Composting head info

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 four 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 event 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
 
colbysmith":297ta248 said:
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.
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Got to seriously disagree, Colby! A composting toilet is the perfect solution for cruisers. We have had ours for 17 years now, and cannot conceive of using a standard marine head or PortaPotti for any significant cruising.

Initial cost was covered by the credit from C-Dory for deleting the conventional marine head on manufacture. As Patty posted, we only had to empty the solids container four times over eight months on our Great Loop. The composted solids were like garden soil, and were disposed of in ordinary garbage bags in dumpsters. BTW, there is no "flushing" of #2, the solids tank remains dry and is desiccated by the constant air flow over it. You simply turn a hand crank to mix recent deposits into the composting solids. In fact, the only time the composting toilet would NOT work properly is if the solids tank somehow should get wet.

The MAJOR advantage is not having to find a pump out (marine head) or shore toilet (PortaPotti, and I assume you do not dump yours overboard). Urine is diverted by the design to a separate tank and does not mix with the solids. Urine is not actually sterile, but "dilution is the solution" in deep water, and when that was not practical, I simply carried the liquids tank up to a toilet. The fan required is a simple 80 milliamp computer fan that could theoretically over a long time drain a battery but never has - our 200 watts of solar alone would power this fan many times over.

Your assignment is to write "NO PUMPOUTS" 100 times on the blackboard (or a piece of paper, your choice)!
 
Hey, possibly stupid question here, and tangently related to composting toilets:
Is it not cool to just piss overboard, of course provided you are discreet as to not get arrested for indecent exposure? It seems like every fishing boat I've ever been on that was always the way it was done.

So for you composting folks, no pouring the #1 (not the solids) into the ocean when out away from shore?
 
Knipet":2zy36c3q said:
Hey, possibly stupid question here, and tangently related to composting toilets:
Is it not cool to just piss overboard, of course provided you are discreet as to not get arrested for indecent exposure? It seems like every fishing boat I've ever been on that was always the way it was done.

So for you composting folks, no pouring the #1 (not the solids) into the ocean when out away from shore?
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Technically, it is not cool to dump untreated urine overboard. It is not sterile and can contain a lot of stuff (e.g. excess vitamins, hormones, ammonia, drug metabolites, etc.) that can be damaging to the marine environment. For instance, in the FL Keys there is a lot of damage to the reefs from ammonia in all the urine deposited in the water by tourist snorkelers.

On the other hand, if you dump your urine in already polluted rivers (e.g. western Lake Erie, Potomac River) it's not going to make a lot of difference.
 
Guilty on more than one occasion. However, a lot of fisherman have fallen over board while hanging on to themselves... I try to remind myself of that when I'm tempted. And I almost never tempt myself when solo on the Great Lakes or any large bodies or flowing waters.
I still like the idea of not straddling anything while using the head closet to shower in. I also know several that have used the solar vents. However, on more than one occasion my solar vent has failed to work... I don't know anyone with the composting toilet that has regretted putting it in. I'm just happy with my current set up. Colby
 
New composting toilet coming on the market...
https://www.compocloset.com/cuddy
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This could possibly make me a convert. The only question I have, is what size is the seat? There are only a few porta Pottis on the market for "adult butts". The rest seem to be made for children. The fact this might be easily removed out of the way for showering would be an advantage. I'm interested to see what kind of reviews this gets once they are available and in use. Colby
 
There are lots of things damaging coral reefs, and I would put "urine from snorkelers way down on that list.

As for the urine being infected-for healthy folks, the amount of bacteria in the urine is insignificant.

How much urine from marine mammals, Similar type of excretions from fish.

The literature seems to implicate sunscreens more than many other pollutants. But I have not been diving where there have been lots of snorkelers go--recently...

Rather than pee overboard, use a urinal--and then dispose of the urine how you think is best--in bottles to the nearest facility, or at sea where it would go naturally.

I'll admit I must have polluted a few rivers in my day....with urine.
 
Yup, I have not sat on an AirHead or NaturesHead but they are molded lids that work as the seat. The C-Head that I have uses an actual elongated adult regular buy them at HD seat. It is modified to have a seal and a hole for the agitator handle but it is comfy. When at Lake Powel I put it up outside and enjoy the view (not as pretty as once was, the bath tub ring is really bad now). See ya.
Bob
PS: Why not make a DIY with a regular seat? If you don't like the concept, no harm as all the parts are still OK to re-use. My wife for some reason does not like things that look fine to me but to her have just too much oddity. BJ
 
Knipet":kl7cxvzs said:
So for you composting folks, no pouring the #1 (not the solids) into the ocean when out away from shore?
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On the contrary, that is what "dilution is the solution" in deep water means, it gets emptied overboard, with some careful attention to which way the wind is blowing!

Victoria, B.C., discharged raw sewage to the Strait of Juan de Fuca from 1894 until 2020, when they finally got a sewage treatement plant constructed!

Victoria sewage story
 
On the boat I used a funnel and a short section of garden hose. If you buy a composting toilet, consider having a stand up urinal on the wall, just a flat backed funnel and hose to the same one gallon bottles used for the C-Head or if you can lift, a plastic five gallon diesel can. I use a bit of sugar in the holding tank or you can add some other smell good stuff. If you have the energy, a raised bed planter made with concrete blocks laid without mortar that is 32" wide and ten feet or so long with a perforated drain pipe in the third will allow you to grow non-edibles and bioremediate your donated nitrogen. A plastic sheet from your local concrete contractor laid in the very bottom and up the sides and ends will keep it all local. If the bed has a mounded rounded top you will not gather rain (whatever that is - we live near Lake Mead - rain is like bugs in the evening at the beach - you know - NoSeeUms). I like to add a bag of vermiculite to the mix and a bag of wood chips from HD to the very top. You can put bird netting over the top if the wind is bad in your areas. I would eat fruit from this bed, if only I made the contributions. You will likely have to add water as you will not believe the amount of transpiration that happens.
!!! Invite me to stay at the cottage and I will bring the tools needed and we can build the whole SheBang. I like to put this on the sunny side of the outhouse or better yet, build two rows of planter about four feet apart as the entry to the south facings outhouse door and run the hose from the urine collector right out the side of the outhouse and into the raised beds.
Bob in Nevada
PS: Here is a link to some great wall mount urinal ideas, never could post a picture here!!! I like the little strait shooter using the frog urinal!!! The link is long but it works - I checked. BJ
https://www.google.com/search?q=wall+mo ... pY7SeJQynM
 
I'm with Bob, I do not see the harm in dumping urine overboard.
Think about the dilution factor when dumping 8-12 oz in millions of gallons of water. If we put a composting head in, I would not transport urine to dump in a "safe" place, but would dump when water is over 50 feet deep.
Call me crazy, I guess...
 
thataway":3nxvq2ru said:
There are lots of things damaging coral reefs, and I would put "urine from snorkelers way down on that list. ....
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Last time I went on a snorkeling excursion in the FL Keys, they made the "don't pee on the reef" message very clear.

No sure how many people followed the recommendations though.
 
-- The real issue is where you are and who is watching. I would not pee in the water or dump any human waste overboard at Avalon but five miles out, whales do it and so do I. The big whales have started showing up again in Arctic waters and the prior absence of their huge clouds of waste had caused a bit of an ecological issue with no plankton and other small critters cause guess what them critters eat?
-- The world was designed to recycle long before I got the funny colored can from our town refuse company. Once had a lady who took care of my sis and I. Her husband raised meat rabbit in wire bottomed cages that were hung over worm beds. He sold the worms to Disneyland for use by we tourists (this is old info - I am old) on Tom Sawyer Island (they gave you a cane pole and a can of worms - trust me, I know these things).
-- We really have to get something more adult to "talk about" here than this line of drool. How about we start a thread on "single vs double engines" or maybe "Should I keep repairing my Wallas?" or best yet, "Looking for an high quality inexpensive camper back for my C-??"!!
-- After all these years of lurking on this forum, I am now too old to buy a C-Dory. However, I see that the Cook's Blue Moon is back on the market. Maybe I should go take a look!!! Naw, no way I can keep an out drive running especially if connected to a Volvo.
Bob Jarrard
 
I would not pee in the water or dump any human waste overboard at Avalon
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Avalon, and now some other harbors have required that fluroscene dye be put in all holding tanks in the harbor. If you commit a sin, then the water around the boat turns bright green. If you are caught, there is a long term ban from the harbor, as well as fines...

I only visited Avalon a very few times in my life--except when I was 15 years old and working at a camp nearby...A few Sunday afternoons I dove for coins when the steam ship left the pier...
 
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