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Dr Bob

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Well we will find out soon!

We bought a compoosting toilet to replace our pump out. Picked it up today and will fit it in the next week or so.

On our old boat we had a vacuflush with a pump out tank which worked well and needed pumping out every four weeks or so. Once or twice a year the vacuflush pump needed surgery to free up the duck valves which got blocked with sweetcorn, apple pips etc and required a hour or so contact with our own poo & wee. This we thought far better than cassettes where from the state of many Elsan points you come into contact with not only your own waste but everyone else's. It was a very good system and worked well - most of the time.

Anywho, when we got our new boat this summer, with the largest holding tank available – a little smaller than the one on our old boat - we found the intervals between pump outs was only 2 weeks due to the vastly increased amount of water the toilet was using to flush. That got us looking at other options and after a load of research, we went for the Compoosting toilet that Foxes Afloat have shown on their Vlogs. We did talk to Shaun when we saw them near Braunston in October (installed for 6 months on their boat) and he was very positive about it. There is no way when we are out I will be looking for a pump out every 2 weeks.

We were very impressed with what @frahkn had written on here in a thread on composting toilets earlier in the year. I think Frank had the 'Nature's head' unit but we went down the Compoost option for the fan set up which will certainly not create smells in the bathroom when the bathroom fan operates – others have reported smells as bathroom fans tend to have more powerful motors than the small computer fans in the composting toilets so air is sucked back through the toilet from the external vent. The Compoost toilet also scores for me as it is made out of GRP rather than rotomoulded Polyethylene and the design to keep solids and liquids apart seem better than most. Time will tell. We will just take out and replace the old (6 month old) toilet and plug the waste pipe for now. Once we are happy with it, we may then rip out all the pipes and stainless holding tank. I'll update you on our progress.

I notice @Leemc has just bought one as well from Compoost. They are selling a lot of these units!

...bet's now being taken on how many minutes it takes Tim to respond!

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2 minutes ago, Leemc said:

We are pretty convinced that this is the way to go for continuous cruisers. Research done, loo bought, let the waste production begin? Will report back. Bloody glad to see the back of the vacuflush and heavy cassettes.

3-0!!!!????

 

Maybe that nice Mr Athy can close this thread while we are winning? ( @Athy)

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7 minutes ago, Leemc said:

We are pretty convinced that this is the way to go for continuous cruisers. Research done, loo bought, let the waste production begin? Will report back. Bloody glad to see the back of the vacuflush and heavy cassettes.

 

2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

3-0!!!!????

 

Maybe that nice Mr Athy can close this thread while we are winning? ( @Athy)

I can honestly say I couldn't go back to either a pump out or cassette loo, I have a portion potty in the camper but that's only for weekends and holidays 

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15 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

3-

 

Maybe that nice Mr Athy can close this thread while we are winning? ( @Athy)

That's a crap idea. Are you taking the, er, rise?

11 minutes ago, peterboat said:

 

I have a portion potty in the camper but that's only for weekends and holidays 

If it was for longer, you might need a whole one.

Edited by Athy
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I wonder how many compost toilet owners actually compost their waste ? I know Peterboat does but from the various boating and van life vlogs many seem to just bag the poo up and put it in rubbish bins much like dog owners do . [ apart from those who hang it in bushes].  Everyone likes a good toilet thread with the more detail the better it seems so this looks like a good start to 2021. 

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42 minutes ago, Troyboy said:

I wonder how many compost toilet owners actually compost their waste ? I know Peterboat does but from the various boating and van life vlogs many seem to just bag the poo up and put it in rubbish bins much like dog owners do . [ apart from those who hang it in bushes].

I'm not sure what dog poo has to do with this. We are talking human waste aren't we?

If it is not composted, then yes, the likely route is to put it in black bin waste. So if everyone went this way on boats, we would have 30,000 bags every now and again in black bags. That is a very very small amount compared to the amount of human waste collected by councils and set to incineration or landfill. I would guess there are almost 2 million babies in nappies in the UK who at least 4 times a day send a nappy to a black bin. That is likely 10 million nappies a day incinerated or sent to land fill. Boaters poo pails into insignificance against that!........(even ignoring all the plastic in nappies).

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2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

I'm not sure what dog poo has to do with this. We are talking human waste aren't we?

If it is not composted, then yes, the likely route is to put it in black bin waste. So if everyone went this way on boats, we would have 30,000 bags every now and again in black bags. That is a very very small amount compared to the amount of human waste collected by councils and set to incineration or landfill. I would guess there are almost 2 million babies in nappies in the UK who at least 4 times a day send a nappy to a black bin. That is likely 10 million nappies a day incinerated or sent to land fill. Boaters poo pails into insignificance against that!........(even ignoring all the plastic in nappies).

Or you could use a very well thought out system for the disposal of sewage that’s all ready in place all around the canal network rather than adding to general waste that already fills most refuse points...just what they need is bags of human poo adding to them....

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4 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

I would guess there are almost 2 million babies in nappies in the UK who at least 4 times a day send a nappy to a black bin. That is likely 10 million nappies a day incinerated or sent to land fill. Boaters poo pails into insignificance against that!........(even ignoring all the plastic in nappies).

But in my experience, babies produce much less poo on a per person per day basis than adults.

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6 minutes ago, frangar said:

Or you could use a very well thought out system for the disposal of sewage that’s all ready in place all around the canal network rather than adding to general waste that already fills most refuse points...just what they need is bags of human poo adding to them....

Yes but they are s**t ?

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1 hour ago, Dr Bob said:

I'm not sure what dog poo has to do with this. We are talking human waste aren't we?

If it is not composted, then yes, the likely route is to put it in black bin waste. So if everyone went this way on boats, we would have 30,000 bags every now and again in black bags. That is a very very small amount compared to the amount of human waste collected by councils and set to incineration or landfill. I would guess there are almost 2 million babies in nappies in the UK who at least 4 times a day send a nappy to a black bin. That is likely 10 million nappies a day incinerated or sent to land fill. Boaters poo pails into insignificance against that!........(even ignoring all the plastic in nappies).

The similarity with dog poo is that responsible dog owners when their dog shits they bag it up and put it  ideally in a bin specially provided for dog poo or alternatively in any rubbish bin provided . I suspect you are going to do the same thing albeit  on a larger scale with your bag containing your  few days worth of shit . Like dogs I suspect your piss will be poured onto grass /in the hedge row again in a much larger amount. I have no problem with this but please do not call it composting , it is certainly not composting or compoosting and has more in common with the bucket and chuck it tradition. My concern is that when it becomes common knowledge that boaters are dumping bags of shit in bins not intended for human waste then boaters may become unwelcome visitors . The answer maybe is again drawing canine comparison for special bins to be provided alongside the canal for boaters to put their  bags of  shit in and provided they empty the shit out of the plastic bags over time it just might turn into compost . 

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38 minutes ago, Troyboy said:

My concern is that when it becomes common knowledge that boaters are dumping bags of shit in bins not intended for human waste then boaters may become unwelcome visitors

Local councils do expect dirty nappies in black bag waste. Where do you think peeps throw the soiled nappies from their babies (up to 2 years old)? The issue on many canals especially in the Midlands is that waste is not segregated and everything is going to black bag waste. In this case the recycling centres sort the recycle on picking lines and leave the nappies etc to go to incineration (or worse, landfill).

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Some areas sort black bin waste for recyclable materials and any organic waste goes to anaerobic digesters. They have machines that slit bags - it then gets sorted but i don't

 think the manual sorters would be happy with slit bags of shit!! Come to think of it most sewage treatment plants put solids into AD and use the gas produced to make electricity. However all sorts of things get put in wheely bins many of which are not nice especially if the bin has not been emptied for a two or three weeks. Its a mind blowing boring low paid job standing at a conveyor sorting waste as it goes by. Human waste cannot be composted unless the system gets hot enough to kill pathogens which is why you should not put food waste in garden waste bins. Which brings me back to the point by bagging up excrement and putting it in general waste bins you are passing on the problem of disposing of it to other people. They are not geared up to process such material so unless you are prepared to fully compost your own waste dispose of it in a place that can process it properly. Human waste is hazardous!!

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18 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Well we will find out soon!

We bought a compoosting toilet to replace our pump out. Picked it up today and will fit it in the next week or so.

On our old boat we had a vacuflush with a pump out tank which worked well and needed pumping out every four weeks or so. Once or twice a year the vacuflush pump needed surgery to free up the duck valves which got blocked with sweetcorn, apple pips etc and required a hour or so contact with our own poo & wee. This we thought far better than cassettes where from the state of many Elsan points you come into contact with not only your own waste but everyone else's. It was a very good system and worked well - most of the time.

Anywho, when we got our new boat this summer, with the largest holding tank available – a little smaller than the one on our old boat - we found the intervals between pump outs was only 2 weeks due to the vastly increased amount of water the toilet was using to flush. That got us looking at other options and after a load of research, we went for the Compoosting toilet that Foxes Afloat have shown on their Vlogs. We did talk to Shaun when we saw them near Braunston in October (installed for 6 months on their boat) and he was very positive about it. There is no way when we are out I will be looking for a pump out every 2 weeks.

We were very impressed with what @frahkn had written on here in a thread on composting toilets earlier in the year. I think Frank had the 'Nature's head' unit but we went down the Compoost option for the fan set up which will certainly not create smells in the bathroom when the bathroom fan operates – others have reported smells as bathroom fans tend to have more powerful motors than the small computer fans in the composting toilets so air is sucked back through the toilet from the external vent. The Compoost toilet also scores for me as it is made out of GRP rather than rotomoulded Polyethylene and the design to keep solids and liquids apart seem better than most. Time will tell. We will just take out and replace the old (6 month old) toilet and plug the waste pipe for now. Once we are happy with it, we may then rip out all the pipes and stainless holding tank. I'll update you on our progress.

I notice @Leemc has just bought one as well from Compoost. They are selling a lot of these units!

...bet's now being taken on how many minutes it takes Tim to respond!

:D Morning old boy. Well If you want to crap in a bin liner and throw it in the rubbish when there are perfectly acceptable better systems in use then have fun. When I moved aboard near on 32 years ago there were the very occasional composting bog, the same applies today, they are not new. As we all have time on our hands I have just looked on whilton and abnb sites and gone through boat descriptions. 21 for sale on whilton with only one a crap in the box type and I looked at the first ten on abnb and gave up looking they were all cassette or pump out.

There is a reason and nowt has changed in my time. I suggest you leave your tank in situ so the next owner can reconnect to a proper bog. A quick edit is that I am looking at houses at present and so far out of the hell of a lot ive looked at non have had a composting bog, I wonder why?

Edited by mrsmelly
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5 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

There is a reason and nowt has changed in my time. I suggest you leave your tank in situ so the next owner can reconnect to a proper bog.

Happy new year Tim! Well that is really good advice - and that is what we are doing!

It's very easy just to take the old (new) toilet out and cap off the pipes and put the new one in place as no pipes needed, just connect up the 12V supply. If we find in 3 months time that it doesnt match the hype we are hearing, then it will be a 30 min job to put the old one back in and we will flog the compoosting one. There is a 15 week waiting list for the compoosting toilet so they are in demand. Long term, do we remove the tank? It all depends how good this one performs. I am fed up of pumping out every 2 weeks!

If this virus ever goes away, we'll be down your way for a beer!?

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2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Happy new year Tim! Well that is really good advice - and that is what we are doing!

It's very easy just to take the old (new) toilet out and cap off the pipes and put the new one in place as no pipes needed, just connect up the 12V supply. If we find in 3 months time that it doesnt match the hype we are hearing, then it will be a 30 min job to put the old one back in and we will flog the compoosting one. There is a 15 week waiting list for the compoosting toilet so they are in demand. Long term, do we remove the tank? It all depends how good this one performs. I am fed up of pumping out every 2 weeks!

If this virus ever goes away, we'll be down your way for a beer!?

Sending you a pm ?

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