Composting Toilet

PancakeBill

PancakeBill

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In our quest to make out TC most livable and usable in dispersed camping, we find the black tank to be the most limiting. Looked at some composting toilets recently. Would sure extend our time! So my question, sort of a survey, Who has one and what do you think of it?
One unit we looked at had a sort of guillatine door, It closed off the bottom from top. Seems like a good idea, but most we see do not have that. Is there a difference? Is there much odor? I am told no, but how long does it take to lose any smell?

If you converted, would you switch back?
 
We installed a natures head composting toilet for boondocking and i like it more than the rv toilet. For 2 people or less they work great. More than that and it would probably need too much changing than i would want.

having multiple tanks and bases is a huge plus. Our extra base has a cover. When we change the base media we would put the cover on the used base and let it sit somewhere until the toilet needs to be changed again. Gives it twice the time to compost. Changing that is far more pleasant than emptying a black tank.

The natures head has a fan built in to the base that exhaust air from the base but i dont remember ever getting unpleasant smells from the base. We used peat moss and you did smell that.

One downside is that you have to teach visitors how to use the toilet. It is easy to get used to using it but it isnt entirely intuitive so you cant expect visitors to figure it out. One example is the trap door. If someone doesnt open that it can be unpleasant and smelly.

The composting toilet is as comfortable to sit on as the oem porcelain toilet but with the lid down is bigger and more comfy than the oem one.

A huge benefit for boondocking was doubling our gray holding tank capacity. We installed an additional gate valve on the end of our sewer line so we keep the outside valve closed and the original black and gray gate valves open. The water gravity levels between the 2 tanks.

Now that i have one i wouldnt want to go back to the original because i find it so much nicer than dumping the black tank. Emptying the pee tank is a bit unpleasant but still overall better than the black tank.
 
We had maybe the same one rvlifer has in our cabin. I thought it was okay but my wife didn’t like it. For me it was a bit of a PITA to dump. The urine basin would fill up pretty fast and I would take that out and dump it away from the cabin. The poop container, I also used peat moss, was a bit of a hassle because we took it to the compost pile. We had a tractor so we loaded it in the bucket and drove it there. Probably 50 yards. We got some gnats in ours and couldn’t get rid of them. They are expensive; I think ours was about $900.
 
We have had in our previous two RV's the Airhead which served us well and was a good unit, however in our current RV we went with the Ogo which is much better than the Airhead and others I have seen on the market. Even if we did not boondock, which is a great reason to have a compost toilet, we would still have one. It is environmentally friendly not having to use a tremendous amount of water to flush out the tank, and regular flushes. It is much quicker to dump than with a traditional RV tank. Finally you can increase your grey water holding capacity (in our case double the capacity). After our first experience we swore we would never RV without one. When we bought our current RV we barely made a mile from the dealership when my wife asked, "so when are you going to install a compost toilet"?
 
The Airhead and some others are pretty pricey, but OGO has one, the Nomad that isn't. Without comparing and using, side bu side, I really don't see much of a difference. Yes there are some, such as an agitator, or a powered vent, but those are only on the highest priced ones, I am willing to try this, but at the Nomad level, ($199 on Amazon), Has a bucket you put the bag in, has the solid liquid separator. One unit we looked at had a door that split in the middle. Was not air tight, just really more of a visual thing. Only one we saw that way, so it appeared not really necessary. They all had hinged lids.

I was wondering about the urine collector and filling, but don't consider it that much of an issue. The solids in the bag pretty easily disposed of, and considering this camper is used about a week at a time, not too much of an inconvenience. Having in a TC a limited capacity black and gray tanks, and being able to combine, our need for finding a dump station is cut in half.

The venting option on the higher-end units I am sure could be easily hacked.
 
PancakeBill said:
I was wondering about the urine collector and filling
Click to expand...
Depends on how many females are using it. When we had a composting toilet I peed outside. Still had to empty the urine bucket more often than I wanted to. And if you don’t pay attention and the bucket gets to full and somebody gets up in the middle of the night and overflows it you got a mess to clean up.
 
PancakeBill said:
I was wondering about the urine collector and filling
Click to expand...
The natures head has a translucent pee tank and if you arent paying attention can easily overflow. Took a while before i could get everyone to pay close enough attention to it. An extra tank makes it easier as you cant empty it at your leisure. I used a sharpie and dgew a thick black line on the tanks so everyone clearly knew when to change the tank.

On ours the pee tank is in a holding sleeve that is part of the base. That helps minimize the mess on overflows.

I wish ours was a little easier to clean. There are a lot of spaces on the case that arent easy to get to with a rag or brush. Doesnt need that kind of cleaning all the time but when it does it is more of a mini project than i would like.
 
The one I ordered has a sight tube so you can see the level. Only the 2 of us, and when dispersed I would likely find a tree, keeping the level down. (Trobolo Wandago model).

The poo goes into a bag which is in a rectangular bucket, that shouldn't really get dirty, my only concern would be the urine overflow. It has capacity of 4.6 liters. I think we should be OK with that.

Most of what I read is to add a littl white vinegar for odor suppression. I have a 30 day return policy, so need to go out and use it for a couple times. Nothing installed perm until I am happy.

Trying to determine what the difference is between this and the $700+ units are. So far all I see is a light telling you urine is full and on some a small han to route odors out. I can buy the fan for $20.
 
Never used any other brand so cant say what the differences are. A bag in the base is a good idea but ours has a mixing bar that the bag might get caught up in and torn. With the extra base and composting time it isnt unpleasant at all when i change it.

I have wondered whether it would be a bad idea to attach a tube from the pee tank and run it into the old toilets sewer pipe.

A misting bottle with vinegar and water helps a lot. Spraying the wet area every time you use it helps keep it clean and any smells down.

When you separate waste solids and liquids the majority of smells never develop. If you ever used a pit toilet in a state park and then at a place where they teach people to not mix the 2 you will smell a major difference.
 
What do you use for the composting. The demo guy said the coconut coir, or sawdust, litter, other stuff. Any favorites?
 
Oldgator73 said:
Depends on how many females are using it. When we had a composting toilet I peed outside. Still had to empty the urine bucket more often than I wanted to. And if you don’t pay attention and the bucket gets to full and somebody gets up in the middle of the night and overflows it you got a mess to clean up.
Click to expand...
That is the beauty of the Ogo, it has a brighter warning light when the pee tank is getting close to full. In my experience, when the light comes on the tank is not close to full, so if you get up in the middle of the night and the light comes on you can wait until morning to empty it. When we had the Airhead, although it had a viewing port, it was difficult to see the urine level and we had a couple overflows. My work around was to empty it once a day on days we were away from our RV most of the day.
 
My Trobolo Wandago toilet arrived, Getting original toilet out was fun. One of the anchor bolts had very little access to it, but I managed with some long needle nosed with a 90 deg offset. Had to make a platform, 3/4" ply to raise above the existing flange. Got all that done., but need to seal the plywood as it is a wet bath. Thinking fiberglass resin. then painting. I am hoping this will work out great, but hedging my bets by leaving mounting and water supply ready to revert.

Bought bag of pet moss for the composting.

Nice thing about the Wandago model is it has two heights you can use, we prefer the taller height. Many of the other composting models were all pretty short as was the original toilet.

Once I am finished we will head out for a couple days to test.
 
OK, another newbie question, f we are out for 3 nights, the toilet nowhere near full, the contents still somewhat 'fresh', Just tie up the bag and dump, or let it work for a week or so? I am guessing, just tie up and dispose. I can also see the reasoning of letting it work.
 
Good read. What is discussed here is what we do. As far as burying poop in the woods, he is correct about the contrast between a hiker and digging a 6-8” hole vs a compost toilet which is why I carry and use an actual garden type shovel and dig a deep hole. It is also required to, whether pee or poop to dump at least 200’ from a water source.
 
Gizmo said:
Good read. What is discussed here is what we do. As far as burying poop in the woods, he is correct about the contrast between a hiker and digging a 6-8” hole vs a compost toilet which is why I carry and use an actual garden type shovel and dig a deep hole. It is also required to, whether pee or poop to dump at least 200’ from a water source.
Click to expand...
I dont think 6" is enough for hikers. Seen plenty of animals dig up shallow holes.
 
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