So, as promised, here's the real dirt :-) on the composting toilet that I built for the boat. As I explained in the previous post, there were a number of benefits of converting to a composting toilet that we were looking forward to. Sleeping above a plastic tank of your own waste will probably do that to you.
Now, as marine head systems go, the one that was on our boat was pretty good. The toilet had a small integrated holding tank, big enough for a few days use. When that started getting too full we could pump the contents to the main holding tank via a macerator pump. As marine head systems age though, the interconnecting hoses start to get permeated with the goodies they transport, and start to then give off that familiar odour. Ours was at that stage. Add to that the requirement to redo the fittings connecting the hoses to the holding tank and I was looking at a big, and messy job. Composting toilets had been something I had been interested in for a while, so I ran the proposal past the Cruise Director and received project approval. The quick approval was probably partly due to the fact that the Cruise Director has a much more sensitive sense of smell than I do. :-)
First up was the removal of the old marine head system. I decided to tackle this right after we launched the boat this spring. We had done a complete pump out in the fall before putting the boat up on the hard for the winter, so this was the time to rip it all apart, before it had been used again.
I did have a little surprise with the toilet though, when it wouldn't fit through the bathroom door.
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| Wedged |
I ended up having to partially dismantle the toilet in order to be able to fit it through the door.
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| Half a head |
After that I was able to remove the toilet. I had quite the treat of cleaning up 29 years of 'gunk' (at least that's what I hope it was...) that had accumulated under the toilet.
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| Before... |
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| After |
I wasn't sure how I'd end up getting the holding tank out of
the space under the bed, but it ended up fitting through the opening.
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| The smelly beast |
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| Lots of new, odour free, storage room |
After that I removed the hoses (carefully capped off) and the macerator pump. There were two vent hoses, one for the toilet holding tank and one for the main holding tank. I rerouted these back in behind the bathroom vanity. They'll end up getting used to provide ventilation of the composting toilet box.
After getting the last bits out of the boat and everything cleaned up, I set up our temporary toilet, a
Luggable Loo, fresh off the shelves of Canadian Tire.
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| The Luggable Loo |
Our usage of this was modelled off of Joe Jenkins "Dry Sawdust Toilet". We used woodchips for a pet cage instead of sawdust, but only because we knew it was going to just be temporary. If you decide to do one of these and forgo the urine diversion, then you probably want sawdust, which is much more absorbent than the woodchips were.
We used the Loo for a few months, and once we explained where we were going with all of this it had fairly good reception with guests on board. One such guest was a little princess named Belle, the 4 year old daughter of a friend we had on board for Canada Day. Listening carefully to the instructions on how to use the Loo, Belle went into the bathroom, and after a few minutes emerged triumphant. When her mother asked her if she had gone to the bathroom Belle quite happily responded, "Yes mommy. I peed in the garbage!".
Now on to the build of the new toilet. Because the space for the toilet wasn't that big, I decided to use the whole space rather than just building a box. This made for some tricky cuts (not a lot of square corners on a boat), but it also meant that I'd only need a front and top panel.
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| The framing roughed in |
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| The front panel in place |
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| A test fit of the receptacles |
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| The top panel, with the urine diverter in place |
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| The styrofoam seat that comes with the diverter |
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| The supplied lid |
I still have some fit and finish work to do, as well as some framing to hold the receptacles in position. I also have to install the ventilation fan, if we decide it needs one.
Overall I'm quite happy with how it all turned out. When we were using the Loo we'd have to empty it every 2 to 3 days or so. Now that we have a urine diverter we should be able to go a couple weeks or more between emptying the solids receptacle, while the urine receptacle will be emptied every couple days or so.
Interesting. Having watched a few tutorials on installing the "store brand" composting heads I get how all this goes together. Couple of questions;
ReplyDelete1. How bad (stinky) was pulling that tank? I've read about horror stories :-)
2. The urine separator is great and understand that will be need to be emptied every few days. But as for the solids, most of the commercial varieties have an agitator to "stir things up". Do you think you will need to empty the solids more often as your just chucking wood chips in?
3. Speaking of emptying the solids. Take the bag and put it to the trash? What's the thoughts on this, legally and public opinion?
I read quite a few articles on this and it sure seems to be the way to go. Look forward to further comments on how it's going.
Thanks for the questions Scott.
Delete1. It wasn't too bad, but it had sat empty all winter, and I was very careful to make sure all the connections were capped off by stuffing rags into them as I disconnected them. There's always a little bit of stuff left after a pump out, so I wanted to make sure it stayed where it was. :-)
2. My thinking on this is the agitator makes sure the waste is encapsulated in the bulking material, and probably allows for a little less bulking material and possibly a little more storage. If you're careful with the covering of your waste with the bulking material then the difference in storage time would probably not be that big.
3. Of course the official party line is that all waste gets disposed of in shoreside bathroom facilities.
The reality of it though is that pretty much all municipalities allow both soiled diapers as well as pet waste in the trash. Because of this most users of marine composting toilets probably dispose of their waste in this manner. I would think it prudent to ensure it's double bagged and secure, but I personally wouldn't see a problem with that practice.
Urine disposal is another touchy area. Again, the official party line is the same as solid waste disposal, in shoreside bathroom facilities. The reality is that urine is essential sterile (ignoring the potential for pharmaceutical byproducts having passed through the body into the urine, as well as the normal nutrient component) so most users of a urine diverting composting toilet will simply (and discreetly) dispose of the urine over the side of the boat. Again, my personal feeling on this is that I'm okay with that practice, as long as it's done in a manner that's considerate of others, ie, don't dump it while a bunch of people are swimming next to the boat... :-)