The 'Haybox' & other composting toilets

  • 22 Dec 2013 13:16
    Reply # 1462402 on 1462352
    Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Annie Hill wrote:The trouble is that you guys all have big heads.  ;-) I can't even find room for a 20l bucket in mine, although a small sea toilet just fits.

    I have been in touch with Mr C-head who suggested that a sustainable alternative to peat would be equine pine pellets.  Has anyone every heard of such a thing?  I've heard of cows being fed all sorts of things that no self-respecting cow should have to swallow, but didn't know that people fed wood to horses!

    Anyway, I'm sure some of you composters will investigate and report back.


    Sounds funny.  Pellets from pine, or any other wood, is used to feed heaters in my world. The fine thing with it is that it can be used in automatic (central) heating systems (boilers). I would think that pine pellets is no better than sawdust (that is, not so good) in composting toilets.

    Arne

  • 22 Dec 2013 06:23
    Reply # 1462366 on 1462350
    Deleted user
    Roger Scott wrote:Hi Gary, that sounds good. Am thinking of doing an experiment build. Did you have to vent yours?
    Yes I did, with a computer fan, runs 24/7, pushes thru pvc pipe to the deck.
  • 22 Dec 2013 05:08
    Reply # 1462352 on 679928
    The trouble is that you guys all have big heads.  ;-) I can't even find room for a 20l bucket in mine, although a small sea toilet just fits.

    I have been in touch with Mr C-head who suggested that a sustainable alternative to peat would be equine pine pellets.  Has anyone every heard of such a thing?  I've heard of cows being fed all sorts of things that no self-respecting cow should have to swallow, but didn't know that people fed wood to horses!

    Anyway, I'm sure some of you composters will investigate and report back.
  • 22 Dec 2013 04:57
    Reply # 1462350 on 679928
    Hi Gary, that sounds good. Am thinking of doing an experiment build. Did you have to vent yours?
  • 22 Dec 2013 01:39
    Reply # 1462306 on 679928
    Deleted user
    We have a 20L bucket with 6mm galv rod bent into a square wave shape as the stirrer and an oval shaped funnel bolted inside the lip of the bucket as a wee catcher. Drains into 5L plastic petrol can which is emptied overboard every night after dinner. Works perfectly. Cost abut $30.
    1,100 bucks for a commercial bog.. thats how much our two masts cost... (almost)
    Last modified: 22 Dec 2013 02:10 | Deleted user
  • 22 Dec 2013 01:31
    Reply # 1462302 on 679928
    I don't know if my poetry would compost that well, but only time will tell!
  • 21 Dec 2013 19:13
    Reply # 1462230 on 679928
    Roger,
    Your poetry's so bad it should go down the head!
    But I agree that the head is as good as you said.
  • 21 Dec 2013 06:23
    Reply # 1462097 on 679928

    La Chica's skipper recently sold me an 'as new' composting toilet with which I am happy.

    My Naturehead loo is something quite new, and a very nice way to do a poo. Compared to the last, that 'blast from the past', the human manure breaks down really fast. Between sawdust and moss it is hard to know, but this coconut fiber is fine don't you know, no smell in my cabin, no pong in my head, I can safely go happily off to my bed. But with company on board, the pee pot gets full, more quickly that normal and that's really not cool, but compared to the last, that blast from the past, I can empty my pee pot without spilling at last.

    As David says, I am not sure if the coconut fiber is the silver bullet. I think it comes in various grades and the one I have currently is relatively fine grade. I haven't let the box get more than half full yet, because it seems to get more and more difficult to crank. round. I am sure it won't break, but the last thing I want is a broken crank in the poo box, even though it may be nicely composted.

    I am amazed that there is absolutely no smell, except as David says, a faint musty aroma every so often. It is simple to use, easy to keep clean and easy to install, dismantle and empty. If anyone is interested in designing another model, a separate holding tank for the liquids would be good and a sealable opening door to empty the composted solids l, as you would ashes from a fire grate, would make life just that bit easier.

    I think Naturehead and AirHead are more or less the same, the only difference being that Naturehead has a fixed seat, therefore less moving parts and easier to maintain, but maybe not quite as aesthetic as the Airhead. It is pleasing to have an aesthetic thunderbox and I am thinking of painting mine gold.

    Roger, on Shoestring.

  • 16 Dec 2013 06:29
    Reply # 1458844 on 679928
    Deleted user

    Seen as how this particular thread has been revitalised for the moment I thought I might give an update on our 'Airhead' composting toilet experiences. We have had the toilet installed in Footprints now for over 2 years and have used it through a variety of different length cruises ranging from weekends away, to 10 day holidays, to our recent 3 months on board for the three of us. After all of that I would still say unreservedly that the Airhead is the best marine toilet solution I have experienced in over 40 years of cruising yacht ownership and quite a few years working in the charter yacht industry. So some of the points:

    • We get no smell in the toilet compartment except maybe for a slight musty smell sometimes, but certainly not offensive.
    • We do not get any smell from the urine container. Sometimes I pour in some chemical toilet fluid when refitting the container but even without that there is no urine smell in the toilet compartment.
    • I find I need to empty the 8 litre urine container once a day for the three of us. I did forgot to do so once but I will not make that mistake again! 
    • We only get smell from the ondeck vent if we allow the solids composting bowl to get too moist, or if it is approaching time to empty the solids composting bowl.
    • I find that for the three of us full time that I need to empty the composting bowl about once every three weeks.
    • I mostly use peat moss in the composting bowl which I find works well. For our three months away I tried some locally available coconut fibre medium which I found to not be very successful. I think it was too coarse and woody.

    So there it is, after 2 years well worth the expense for an easy to use environmentally friendly (apart maybe from the peat moss) marine toilet solution.

    [Webmaster note: For those who don't know, David sails in NZ, same as Annie :-]

    Last modified: 16 Dec 2013 22:40 | Deleted user
  • 16 Dec 2013 00:22
    Reply # 1458729 on 679928
    I should like to have an effective composting toilet, but the space where my sea-toilet is presently located is tiny.  My climate varies between pretty cold and damp in the winter (when composting, I assume, would happen slowly), to near-tropical in the summer, when things like Porta-pottis can start to get a bit offensive.  I don't mind emptying fairly regularly.  I don't want too much of a project, but the smallest commercial toilet I've come across, the C-head is way too big.  More than anything, however, I want something that doesn't smell.  i suspect it would need to be vented.

    The NZ authorities are happy about composting toilets and don't insist on a holding tank for urine.  (I should have thought a gallon, poured into Salt Water Pond would not seriously affect its nature!)  I'm still looking for something that will work for me.
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
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