Composting toilets
Today we visited eco toilets at Hillmorton to look at the composting toilets as a potential replacment for the aging dump thru pump out fitted today.
The existing toilet is now nearly 20 years old, as is the mild steel holding tank. in recent years we have had a number of occasions where the flush has stuck open and tank has overflowed leaving foul water under the bed and in the cabin bilge. There is no way to tell what state the holding tank is in but sooner or later it is going to spring a leak and cause more issues. Pump outs are sometimes hard to find (we went 10 days without over the Huddersfield a few years ago resulting in a full tank) and are expensive (£12-20 a time once a week or sometimes more often so approx £150 a year, and with plans to use the boat for 20 weeks a year this will rise to £300+)
For a while I have been thinking about a composting toilet as an alternative and have been looking at the airhead unit supplied by eco toilets click on pick left for more details.
This is a self contained unit with a small (10L) removable urine tank at the front. The extractor fan is external to the main unit fitted in the pipe or extract vent.
this toilet requires a bit more user "training" than the Villa below but can be used by men standing up !
After the visit today I have started giving serious consideration to the Sepperett Villa as an alternative, this is a slightly larger more domestic looking unit with a seperate 20 or 25L urine tank (that would go under the bed in the main cabin). Assuming we can fit this in the toilet I think this will be the best option, time for some measuring up, and re-arrange the toilet layout to see if will fit.
The villa is a bit more intuitive than the airhead and is used much like a conventional WC, the one exception is that everyone needs to sit to pee.
Click on pic right for more details.
Both units have a 12v fan operating continuously to remove odour and dry out the solids, this will be fine when onboard but currently the 12v domestic gets turned off when leaving the boat unattended so some juggling may be required.
Along with the new toilet unit we are planning to replace the vanity unit with a new ceramic basin and a new cushion floor to make the room a little lighter and warmer.
Update 30/11/14. After measuring up the bathroom it looks like we can fit the Sepperett Villa in to the bathroom, with a new corner sink unit. So at some point over the winter we will be removing the existing dump through toilet and sink unit, redecorating, sealing the tank and installing a new floor and then fitting the new toilet and sink unit.
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