When using a vault toilet….

I think this thread has run its course and composted itself.

valhalla360 wrote:

JaxDad wrote:
A friend of mine has a self-built Super C along the lines of what I’m currently building, it has a “vault toilet”, or as he calls it, “an indoor outhouse”.

It’s a cabinet of sorts with 2 large compartments, one is vented to the outside and with a sealed hinged lid over a hole and seat, the other a lift up lid. Under the seat is a stout (small) rubber garbage can. The second compartment is just the size to hold a bale / brick of sphagnum (pear) moss that you would normally use in the garden. To start there’s a thin layer of moss on the bottom of the receptacle then after each ‘addition’ another thin layer is sprinkled over top of it.

I’ve been in his unit after more than a week of him staying in it and tell you, there is zero odour.

The garbage can gets lined with a large sized biodegradable green bin liner inside a stout garbage bag. He has researched it all out, it’s completely legit to place it in the recycling stream, which he does.

I’m landing on doing the same thing in my unit.

Full disclosure, I grew up with outhouses at the farm, cottage, deer camp, etc, etc, so using one is pretty normal to me.

You are describing a "composting toilet".

I wouldn't recommend one for an RV (too easy to empty the holding tanks to be worth while for 99% of RVers) but we had one on our boat (much more of a hassle to empty the holding tank legally).

No, this isn’t a composting toilet.

As I clearly indicated it’s emptied of its contents, likely more often than conventional holding tanks are. The moss is only there as absorbent and odour suppression material.

A composting toilet digests the material during the composting process.

rhagfo wrote:

Well there is a difference between an "Outhouse" and a Vault Toilet. Most outhouses are just a cheap small room built over a hole in the ground. A Vault Toilet typically is a fiberglass or concrete building placed over a concrete Vault, that will hold the waist both liquid and solid, until pumped out and processed at a treatment facility.

Yep, I've always known both of those as "outhouse". So I guess the Connecticut state parks have "vault toilets".

Are "port-a-potty" and "port-o-let" both vault toilets? I guess they would be.

Again, I've always called those "outhouses". May be a regional thing - everyone around me just uses "outhouse" for all those different types.

Anyway... the coffee is kicking in, off to the bathroom! (in my house...)

JaxDad wrote:
A friend of mine has a self-built Super C along the lines of what I’m currently building, it has a “vault toilet”, or as he calls it, “an indoor outhouse”.

It’s a cabinet of sorts with 2 large compartments, one is vented to the outside and with a sealed hinged lid over a hole and seat, the other a lift up lid. Under the seat is a stout (small) rubber garbage can. The second compartment is just the size to hold a bale / brick of sphagnum (pear) moss that you would normally use in the garden. To start there’s a thin layer of moss on the bottom of the receptacle then after each ‘addition’ another thin layer is sprinkled over top of it.

I’ve been in his unit after more than a week of him staying in it and tell you, there is zero odour.

The garbage can gets lined with a large sized biodegradable green bin liner inside a stout garbage bag. He has researched it all out, it’s completely legit to place it in the recycling stream, which he does.

I’m landing on doing the same thing in my unit.

Full disclosure, I grew up with outhouses at the farm, cottage, deer camp, etc, etc, so using one is pretty normal to me.

You are describing a "composting toilet".

I wouldn't recommend one for an RV (too easy to empty the holding tanks to be worth while for 99% of RVers) but we had one on our boat (much more of a hassle to empty the holding tank legally).

They work wildly different even though they may appear similar.
- A vault or outhouse, everything goes into the same place. This means the contents tend to be wet. Once the oxygen in the pile is used up, the pile goes anaerobic as the water surface creates a barrier limiting the ability for more oxygen to get into the pile. The byproduct of anaerobic decomposition includes nasty smells.
- With a composting toilet, the liquids and solids are separated. Ideally, the solids pile is moist but not wet (if it gets too dry, decomposition stops and you count on decomposition to reduce the volume). The peatmoss is used to generate air pockets and allow oxygen into the pile. By providing a steady supply of oxygen, the pile never goes anaerobic and smells are largely non-existent. When emptying, it smells and looks like potting soil.

#1Flyboy wrote:
Toed toes…. No…. Read my above posts, lots of over 3 are baffled when it is potty time!

As pointed out, these aren't people who don't know what a toilet is, these are people who don't care.

I stand by my statement that most everyone over the age of age knows what a toilet is and how to use it. Those that make the environmental disaster sites as you described will not change their ways by anything said on this thread.

rhagfo wrote:
Well there is a difference between an "Outhouse" and a Vault Toilet. Most outhouses are just a cheap small room built over a hole in the ground. A Vault Toilet typically is a fiberglass or concrete building placed over a concrete Vault, that will hold the waist both liquid and solid, until pumped out and processed at a treatment facility.

cheap small room = room
fiberglass or concrete building = room

a hole in the ground = a hole in the ground
a concrete Vault, that will hold the waist (sic) both liquid and solid = a hole in the ground

until pumped out = other than cost to build, the only difference. :B

And, even then, an outhouse CAN be pumped out.

obgraham wrote:
If it is January (it is), you may need to Hover.

This^^ As someone who loved to river kayak in the middle of a Michigan winter (and as a female all bundled up - with no opportunities for a "potty stop") - the happiest sight of our trips were the vault toilets found at the take-out points! But yes - when the temp is freezing or below - hovering is critical!!

#1Flyboy wrote:
Time 2roll…Couldn’t agree more!!! Believe it or not we have campers that do NOT no what a toilet is for OR how to use it! As camphosts we have seen people miss the hole by 3’ with #2 & do #2 in a urinal…. Also have seen people trying to write their names on the floor with #2! Do you realize how hard it is to dot an I or cross a T?????

These aren't people that don't know how to use a toilet, these are either inconsiderate jerks, or vandals. Or both.

Lwiddis wrote:
Vault toilets are one of the reasons I have, and have had, an RV.

LOL, right? Especially now that I have one with a full size chitter!

Valhalla360…. YEP, YOU &I are on the same sheet of music!!!!!!!!!