Compost Toilet V Traditional RV Toilet

[Steph and Dud B]

6 minutes ago, GAP said:

it's easy to dump the solids in the hose hole first

Can you do that? Is it safe for a septic system? Will the coconut material break down properly in a septic tank?

[SeaDawg]

11 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

Can you do that? Is it safe for a septic system? Will the coconut material break down properly in a septic tank?

My mom would say "no."

I was raised on a farm, with septic, of course. Nothing went into the system but toilet paper, and what had already been through our digestive systems. She was,and still is, very careful about food particles in the kitchen drain, and has never had issues .

I don't know a bunch about coir, but I'm guessing it doesn't break down easily. 

Some rv dumps are vaults, and have to be pumped out. Most are true septic, but even those get pumped out at times. Personally,  I wouldn't put anything down the drain that I  wouldn't put in my holding tank. 

[dewdev]

Being a retired engineer that worked at public wastewater treatment facilities, I would not dump either coconut cor or the peat moss from the Nature's Head Toilet into your home toilet. If you have a compost pile at home, after the Nature's Head compost has had its time to compost, add it to that pile.

The pee bottle can be emptied into the home toilet with no problem.

I would suggest you go to the Oliver University forum and read the Nature's Head Compost Toilet Manual. Some of the answers to your questions can be found there.

[Cameron]

I love that this is always a popular topic of conversation. No squeamishness among Ollie owners! I picked up our trailer in late July this year and the two of us used the composting toilet every day for about 20 days. We were in western states in very hot temps. The pee bottle smelled sometimes when full but not the toilet. We then parked the trailer where we're storing it at a friend's property in northern California. Also a hot dry area. During storage we turn off the lithium batteries, so, no vent fan for the toilet. I've been to the trailer five times since then for 1-3 days each time, using the toilet. I'm no where near having to replace the medium. It's not stinky. It's not full. There's a big pine tree nearby which gets the contents of my pee bottle as needed.

In the past when I rented SOB trailers, one of the chronic irritants was where to dump the black tank. Once, the campground dump station was closed for repairs. Once, we went to an RV park but had to wait for Joe to get back from errands with the key to unlock the dump station (and we had to give him $10). Often, the internet said some truck stop or gas station had a dump station, but they didn't. So, for me, it was a cost/benefit decision. I like to boondock or go to primitive camp sites without hookups. For me, the benefits of the composting toilet outweigh the negative aspects discussed above. 

[Allen Lee Rohner]

Has anyone installed a Cinderella incineration toilet in their OLIVER trailer?

[SeaDawg]

2 hours ago, Rohnerlee said:

Has anyone installed a Cinderella incineration toilet in their OLIVER trailer?

Not that I  know of. 

It's a beautiful toilet, as toilets go, with their Scandinavian clean design. Fairly similar in dimensions to the nature's head, but a little deeper, front to back, and weighs almost 3x as much.

It uses a bunch of energy, but, can also incinerate "everything. " My high school friend, who lives in Sweden, has used one, so my only personal source of user info. Said it was great, but at a friend's hytte/cabin, where septic was not possible. Not regular use, for her,  so no stats.

I've looked at them many times over the years, as it's such a "clean" solution, reducing everything to a cup of ash, once a week, but a) it's super expensive (well over 4000 dollars)  b) it uses a lot of energy (even the gas model). Based on their specs, I'd say over 1 pound of propane per day, for two people, would be my guesstimate.

A wall mounted urinal for guys , piped to the black tank, could help with that consumption,  as it would obviously take more power to reduce liquid to ash, than paper and poo.

[GAP]

On 12/7/2021 at 5:06 PM, SeaDawg said:

Not that I  know of. 

It's a beautiful toilet, as toilets go, with their Scandinavian clean design. Fairly similar in dimensions to the nature's head, but a little deeper, front to back, and weighs almost 3x as much.

It uses a bunch of energy, but, can also incinerate "everything. " My high school friend, who lives in Sweden, has used one, so my only personal source of user info. Said it was great, but at a friend's hytte/cabin, where septic was not possible. Not regular use, for her,  so no stats.

I've looked at them many times over the years, as it's such a "clean" solution, reducing everything to a cup of ash, once a week, but a) it's super expensive (well over 4000 dollars)  b) it uses a lot of energy (even the gas model). Based on their specs, I'd say over 1 pound of propane per day, for two people, would be my guesstimate.

A wall mounted urinal for guys , piped to the black tank, could help with that consumption,  as it would obviously take more power to reduce liquid to ash, than paper and poo.

Question is:  Which wall would you mount a urinal to?  Seems to me that the only open space would be on an outside wall, which would make for some fascinating conversation.