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Showing results for 'compost toilets'.
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I thought the idea of a king-size crossways bed appealing too, until I spent a week on a boat with one (which I've done more than once). I really suggest you do the same before deciding on it -- you might like it, or (like me) not. You can fit a standard double (4'6" wide) lengthways with enough gap to walk down the side -- whoever's on the inside gets out of the bottom of the bed and walks round instead of climbing over feet. If you're going for a separating/composting toilet, how do you plan to dispose of the "compost", especially when you're out cruising? Are you aware that "bag'n'binning" is no longer permitted by CART? A littel ensuite sounds like a good idea, but to fit it in means giving up something else -- only you can decide if this is worth it or not... 😉
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Renogy 12V 200Ah drop-in LiFePO4 battery
Jon57 replied to MtB's topic in Boat Building & Maintenance
Now that would be a good place to put the hot box for them with a composting toilet as well. 👍 -
I thought the thread was about using compost from separator toilets on food producing land, that is dry with no flushed water
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Hi all So I am about 3 months into narrowboat ownership and have come up against the toilet debate already - had one pump out done on the way to my permanent mooring and have now discovered that I am in desperate need of another one. While replacing the bed base we discovered that there is a leak from one of the hose connections and somewhere at the back of the loo itself. Not ideal when everywhere is closed for Christmas! We currently have an old steel tank and what I think from memory are 38mm hoses that run up to the gunnels. No ideal how old they are but I suspect as old as the boat (so 30+ years) and have possibly started to crack/fail with age. So once we have gone to town with the duct tape and stabilised the crappy situation, I think my options are, I think: a) replace the hoses and have an indicator fitted to the tank, carry on with the pump-out system (proving challenging with navigation closures coming up), OR b) replace the whole toilet system with a cassette loo, avoiding the issue about needing to get the boat 3 hours up the canal in order to get a pump out. Thoughts on either? Composting sounds like too much of a palaver for me . Would anyone know of someone who could come and take a look at all of this and advice me/do the work? We are on the Leeds & Liverpool near Burscough (where there are Elsan facilities but no pump out...) Any and all advice and pointers would be appreciated!
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We empty our urine container (roughly two days worth) at an elsan or (if pushed) in public toilets. We have spare containers and elsans are fairly common. We take the compostable material home and compost it. How you could assume that "every compost toilet user has to dump their urine in the cut or along the tow path" is beyond me. It was a half-witted remark of the first order.
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There is a very good Facebook page about composting toilets by people who actually do it. I know one of them and she has three large buckets on the go on her boat at different states of decomposition Compost Toilets for Boats and Off-Grid Living | Facebook
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The highlighted bit is why it's a bad idea *for most boaters*, especially narrowboaters who are short of space. If you're on a wideboat (lots more space) or on your own permanent moorings like Peter-- or in a house, or you... -- then a composting toilet is a great eco-friendly idea, but in reality most boaters with them don't have the space or time or inclination to do the composting (and use the result) properly -- or certainly didn't before CART banned bag'n'binning, which is what the majority of compost toilet boaters did according to survey data. Since then I believe many have removed their composting toilets because they can't compost and dispose of the waste properly, those remaining must either be doing what you and Peter do and compost properly, paying to use the composting waste disposal company, or still disposing of the waste illegally -- and for obvious reasons there's no data about how many fall into these two categories...
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😅 Read about!! I was a compost toilet user...Been there, read about it, got the t shirt!!
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If the OP is still around I would advise that this forum is not a good place to ask about "composting" toilets. The forum in general is very anti the idea as comes across in lots of the coments on this thread. For better advice from people that actually use composting toilets on boats rather than people that have no intention of trying the idea you should have a look at the facebook group mentioned by Ditchcrawler https://www.facebook.com/groups/1525582381058089 . It certainly is possible to do it especially if you can get "Hot Composting" going. The time required to compost is much reduced.
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My only problem with composting toilets is storing the stuff whilst its composting, I wont have any boxes or flower pots on the roof and since its a trad stern there is no room there either. Also the disposal, what do I do with it once its composted if I don't have a garden?
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The toilet gets emptied into the hotbox on the back deck for composting. After about a year, the compost can be drawn off the bottom, it smells like musty earth. Last time we emptied the composter, we were out in the countryside so I dug a big hole in a patch of forest and emptied the compost into it. People also use it on plants too. Forgot the other drawback - need to use minimal toilet paper, and it’s got to be the expensive non bleached type which isn’t that nice on ones butt.
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How quick does the putrid urine bottle fill up on the compost toilet with two people on board?
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Wrong. You know as well as I do what compost toilet users do in the real world. And get a grip of yourself man....slinging insults around on an internet forum over toilets. 🙄
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To compost or not to compost - The long read
David Mack replied to Dr Bob's topic in General Boating
Dr Bob, Thank you for an interesting read. You are confirming what Peter and others have long said - that separating toilets and proper composting work when a moderate amount of effort is put into carrying out the process properly, and you have the space on board or on land to store the waste while it is turning into compost. But amongst the boater fraternity there is a sizeable number who don't want to pay to have pump outs emptied and don't want to be frequently handling and emptying cassettes in dirty elsan facilities. Far too many of that mindset are going to be equally unwilling to handle their compost properly. Bagging and binning raw waste is unacceptable, but any wider infrastructure to collect toilet waste and treat it properly will cost money that too many boaters are unwilling to pay. A shame there is no clear route to encouraging responsible compost toilet operation while discouraging the bag-n-binners. -
I think you’ve got it!! Take away ALL the ‘facillites’, no electric, no gas, no stove, no water or toilet. Call it Glamping and charge double. Job’s a good ‘en. 👍 These days the modern folk will have their own little chargers for phones and such like Can clean themselves with baby wipes. eat take aways and take their poop home for composting. I think there might even be a grant to help with this.
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Hardly a direct comparison, but a year's worth of moist, composted poop/toilet paper/coconut coir mix for two people who liveaboard is about the volume of a little Zanussi washer. Heavy though, the styrofoam composter is probably around 30kg when full.
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I know at least one boater who buries the 'compost' anywhere convenient. I suspect many boaters with compost toilets don't compost properly and continue to bag n bin or just get rid anyway they can causing problems for the rest of us. Sure Doctor Bob and others like him do the job right, but I have little faith in the majority.
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Yes disgusting behaviour. The point I was actually making is that every compost toilet user has to dump their urine in the cut or along the tow path.
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This marina or mooring 'tax' is a tax on your marina or mooring. You pay it because you have a marina or mooring not because you cruise along the canal. I don't pay it because I don't have a home mooring. Similarly if I didn't fly I wouldn't expect to pay air tax - because I don't fly! I do however pay cruising 'tax' (license), and I pay it at the same rate as everyone else. There is no limit on how much we all use our license. There is no evidence that I cost crt any more that hmers who often also do not have taps etc and use crt facilities. I have a compost toilet and do not use an elsan (private collection service before anyone grabs hold of that one), I use water but as mentioned so Di many hmers. I often end up taking my rubbish to work with me due to lack of bins so please don't charge me for that! What am I being charged extra in my license for?
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Rather sweeping statements. The advice I gave earlier in the tread is based on my experience of actually using a composting toilet.......put simply they're crap on a boat.
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Adopt a bridge? go back in time and pay per canal to cruise? the problem is that any increase for boaters will come with an expectation of improved services.... all the taps work, elsans are unblockable and pumpout stations dont just chew your card up - maybe even dare i say but some sort of resolution of the compost toilet issue?
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That was your second post on this forum. Needlessly agressive, no attempt to take on board any of the suggestions or take any part in the discussion that arose, just a bit of snark. They do say them as hands it out can't take it. Maybe it's fat boat syndrome. Park it on a corner in everyone's way and make it everyone else's problem. Nothing to do with bullying a newbie - someone new with a new problem to think about and discuss is always welcome, but it's a two way thing. A forum isn't like FB, where you post something and it gets "liked", a comment or two, and is then forgotten and dumped by the algorithm - it's a more robust place where opinions get thrashed out. I guess I, and one or two others, just lose patience with the attitude. It does seem to be getting more common. A first post, detailing a problem, a few replies and comments, a snarl of victimhood from an OP of "they've all got it in for me" because not all the replies were sympathetic "there there" noises but attempts to get to the root of the problem via discussion, and finally the OP delivers another broadside of general abuse and vanishes in a cloud of huff. Anyway, now I've got that off me chest, I'm going to go practice the fiddle. Paddy's night coming up. I hope the next chunk of blacking stays on, and everything we've suggested might be the reason the first lot didn't was wrong. Good luck. Composting toilets are the coming thing, you know.
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Calm down @frahkn, you'll give yourself a coronary. I'd appreciate it if you refrained from insults, it's uncivil conduct. It's not an assumption at all......By their own admission that's what compost toilet users do!!!
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I have a compost toilet which is great. No smell at all, no splashback and reduced emptying frequency. Got fed up with arriving at pump out stations only for them to eat my card and not work, or take two cards to fully empty the tank...and the smell of the pump out toilet was noticeable. The downside is that you need to carry your poop around until it breaks down, there's a number of methods but I use a hotbox composter on the back deck, with a large cruiser stern it's ok but still gets in the way.
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Yea you’re throwing a wild card in there, do you think it’d be too hard to require everyone to be the same? perhaps that’s the easier solution? 1 we all wear Tilley hats. 2 we have a compost toilet 3 we have blue T-shirt’s 4 5 I can’t think of the other 4, maybe no3 should be spectacles wearing persons, (Poundland reading glasses of course)
