Making My Own "Composting" Head

[captlloyd]

Another Akron guy here. No, you must keep moisture out. (No urine). That is what causes the sewage odor. I am planning on building a boat,(again), and will build two composting heads. The problem with using a five gallon bucket is that it is difficult to stir the mixture. I don't think it is a must that you stir the mixture as you can add a small amount of media after each use, but I would prefer to have a stirring system. I am still working on a plan. You can buy the urine diverter from one of these companies and that will save you some construction time. As previously posted, I am going to make a stand-up urinal system which can be modeled from how they do it in porty-potties. Easy. I would also recommend using something with a lot more capacity than 2 litre bottles for the urine system. Make it as large as possible while still allowing you to carry it. Or, the holding tank idea is good.

[RainDog]

We built our own. The advantages are it fits your space perfectly and it is cheap. Most commercial systems have to be shoehorned into a small boat and are $$.

The main disadvantage, if you use the simple design we did, is the lack of an agitator. This means you use more coir and have to empty solids more often. Also our system would leak urine at 30% heel. We can easily cap the urine jug in rough conditions to solve this problem. The original head was unusable in these conditions anyway. Both of these problems could be designed around easily, I just didn't do it. We can easily go a month without disposing of solids off boat. Urine we can go about a week.

Details here: https://raindogps34.wordpress.com/head-project/

Just let me know if you want more details.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Secondly, men don't like to sit to pee. When I get the boat I will convert to composting. I will do one of those porta-potti attachments to the wall with tubing to the canister. Fans and some way to stir the desiccant and poo. Da da !!!

two points:

1) do enough hard labor during your day's work and sitting down to pee is a much welcomed chance to sit down and take a load off of your feet. i think that whole 'men don't like to sit down to pee' thing is a trumped up thing. some group of dudes went around telling younger guys it was girlie to sit and pee and that attitude gets passed on through the years. if you are bone weary enough, that BS means squat. you're just glad to be able to sit down. (spoken from experience.)

(not to mention this: what do you do if your are in the middle of a number 2 and the need to pee strikes you? if you're a man, do you have to stand up and turn around to take a pee and then sit back down?)

2) do you really want guys standing up to pee on your boat when you are sailing? sounds like a recipe for a real mess in the head. sitting is safer in a seaway.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by RainDog

We built our own. The advantages are it fits your space perfectly and it is cheap. Most commercial systems have to be shoehorned into a small boat and are $$.

The main disadvantage, if you use the simple design we did, is the lack of an agitator. This means you use more coir and have to empty solids more often. Also our system would leak urine at 30% heel. We can easily cap the urine jug in rough conditions to solve this problem. The original head was unusable in these conditions anyway. Both of these problems could be designed around easily, I just didn't do it. We can easily go a month without disposing of solids off boat. Urine we can go about a week.

Details here: https://raindogps34.wordpress.com/head-project/

Just let me know if you want more details.

glad you posted. i saw that site back when i first considered the head issue. excellent link. very informative. thanks for putting that out for those of us searching the interweb for info on composting heads.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by captlloyd

Another Akron guy here. No, you must keep moisture out. (No urine). That is what causes the sewage odor. I am planning on building a boat,(again), and will build two composting heads. The problem with using a five gallon bucket is that it is difficult to stir the mixture. I don't think it is a must that you stir the mixture as you can add a small amount of media after each use, but I would prefer to have a stirring system. I am still working on a plan. You can buy the urine diverter from one of these companies and that will save you some construction time. As previously posted, I am going to make a stand-up urinal system which can be modeled from how they do it in porty-potties. Easy. I would also recommend using something with a lot more capacity than 2 litre bottles for the urine system. Make it as large as possible while still allowing you to carry it. Or, the holding tank idea is good.

The two liter jug bit was just what I did for my 24 it was all I had room for on my lil boat. For stirring try a paint paddle. ( one for 5 gal buckets.) Becides its just me on board haven't done the composting bit on the spencer yet.

[captlloyd]

Originally Posted by first wind

two points:

1) do enough hard labor during your day's work and sitting down to pee is a much welcomed chance to sit down and take a load off of your feet. i think that whole 'men don't like to sit down to pee' thing is a trumped up thing. some group of dudes went around telling younger guys it was girlie to sit and pee and that attitude gets passed on through the years. if you are bone weary enough, that BS means squat. you're just glad to be able to sit down. (spoken from experience.)

(not to mention this: what do you do if your are in the middle of a number 2 and the need to pee strikes you? if you're a man, do you have to stand up and turn around to take a pee and then sit back down?)

2) do you really want guys standing up to pee on your boat when you are sailing? sounds like a recipe for a real mess in the head. sitting is safer in a seaway.

No harm in having both options.

[cal_d_44]

Here is my home made Composting Head all details here :-)

Fair Winds

Cal

[SimonV]

have read all this stuff on composting heads, They are not composting heads but dehydrating heads. I keep coming back to the basic.....WHY?

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by SimonV

have read all this stuff on composting heads, They are not composting heads but dehydrating heads. I keep coming back to the basic.....WHY?

Actually technically they are the first part of a 3 stage composting system in a full land system the bucket is the collection part there are then two separate bins outside to do the rest.
Be ides its a psychological thing composting sounds like a better thing than desiccating does when describing a toilet system.

[captlloyd]

Originally Posted by cal_d_44

Here is my home made Composting Head all details here :-)

Fair Winds

Cal

Very nice job !!

[first wind]

Originally Posted by SimonV

have read all this stuff on composting heads, They are not composting heads but dehydrating heads. I keep coming back to the basic.....WHY?

not so sure you are actually asking why are they called that. if my suspicion is accurate it raises the question ,why what? are you asking, why go this route over the standard holding tank system?

[first wind]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Actually technically they are the first part of a 3 stage composting system in a full land system the bucket is the collection part there are then two separate bins outside to do the rest.
Be ides its a psychological thing composting sounds like a better thing than desiccating does when describing a toilet system.

it might also be that the average Joe is familiar with the term 'composting' but has never heard of 'desiccating'. of course, composting does sound better:

jim tripped over the desiccated corpse.

compared to

jim walked through the composted corpse.

hmmmm maybe not the best possible example

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by first wind

it might also be that the average Joe is familiar with the term 'composting' but has never heard of 'desiccating'. of course, composting does sound better:

jim tripped over the desiccated corpse.

compared to

jim walked through the composted corpse.

hmmmm maybe not the best possible example

Especially considering the sailor that had been missing for 7 years they just found recently in the pi he was mummyfied ( desicated)

[SURV69]

I can't remember what exactly this type of "composting", toilet is, but the general idea is that the system stays on the dry side. If I remember right the various systems for boats either have a small fan or a vent ... both, I think to keep the system more on the dry side.

The holding tank is already in the boat, waiting to be used ... and who knows, maybe a urinal could feed into the tank by gravity, but then water would have to be added if I expect to have some sort of trap(for urine gasses). Still, 17 or so gallons would work for a really long time(I figure about 1/2 gal or less a day.

In any case,a composting(?) toilet on land is not the same as a unit on a boat. Boats are quite small and heads are even smaller. The use of available space is critical on a 30' and less sailboat, and many of the consumer units just are too tall and too big in general.

[newhaul]

The dry head you are describing wanting is really similar to what is called a " Joe Jenkins sawdust toilet"