Composting head info

S

South of Heaven

New member
Guys, anyone have a composting head? Here's a link and video (there are many brands)

https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Head-Com ... oilet+boat


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSoXocqfjc8&t=36s

I'm curious about them. The upsides are myriad. No pumpouts, very little maintenance, extra storage gained from eliminating the holding tank etc.

The downsides: You will personally be disposing of your urine and excrement (although the latter will pretty much be mulchy manure by then, lol) . Another big downside is that the actual toilet is very high, so it supposedly feels weird when sitting on it.

The price is about $1k or so. There are different composting options but even the Euro options are about the same price or even higher.

Anyway, I'm seriously considering it. I really like the idea of NO PUMPOUTS. I also like the idea of eliminating the holding tank and gaining a huge amount of real estate (it's in the companionway).

I also like the idea of it for the winter temps. Im gonna be a full time liveaboard starting in the fall of 2018. It'd be great to not have to winterize the lines, tank etc. I could still use my head all winter (although I also have top notch facilities at my marina as well).

Thanks guys! Let me know!
 
Jason-

Search for "Airhead" and "composting toilet" on this site.

Pat and Patty Anderson were the first to install and report on their use of an Airhead composting toilet on their CD-25 Daydream more than ten years ago.

Interesting concept: marine-wise, biologically, and from an environmental engineering point of view!

Good Luck!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Sea Wolf":2zmekr0j said:
Jason-

Search for "Airhead" and "composting toilet" on this site.

Pat and Patty Anderson were the first to install and report on their use of an Airhead composting toilet on their CD-25 Daydream more than ten years ago.

Interesting concept: marine-wise, biologically, and from an environmental engineering point of view!

Good Luck!

Joe. :teeth :thup
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm reading all of them now!
 
You should also Google "composting toilet" with "flies and gnats." That is one of the things that made me decide against one at our yurt. Some of them use small amounts of electricity (which we don't have) to maintain the required temperatures to compost efficiently. That also increases the likelihood of bugs.

The best story I found was a composting toilet in the basement that got an infestation. The owner was frustrated and just hauled it up the stairs. Unfortunately, he tripped and it bounced back down the stairs. Reminded me of my Porta-Potty incident, only I didn't pay $1,000 for it.

Mark
 
I do not like either the AirHead or the Natures Head but love my C-Head from Cap. Much less expensive, no bugs if you follow instructions, more DIY which in this case means better design and Cap is a 100% real boater and nice guy. Here is the link:
http://www.c-head.com/
Bob Jarrard
 
Bob,
I checked the C Head, and it seemed to be not composting, if you use the animal bedding, as recommended?

Treat, store and discard solid waste using a sealed 5-gal disposable bucket or compost solid waste ashore
Click to expand...
using a composting bin. Is that correct?

Why do you prefer this over a true composting toilet, with front detachable urine catchment?
 
The dark mahogany one from C Head is beautiful! LOL! I'm serious!

Dark_mahogany_bucket_black_seat.jpg
 
Jim,
We have been looking at the plus and minus of the composting heads. Some are pretty well sealed from the top (gaskets on the lid and seat etc)--for those which are not, putting a plastic fitted cover over the top should resolve the issues. Rinse and shake after the shower--hang to dry with the towels.
 
I've seen a few composting heads, and while interesting, and well liked by those that have them, I'm not sure I see the advantage. With a porta potty or marine head, you do either number, not worried about mixing the two. From what I understand of the composting toilets, you can't mix 1 and 2 together. Pee has to go in a separate hole, and you still have to dump that at some point, usually more often than the regular potti. 2 goes down the shoot and into it's composting bin. As for how long you can go before having to dump or pumpout with the regular potti's, one can extend that time by not flushing unless necessary, and just using some vinegar in a spray bottle to "spritz" the toilet after use. Then there is the expense... Composting toilets just seem to me like more trouble than they are worth, at least on a boat.
 
Different strokes for different folks. We love our airhead for the way we use our boat. No more pump outs. No smell issue. We get about three weeks of steady use. (More or less)The urine goes in the bottle and is easily disposed of. (We do have two bottles if needed.) No bugs if properly cared for. On a 22 I would use a portable toilet. After more than a year of use my wife says there is no way that she would go back to a marine toilet. There is a learning curve but everything on a boat has a learning curve. We use cocoa core that we prepare very dry and that seems to work well. It’s much easier to add moisture later than take it away.

If your going to stay mostly at a marina where pump outs are available, why change. We “gunk hole” a lot and are normally anchor at out of the way locations.

I have not heard of anyone removing a composing toilet from a boat...YET.....
 
I would like to provide feedback about the composting head, now that we have had the 26, with the Air-Head for more than three years.

Before I provide info on the composting head, a bit of background about me... I have owned over 75 boats and about 40 percent of those had port-a-potties or the more common marine heads with holding tanks. I am retired for the USCG and also from the Corps of Engineers, where I was Engineer Officer of numerous ships, that had complex black water and gray water systems and later in life, I was in charge of all of the larger ships in the CG's Atlantic area, for all major maintenance. This information is provided, for the sole purpose of your better understanding that I have stood in sewage, in the middle of the night at sea, because of various mechanical problems. I have been in a CG small boats with poor tank vent systems and the worst ever, was when a sewage system malfunctioned in 30 foot seas while I was sitting on the thrown.

Now back to the 26, with the composting head. The 26, originally came equipped with a normal head system, with toilet, macerator pump, hoses, a holding tank, a vent and a clean-out fitting. The first owner of the boat, removed all of the original plumbing in its entirety and installed an Air Head composting toilet. The Air Head has a small screen on one side of the upper part of the part of the toilet compost storage area and has a hose going to the overhead and to a vent above the cabin top on the other side of the head. At the top of the vent hose, a computer fan is installed to pull air through the system.

This worked well, but I do not like to keep a battery switch on, when I am not on the boat. I removed the computer fan from the vent, replaced the vent hose, to aid in air flow path and installed a Marinco solar vent fan to the overhead of the boat.

After purchasing the boat and reading about these type of heads, I was concerned about odor and the emptying process... After using the head and taking care of it, I have found that this is one of the best things on this boat. There is training required for everyone using the head, but the key is to sit down, man or woman and understand how it works. There is zero odor and we can cruise for a month, without worry about emptying solids. Liquids go into a separate removable tank and I have two, just in case... My boat gets used several times a week, year-around and I only have emptied the composting section 4 time (in 3 + years of use). Emptying the composting section is simple, you unclip the top half, unclip the lower (holding/composting section tank). Place a plastic garbage bag over the opening, turn it up side down, shake it, remove the bag and you are done. The bag with the composting material and human waste is not a bio hazard and can be placed in the trash, or used for fertilizer in your flower garden.

So, the short story is that my boat has NO odor from human waste. The head compartment still is used for taking a shower, you just sit on the toilet lid and enjoy your shower. We do have hot water, if we are plugged in to shore power, or run our Honda generator. If we choose to not have the generator running, while on the hook, I have a solar water bag on top of the cabin, with the spray hose going into the window of the head compartment.

Did I say that my boat has zero head odors??? If not I'll repeat, NO head odors and very low maintenance.
 
I see Bob replied to my 2018 post on the C-Head. Cap the builder is just honest, all composting heads are really just desiccators and feces covering tools. It takes months to compost human feces with the right heat and humidity. A easy dump of the fully loaded container and a good way to empty the urine bottle is the most important thing. I still stand by my C-Head as by "Heads" and shoulders over the NaturesHead or the AirHead or even a Dead Head (could not resist that one). I guess a long spoon and some cedar shavings in a five gallon bucket will do the deal if you can pee and poop at two different times. It is the mixture of feces and urine that creates the odor. Also, the combo increases the insect issue and odor. I have never, not even once, had any odor even after two weeks of heavy use from my D-Head nor even a single bug. We put the paper in a folded top brown bag and have a shore side Viking funeral when it is full. You can also use a bit of floating wood and do the same offshore. They are pesticide blocks you can put inside the outer cabinet if you live in Florida but if you live in the Bug State, you got flying things in your freezer! Feel free to call me at 714 686-2728 if you need more thoughts on this deep matter. Bob
 
I stripped our boat of the entire original system and replaced the sewage tank with a new fresh water tank. Really nice not hauling around a tank of sewage. We went with an Airhead and don't regret it one bit. I chuckle every time i think of my first cleaning....while on a 3 month trip around Florida I was pretty anxious about dealing with the number 2. 25 days into the trip there was no avoiding having to empty it. Out came the rubber gloves, plastic liner down on the deck, bleach, clean water and soap to wash up. It was so easy and mess free I truly didn't even need gloves to do it. "Easy, peasy" as my daughter would say. And the most important benefit is that you don't need or want to clean it. Once you dump it in a plastic bag what is left is the starter bacteria for the next batch. Outstanding! We manage 3-4 weeks at a time.

James
 
We also lived with an "Air Head" for about 3 years. A bit of a pain emptying the urine.

We keep the black bag in the sun on our gravel pad where the trailers are. It is turned every week or so. This does compost the material.

We also used the vinegar bottle spritzer when necessary.

No problem with shower, although we do have a shower curtain which can go over the head. But it would not leak sitting on the "throne". Not sure if the use of "Thrown" above was intentional or not. But we were never "Thrown" off the throne.
 
Patty here. We put an Airhead in our 25' boat during construction in 2005. We still have it and have loved it. We took 8 months to cruise the Great Loop, used it every day, emptied the solids only 4 times.
 
On my C-Head the urine collection bottle is just plain old one gallon plastic water bottles, best the screw top kind with a good handle. Two fit in a canvas carry bag and off you go to find a toilet or urinal. If you garden, you can water with the urine but you may need to dilute first or along the way. If you dig in 3" or 4 "inch by 18" long perforated pipe sections around a tree or bush, the liquid is delivered below 12" or so and there never is any odor. I spritz the urine diverter with a weak cleaning solution (Pine-Sol is my favorite but you can use anything that smells good and leaves no residue - even the holding tank chemicals if diluted a lot work OK). I do not spray the "composting" media but suggest that fresh cedar works great - think "hamster bedding" from Walmart (smallest shaving or sliver size works best - more surface area). The C-Head comes with a second "further composting" five gallon bucket with screened vent but the seven gallon bucket with a screw-on lid adapter from HD or Lowes works better. You can add vents and all kinds of trick stuff. When I use the second bucket I put a double kitchen trash can liner in first so that the bucket is always clean (I add a nice layer of newspaper in the bottom just in case). If you are rich, you can use trash compactor bags but I find them hard to seal for disposal. See ya. Bob
 
Are there composting toilets that don't require 12 volt power? I have a cabin in the woods and the tall trees don't let enough sunlight through to run a solar panel for fan power. If you know of a composting toilet that works without power I would love to know the brand and model.
Thanks,
Forrest
 
Forrest,
Only the large cabin/family sized non-flushing toilets require real amounts of power and that at 110V as they have conveyors, mixers, control systems, and heaters. If you need info on this kind of unit, give me a call as it is a "deep" topic.
The three major, actually really only contenders, in the small and easily installed units are made by AirHead and Nature'sHead who hate each other as they had a business issue and then Cap who makes the C-Head that I have. All three of these can have no vent/fan, a gravity vent (relies on air pressure and movement as does a dorade on a boat), a 12 volt computer muffin fan using almost no power 12 volts. a very small 110 volt fan and/or an open window.
Done right as you are not evaporating the urine and only desiccating the feces - not much moisture to get rid of if the use/loading is low as in two to three folks for regualr use or cottage use for shorter visits. The beauty is that you can get ahead of the loading by doing an empty out. The average person should void a liter/quart of urine a day so a a C-Head with a gallon bottle means once a day change out for a party of fur please.
The C-Head can be had with a diverter urine collector that can feed a five gallon yellow plastic diesel or something similar.
Being a recovered hippie from the 60's this is all second nature to me so feel free to call for your no cost consultation. Whatever you do, stay away from the incinerating toilets unless you have lots of 220V and love the smell of burning poop.
Unless your cottage use is in a very urban area, this whole even cycle gets to be organic if you know what I mean. Take a walk in a cow pasture, hard not to step on manure bombs, they are everywhere. I know all about cholera and typhoid, but the entire sub-continent of India uses the outdoors as their toilet of choice. The three units noted above are much more elegant, can be used indoors, and offer a safe way to handle waste. Urine is sterile and clorox is almost free at the 99 Cent Store if you want to put a gallon in each change out of the main chamber.
Here is the homework started for you: https://www.c-head.com/ and then https://airheadtoilet.com/ and then https://natureshead.net/ and there are a ton of DIY sites on the internet. Also, low cost units from Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/market/compost_toilet
Bob Jarrard 714 686-2728
 
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