C&RT say don't empty your compost toilet in our bins.

[peterboat]

34 minutes ago, IanD said:

I've often wondered why boats on inland waterways (e.g. narrowboats) don't do the same, it would certainly mean refilling the water tank lass often. Maybe it's just that canal water is sometimes rather dirty compared to river/seawater?

 

Although given the amount of sewage and pollution in our rivers and inshore seas nowadays thanks to the privatised water companies, perhaps this isn't really true any more... 😞

Two of the boats on our moorings use canal water for flushing neither have had problems I have heard of, it might on a holding tank add valuable bacteria?

[Bargebuilder]

 

A bucket full of tap water and a long flush solves the problem.

[IanD]

4 minutes ago, Bargebuilder said:

 

A bucket full of tap water and a long flush solves the problem.

 

But is this actually a problem in real life (if you don't do this) as opposed to in theory?

[Bargebuilder]

2 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Two of the boats on our moorings use canal water for flushing neither have had problems I have heard of, it might on a holding tank add valuable bacteria?

My experience is from 30 years of coastal cruising, so I can't speak for river water, although I'd say canal water was more laden with organic matter than sea water.

 

Sea water, however, gives a stunning display of phosphorescence if you flush in the dark!

[ditchcrawler]

When I worked offshore all our toilets were flushed with sea water and if a toilet was left unused for a week  it did get sniffy. The biggest problem was the urinals where all the drainage pipes would block with crystallisation, I don't know if this was due to seawater. On our boat we never flush the holding tank with tap water when having a pump out, always canal water with a few buckets. Puts life back in the tank

[IanD]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

When I worked offshore all our toilets were flushed with sea water and if a toilet was left unused for a week  it did get sniffy. The biggest problem was the urinals where all the drainage pipes would block with crystallisation, I don't know if this was due to seawater. On our boat we never flush the holding tank with tap water when having a pump out, always canal water with a few buckets. Puts life back in the tank

Do you also use Odourlos of something similar?

[ditchcrawler]

When I worked offshore all our toilets were flushed with sea water and if a toilet was left unused for a week  it did get sniffy. The biggest problem was the urinals where all the drainage pipes would block with crystallisation, I don't know if this was due to seawater. On our boat we never flush the holding tank with tap water when having a pump out, always canal water with a few buckets. Puts life back in the tank

[magnetman]

My inner city boat, which was built as a nuclear fallout bunker, has a Navy blue Shires ceramic lavatory suite with a low profile cistern. The cistern mechanism is reversed and it is filled by a dedicated pump as needed with an automatic flushing setup. 

This loo sits on a holding tank and has a normal U bend.  If one is on a mooring with fresh water one uses one of the five separate stainless water tanks for fresh water flush. Nice and clean and no stink. If one has escaped the bomb blast and needs to survive one pulls in external water for lavatory and saves the tank water for cooking and drinking. 2 tonnes of fresh water in a 30ft boat.

 

Original design was overboard discharge via chopper pump and 1 inch pipe (the material is heavily diluted due to normal flush procedure so goes through 1 inch pipe easily). I rerouted this output to a beer keg as the boat is not at sea. My mooring has dedicated pumpout to each berth on account of being a residential mooring. 

 

Beer keg lasts a few flushes before needing pumping out. 

 

This setup would work well for someone who did self pump out because the material can be shifted down a small bore hose without any problems. 

 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, IanD said:

Do you also use Odourlos of something similar?

Cheapest Bio liquid I can find or what I can pinch out of her washing cupboard. for a long time I used nothing at all

[Ronaldo47]

A friend whose  father used to be the manager of a hotel, mentioned that they started to have problems with blocked urinals after the water regulations required  the urinals' automatic flushing tanks to be fitted with motion sensors to save water, so that water only trickled  into the tanks when someone was present.  I think he said it was due to uric acid crystal buildup caused by the presence of concentrated urine in the traps.

 

One floor of the offices I once worked in, was predominantly occupied by female staff, and after the motion sensors were fitted,  the long intervals between flushes meant that the previously pleasant gents' urinals used to smell foul. I solved the problem by finding an old 2 pint jug that we then kept in the gents and used to fill with water from the sink tap and pour it down the stall to provide a manual urinal flush after use.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos

[robtheplod]

8 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Good idea to check what ever a sales droid tells you. Not just with boats. Not heard anything about this either.

He knew we were not buying so not sure what he'd have to gain by telling porkies.. no reason to?  very odd.. anyway nobody seems any the wiser so I'll assume things are as they were... CRT thinking.....

[ditchcrawler]

From Facebook tonight Narrowboat Owners Group, you can probably guess some of the responses. 

 

 

 

[Tacet]

At home, not being connected to mains sewerage, there is an aerobic digester.  Basically a three chamber tank with bubbles being passed through the middle chamber.  The output discharges, lawfully, into a watercourse aka the ditch on the other side of the road.  Every once in a while (measured in years) the grit that has settled in the first chamber to be pumped away - but that's about it (don't get me started on ensuring the clean discharge falls away to said ditch.)

Is there a reason why, in principle at least, something similar could not be used on a boat?  Practical issues are probably ensuring the tank is sufficiently sized to give the waste long enough to digest.  Our tank holds a couple of weeks output; it takes the grey water too which might be essential to dilute the black waste.  And the pump or a stirrer needs to be powered somehow.

Are they used on any vessels?

[magnetman]

Yes you can get treatment plants for boats but they are expensive and bulky. Not sure if there are any on narrow boats but certainly there are some around on dutch barges. 

Example

 

https://tomlogisch.com/enteron/

 

"

enteron^® was completely privately financed and developed by Thomas Logisch. It is the smallest certified wastewater-treatment plant for houseboats, sailing and motor yachts and is also suitable for large caravans or expedition vehicles. enteron^® treats wastewater directly on board.

 

The technology ensures that only clear, clean water is responsibly discharged into the environment. enteron^® is in compliance with the waste-water limits certified by IMO/MARPOL and MEPC."

[Alan de Enfield]

2 hours ago, Tacet said:

At home, not being connected to mains sewerage, there is an aerobic digester.  Basically a three chamber tank with bubbles being passed through the middle chamber.  The output discharges, lawfully, into a watercourse aka the ditch on the other side of the road.  Every once in a while (measured in years) the grit that has settled in the first chamber to be pumped away - but that's about it (don't get me started on ensuring the clean discharge falls away to said ditch.)

Is there a reason why, in principle at least, something similar could not be used on a boat?  Practical issues are probably ensuring the tank is sufficiently sized to give the waste long enough to digest.  Our tank holds a couple of weeks output; it takes the grey water too which might be essential to dilute the black waste.  And the pump or a stirrer needs to be powered somehow.

Are they used on any vessels?

 

We have that - but they are quite power-hungry as the aerator / bubble maker is powered by a 24/7 pump, the pumped water also provides the power for the aerating arms (like 4-blased propellors with water jets in them - one in each chamber.

 

They are enoumous - bigger than a NB.

 

Ours being installed :

 

The hole was about 12 feet deep and its probably 20 ft long x 10 feet wide.

The green box on the RH side of the second picture is the 24/7 pump  powering the rotating arms and aerator.

 

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

but that's about it (don't get me started on ensuring the clean discharge falls away to said ditch.

 

 

Ours also discharges into the ditch and until a few years ago we had to have a discharge licence from the EA (£5 per annum for up to 5 cubic metres per day) but it was costing the EA more to administer than the income so the discharge licence was done away with.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Alan de Enfield

[Steilsteven]

On 14/08/2023 at 19:03, Tacet said:

At home, not being connected to mains sewerage, there is an aerobic digester.  Basically a three chamber tank with bubbles being passed through the middle chamber.  The output discharges, lawfully, into a watercourse aka the ditch on the other side of the road.  Every once in a while (measured in years) the grit that has settled in the first chamber to be pumped away - but that's about it (don't get me started on ensuring the clean discharge falls away to said ditch.)

Is there a reason why, in principle at least, something similar could not be used on a boat?  Practical issues are probably ensuring the tank is sufficiently sized to give the waste long enough to digest.  Our tank holds a couple of weeks output; it takes the grey water too which might be essential to dilute the black waste.  And the pump or a stirrer needs to be powered somehow.

Are they used on any vessels?

Some Dutch barge owners in Europe have installed one of these but they are eye wateringly expensive.

https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/scienco-fast/product-33374-208418.html

 

They can't be used legally in the UK until they are approved by the E A and for that to happen someone needs to install one and then seek approval.

 

Keith

[Alan de Enfield]

11 minutes ago, Steilsteven said:

Some Dutch barge owners in Europe have installed one of these but they are eye wateringly expensive.

https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/scienco-fast/product-33374-208418.html

 

They can't be used legally in the UK until they are approved by the E A and for that to happen someone needs to install one and then seek approval.

 

Keith

 

 

Looks interesting but appears to be a little large for NBs or even WBs

I cannot find any dimensions for the system - are they as large as they look to be ?

[captain flint]

32 minutes ago, Steilsteven said:

Some Dutch barge owners in Europe have installed one of these but they are eye wateringly expensive.

https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/scienco-fast/product-33374-208418.html

 

They can't be used legally in the UK until they are approved by the E A and for that to happen someone needs to install one and then seek approval.

 

Keith

Wow! So it treats it then you can just dump it? And is it environmentally friendly I wonder? 

[Alan de Enfield]

Just now, captain flint said:

Wow! So it treats it then you can just dump it? And is it environmentally friendly I wonder? 

 

 

It looks to be (functionally) a smaller unit than our domestic system, which looking at their video shows it works in an identical way.

Our domestic system, quite legally, runs out into a ditch.

 

The techinical details for our unit says the water output is at drinking water levels of purity.

I reckon the nitrogen is a bit high as weed growth in the ditch is very VERY lush.

 

We still need to empty the non-digested solids every couple of years but we have a 'man that does'.

[Steilsteven]

On 18/08/2023 at 11:17, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Looks interesting but appears to be a little large for NBs or even WBs

I cannot find any dimensions for the system - are they as large as they look to be ?

Yes they are quite big and probably too big for anything that uses our canals.

 

Keith