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Composting Head?

7K views 35 replies 13 participants last post by  Minnewaska 
#1 ·
I have read a blog or two about people installing composting heads on their boats. But I have yet to read how the new owners feel about composting heads after having them installed for several years.

Anyone have experience that they would be willing to share?
 
#4 ·
I've read both stories. Some love them to the point that they preach the benefits from every hilltop. There are also some that rip them out the first chance they get.

For me, I'm not going there. Too hard for guests to understand and I'm not explaining it....... squat there and turd on the last user's load, then turn the handle to mix it all together. Right......
 
#7 ·
Though you are relying on your electrical system working and tapping into your fresh water supply. If you have a big enough boat (and bank account) stuffed full of gadgets and gizmos requiring a larger power source and a high capacity water maker, it would work until something breaks down. A composting head uses a small amount of power for the 12v fan, which can be supplied by an independent solar charged battery. I am a poor sailor on a small boat, a composting head takes up very little space
 
#8 ·
I'm not saying composting toilets are bad. I only find myself refuting the extreme points that their advocates usually make about them. Less complicated, no odor, easier to use, etc.

Now we are moving to the amount of power usage. Sure, my toilets use more electrical power. But the composting head won't compost properly or remain odor free with zero, like a hand pump.

My only point is, there is no perfect solution, and it only seems to be the composting head advocates that insist there is.

To those that like them, more power to you.
 
#17 ·
One of our main reasons for getting a composting head was that pump outs seem to be spotty here on the Chesapeake, especially in the more out of the way areas. We haven't had any odor or bug issues (knock on wood) and find it to be a great solution for weekend warriors like us.

Where I can't see it working well is for longer term cruisers, mainly because of the small liquid holding capacity. Two of us fill ours in about a day and a half. Extra tanks are available, but is anybody really going to dinghy 3 or 4 of them ashore every few days? The liquid can also be directed to a larger holding tank, but that really starts to defeat the purpose. I'm not sure there's an easy way to no discharge compliance if you're going to be out for more than one or two liquid tanks worth of days.
 
#21 ·
The Chessy is probably one of the toughest places to manage a holding tank. Anyone in the upper Bay is a day and half away from clearing the NDZ. If you have to pump out 100% of the time, that would be a pain. Composters could be a good solution, you just can't say they are without their downsides too. Around here, I pass outside the 3 mile limit nearly every weekend...... intentionally.
I have read that Air Head will modify the liquid tank to drain into your existing holding tank. While this then requires you to find a pump out, it would make your range much further. I imagine you would need to use some sort of deodorant product as I imagine it would get stinky. I doubt the sugar they recommend adding to the collection jug would do much for a holding tank.

I was looking at a house that was about 50 foot from the Hudson River, and it had a bad septic tank, so my solution was going to go composting toilets. I figured there was no way the EPA/BOH would give a leach field approval that close to the water. And it certainly would have been cheaper than a raised Leach field, that was estimated to start at $20,000 and go up quickly from there. Though I was looking at the Sunmar as they are not dry toilets.
 
#18 ·
The Chessy is probably one of the toughest places to manage a holding tank. Anyone in the upper Bay is a day and half away from clearing the NDZ. If you have to pump out 100% of the time, that would be a pain. Composters could be a good solution, you just can't say they are without their downsides too. Around here, I pass outside the 3 mile limit nearly every weekend...... intentionally.

What roasts my potatoes is that when I'm 1 mile offshore in 100 foot deep ocean currents, its illegal to dump a few gallons of waste. Emotional people who can't fathom how vast that is are making these rules.

Everytime you flush the toilet at home or the office, you are affecting the environment too. Do you think your septic tank hasn't made about 500 sf of your backyard pretty toxic? Composters are predominantly sending their nutrient rich waste to a landfill. Bet you wouldn't let your kids play in it.

I'm getting a giggle thinking of all the environ-zelots that are going to try to hold it in today. :)
 
#20 ·
The Chessy is probably one of the toughest places to manage a holding tank. Anyone in the upper Bay is a day and half away from clearing the NDZ. If you have to pump out 100% of the time, that would be a pain. :)
Its a fact of life here on the Chessie. Do we want our crabs or do we want them embargo because of high fecal chloroform levels. I have never really found it that difficult to find a place to pump out when traveling here. I am fortunate where I keep my boat has one, but the alternative of dumping into the Bay is not an alternative to me.
 
#19 ·
As to minne's would I let me kids play with a manure debris, which is what the remains of a composting toilet is........yes if composted long enough. On the other hand, I do pickup after my dog a couple of times a day, putting excrement/manure in the trash.

I've probably put hundreds of not thousands of yds of manure and or bio-solids as it is know locally on peoples yards as top-dressing/mulch. BUT, All of these have been or are supposed to be composted for X months, reach a YYY temp for a minimum time to kill off any bad organisms etc. This is usually mixed in with sawdust of some sort. Altho the manures from farms usually have some shavings/sawdust from the get go, then the composter/supplier mixes in more.........

This is going on daily around the US right now. Is human excrement any more worst than animal. no not really. Altho bio-solids/sewage sludge is probably in an of itself the most problematic from a potential poison issue considering what get thrown down the septic/sewage system.

Cam Muir on Mt Rainer uses a composting/dehydrating toilet so the waste from the climbers/dayhikers to here is reduced to about 10-15% weight nd size for easier removal from the mtn. If you climb the mtn away from here, you take a double plastic bag system up with you to bring down the solid waste.

To my eye, either system involves or should potentially involve rubber gloves to remove the waste. Both need to be processed at a proper place once out of the holding tank per say. I also do not have issues with dumping x miles from land etc. I also know the water at least locally from the sewage processing plants, is as clean or cleaner than locally in the cascade mtn streams. It is pumped into puget sound daily. Meanwhile up north in Victoria, everything, dumped straight into the straights with out processing. That is scary in my book! at least at that quantity.

Marty
 
#24 ·
That is self-evident. However, I don't see those with flush heads suggesting their method is without downside, while the composters usually do. I've read more than once composter who has ripped the bloody thing out of their boat, but they can't seem to understand any downside.
 
#33 ·
We have a C-Head, our first loo in our homemade boat, and so far, in 9 months of light use, couldn't be more pleased. The simplicity of design, the ease of keeping it clean, the fact that its few parts can be easily, locally and cheaply replaced, make it excellent for our needs. We don't need to buy a big expensive custom jug for the urine, (just screw on the cap and put another clean gallon jug in its place. next time we go ashore, we take the full jug in a grocery sack, and empty it into a toilet, or dump it in the woods. It IS sterile, after all.)
At $500,it is hard to beat the price of the rig, and frankly, I don't care where the nearest pump out is, how much it costs, etc. When the fiber/poop mixture seems hard to turn, the contents are emptied into an ordinary 5-gallon bucket, which is ventilated, where further drying takes place. Composted? Not really, I suppose. but dried into an entirely odorless lumpy mix that can be tied up in a plastic bag and chucked, less offensively than cat litter or used Pampers. Or a permanent lid can be fastened on it, and chucked, and by the time THAT decomposes, the contents will be the least of our problems. As for me, I plan to start a long-term compost bin not too far from our dock, well hidden by azaleas, which should be happy to have it.
It is easy, needs no nasty chemicals, no emergency 'unauthorized-deposits'-caused tear-downs, and has, so far, no odor at all. No bugs, either. I may have to eat my words some hot summer day, but that day hasn't come yet.
 
#34 ·
One surprise was that TP seems to float on the surface of the COIR/peat, rather than being drawn down into the mixture. We deal with that by letting it dry and from time to time, plucking it out, putting it into a plastic bag, and chucking it with the rest of the garbage. It hasn't been a problem the way a sewage-soaked plastic hose would be to me, or repairing a jammed mascerator would be.

The other thing that takes some getting used to, at least for male mariners, is that EVERYBODY sits to use this thing. If they don't, ain't NObody gonna be happy with the soggy results. So, deal with it, friend. Cooperate or head for the lee rail.
 
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