag roll the edge to hold it open and plop plop then fold the top over and shake. Then tie it up on a tag line and drop it below your gear so it hangs on the bottom of your last haul bag.
No smell no mess and at the top all but the freshest ones could be burned.

What is the "dry compound" that you put in the paper bags?

[clockwork orange]

So I bought an Airhead off of craigslist from a guy who sold his boat before installing, it for about half price. Im going to install it in a Gemini cat, the head is in the port hull up forward, the unit will be mounted on the existing fiberglass pedestal facing fore and aft and my thought is to vent it using the little computer fan that came with it by running straight up the bulkhead to the deckhead and then looping back down and exiting through the hull side just under the bridgedeck, I will install a clamshell vent over it to protect it from wave action. Does this sound viable? It seams better than exiting through the deck but I could do that too.

Steve.

[fireboat52]

Do you have a 105? if so, you can just vent it through the bulkhead behind the head into the sail locker. You don't have to vent it outside. The smell will be very minor in the sail locker and will disapate almost immediately when you open the hatch from the deck. It will save you having to worry about water intrusion and is much simpler. I'm not sure about the 3000 series.

[clockwork orange]

No, its a 3000 but the layout is the same, I didn't know how much it would smell and had thought about passing through the sail locker with a pvc pipe and exiting into the anchor well but it would sure be simple just going through the bulkhead so I will probably do that, thanks.

Steve.