Composting Toilet, Cassette Toilet and Black Tanks

[wincrasher]

Please don't take your buckets to Starbucks. I don't want my mocha grande zen disturbed.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by skagitstan

... I haven't had the chance to see if a bucket full of real pee behaves differently than water in disposing the liquid.

...

Spoiler alert: When left with no choice but to dump inside my own home, I was forced to then open front and back doors and allow the house to air out for an hour or so afterward.

And we're talking cute little Girl Scout Daisies here - young children. I'm not sure what the incremental olfactory impact would be from adults instead. But James (FitRV) was correct in describing dumping in a public bathroom stall and wondering if the guy in the next stall seriously was believing that he had just died a horrible death. It is that bad, and worse. I would never, ever inflict this kind of thing upon restaurant patrons, or even C-store patrons. That's just not right. I'd die of shame if I did that to my fellow citizens.

I was unable to identify any modification that would have made this a more bearable process. Most toilets are now low-flow, so there is no chance of submerging the urine transfer under the surface of the water (given that there is so little water in the bowl to start with). So for instance I couldn't really see how attaching a hose or some other mechanism to shield the urine from the air would have helped.

[avanti]

InterBlog:
Your considerable skills at weaving vivid prose have gone a long way toward promoting rational thinking in this thread.

[skagitstan]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Spoiler alert: When left with no choice but to dump inside my own home, I was forced to then open front and back doors and allow the house to air out for an hour or so afterward.

And we're talking cute little Girl Scout Daisies here - young children. I'm not sure what the incremental olfactory impact would be from adults instead. But James (FitRV) was correct in describing dumping in a public bathroom stall and wondering if the guy in the next stall seriously was believing that he had just died a horrible death. It is that bad, and worse. I would never, ever inflict this kind of thing upon restaurant patrons, or even C-store patrons. That's just not right. I'd die of shame if I did that to my fellow citizens.

I was unable to identify any modification that would have made this a more bearable process. Most toilets are now low-flow, so there is no chance of submerging the urine transfer under the surface of the water (given that there is so little water in the bowl to start with). So for instance I couldn't really see how attaching a hose or some other mechanism to shield the urine from the air would have helped.

I suppose your camper use and preferred dump locations differ from mine. For example, we don't visit Starbucks or McDonald's, not even to buy the cups and burger wrappers to dump on the roadside. We certainly wouldn't expect to use them as an RV dump.
It is hard for me to imagine that dumping some pee into a pit toilet can be any worse than the pit toilet already stinks.

[MsNomer]

For two years I have peed and occasionally pooped into Glad trash bags in my camper van. No water is added. I double-bag. Between uses I fold the top of the inner bag. For transport, I fold both bags. These bags are contained and transported in a one-gallon plastic bucket. I have never ever had an odor issue, even though the setup is right by the head of the bed. I empty wherever is convenient--McD, C-Store, campground, etc--also without odor or mess. I discard the inner bag in the trash; the outer bag is insurance and rarely gets changed.

Secret: I empty every morning. If it used during the day, I empty at night, also. Downside is that I use at least a bag a day.

[gregmchugh]

The potty police are out in force today...

Composting toilets are under attack, hide your pee bottles before you are apprehended and put in stocks and subject to ridicule in the public square...

[mojoman]

Our's have worked out well, no hoses, tank, maintenance or smells. After 17 flushes you have a compact cartridge you can mail to your deserving congressman or senator. They are a little pricey, but are self-contained units that can be moved and used anywhere. I installed mine to be removable so it can be used in a cabin. They come with a built in 12v battery and a charger.
Dry Flush | The Waterless Toilet

[Viperml]

Mojoman, I like what you are using. I am going to get one of those when i get my rig. Thanks for posting about it.

[booster]

Looks like about a buck a flush? based on cost and 17 flushes. How many of these do you go through in a week?

[mojoman]

We only use it when there are no bathrooms available. One cartridge lasted us one a three week trip.

[mojoman]

Also, no special requirements for disposal, it is treated the same as a diaper so any trash can will do. I would pay more per flush not having to deal with a black water tank and hoses.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by skagitstan

I suppose your camper use and preferred dump locations differ from mine. For example, we don't visit Starbucks or McDonald's, not even to buy the cups and burger wrappers to dump on the roadside. We certainly wouldn't expect to use them as an RV dump.
It is hard for me to imagine that dumping some pee into a pit toilet can be any worse than the pit toilet already stinks.

Would you have access to a pit toilet every 24 hours on the hour, though? Because as James and Stephanie noted - and I'm so glad they were honest about this - that's the dumping frequency that it takes if two active people are using one of these composting toilets.

In their case, they are young and unusually athletic and very conscious about their hydration. In our case, we are older and not quite as athletic, but we are still very active and we live in the deep south where we are constantly sweating for one reason or another. We pound through vast quantities of liquid to keep a proper hydration balance. We are also boondockers, Wallydockers, Crackerdockers, who travel vast distances, sometimes up to 750 miles per day... no pit toilets would be available to us. In that scenario, we would be forced to choose between dumping at McDonald's or dumping in the nearest ditch.

[skagitstan]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Would you have access to a pit toilet every 24 hours on the hour, though? Because as James and Stephanie noted - and I'm so glad they were honest about this - that's the dumping frequency that it takes if two active people are using one of these composting toilets.

In their case, they are young and unusually athletic and very conscious about their hydration. In our case, we are older and not quite as athletic, but we are still very active and we live in the deep south where we are constantly sweating for one reason or another. We pound through vast quantities of liquid to keep a proper hydration balance. We are also boondockers, Wallydockers, Crackerdockers, who travel vast distances, sometimes up to 750 miles per day... no pit toilets would be available to us. In that scenario, we would be forced to choose between dumping at McDonald's or dumping in the nearest ditch.

Yes, it sounds like our usage is very different.
Most of our out-of camper activities are hiking in back country, far from other folks. The accepted convention there is to simply find a friendly tree or bush. So that doesn't adversely impact bottle fill rate.

Our version of boondocking is almost exclusively distributed camping on USFS, BLM, or state DNR land. We stay as far from Wallyworld or similar as humanly possible. In 20 years of RV camping, we have never even stayed at a KOA.

We don't travel vast distances, except rarely (and then, we'd simply use freeway rest stops like any normal car would). We would always plan long hops to have good uncivilized (or at least state park) camping options each night.

Our goal is to find a nice spot near a bunch of trailheads.

It isn't near as hot and humid in the PNW as the South. Pretty much the opposite.

There are a lot of pit toilet campgrounds out west. Commonly with no other facilities, and usually with no-one else staying over (except on weekends). Sometimes we even stay in one.

So the issues you would have with proper disposal in civilization don't really apply to us. That usage difference is certainly something to keep in mind when designing your waste system.

[ManWonder]

Originally Posted by BobB

Maybe even take it to a McDonalds.

LOL -- I love this forum!! ROTFL