Toilets, the big discussion

[Guest]

As liveaboards the wife and I would either have to wee on the towpath or have a pump out tank the same size as the boat for it to last 11 months. Praps someone could work it out and be realistic ( I dont do Maffs ) How big would a tank need to be ( In English ) to last us for elleven months. We use a cassette every two days its a c200 and I havnt a clue what it holds but it would mean a tank 167 times bigger than a cassette blimey do you cross your legs

 

Tim

 

As big as Starcoasters new shower room..

 

They do fill up quite quickly if you have guests, or a beer night.

 

Send the blokes to the hedge back...

[Pretty Funked Up]

As liveaboards the wife and I would either have to wee on the towpath or have a pump out tank the same size as the boat for it to last 11 months. Praps someone could work it out and be realistic ( I dont do Maffs ) How big would a tank need to be ( In English ) to last us for elleven months. We use a cassette every two days its a c200 and I havnt a clue what it holds but it would mean a tank 167 times bigger than a cassette blimey do you cross your legs

 

Tim

 

Blimey just done the sums the tank would need to be 637 gallons in size

 

If theres 2 of you, half that time for a couple and I was weeing else where to see how much difference it makes.

The difference is huge!! oh and its 1000 litres. It worked out at over 1000 actually doing L x W x D sum for cubic centimetres.

That said I have plenty of friends over alot and I only made the blokes wee elsewhere so its still wasnt an accurate experiment. With no vistitors it would go 12 months easily.

Edited August 15, 2012 by Pretty Funked Up

[MtB]

Stop being reasonable, Mike!

 

 

 

OMG another top poster....

 

RUN AWAY!

 

 

Mike

[Zayna]

On the subject of cassettes, is there ever any evidence of any dirty tickets emptying their cassettes anywhere other than the proper place? I would not DREAM of ever doing that but I can't imagine that every cassette owner/operator has the same standards as me. We have one in our motorhome and I've certainly seen evidence of stealth dumping. Vile critters...

[mrsmelly]

On the subject of cassettes, is there ever any evidence of any dirty tickets emptying their cassettes anywhere other than the proper place? I would not DREAM of ever doing that but I can't imagine that every cassette owner/operator has the same standards as me. We have one in our motorhome and I've certainly seen evidence of stealth dumping. Vile critters...

 

You are right some rsoles do that. I have also seen/reported a narrowboat owner pumping his tank overboard on the aire and calder

 

Tim

[Guest]

On the subject of cassettes, is there ever any evidence of any dirty tickets emptying their cassettes anywhere other than the proper place? I would not DREAM of ever doing that but I can't imagine that every cassette owner/operator has the same standards as me. We have one in our motorhome and I've certainly seen evidence of stealth dumping. Vile critters...

 

Yes

 

- we have been very occasionally been moored and seen tell tale signs of blue and toilet paper in the hedge back.

 

Allegedly people use their self pumpouts to empty their tanks into the canal too as do cassette users.

[Pretty Funked Up]

... a narrowboat owner pumping his tank overboard ...

 

Tim

 

Still never seen that happen once, is it a northern thing?

Edited August 15, 2012 by Pretty Funked Up

[Zayna]

Disgusting. I don't know how folk can do that. I'm not frightened of a bit of muck, but in the proper place, for goodness sake. Filthy beggars.

[Paul C]

There is another option - use the marina loo and never use the one on the boat. Compare it to living in a tent, on a campsite. Cyclists and walkers who backpack and carry a tent, then pitch up at a campsite, don't have a loo of their own, they rely 100% on the campsite's facilities. Of course, there's the odd occasion when you need to go in the middle of the night, or if you actually move/drive the boat around and want to go whilst out and about, but that would/could be minimal. In this situation a pump out loo could last 11 months before full, although I'd imagine it would need a pump out and flush sooner than its full to keep it smelling non-stinky.

[Zayna]

And go in Tesco, or Asda. Even if you don't want to.

[Guest]

Still never seen that happen once, is it a northern thing?

 

No more common than seeing a massive floating pump out tank down your way...

[bowten]

Meh.

Eh!

 

As liveaboards the wife and I would either have to wee on the towpath or have a pump out tank the same size as the boat for it to last 11 months. Praps someone could work it out and be realistic ( I dont do Maffs ) How big would a tank need to be ( In English ) to last us for elleven months. We use a cassette every two days its a c200 and I havnt a clue what it holds but it would mean a tank 167 times bigger than a cassette blimey do you cross your legs

 

Tim

 

Blimey just done the sums the tank would need to be 637 gallons in size

You are good at maffs you are.

[BlueStringPudding]

When I said they don't smell I meant while in use.

I think how much the pump out process smells depends very much on the type of equipment used. As they need emptying far less often than a cassette and as we don't actually do the pumping out we neither have to put up with the smell while it is done nor have any fear at all of getting splashed by any waste while it occurs either

 

I absolutely agree.

 

There is another option - use the marina loo and never use the one on the boat. Compare it to living in a tent, on a campsite. Cyclists and walkers who backpack and carry a tent, then pitch up at a campsite, don't have a loo of their own, they rely 100% on the campsite's facilities. Of course, there's the odd occasion when you need to go in the middle of the night, or if you actually move/drive the boat around and want to go whilst out and about, but that would/could be minimal. In this situation a pump out loo could last 11 months before full, although I'd imagine it would need a pump out and flush sooner than its full to keep it smelling non-stinky.

 

The longest my giant pumpout tank has lasted between pumpouts is 12 months. And that's without using a marina toilet!

 

Yes

 

- we have been very occasionally been moored and seen tell tale signs of blue and toilet paper in the hedge back.

 

Allegedly people use their self pumpouts to empty their tanks into the canal too as do cassette users.

 

Or indeed into nature- filled streams. Cassette contents just down the towpath from me, dumped on the bank and shallow stream. B*stards

 

You cannot possibly vacuum one years worth of shit away for £15...

 

Yes you can. Been there, done that.

Edited August 15, 2012 by BlueStringPudding

[Ange]

Oh goody a toilet thread

 

We've got both - but we don't poo in the portapotti - that's strictly for wee to make the pump out last longer.

 

Average 3 months between pump outs for two liveaboards who also make a concerted effort to visit pub / supermarket / station / fast food outlet loos as often as possible. Even better if we use their loos to make a smell without buying any of their wares - leaves us with a warm glow!

 

Hmm not the pub though - it'd be rude not to have a pint before/after using their loo

[Guest]

Yes you can. Been there, done that.

 

So your boat is 90% pump out tank, 10% accommodation...

Edited August 15, 2012 by The Dog House

[BlueStringPudding]

How much sh*te do you produce, Martin?

 

Is my tank 90% of 65ft? No. Not quite.

 

But a tank the same width, height and length as a double bed holds a lot of the stuff.

[AidanLincs]

I did

OMG another top poster....

it

RUN AWAY!

especially

for

Mike

you!

[Guest]

But a tank the same width, height and length as a double bed holds a lot of the stuff.

 

Ours was half that size and was full in under two weeks, the one we had on a hire boat that was under a massive double bed was full after two weeks...

 

Something just does not add up.

[BlueStringPudding]

Two weeks!? My brother's little Traveller pumpout tank fills in two to four weeks. My boat is ex hire and designed for 8-10 people to spend 2 or more weeks on full time. I had one of the two integral giant tanks removed, so let's say that's 4-8 people now. 8 x 2-4 weeks = 16 - 32 weeks minimum for one person living on board full time! If you had a loo tank on a hire boat the size of the loo tank on my boat and you filled it in two weeks instead of a minimum of four months, you need special tummy medicine.

 

I suggest you had a narrow tank like my brothers' Traveller. Many are. Unless you dismantled the wooden bed you wouldn't know if it was.Either that or the hire firm didn't fully pump it out before you hired it. Or it was significantly sludged up inside.

 

So take my 16 - 32 weeks minimum, add to that the fact I have a full time job not on the boat, as most of us do. Add to that that I don't use the full water load every time the loo is flushed - and that makes an incredible difference. Add to that I don't live the lifestyle of boozing and gorging hire boaters on holiday. My loo tank really lasts between pumpouts. As it seems does Pretty Funked Up's. Unless we're both in a pumpout fantasy land of course. Naturally other people on board reduce the duration between pumpouts (note to self, less of a social life = fewer pumpouts)

 

To quote a certain genius forumite: if Jesus was feeding the five thousand and they all turned out to be allergic to fish, they would still wouldnt be able to fill the pootanks on my boat.

Edited August 15, 2012 by BlueStringPudding

[Guest]

As it seems does Pretty Funked Up's. Unless we're both in a pumpout fantasy land of course.

 

No need to be quite so sarcky....

 

I'm genuinely trying to understand this.

 

What is the capacity in litres of the tank you have left?

Edited August 15, 2012 by The Dog House

[BlueStringPudding]

I think there's quite a lot of need to be sarcy. Someone who genuinely is trying to understand something would usually ask qualifying constructive questions. You made a statement that "something just does not add up"

 

I'll be happy to answer any questions you have if it helps.

 

 

 

Edited to add: I just saw the question you added after your edit. I don't know how many litres the tank is. Perhaps it can be calculated from the standard dimensions of a double bed as its only a fraction smaller. I'm not sure I know the Maths for that though

Edited August 15, 2012 by BlueStringPudding

[Guest]

I think there's quite a lot of need to be sarcy. Someone who genuinely is trying to understand something would usually ask qualifying constructive questions. You made a statement that "something just does not add up"

 

I'll be happy to answer any questions you have if it helps.

 

See edit..

[BlueStringPudding]

See mine

[Guest]

See mine

 

A standard double bed is 4 foot wide and 6 foot 2 inches long, roughly how high is yours from the floor...

 

ed.

 

OK being trying to work this out in my head -

 

I reckon I could get around 20 C250 cassettes under our bed (if we were sad enough) that would equate to a holding tank of around 360 litres (each cassette holds 18 litres) if they were 'morphed' into one big under bed tank.

 

One cassette lasts both of us a max of 48 hours when we are on the boat a bit more if we are around shore based facilities. That works out to around a month and 10 days use, nearly three months for somebody on their boat on their own, so a year from an under bed tank is impressive to say the least.

Edited August 16, 2012 by The Dog House

[keble]

For the latest developments in toilet technology see BBC story.

It's the Reinvent the Toilet Fair, good to know that there are people working on this!