Composting toilet

[Joe Hillmann]

I attended a woods walk once that had one of those composting toilets located in a separate enclosed room of a small building. You know, much like a regular bathroom. It definitely had no vent. You knew where it was the minute you opened the door. :D

The men present opted to use the woods. The women I think opted to tough it out. :laugh:

Best make plans to incorporate a VENT!!!!!

That toilet wasn't being used correctly.  If slightly damp sawdust is used as cover material their is almost no smell.  If the chamber the bucket is in is vented there is less smell than a conventional toilet.
The vent can be a pipe through the roof.  A better vent is a black pipe running up the south side of the building.  When the sun shines on it it warms up and warm air rises and sucks air out of the chamber.
Another vent is a low power PC fan connected to a small solar panel or possibly a solar panel and battery.

[kantuckid]

A conventional toilet flushes constantly into a sewer system far away-what's there to make much smell? My septic system has a typical large concrete box with left behind cesspool to smell some, but not noticeable as vents 30' in the air. 
I always used lime on my outhouse poop.
 
Outdoor flushes:
We used to fish this creek (called a "crick" in KS :D and a few other places like OH) that was a feeder stream into Mill Creek, near Paxico, KS and when we were not catching red ear sunfish, pumpkin seeds and small bass we had a tree, low across the water that flushed pretty well. My aunt in Burlingame, KS once had an outhouse built over the crick behind the house with the holes looking down into Dragoon Crick. 
I may get some flak over saying this but I've dumped my past porta-potty in a woods area thats far away from humans.  

[Joe Hillmann]

A conventional toilet flushes constantly into a sewer system far away-what's there to make much smell? My septic system has a typical large concrete box with left behind cesspool to smell some, but not noticeable as vents 30' in the air.

When you use a normal bathroom the vent tends to be in the ceiling.  So any smell from before you flush fills the room and eventually gets sucked out through the vent.
With a vented compost toilet.  Any smell gets sucked out before it can get into the room.  So a vented composting toilet  smells less than a flush toilet.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sorry to be late commenting on several of these but @btulloh wins the award for the best suggestion of saving the planet. :D

    I know lime was thrown in outhouses and such but I would think it would stop or at least interfere with the composting process. I am still thinking odor means not enough sawdust. Someone mentioned adding Rid-ex and I don't see where it could hurt. 

   My housemate ran the waste treatment plant on a project we were on in Saudi Arabia and he dosed the waste heavily with chorine as soon as it was received and there was never any odor at the plant. He kept plenty of air added and kept the slurry stirred and the bacteria broke down the waste quickly.

[kantuckid]

Underneath that layer of lime is lots of microbes doing their thing? 
I did a short search session online to see if there was a composting toilet I could consider for my cabin-I saw none I liked. Most of what comes up is somebody selling a plywood box with a bucket in it or a very expensive more sophisticated design I cannot afford. 

I'm open to ideas more attractive than my tallish porta-potty. Cabin water will be hauled in, but I thought about a gutter water cistern which is quite common near me, but has a larger expense to it. 
The version in this thread looks like the poop will be more stinky and harder to get rid of than my factory made porta-potty. 

[snobdds]

At my cabin, we use something called Bokashi.  You just sprinkle it on and a week later the poo is gone. 

All natural.  It's just super bacteria that feasts on Poo.  Never a smell. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Kantuckid,

The version in this thread looks like the poop will be more stinky and harder to get rid of than my factory made porta-potty. 

   If this is true since the plastic tote comes with a lid she can just replace it when full, put the lid on and drop it off at the next appropriate political meeting in her area. ;D

[kantuckid]

Bokashi on Amazon is more expensive than I'll ever do! We compost our kitchen & garden waste using mother natures little friends and out away, well from the house. Possums munch on some of it. 

[farmfromkansas]

The lime's purpose is to keep the PH at the proper level.  

[kantuckid]

snobdds what sort of potty are you using at your cabin? 

[WV Sawmiller]

  Then why does the road department put lime on roadklill? 

[Magicman]

From Google:

It is used to capture the putrid scents of decaying flesh. Today lime is still used at mass grave sites to capture the scent of decay and keep soil pH high. Low pH soil is an indicator for a mass grave as the decomposition products are acidic and lower the soil pH.

In the Army we covered any possible waste with lime before leaving a location.  If we had no lime we used flour from the mess hall.  Looked the same and passed inspection.  ;D

[snobdds]

Bokashi on Amazon is more expensive than I'll ever do! We compost our kitchen & garden waste using mother natures little friends and out away, well from the house. Possums munch on some of it.

It's like 14.00 for a bag that lasts all summer. I think that is cheap, but I guess it's all relative. 

snobdds what sort of potty are you using at your cabin?

Just using a outhouse with a 5 foot hole dug in the bottom.  I guess some might call it a pit toilet. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

  That comment about the flour caused a flashback to one time when we were getting ready for an IG inspection and the DIs were going crazy about the white film in the plastic stair treads and were never satisfied with our cleaning no matter how much elbow grease we applied. Finally we all grabbed our black shoe polish and brushes and passed inspection in short order. The DI was scratching his head when he came back for another reinspection and found it  all nice and spiffy. Just another dumb thing to get by in the military. Maybe it was just part of the training.

[farmfromkansas]

Powdered Limestone is used to counter the affect of using fertilizer on farms, Lime lowers the PH after the fertilizer raises the PH level.  Makes your crops grow better if the PH is right. Animal waste raises PH as well as fertilizer.  I use a lot of animal waste, as after feeding cows all winter have a huge pile.  I compost the stuff, it shrinks to a more manageable amount, then use my spreader to put it on the poor growing areas of the farm.  Composting causes a lot of seeds in the manure to heat and lose their germination. My wife's garden is 100% compost. She is using old cattle watering tanks for container gardens. At first I thought her plants would burn up from too much fertilizer, but last year it did fine.  She waters often.

[thecfarm]

I sell a hot lime or hydrated lime at work. This is used in out houses.
 I also sell regular lime that is used on garden and lawns. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I still don't understand the chemistry involved with the lime. I understand about raising the pH which helps some plants grow better but is that required to help the composting effect or does it just absorb and cover up odors and keep insects and such at bay? Does the lime kill some of the bacteria or make it more attractive to them?

[gspren]

This thread has me rethinking a toilet in my new pole building that is still in the permit stage. I posted elsewhere that we are moving this summer and then selling the farm after building a 46' x 64' building at the new house. I was planning to dig a small septic pit and putting in a flush toilet for when I'm working and too dirty to go in the house but then I need to keep that room heated in the winter and it won't really be used that often since "stand-up" things can be outside behind the building. We often go away for a week at a time year round so maybe a composter would work better.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sounds like this might save you some serious bucks and on an on-going basis since no heat required in the winter. I may be over or under thinking this thing but it sure looks to me like pooping into a plastic tote full of sawdust and maybe even lime will be cheap and easy. Just dump and wash the tote periodically as need. Heck, you could throw the tote away and replace it with a new one if you did not want the hassle. The last tote I bought for my next upcoming toilet (I have an additional order for one and 2 small sheds) only cost $5.33 tax included at Wal Mart.

  Since the box is free standing if you ever get to the point you don't need it, set the box aside or toss it and you still have a little shed for other purposes.

[farmfromkansas]

I dug out the old concrete base that remains of my folks old outhouse.  The bolts are rusted and   wondering what to do about that.  But now just plan to build a wood floor small shed like WV Sawmiller, and using a protein tub  under a seat and sawdust.  For occasional use should be fine. Another project.  Right now it is time to put up hay, plant beans, cut wheat and plant more beans.  Then cut more hay.

[gspren]

  I was thinking about a phone booth sized compressor room along one wall so maybe just make it a few feet longer to keep a bucket, would keep some air intake area at the bottom and leave the top open.

[Magicman]

We have a septic tank/drain field at the Cabin.  Simple, once and done.

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   Do you have to heat the cabin to keep the bathroom above freezing or do you drain the systems to keep it from freezing?

[Magicman]

I do not drain but I do cut the water off, Winter and Summer, when the Cabin is unattended.....just in case.  Nothing is ever done to prevent freezing but if I saw that we were going to have single digit cold I probably would light the heater pilots to put off a bit of heat.  Also flush the commodes and pour some RV Antifreeze in the bowls.  The Cabin is plumbed with polybutylene and PEX.

There has never been a problem but some kinda leak could be a $1,000+ water bill. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yes, this could be a case where a composting toilet would be an advantage. A properly balanced septic tank is pretty low maintenance. Waste goes in, the bugs do their work and the treated water flows out. I am reluctant to mention it lest I jinx it but we have done nothing to our septic tank/system for 25 years or so.

 Except for the occasional freezing damaging/cracking the flush tank, toilet or lines they would work fine in unoccupied buildings too.

 I pretty much finished mine except for the trim for the 4 corners. One boo-boo I will have to overcome is I tacked the 4 sides together with a deck screw on each corner now I can't get 2 of them free. I can't reach them with my angle grinder or a hacksaw until I loosen the lag screws in the floor. I need to do that before the customer comes to pick it up.