Composting Toilet

also, i just learned something new. apparently urine isn't sterile, even when it comes out of you. so maybe none of us should even be peeing outside then.

Naio wrote:
Lol, urine is sterile when it comes out of you, but it quickly becomes FULL of bacteria. Just try peeing in a bottle and storing it at room temp for a day, then take a whiff.

I also wonder about your claim that partially-composted poo is less smelly than fresh. Many things become MORE smelly when they are partway through the composting process. Not only urine. Leave a tub of preservative-free bean dip out for a few days, then smell it.

You seem to have less real word experience than the average RVer. Are you perhaps very young? Or have you lead a mainly indoor life?

i don't have a lot of experience with composting toilets, no. which is why i'm researching them and plan on trying one out.

if you empty urine every day what would be the issue? i understand it could smell worse but does that make it unsterile? also, what's the difference of me peeing in the woods for the whole day or dumping my urine at the end of the day?

why are you so down on the idea without trying either of the products linked in this thread? there's plenty of people that say they work great.

have you composted much? sure if you leave something out to rot, it will rot, but that's not composting. if you start the composting process it shouldn't stink. does your compost pile smell? mine sure doesn't. if it does there is something wrong. i grew up on a farm. i was around composted manure. i was around slurry manure. have you ever been around both of those? composted manure has a fraction of smell of a slurry manure, ie your black tank. so yes i can confidently say that composting manure does smell much less as it breaks down.

no, i don't have a lot of rving experience but i'm not new to the outdoors. i'm not sure what that has to do with composting though....but thanks for thinking you know me from a few internet posts...

Lol, urine is sterile when it comes out of you, but it quickly becomes FULL of bacteria. Just try peeing in a bottle and storing it at room temp for a day, then take a whiff.

I also wonder about your claim that partially-composted poo is less smelly than fresh. Many things become MORE smelly when they are partway through the composting process. Not only urine. Leave a tub of preservative-free bean dip out for a few days, then smell it.

You seem to have less real word experience than the average RVer. Are you perhaps very young? Or have you lead a mainly indoor life?

sleepy wrote:

bka0721 wrote:
To provide some context, of what is being discussed, I have attached two photos below. Below the seat is the cabinet that contains the “Cooked” material and in front the bottle/bladder for the fluid retention. These are some photos from a couple I know living and traveling in a Bus Conversion, from Boulder.

b

Curious... Why is the toilet sittting on a platform?

It doesn't appear to be attached to the floor.... it even looks to me like it has been slid forward for the pictures

I can't image this fitting in a truck camper.... at least my TC.


Lets see... assuming I had one....


We'd have to climb to get on it

and for it to function...

It has to seperate the solids and liquids

We have to provide electricity for a fan,

we have to add peat bricks to the solids,

we have to find a place to legally dispose of the seperated urine that is conaminated with bits of fecal material, it is a biohazard

If a full cycle is completed we'd have to carry 40 pounds of partially "treated" poop through our campers, down the camper stairs, and find a place to legally dispose of it

then we have to provide another peet brick to the pot, reassemble the toilet, and put the toilet back into place

Of course the starter compost has to be maintained at 55 degrees or more.

I'm tired already... and an open poop tank with its smells inside my small truck camper isn't helping (some reviewers said it was a peat smell)

and this is going to solve a problem? WHAT PROBLEM WILL IT SOLVE?

Ihe way I do it now.... I pull up to a legal RV dump station, park carefully near the "hole"

put on my surgical gloves

Open the sewer hose storage in the rear bumper and the dump valve door

remove the cap from the pipe, install the 1 pound sewer hose with a quarter of a turn... and put the free end into the dump station recepticle.

I open the black tank valve and allow the calcium nitrate treated urine and feces tank to empty.... then open the treated gray tanks valve and allow it to flush the reminants from the black tank out of the piping.... and the sewer hose.

In 15 minutes the process is finished... nothing to contaminate or smell up the inside of the Truck camper, no urine to illegally dispose of, no grey water to illegally dump on the ground

...and best of all... NO 40 POUNDS of quite possibly barely treated poop TO CARRY THROUGH THE LIVING QUARTERS

Note... I filled the fresh water tank during the 15 minutes that it took to use the legal dump station.

So, what am I missing?

"I'm still waiting to see an composter installation in a TC and better still to get a report from the owner.

sleepy, you're making this much more difficult than it really is.

the toilet is not on a platform, that the container that stores your waste.
yes it bolts to floor. it looks slid forward because it has to sit 1 1/2" away from the wall to flip up the lid to access solids.
i already showed a pic of one fitting in a lance 850.
no you don't need to climb on it, unless you can't sit on something 20" tall...
it separates liquids and solids naturally. you sit to pee. pee goes to front in it's own separate container poop drops straight through the bottom. they never touch each other.
the electricity is 2ah/day. pretty negligible, to me anyway.
you add a chunk of peat once a month if you're using it full time.
again, no fecal matter in the urine so it's sterile.
to "reassemble" you put the bucket back in place and close the lid.


also, i already posted a pic of a toilet in a lance 850. and the owner posetd a testimonial saying how much they love it. the "wynns" appear to be in love with theirs as well. it's clearly not for you but you don't need to make it more complicated than it really is to justify your opinion.

sleepy wrote:


Note... I filled the fresh water tank during the 15 minutes that it took to use the legal dump station.

Sleepy , I don't think I have the energy to enter the composting toilet
debate but do have a question . What kind of water are you filling you fresh tank with ? I don't recall seeing potable water within 50 feet or more of a dump station .

bka0721 wrote:
To provide some context, of what is being discussed, I have attached two photos below. Below the seat is the cabinet that contains the “Cooked” material and in front the bottle/bladder for the fluid retention. These are some photos from a couple I know living and traveling in a Bus Conversion, from Boulder.

b

Curious... Why is the toilet sittting on a platform?

It doesn't appear to be attached to the floor.... it even looks to me like it has been slid forward for the pictures

I can't image this fitting in a truck camper.... at least my TC.


Lets see... assuming I had one....


We'd have to climb to get on it

and for it to function...

It has to seperate the solids and liquids

We have to provide electricity for a fan,

we have to add peat bricks to the solids,

we have to find a place to legally dispose of the seperated urine that is conaminated with bits of fecal material, it is a biohazard

If a full cycle is completed we'd have to carry 40 pounds of partially "treated" poop through our campers, down the camper stairs, and find a place to legally dispose of it

then we have to provide another peet brick to the pot, reassemble the toilet, and put the toilet back into place

Of course the starter compost has to be maintained at 55 degrees or more.

I'm tired already... and an open poop tank with its smells inside my small truck camper isn't helping (some reviewers said it was a peat smell)

and this is going to solve a problem? WHAT PROBLEM WILL IT SOLVE?

Ihe way I do it now.... I pull up to a legal RV dump station, park carefully near the "hole"

put on my surgical gloves

Open the sewer hose storage in the rear bumper and the dump valve door

remove the cap from the pipe, install the 1 pound sewer hose with a quarter of a turn... and put the free end into the dump station recepticle.

I open the black tank valve and allow the calcium nitrate treated urine and feces tank to empty.... then open the treated gray tanks valve and allow it to flush the reminants from the black tank out of the piping.... and the sewer hose.

In 15 minutes the process is finished... nothing to contaminate or smell up the inside of the Truck camper, no urine to illegally dispose of, no grey water to illegally dump on the ground

...and best of all... NO 40 POUNDS of quite possibly barely treated poop TO CARRY THROUGH THE LIVING QUARTERS

Note... I filled the fresh water tank during the 15 minutes that it took to use the legal dump station.

So, what am I missing?

"I'm still waiting to see an composter installation in a TC and better still to get a report from the owner.

The white thing on the left is a foot washer.

And that toilet hole on the right looks rather large...

That is a really old looking old fashion commode- a tin bucket under a wood hole!!! It look uncomfortable too. BTW- what is that white thing on the left?

(LOL)

bka0721 wrote:
To provide some context, of what is being discussed, I have attached two photos below. Below the seat is the cabinet that contains the “Cooked” material and in front the bottle/bladder for the fluid retention. These are some photos from a couple I know living and traveling in a Bus Conversion, from Boulder.

b

What do you do with the "fluid retention"?

NEVERMIND

No urine overflows: ... Simply empty the urine bottle or hard plumb the urine to a French drain.

I guess we can just leave that one up to the imagination!


Truth be told - The vast majority of the "Black Water" dump is the water part.

As with Gray Water, urine still needs to be disposed of properly. But I imagine the temptation might be too strong in favor of dumping it the "easy way".

To provide some context, of what is being discussed, I have attached two photos below. Below the seat is the cabinet that contains the “Cooked” material and in front the bottle/bladder for the fluid retention. These are some photos from a couple I know living and traveling in a Bus Conversion, from Boulder.

b