composting toilets

edwin esparza · March 02, 2005, 08:02:41 PM

Has anyone used the Envirolet waterless composting toilets or others similar? what are your thoughts for use for a weekend cabin?

glenn kangiser · March 02, 2005, 11:42:54 PM

I haven't but was just at a place where they had used one for 12 years. They were happy with it. I don't know much more about it than that. They were in their late 60's.

March 03, 2005, 11:56:55 PM

Ran into a woman on the internet a couple of years ago who had just pulled her store-boughten composting toilet out in favor of a sawdust toilet.

After some experience with the latter, I'm now considering the former.

speedfunk · January 25, 2007, 03:07:31 PM

Amanda what did you not like about the saw dust toilet... I'm really considering one ....

thanx
8-)

littlegirlgo · January 25, 2007, 05:46:17 PM

I have good friends with a SunMar who are very happy with it. I have been to there house during different seasons and it does not smell. I also have friends that switched between a biolet and envirolet but I dont remember which was the "good" one. I think one of the big issues with a composting toilet is to pay attention to the number of people it says it supports and get one that exceeds your estimated usage. I went to a weekend solar workshop last fall and they were saying that problems occured when the toilets are beyond capacity and at that point they have to get cleaned out by hand.

The sawdust ones sound great but are frowned upon in Ky . I am currently protesting the "law" that says composting toilets are legal as long as they are attached to a septic system. :-/ Just a little back- asswards!

January 25, 2007, 08:09:58 PM

Composting toilets are toilets.

Septic tanks also drain greasy water from your sink, bleach and what comes out of dirty cloth diapers from your laundry.

I never have enough sawdust on hand. Of course I didn't stop at a sawmill today when I was driving by with the truck. Joseph Jenkins says that a pickup truck load lasts him about a year.

Where people do cover poop and toilet paper with sawdust or wood horse bedding pellets or wood shavings there doesn't seem to be odor. You do get to empty out your five gallon bucket pretty often. And have a place so you can let a full composter--wire, pallets, or storeboughten--age for a year before using it.

bayview · January 25, 2007, 09:34:00 PM

We were considering using a BioLet 60 XL composting toilet in our new construction.
We thought that this might be a inexpensive alternative to installing a septic system.

We would still have to dispose of the greywater. Draining sink water to the backyard is
no longer acceptable. (Imagine kids playing and pets drinking the water.) In the state of
Texas, the water from the kitchen sink and washing machine is classified as blackwater.
(Bacteria in kitchen water from cleaning produce, washing dirty diapers, etc.) To dispose
of the blackwater we would be required to install a holding tank with the proper drainfield.

In other words, using a composting toilet, we would still have to install a scaled down
septic system.

A down sized septic would cost about $2500-$4000. The composting toilet another
$1800-$2000. Going "green" would cost $4300-$6000.

An aerobic system installed about $5300.

We have decided to go with the aerobic system with water saving devices, such as a low
flush toilet.

Freeholdfarm · January 26, 2007, 05:21:39 PM

We used a sawdust toilet for about a year once (had a broken drain pipe and it took *someone* that long to get around to fixing it). It really wasn't bad. We bought bales of peat rather than try to locate and store bulk sawdust, and that worked well. I plan to use one again when we have our own place again.

Kathleen

glenn kangiser · January 26, 2007, 10:34:21 PM

We used a bag of lime when we we using our outhouse here. Keeps the rats and mice from getting the munchies. No odor and hardens things up for explorers to discover in the distant future archaeological digs.

January 27, 2007, 10:10:49 AM

We always dumped ashes from the stove down our outhouse. (Properly cooled of course!!) I don't remember it ever smelling like an outhouse...

desdawg · January 28, 2007, 08:59:49 AM

QuoteWe used a bag of lime when we we using our outhouse here. Keeps the rats and mice from getting the munchies. No odor and hardens things up for explorers to discover in the distant future archaeological digs.

Glenn, when you eat lunch you are actually producing artifacts? How cool is that?

littlegirlgo · January 28, 2007, 09:32:50 AM

I have also put both lime and ashes in an outhouse I had for seven years, which was later used on the flower beds. I had a 4inch vent coming out the back of the outhouse which helped to keep everything dry and "sweet" smelling.

Has anyone used greywater system to irregate? I bought Create an Oasis with Greywater by Art Ludwig. He uses several sub stations and splitters to move the grey water around his gardens.

glenn kangiser · January 28, 2007, 10:53:49 AM

Quote
QuoteWe used a bag of lime when we we using our outhouse here. Keeps the rats and mice from getting the munchies. No odor and hardens things up for explorers to discover in the distant future archaeological digs.
Glenn, when you eat lunch you are actually producing artifacts? How cool is that?

Way too cool, I guess.

We have a souvenir shop here in town that sells fossilized dinosaur dung. I hope that if the underground complex ever has a souvenir shop in the next century, that I have done my part to make it a success. :-?

littlegirlgo said:

QuoteHas anyone used greywater system to irregate? I bought Create an Oasis with Greywater by Art Ludwig. He uses several sub stations and splitters to move the grey water around his gardens.

While I haven't finished the irrigation underground part, ours is all set up for it as far as double pipe system, elevations, and accessibility to the pipe goes. Currently we are watering trees right over the edge of the driveway with no noticeable odors or problems of any kind. May get to the rest of it this year.

Amanda_931 · January 28, 2007, 07:46:47 PM

Brad Lancaster has what amounts to a pretty simple system, IIRC. Just at the moment I'm a bit more interested in rainwater harvesting than greywater systems, so the book's up in storage. And Ludwig likes that one too. Lancaster's supposed to be doing a 3-volume series (rather like Ludwig). But the publication date on volume 2 has been put back a couple of times, and 3--the one I really want--isn't due until 2008. He's the current hot author on the subject. Book one is partly the story of his city lot system.

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/volume1/

composting toilets

edwin esparza