dolphin
Member
have read a lot on both options but still not decide, how to proceed
please , can the users of the composting toilet share their experience
thanks
please , can the users of the composting toilet share their experience
thanks
composting toilet or holding tank
- Thread starter dolphin
- Start date
Tranona
Well-known member
Holding tank. Simple (if properly designed) and gives you the option to discharge directly at sea.
TrueBlue
Well-known member
There's a lot on canalworld net - intermingled with arguments about bucket-and-chuck-it systems.
From the discussions, I infer that the larger systems are best (from previous experiences) the more capacity the better meaning that they don't work well on boats.
You have to keep the arisings in sealed bags to 'mature' before you can dispose of them 'naturally'
duncan99210
Well-known member
Holding tank. Simple, easy to install and maintain. Easy to empty. No smells if properly installed and used.
Heckler
Active member
I have two head compartments. I took the jabsco toilet out of one, put a Porta Potti in. Perfect! 4 days for me and Swmbo easy enough to empty when in marina or other sensitive areas. Use the other when on passage etc.
Stu
Pavalijo
Member
You should also consider a desiccating toilet. I have been considering these options and will go for holding tank. I read up on desiccating toilets, which looked interesting, but the final nail in that coffin was a post I read which suggested that landlubber guests might not be amused when asked to stir their poo in a morning!!
charles_reed
Active member
Composting toilets are popular in Scandinavian holiday cabins.
Great for 2-3 weeks use in 52, especially if you pee in the woods.
Can't see it working on a boat.
So a holding tank is, IMHO, the better bet.
Great for 2-3 weeks use in 52, especially if you pee in the woods.
Can't see it working on a boat.
So a holding tank is, IMHO, the better bet.
dolphin
Member
thanks a lot for the all replies
it is clear, the holding tank win !
it is clear, the holding tank win !
Trident
Well-known member
The downside to holding tanks -
1) they all smell - in 3 years of continuous cruising I've not been on one boat where they didn't - from brand new to decades old. I fitted carbon filters to the vents on mine it it still smells when flushed.
2) Everyone I know has had to unblock one at one time or another - in my case on a cat two hours under the boat in a dinghy rodding back through the seacock outlet (above water level) - others I've seen in the water rodding a below sea level outlet and then swimming as fast as they can when it clears. Ours is simple with just an in and out, no diverter valves etc and has blocked up twice in 3 years of 365 day a year use; more complex systems seem to block more
3) Almost everyone I've seen ignores the legal limits for emptying offshore - some I've seen do it in anchorages and marinas! Most are just lazy but if they are full they have to be emptied or they will flood through the breather valves - and if you need to use it what choice is there.
There is a lot to be said for a composting toilet - a good one is smell free, no possibility of leaks in to the boat from tank or seacock, sealed cassettes for the waste so you can change them when full even if there is nowhere to empty the composted matter and they can't block up ever no matter what you put in them...
1) they all smell - in 3 years of continuous cruising I've not been on one boat where they didn't - from brand new to decades old. I fitted carbon filters to the vents on mine it it still smells when flushed.
2) Everyone I know has had to unblock one at one time or another - in my case on a cat two hours under the boat in a dinghy rodding back through the seacock outlet (above water level) - others I've seen in the water rodding a below sea level outlet and then swimming as fast as they can when it clears. Ours is simple with just an in and out, no diverter valves etc and has blocked up twice in 3 years of 365 day a year use; more complex systems seem to block more
3) Almost everyone I've seen ignores the legal limits for emptying offshore - some I've seen do it in anchorages and marinas! Most are just lazy but if they are full they have to be emptied or they will flood through the breather valves - and if you need to use it what choice is there.
There is a lot to be said for a composting toilet - a good one is smell free, no possibility of leaks in to the boat from tank or seacock, sealed cassettes for the waste so you can change them when full even if there is nowhere to empty the composted matter and they can't block up ever no matter what you put in them...
Tranona
Well-known member
No reason at all why a well designed holding tank should smell. A common cause of smells is not the tank but the hoses which may look OK but can be permeable. Latest Butyl hose usually solves the problem.
Trident
Well-known member
Its not a permanent smell, just as the tank is under pressure as effluent is pumped in it expels fetid air out of the tank breather so you a get a regular whiff every time someone flushes
vyv_cox
Well-known member
1. Mine certainly does not. I agree that there is a brief discharge of gas outside the boat on flushing but no smell inside.
2. In 10 years of holding tank ownership neither of mine have ever blocked.
3. Agreed that there are times when we empty closer than 3 miles offshore but the impact on the environment is minimal. I have seen other boats flush directly into the water in harbours, to the delight of the fish, who very quickly consume what has been delivered to them.
Trident
Well-known member
As I said - its that whiff of expelled gas on flushing that's the problem to me - tank vents seem universally forward of the cockpit - at anchor the smells blow back in to the cockpit, only for a short while but often just long enough to put one off whatever food or drink has been served. I've been on boats where the host or hostess has turned bright red with embarrassment when someone over dinner has used the heads and the resulting whiff blows back for all to sample. Vyv - you are very fortunate - I built my tank with the simplest method, in at the top, out to sea at the bottom, short straight runs of hose and the tank tilted toward the outlet. It went two years of 365 use without blocking but did for the first time last year. No one I have spoken to believed we'd ONLY had one blockage in 3 years. (Weirdly we're still on our first set of seals and joker valve too despite almost 1000 days of use now. )
Even folks that only flush waste matter not toilet paper complain of blockages. A composting loo cannot block and never smells (if done right) and also saves a lot of weight (all that holding tank black water is weight) and plumbing and of course can never cause a leak or flood.
Even folks that only flush waste matter not toilet paper complain of blockages. A composting loo cannot block and never smells (if done right) and also saves a lot of weight (all that holding tank black water is weight) and plumbing and of course can never cause a leak or flood.
vyv_cox
Well-known member
I don't see how the weight of black water is ever an issue, I certainly don't carry it around with me! Safely out of the anchorage and it's gone.
Trident
Well-known member
I guess it all depends on how big the tank and how long you stay in one place before emptying. Now I admit for you mono-maran types weight is not so much an issue but 100Kg right up front (heads is forward on my cat and the tank forward of the heads) is something I could live without
Networks
New member
Just a thought, as we are in Turkey at the moment, how would you convince the coast guard you don't need a black water pump out if you have a composting toilet?
