The Best Marine Toilet

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by sloopdogg

Sarafina, could you explain what one should expect from a composting toilet. I'm pretty sure user error has something to do with the bad experiences of some sailors. I'm considering a Natures head but, I'd really like to know what I should expect in it's use. How long does it take to fully compost? I'm am the so called weekend warrior right now and just venturing into my cruising life. Weekends and a week or two once a year. It seems that type of use lends itself more readily to the composter toilets.

Thanks for any insights,
Danny
Lolita
1973 Viking 33
Buzzards Bay

The book 'Humanure Handbook' will teach you more than you need to know ; -)

The C-Head site has some reading that would be useful for anyone thinking about any composting toilet.

In a nushell the name 'Composting Toilet' is misleading. None of these units do anything more than serve as a pre composting holding unit. To be considered 'safe' for uses in agriculture, human waste needs to compost for 2 years.

What the toilets do is provide a way to keep the wet and dry apart to reduce smells and to slow the fill rate of the holding container.

The urine can be easily emptied over and over.

The dry waste is the problematic item.

By dessicating it with peat or spagham or coir or sawdust you dry out and begin the break down process of your waste.

When your container is full you empty it.

Whatever you empty it into is where it will continue to compost. In the land fill where most of our waste eventually goes. If you have access to a property where you could actually compost it for 2 years you could then take the soil you have created and spread it safely.

To say that the waste is going to undergo the total composting process in the toilet is incorrect. It is just a pre composting holding container. Empty it as often as needed.

[HopCar]

Sounds like a litter box to me. Separates the liquid from the solid waste and drys the solid. Ends up in the land fill. Yup, that's a litter box. I've got ecological cats!

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by HopCar

Sounds like a litter box to me. Separates the liquid from the solid waste and drys the solid. Ends up in the land fill. Yup, that's a litter box. I've got ecological cats!

Not unless you are using a bio degradable litter... corn or wheat or paper.

Clay litter gives yer kitties a pretty big carbon footprint. Better buy them some of those carbon offsets!

[slosaileddie]

Jabsco Silent Flush is among the best heads to install in a normal cruising boat. I have installed many to everyone's satisfaction. If installed properly, used correctly and serviced once a year, they are virtually trouble-free for years on end. Don't skimp on the wiring and plumbing and make sure you educate everyone aboard on how to use it. NO foreign objects and a minimum amount of paper per flush should keep everyone out of trouble. Make sure anyone with long hair closes the lid before combing their hair.
Remove the pump once annually, strip and remove calcium, lightly grease the motor bearings and there should be no problems. Clean the joker valve. Do not over-tighten any screws and beware of pinching the o-ring when reassembling the head.
The switches are not waterproof....make sure they do not get wet when you shower. Every four years replace the joker valve.
If you do charters, write in your contract that a blocked head will cost the guest U$ 150 in cash payable to the technician before the repair and tell them in the briefing that the heads are newly serviced and inspected so they can't blame the previous guests (company policy with the big charter companies). I guarantee there will be very few problems that way

[jmcdboater]

Eddie,
That is a great endorsement, you sound like someone who really knows what he's talking about, thanks a bunch!

[motion30]

Originally Posted by slosaileddie

Jabsco Silent Flush is among the best heads to install in a normal cruising boat. I have installed many to everyone's satisfaction. If installed properly, used correctly and serviced once a year, they are virtually trouble-free for years on end. Don't skimp on the wiring and plumbing and make sure you educate everyone aboard on how to use it. NO foreign objects and a minimum amount of paper per flush should keep everyone out of trouble. Make sure anyone with long hair closes the lid before combing their hair.
Remove the pump once annually, strip and remove calcium, lightly grease the motor bearings and there should be no problems. Clean the joker valve. Do not over-tighten any screws and beware of pinching the o-ring when reassembling the head.
The switches are not waterproof....make sure they do not get wet when you shower. Every four years replace the joker valve.
If you do charters, write in your contract that a blocked head will cost the guest U$ 150 in cash payable to the technician before the repair and tell them in the briefing that the heads are newly serviced and inspected so they can't blame the previous guests (company policy with the big charter companies). I guarantee there will be very few problems that way

I installed a new slient flush, while it works well It is anything but slient

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by motion30

I installed a new slient flush, while it works well It is anything but slient

So totally agree with that statement! Along with Jabsco Shower pump guaranteed to wake Davy from his locker!!!!!

[thompsonisland]

Family of four, one head. It's an old school manual, and the little valve at the bottom doesn't 'cut' it, pun intended. So sick of poop bits in the head. Plus, it gets smelly.

Thinking about a composter. I'm not squeamish, separating toilet paper or using cloth is no worry for me. I don't want to shovel a bucket of raw sewerage, but I am not afraid of knowing what's in the box. Four people, four poops a day. Assume living aboard, as that's the goal. Can we do it, those of you with experience?

[HopCar]

I'm supprised to hear complaints about the noise level of the Jabsco Quiet Flush toilets.
I know the regular Jabsco electric toilet can be noisy because it has a rubber impeller pump in the base to bring in the flush water. Rubber impeller pumps are noisy.
The quiet Flush toilets either use pressure water from your fresh water system or a remotely mounted diaphram pump to supply raw water. Either way it should be much quieter than a toilet with the supply pump built in. The discharge pump which is in the base of the toilet is a centrifugal pump and should be pretty quiet.
Where is the noise coming from?

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by HopCar

I'm supprised to hear complaints about the noise level of the Jabsco Quiet Flush toilets.
I know the regular Jabsco electric toilet can be noisy because it has a rubber impeller pump in the base to bring in the flush water. Rubber impeller pumps are noisy.
The quiet Flush toilets either use pressure water from your fresh water system or a remotely mounted diaphram pump to supply raw water. Either way it should be much quieter than a toilet with the supply pump built in. The discharge pump which is in the base of the toilet is a centrifugal pump and should be pretty quiet.
Where is the noise coming from?

LAGOON/BENETEAU install the saltwater feed pump in a cupboard within 1 metre of the toilet, that combined with the macerator raises the noise level.

Good in some ways because you are aware if someone is having problems.

Then again all cupboards are GRP so there is no sound installation..

Cheers

[Captain Jeffry]

Originally Posted by sarafina

The book 'Humanure Handbook' will teach you more than you need to know ; -)

The C-Head site has some reading that would be useful for anyone thinking about any composting toilet.

In a nushell the name 'Composting Toilet' is misleading. None of these units do anything more than serve as a pre composting holding unit. To be considered 'safe' for uses in agriculture, human waste needs to compost for 2 years.

What the toilets do is provide a way to keep the wet and dry apart to reduce smells and to slow the fill rate of the holding container.

The urine can be easily emptied over and over.

The dry waste is the problematic item.

By dessicating it with peat or spagham or coir or sawdust you dry out and begin the break down process of your waste.

When your container is full you empty it.

Whatever you empty it into is where it will continue to compost. In the land fill where most of our waste eventually goes. If you have access to a property where you could actually compost it for 2 years you could then take the soil you have created and spread it safely.

To say that the waste is going to undergo the total composting process in the toilet is incorrect. It is just a pre composting holding container. Empty it as often as needed.

This is some interesting s..., err stuff!! Thanks!

[botanybay]

I have been EXTREMELY happy with the Raritan Marine Elegance, I installed one of them about 3 years ago as a liveaboard and installed a second last year. Thus far zero problems and no maintenance. Running mostly on fresh water but these are the "smart flush" with "seafresh" and I have a tank filled with dillute "Odorloss" on a y valve in the salt water intake line. So about once a week I run a short flush cycle with the dilute "Odorloss" solution.

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by thompsonisland

Family of four, one head. It's an old school manual, and the little valve at the bottom doesn't 'cut' it, pun intended. So sick of poop bits in the head. Plus, it gets smelly.

Thinking about a composter. I'm not squeamish, separating toilet paper or using cloth is no worry for me. I don't want to shovel a bucket of raw sewerage, but I am not afraid of knowing what's in the box. Four people, four poops a day. Assume living aboard, as that's the goal. Can we do it, those of you with experience?

I can't speak to the capacity of other systems, but with our C-Head it is just a matter of when it is "full" emptying it and moving on as you would with a holding tank that reached capacity and needed to be pumped or dumped.

I would say that we find our C-Head handles around 25 to 30 number 1 and 15 to 20 number 2. We do not put much TP into the head. Any tissue that is only wet goes into the trash and any tissue that is only lightly soiled goes into the trash. Occasionally I use a tissue to wipe a bit around the bowl/chute. That paper usually is messy enough that I drop it in.

When it gets hard to churn we dump the solid contents into a bag and walk it up to the dumpster along with the rest of the trash.

So do the math. I am guessing you might be emptying the head once a week maybe? It's so easy to do it's not a big deal at all.

[Reiheld]

We have bought a C-Head for our homemade houseboat, and so far, with light use, we are pleased with its simplicity and ease of use. And the fact that the C-Head cost us $500, less than half what Nature's Head or Air Head cost didn't hurt, either. It is a comfortable height as is, requires no footrest or special platform. Installation couldn't be easier.

In particular I like the fact that urine goes into a plain old gallon jug, not a fancy custom-made container. When it's full or at the end of the cruise, whichever comes first, it gets dumped onto our azaleas, or into a shoreside toilet. No problem just putting it into a grocery bag for inconspicuous transport to the restroom. When the jug gets funky, it goes in the garbage, to be replaced by another empty milk jug. If the pee jug seems likely to be full before the next shore call, the cap screws on very conveniently and tightly for storage. We, of course, would never consider dumping sterile urine overboard, even far from civilization. .

The coconut fiber (coir) seems to work just fine for drying out the #2 contributions, and dumping the bucket of lumpy peaty stuff into a second 5-gallon bucket (ours is lined with a plastic kitchen trash bag, just for convenience) is just not a big deal. We have not yet filled that spare bucket up, but when we do, we will start a dedicated compost bin, to be added to our flower beds as time goes on.

The coir bricks are quite compact, and a shoebox will hold enough to last for months and months. We use a large ziplock Baggie to contain the moistened loose fiber until it is needed.

The hardest part of this system seems to be convincing men that they MUST sit to pee. The male of the species has been accused of poor aim anyway, years of habit and macho aren't helpful, and this pot is simply not designed for a stream of urine aimed toward the back of the bowl. Makes a nasty mess of the poop bucket, and I suspect is the cause of most people's disappointing experiences. I have a sign sternly ordering men who insist on standing to pee to go to the lee rail.

We will learn a lot more as we begin to take longer trips, but so far, so good!

[loualvarez]

The best marine toilet is the Lavac Popular