Extending stay/ Blackwater?

DiploStrat wrote:

mlts22 wrote:
The downside of composting toilets is that they need a lot of additional room in the bathroom so you can disassemble it to dump the compost and reload it with peat moss. For extended boondocking trips, it produces the least waste, but for shorter trips near dump facilities, it may be a hassle.

I hate to be the compost phanboi, but after living with one for a year, please allow a few clarifications.

-- Doesn't take up more room, but it does require about six inches at the back to allow the top to tip. Actually, the greatest annoyance on our Tiger is that the shower/bath door is too narrow to allow the toilet to be carried out without tipping it on its side. Nice thing is that it requires no plumbing and depending on your aim, no cleaning.

-- You only dump when you need to. In fact, it is the reverse of a conventional black tank - you don't dump at the end of a trip, but rather at the beginning. The longer the material sits in the toilet the more benign it is when you do dump. While the purists may quibble that the material does no stay in the toilet long enough to be completely reduced to compost, rest assured that organic decomposition is taking place - which is why the toilet does not fill up as fast as you would expect - the moisture evaporates and the solid material breaks down.

The dirty secrets of any composting, or, if you will, urine separating/desiccating toilet.

-- There is no smell because there is no urine mixed with feces. If you have yours in a wet bath, as we do, you need to make sure that the shower doesn't spray water inside.

-- The most expensive element in the toilet is the anatomically designed seat which directs urine to the urine bucket. One composting toilet, the C-Head makes everything else out of off the shelf products.

So basically, long trip or short trip, you dump when it is full. If it sits a month between trips, so much the better.

I do have a few questions though, and this is out of curiosity than anything else. I have looked at Nature's Head models, Air Head models, and one other brand, and all seem to run about the same price, and separate liquids from solids. The Air Head offering seems to be quite solid, but none of them are junk.

Where can one legally dump a composting toilet? Here in Texas, due to so many sewage dumpers that have fouled up rivers and streams, if someone dumps -anything- that looks like waste, be it compost or no, the local sheriff will get called. In reality, compost is just fertilizer, and it can go in the garden, but if one doesn't have a farm, but lives in a more urban area with nosy neighbors who tattle on anyone for the smallest perceived offense, it can get the local HOA asking pointed questions like demanding why someone is dumping human waste in the back yard (yes, it is compost, but in the eyes of the law, it can be still human poop.) Of course, one can toss the compost in a trash bin or a dumpster, but that may not be doable on the road.

DiploStrat wrote:

mlts22 wrote:
The downside of composting toilets is that they need a lot of additional room in the bathroom so you can disassemble it to dump the compost and reload it with peat moss. For extended boondocking trips, it produces the least waste, but for shorter trips near dump facilities, it may be a hassle.

I hate to be the compost phanboi, but after living with one for a year, please allow a few clarifications.

-- Doesn't take up more room, but it does require about six inches at the back to allow the top to tip. Actually, the greatest annoyance on our Tiger is that the shower/bath door is too narrow to allow the toilet to be carried out without tipping it on its side. Nice thing is that it requires no plumbing and depending on your aim, no cleaning.

-- You only dump when you need to. In fact, it is the reverse of a conventional black tank - you don't dump at the end of a trip, but rather at the beginning. The longer the material sits in the toilet the more benign it is when you do dump. While the purists may quibble that the material does no stay in the toilet long enough to be completely reduced to compost, rest assured that organic decomposition is taking place - which is why the toilet does not fill up as fast as you would expect - the moisture evaporates and the solid material breaks down.

The dirty secrets of any composting, or, if you will, urine separating/desiccating toilet.

-- There is no smell because there is no urine mixed with feces. If you have yours in a wet bath, as we do, you need to make sure that the shower doesn't spray water inside.

-- The most expensive element in the toilet is the anatomically designed seat which directs urine to the urine bucket. One composting toilet, the C-Head makes everything else out of off the shelf products.

So basically, long trip or short trip, you dump when it is full. If it sits a month between trips, so much the better.

Diplostrat I certainly understand that you are more the majority in having something manufactured smooth and installed. But for me to extend my time for the many weeks I prefer to go between grocery runs, fuel fills and dump stations, my priority shifts. Below is the picture of my compost bag. (When going down the road it goes in my Battery Compartment. Inside, the bag pictured, I use a Hefty Heavy Duty bag to hold the contents of my 5 gallon bucket, after each use. Each time I walk past the front Bumper, usually, I just turn the bag over and shake. That is all that is needed to compost. No different than someone going into their back yard and turning their Compost Barrel. It gets enough air and the drying to process. Then I use the Stealth of a Dog Food bag to set it on the back of my motorcycle, when I wish to take the contents to the proper location for disposal.

So, it does not have any odor, in my TC. Does not take up anymore room, in the TC and no expensive modification for my camper for a Composting Toilet. But like you shared, most take the direction you are stated. Mine just goes with the theme of what I posted earlier in this thread.

Happy Composting everyone!

b

Using the Thetford cassette toilet (we installed a door in our build so the cassette can be removed from the outside), I plan to increase capacity by buying more cassettes. I haven't priced them and am sure to get a sticker shock but I guess they can't be more than the cost of the entire toilet which came with a 6 gallon cassette. I will probably dedicate a under truck box to hold spare cassettes :-)

They are very easy to dump in a bathroom (or better, a pit toilet like you see at many Nat. Forest camp sites.)

The downside of composting toilets is that they need a lot of additional room in the bathroom so you can disassemble it to dump the compost and reload it with peat moss. For extended boondocking trips, it produces the least waste, but for shorter trips near dump facilities, it may be a hassle.

Depending on how gnarly the terrain is, the blue boy is a good idea, but perhaps a light trailer with some clearance to store it on, especially when full? A trailer rated to 1000-2000 pounds could handle two full 42 gallon tanks. The tanks could remain on the trailer, and a macerator pump used to fill them, or just hauled off a ramp into place and then dragged back on the trailer. This is, of course, an extreme, but it is one way to add more space for the yechhy stuff.

2oldman wrote:

ticki2 wrote:
I'm not getting the picture , could be my old comp.

My forums, my preferences, show images that are part of posts.

I am already using that setting . Most pictures show up , some don't . I'm sure the problem is on my end , just not savvy enough .

DiploStrat wrote:

bka0721 wrote:


If you look through my “Parts List” you will see all you need to create a Compost Toilet, without spending a Thousand dollars and use lots of battery power in running the motor to keep it turning.

b

Commercially available composting toilets are expensive, but you are paying for R&D, design, and service for a low volume product. You can certainly assemble one yourself, but it is less likely to be compact, water resistant, etc. None that I know of are as much as $1,000.

One quibble however, the Nature's Head, at least, uses next to no current and it doesn't keep turning. It does have a small fan which is optional. As mine is in a wet bath, water is a big issue and I plan to upgrade my grey water stack with one of these: 360 siphon It gets good press here and elsewhere.

Sounds good. I brought a lot of my 45+ years of backpacking when I switched up to an RV. While I can appreciate the manufacturered Composting toilets, it is not something I am sharing or personally using, or have plans to change from what I have been using for more than 5 1/2 years. Like many things one does for conservation, recycling, you pay more for this, like at Whole Foods and paying a deposit fee on containers and grocery bags. I certainly understand that direction, by authorities, in directing users by fees and taxes, as well as higher costs for products that have other conveniences at a reasonable cost available to the consumer, but not environmentally friendly. Me, I am just a D.I.Y. type of guy.


b

2oldman wrote:

ticki2 wrote:
I'm not getting the picture , could be my old comp.

My forums, my preferences, show images that are part of posts.

Not so sure I want to see images associated with this thread!