Composting Toilet

Naio wrote:
I do have experience.

Something that stores two weeks' worth is not a composting toilet, despite what advertising may claim. It's a chemical free porta potty that you can, if you wish, empty into a composting pile or container.

A true composting toilet stores the waste until it is fully composted. And yes, this takes months or years depending on conditons. Never weeks.

The porta potty version could work for an rv if you only take short trips and have a setup for composting poo at home. Many people on this forum travel for longer periods of time, or full time, so our responses tend to assume that.

You are correct.... my wife and I never take a trip of less than 2 months.... sometimes as long as 6 months or more.

We don't go to campgrounds... ever

We don't stay in one spot more than a few days

We have slept in this camper 1245 nights as we covered most of north america

Dump stations are not hard to find.... I have never seen a place to dump poop solids

We are totally self contained... but I don't want to waste our stored energy processing poop into a still possible hazardious material that I can't get rid of....

I often see someone agressively post on a subject and go back into their profile and read their older posts on all subjects.... I read the content and measure the tone of their comments... compare them to their actual experience. Some of the more aggressive posts seem to be by people that don't have a TC yet or use one for a few weekends, or at most maybe a couple of weeks a year.

I realize that our answers are not answering the OP's original question directly.... BUT, in a way it is: The fact that none of us are into composting toilets and many of us have vast experience with all kinds of installed equipment that enhances our lifestyle should tell you something... Maybe, just maybe it doesn't look feasible to us as individules...

An example.... I can remember when a newbe wanted to have a wood burningstove attached to his camper... I don't know if the idea died , or the guy that insisted it was a good idea got burnt up with the idea... he was hot about it at the time. So, burning the poop solids for heat probably won't cut it either...

Happy thanksgiving

Sleepy

two weeks worth for two people. a month by yourself. that you can empty into compost. not having to find an rv dump. also no using your fresh water. that's not worth nothing.

also, i understand it won't be composted in two weeks. if you have a heated camper and the fan though it also won't take years.

I do have experience.

Something that stores two weeks' worth is not a composting toilet, despite what advertising may claim. It's a chemical free porta potty that you can, if you wish, empty into a composting pile or container.

A true composting toilet stores the waste until it is fully composted. And yes, this takes months or years depending on conditons. Never weeks.

The porta potty version could work for an rv if you only take short trips and have a setup for composting poo at home. Many people on this forum travel for longer periods of time, or full time, so our responses tend to assume that.

seems like most people commenting on this have no experience with them and don't know what they're talking about. tons of people use these in RV's and boats. the toilet only weighs 35 lbs + whatever waste you add to it, just like your normal toilet, only there's no water to flush so it's actually less weight. you can store about 2 weeks of poop from two people.

1 and 2 are separated so there's no sewage smell. 2 goes into a bin with sphagnum peat moss or coco fiber where it starts to compost immediately. not saying it's odorless but it's not a pit toilet, people. they're legal and safe.

this airhead model is a few inches smaller and has rounded edges compared to the natures head that the wynns show, could be important since i'm sure space is at a premium.

sorry i don't have much personal experience with them but i'm considering adding one to our camper so let me know how yours turns out. i'm just frustrated at everyone continuously shooting this down with no personal experience like you asked for.

An incinerating toilet would maybe more effective as the oder is supposed to be less and the weight would only be ashes. I'd worry about the whole thing, camper included, going up in smoke and ashes too. Think someone someday will come up with something real tricky as a light weight, sanitary, more asthetecally appealing solution to human waste handling but till then I'll have to sick with the stinky slinky and empty ASAP routine.

People usually dump blackwater and grey before driving. They don"t usually haul 2 years' worth of black waste with them. But you can do it if your GVW allows. I think it would be cool.

Most composting toilets have fans, partly to blow odors outside (as well as to speed evaporation). If you camp in campgrounds, your neighbors might complain that the smell is blowing into their camp.

Hi Sleepy,

Wouldn't you still be hauling water/black water for your traditional system? So without that, what is the benefit of having no backwater which then greatly increases my grey water capacity and range.

Then Poop pounds per day emitted (comes from somewhere), hence eliminates that weight in food and water you are carrying.

I guess to me the energy of heat & exhaust fan for the composte toilet would be considered since I intend to boondocks mostly and so that power requirement would be a question - mostly in the Winter would be the issue I think.

Yes I will have a late model diesel since the envisioned rig will be HEAVY.

Thnks,
Bill

Bill001 wrote:

MN Ben wrote:
You may neet to broaden your search beyond the TC section. Some you tube vids....https://youtu.be/_E2xOoNov9s

The Wynns. My question is Who had experienceexperience with these toilets at "this forum"

Hi Bill... I like your style.

Stick around, as you will see... you are going to take a lot of pressure off of me...

When I said "I am under the impression that quite a bit of energy might be required" I was refering to the haul bill in fuel dollars. A good rule of thumb is "For each extra 100 pounds added to the truck their will be a 1% loss of fuel economy.

It doesn't take long to add a 1000 pounds... extra fuel, hobbys, two chain saws for just in case , etc... and in your case long term digesting poop could add a couple of gallons a day if you get lucky and have a partner.... just guessing, wet poop solids saved might add up to lets say 3 pounds per day... and we still haven't got rid of the yourin... opps... urine. What will you do with it?

I know... you might get a late model diesel truck... It turns out that urine has urea in it... if we run the urea through a calciner we would get cyanuric acid.... which is a main componet of one of the diesel additives... (I worked on that project)

I hope that I have been helpful...

When you install your composter please post it in the modification area... I have published a bunch of zany stuff over there... a lot of TC'ers have.... theirs are very good.

You can call me Chet if you like now that we are friends.

Bill001 wrote:

MN Ben wrote:
You may neet to broaden your search beyond the TC section. Some you tube vids....https://youtu.be/_E2xOoNov9s

The Wynns. My question is Who had experienceexperience with these toilets at "this forum"

I looked into composting toilets a few years ago. None of the units available would fit into a truck camper's small bathroom. That killed the idea for me.

If it doesn't fit, then everything else is moot.

Photomike wrote:
I think you need to turn down the attitude a little. I think you have had some good responses...

He apparently also wants a personal written response.