Composting heads; Airhead, Nature's way.....

[ralay]

I know there are a few good threads on this already, but I'll give my 2 cents since our new boat came with an Airhead.  We had a chance to try it out on our month long trip back from Ft. Lauderdale.  You can find pretty good descriptions of how they work else,where so I'll just give my impression from personal experience.

The composting head is pretty good at dealing with poop as long as you go offshore pretty frequently.  Ours came with some bricks of coconut fiber and doesn't seem too stinky even if we don't run the vent fan every day.  It comes with a good locking lid, so there were no accidents when the time came to carry it through the cabin and up on the deck to dump.  I threw on some latex gloves for the job, but it wasn't too traumatic.  Anything left just composts with the next batch, so it's not like you need to scrub it out.   I think it's worth pointing out that it's unlikely that most folk's heads are making safe compost in the time it takes to fill them.  If you're using the head frequently, there will be fairly fresh poop in there at any given time as well as toilet paper, bowl liners, and anything else that is slow to break down.  You're not going to go home and spread it on your flower bed and I don't think it's legal to throw it straight in a dumpster either.  The best course of action would probably be to transfer it to a shore-based composting system for a couple years afterward and even then you will probably be advised only to put it on ornamental plants.  It works for us because we go offshore regularly.  I wouldn't want to deal with it if we didn't.

We've had more complaints about the pee jug.  Firstly, it took all of a week before I managed to bump the hose that lets you view the fluid level.  One end popped off and we had 30 exciting seconds of pee fountain while I scrambled to reattach the hose.  It has hose clamps now.   >:(  Whereas the composter isn't too stinky, the pee jug will knock your socks off.  Even if it's emptied everyday and shaken and rinsed, emptying it is still foul.  Someone suggested we try RV tank deodorizers and I plan to do so, but I wonder about the cost.  We stay well hydrated and two of us can fill the jug almost every day.  The emptying timeline on the Airhead website seems like total BS to me.  If you have more than two people or if you're drinking beer, I can't imagine making it through even a weekend trip without overfilling the jug.  Airhead sells extra pee jugs, but they're expensive.  If everyone on your boat pees over the rail anyway, I don't suppose it's a drawback, but if you're in Boot Key Harbor with nosey neighbors and want to stay above the law, you'll be making a dinghy ride with the pee jug daily. 

Speaking of authorities, I don't know if we would have gotten away with the composting head in the Keys or not.  We were booted out of Boot Key Harbor after 7 days in our last boat for only having a port-o-potty.  The mooring field at Ft. Myers Beach asked for our holding tank details but no one hunted us down when we told them we had a composting head. 

It would be great to have a composting head where the solids were composted and the liquids diverted to a holding tank with a deck fitting and overboard option.  It would save the trouble of needing to empty the stinky, always full pee jugs and you'd never have to worry about clogged pipes in the holding tank.  If the pee tank wasn't flushed with water, I think you could go a long time between discharges.  I suppose if there are folks who have pump outs for their port-o-potties, it should be possible to have a pump out for a gravity fed pee tank?

[Sunset]

I have wonder about those things. It looks like they might be fine for weekend trips and such, but I dont think I would want one for a live aboard.

[LooseMoose]

We've been living aboard and cruising full time with our home made composting toilet (a five-gallon bucket and a 2 1/2 gallon jug) for several years now and it works out just fine.

We only have to dump the solids bucket about once a month, while the liquid jug is more of an every two or three days. We've since added a second jug so we can go longer if dumping is problematic.

The bottom line is it works, does not smell, and if you diy it seriously cheap!

Bob

http://boatbits.blogspot.com/
http://fishingundersail.blogspot.com/
http://islandgourmand.blogspot.com/

[Sid T]

We installed a Natures Head composting about 2 years ago. very satistified with it. Some problems but every system for the head has some problems. The fan( a cpu cooling fan) has gone bad twice and the power plug need to be upgraded. Still looking for a good fan replacement. You have to keep the media damp not wet for the composting to work. We clean ours after about 2 months of use (two people). The pee-jug we try to empty every other day. To help control the ammonia smell we put a couple of spoons full of sugar in the jug. The DIY units probally work just as well for a fraction of the cost. The most talked about problem, the extra height of the unit, was only a problem for about 2 weeks by then we had gotten use to it and it was no longer a problem. Both of us are short people 5'3" and 5'7".

[Godot]

I installed the Nature's Head after having an unfortunate experience last year with an over filled holding tank (a very messy version of Old Faithful was the odorous result). I had considered making a home brew version (off the shelf parts would be sweet); but my time is not unlimited and I had other things to spend it on (rewiring the whole boat, for starters). The boat show price was high; but not unreasonably so.

With me and my gal (who turns out to be not at all squeamish about the whole thing), the liquids container (2 gallons? Maybe 2.5?) generally needs to be emptied every other day. I have a spare jug (if I recall I got it for free when I bought the Natures Head at the Annapolis Boat Show, though my memory has been known to be a bit unreliable).  It gets emptied in an appropriate manner. I will soon be making a custom fit storage area to snugly hold the spare jug to reduce the chance of it going flying and spilling the contents all over the interior (a terrifying thought).

The solids container does seem to last quite awhile; but I'm not convinced it makes the 60 uses that are advertised. Of course, if putting the toilet paper in the head (and it can be somewhat distasteful to put it anywhere else), it will fill up much faster. The TP takes some time to break down. The poop becomes fairly inoffensive in a couple days, although as mentioned above, is not nearly fully composted at that time. There is rarely a smell. And the small fan barely registers on the amp meter (it is so low that I think I'm going to install a couple other muffin fans in strategic places, the battery compartment for instance, to give a helping hand to natural ventilation).

Dumping:

From a philosophical point of view, I think that discreetly pouring pee overboard is not much of a health risk anyplace that is not unusually sensitive (correct me if I'm wrong) and not morally shaky, unless it is done in a really crowded harbor at which point it is bad manners. Legally is a different thing altogether, and I'm pretty certain it is universally frowned upon by those men with shiny badges and side arms. You makes your choices and you takes your chances.  Finding a shoreside facility every few days shouldn't be too hard, though. 

By the same token, I think that putting partially composted solid waste in a thick contractors trash bag and putting it into the dumpster is no more offensive or generally harmful to mankind than putting baby diapers in there (what difference does it make if it completes composting in a back yard pile somewhere or in a landfill?); but it may still be illegal. Choices. Chances. I read somewhere (the c-head thread, perhaps) that sealing it in a pickle bucket (aka Home Depot 'Homer' bucket) with some bleach qualifies it as "treated" and it suddenly becomes legal for about the same price as a pump out. I'm not sure; but it sounds like a reasonable compromise assuming an offshore dump is not practical. I emptied mine after using it occasionally all summer plus regularly for a ten day trip for two (cheap one ply TP went in the toilet, and seemed generally degraded within a couple weeks). It was not anymore distasteful than a pump out (without the need to regularly go to the stinky dock), and more pleasant than dealing with a porta-potti. I expect the next time I empty it will be when I recommission the boat next spring (although I'm now living aboard part time, so that estimate might not hold true in the end).

The bottom line: Everything in life is a compromise. But as far as compromises go, this one ain't that bad. And I no longer have nightmares of exploding holding tanks. Bonus: By pulling the holding tank, I now have room for a new water tank to augment the somewhat anemic twenty gallons of the primary tank.

[John Bailey]

We've had a Natures Head all summer.  We love it.  There's never been a smell and it's gone all summer of day sails and a 5 day trip without having to dump.

I can't imagine going back to a holding tank.

John