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Should I rip out my composting toilet in favour of a cassette?


Shangela

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Hello all,

 

Boat came with a Separrat Villa composting toilet. Owner before last has rigged it up some bizarre system so the wet waste goes through some pipes and a bilge pump shoots it into a Jerry can housed in the engine room, so the capacity is much increased.

 

The thing is, it drives me mad with all the things that go wrong with it. Sorry for the TMI, but the pipes get clogged with urine build ups and now the (noisy and temperamental) bilge pump has done the same and has packed in. It’s constant nasty clean up jobs, especially when visiting children manage to get “waste” all over the bloody retractable door despite many lessons in how not to! The Jerry van also has to be emptied when it gets a third full or it’s too heavy to heave out.

 

The dry waste I find fine, doesn’t smell, but the bag-lined tub it goes into fills up after a week and a half of light use at best, especially if using toilet paper. I dispose of all contents into the Elsan on my marina, but I can’t imagine how you could actually compost on a boat as you need to leave each tub a year or two to ferment. So after a month you’d be out of tubs!

 

Iv’e just bought a cheap £80 Thetford Porta Potti from Argos to tide me over til I fix the pump issue, and it seems so much more straightforward. So I’m now wondering why I don’t just rip the bloody thing out and go to a cassette. Don’t have the room for one with a large pull out cassette, but was looking at those luxury Thetfords so it at least would be a like for like replacement rather than going cheapest option.

 

Has anyone done this? My main worry is taking value off the boat as capacity would be reduced I suppose, but would buy an extra cassette too. I’m torn!

 

thanks :)

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Yep. Bin and replace. In fact just use the porta bog its nearly as good as a cassette. Edit to add that taking the daft thing out will probably increase the value of your boat. There is a perfectly good and well established system throughout the country known as a sewerage system to dispose quickly and easily at thousands of locations.

Edited by mrsmelly
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That’s my thinking. All the reviews I read of these things assume you have a huge garden compost heap! And the only UK business that did parts for it has gone bust recently. I’m not squeamish about using Elsan disposals either.

 

Am getting a floorboard repaired in the bathroom soon, so if the toilet has to come out then, I’ll be tempted to chuck it. Just wish previous owner hadn’t cut a bloody great hole in the wall to fit the massive thing in, including electric fan and an air pipe on the roof!

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The pro-compost people say they only need emptying every 6 months or so, maybe yours is a bad design ????? If you need to empty it once every week or two then a cassette sounds like a much better idea.  Even better would be a pump out that only needs empty once every six weeks   ?

 

.........Dave

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17 minutes ago, Shangela said:

My main worry is taking value off the boat as capacity would be reduced I suppose, but would buy an extra cassette too. I’m torn!

Don't worry you will be increasing the value of the boat by removing that disgusting system - who wants to keep 6 months worth of 'stuff' in a plastic bin-bag under the bed.

 

Look at boats for sale and see how many have a composting system - answer "Very, Very Few"

Then ask "Why ?"

 

Many marinas have now banned boats that have Composting toilets (There is a thread about it)

 

 

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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All the best things on boats are the simple things, pumps, sensors wires. pipes are all devils work. A galvanised bucket is the absolute best thing followed by various luxury elsans and cassette loos. I have a Vacuflush, I've told it the very next time it goes wrong its in the blasted skip and some sort of non electric cassette device is going in.

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9 minutes ago, dmr said:

The pro-compost people say they only need emptying every 6 months or so, maybe yours is a bad design ????? If you need to empty it once every week or two then a cassette sounds like a much better idea.  Even better would be a pump out that only needs empty once every six weeks   ?

 

.........Dave

This is what I’ve never understood - so many claims of this, but I just can’t see how. Mine is a pretty standard model by all accounts, but could only see it lasting beyond a few weeks if you didn’t put loo roll in and didn’t line with a bag (which loses a few centimetres) and literally manually packed the waste into the edges with a stick or something - awful!

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13 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Don't worry you will be increasing the value of the boat by removing that disgusting system - who wants to keep 6 months worth of 'stuff' in a plastic bin-bag under the bed.

 

Look at boats for sale and see how many have a composting system - answer "Very, Very Few"

Then ask "Why ?"

 

Many marinas have now banned boats that have Composting toilets (There is a thread about it)

 

 

Interesting. Mine is disposed of in a similar manner to a cassette so no problems here, but can see why some marinas dont want bags of waste being chucked around! Edit: the bloke I bought this off actually said to me he “just emptied the urine on the nettles” ?

Edited by Shangela
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2 minutes ago, Shangela said:

Mine is disposed of in a similar manner to a cassette

In which case I would suggest you are not using it as a composting toilet.

ie, keeping it under the bed in an open box / bag to dry out for 6 months before spreading it on the Roses (or Tomatoes)

 

You seem to be using it as you would use a cassette and just pouring 'fresh' sewage down the Elsan.

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26 minutes ago, Shangela said:

Hello all,

 

Boat came with a Separrat Villa composting toilet. Owner before last has rigged it up some bizarre system so the wet waste goes through some pipes and a bilge pump shoots it into a Jerry can housed in the engine room, so the capacity is much increased.

 

The thing is, it drives me mad with all the things that go wrong with it. Sorry for the TMI, but the pipes get clogged with urine build ups and now the (noisy and temperamental) bilge pump has done the same and has packed in. It’s constant nasty clean up jobs, especially when visiting children manage to get “waste” all over the bloody retractable door despite many lessons in how not to! The Jerry van also has to be emptied when it gets a third full or it’s too heavy to heave out.

 

The dry waste I find fine, doesn’t smell, but the bag-lined tub it goes into fills up after a week and a half of light use at best, especially if using toilet paper. I dispose of all contents into the Elsan on my marina, but I can’t imagine how you could actually compost on a boat as you need to leave each tub a year or two to ferment. So after a month you’d be out of tubs!

 

Iv’e just bought a cheap £80 Thetford Porta Potti from Argos to tide me over til I fix the pump issue, and it seems so much more straightforward. So I’m now wondering why I don’t just rip the bloody thing out and go to a cassette. Don’t have the room for one with a large pull out cassette, but was looking at those luxury Thetfords so it at least would be a like for like replacement rather than going cheapest option.

 

Has anyone done this? My main worry is taking value off the boat as capacity would be reduced I suppose, but would buy an extra cassette too. I’m torn!

 

thanks :)

After 7 years of composting with a seperate villa, I have never had a problem, If you think the jerry can is heavy one third full how heavy are your cassettes going to be? Also I suspect you will be visiting the elsan daily. I normally go 3 months with the bucket on my villa without issues, however I have seen kids you half a loo roll at every sitting so can imagine your problems. I have the same system for pumping out wee and use a whale pump which when I go on holiday use a drain cleaner down the toilet to clean it out. Put the villa on ebay it will go for good money and there are still agents for it not that I have ever needed spares

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41 minutes ago, Shangela said:

So I’m now wondering why I don’t just rip the bloody thing out and go to a cassette. Don’t have the room for one with a large pull out cassette, but was looking at those luxury Thetfords so it at least would be a like for like replacement rather than going cheapest option.

 

Has anyone done this? My main worry is taking value off the boat as capacity would be reduced I suppose, but would buy an extra cassette too. I’m torn!

Exactly what I did. Different model of composting bog though. In practice capacity of a cassette loo isn't a problem when cruising as the network of sani stations around the system was set up precisely to cope with bucket n' chuckit and cassette loos. Only problem is if you are on board in one spot for weeks on end a long way from an elsan disposal.

 

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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24 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

In which case I would suggest you are not using it as a composting toilet.

ie, keeping it under the bed in an open box / bag to dry out for 6 months before spreading it on the Roses (or Tomatoes)

 

You seem to be using it as you would use a cassette and just pouring 'fresh' sewage down the Elsan.

You’re right, I’m not using it as a composter as can’t see how that would be practical on a boat, at least in my set up.

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25 minutes ago, peterboat said:

After 7 years of composting with a seperate villa, I have never had a problem, If you think the jerry can is heavy one third full how heavy are your cassettes going to be? Also I suspect you will be visiting the elsan daily. I normally go 3 months with the bucket on my villa without issues, however I have seen kids you half a loo roll at every sitting so can imagine your problems. I have the same system for pumping out wee and use a whale pump which when I go on holiday use a drain cleaner down the toilet to clean it out. Put the villa on ebay it will go for good money and there are still agents for it not that I have ever needed spares

I’m glad you’ve got on well with it. Do think they have potential but just can’t get it to work for me. I do wonder if mine was badly fitted or neglected a bit which led to all the clogging and build up problems. Last owner was a bit clueless and let a lot of problems build up.

 

Can’t see how I’ll be visiting the Elsan daily with maybe two uses a day as I’m out at work? Jerry can holds about 60l, which is why I struggle to carry it fill. My thinking is a 20l cassette will be more manageable! Don’t mind extra visits to the Elsan as is a ten min job on the marina.

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Suggestion: if you want something a bit more luxurious than the Porta Potti you're now using, is there a model that can at least use the same waste tank? You can't buy these individually as far as I know, so you'd then have paid 'going rate' for a spare tank plus the cost of your new loo, rather than having to write off the £80 already spent, if that makes sense.

 

FWIW we bought two Excellences (now renamed the 565) just to get two tanks. Just as good as a 'proper' cassette loo IMHO and half the price; plus I believe the tanks are a bit bigger (21 litres vs 17 litres?). Got them at a good price as Amazon Warehouse deals too - c. £85 each I think - so maybe worth a look for your chosen model on there?

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32 minutes ago, Shangela said:

I’m glad you’ve got on well with it. Do think they have potential but just can’t get it to work for me. I do wonder if mine was badly fitted or neglected a bit which led to all the clogging and build up problems. Last owner was a bit clueless and let a lot of problems build up.

 

Can’t see how I’ll be visiting the Elsan daily with maybe two uses a day as I’m out at work? Jerry can holds about 60l, which is why I struggle to carry it fill. My thinking is a 20l cassette will be more manageable! Don’t mind extra visits to the Elsan as is a ten min job on the marina.

I have a 25 litre container for the wee, wee contains lime which does tend to calcify up pumps, which is why I put a descaler down the pipes every now and then and leave it for a few days. I also use a lemon spray after every wee, which also helps it smell better and the acid keeps the limescale at bay. I really dont have any problems, but again I do have a composting bin which gets vegetable matter thrown it it plus the contents of the bucket, as I say get it out and flog it on ebay

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4 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Society in general might benefit from a few more folk doing that, but it seems just washing their hands is too much of a challenge for many! :D

 

An Air Force Officer, a Navy Officer and an Army Officer are all using the urinals at the same time :

 

When they come out, the Army Officer begins thoroughly washing his hands and says, 'In the Army they taught us the importance of good hygiene.'

The Naval officer then begins washing his hands using only a small trickle of water and says, 'In the Navy they taught us the importance of good hygiene AND water conservation.'

The RAF Officer walks straight out without stopping and says, 'In the RAF they taught us to not piss on our fingers.'

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1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

An Air Force Officer, a Navy Officer and an Army Officer are all using the urinals at the same time :

 

When they come out, the Army Officer begins thoroughly washing his hands and says, 'In the Army they taught us the importance of good hygiene.'

The Naval officer then begins washing his hands using only a small trickle of water and says, 'In the Navy they taught us the importance of good hygiene AND water conservation.'

The RAF Officer walks straight out without stopping and says, 'In the RAF they taught us to not piss on our fingers.'

Yes, well, water conservation is important! 

 

Plus, the Royal Navy and the British Army have fine old traditions - the "20 minuters" are still at the habit stage.

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