Natures head composting toilet in colder climates

[DiploStrat]

Anyone who has camped downwind of one will disagree. Drying ******** has an odor. That odor has to go somewhere. It is not a pleasant smell.

With deepest respect, horses!t. Would love details of your experience. Which model of toilet was it?

We have camped in many tight campgrounds. If there is no odor in the toilet space, there is even less outside.

The odor you are talking about is the reaction of feces and urine. All of the toilets we are discussing separate the two. Our Nature's Head was vented into the grey water stack.

Now, if you want odor - open a cassette after two days. And dumping?

 

[DiploStrat]

.... As you say "industry standard" if the Thetford comes in the 1/2 million $ Earthroamer it must be the best!!

Actually, that is exactly what we thought. The reality is different. One reason I bought a SOG while in UK. Sadly, turned out that my Cassette is a bit different, and I cannot add the SOG.

 

[DiploStrat]

The venting on the cassette is a small tube that goes through the floor. When I asked about cool temperatures I was wondering if the temp in the bathroom is only like 12-14C would it still work? We tried composting toilets here in our fire lookouts and they didn't work as the average temp was too low. Also how much power do they draw for the fan?

A urine separating/composting toilet is going to work at any temperature that you can tolerate inside your camper. Did your fire lookouts have true urine separating models, or simple sawdust buckets?

The power draw is that of a small computer fan. I have never bother with a switch. Another option is a solar roof vent.

Sandy Graves of C-Head swears that most people never need a vent, but Nature's Head differ, and I would expect that a vent would be essential for the swampy south.

I suspect that we will install a C-Head in our XPCamper this year and I will certainly plan a roof vent.

 

[Fatboyz]

The composting action (microbes breaking down waste) actually produces some heat. So insulating the composting chamber can keep it 2-5C above ambient temps. Chemical reactions roughly double for every 10C rise in temps. Microbe action drops dramatically below 9C.

I plan to have 1.5 " of spray foam insulation under the floor and in all walls and ceiling. Pretty easy to find a spot to dump 2 gallons of pee so I'm getting more impressed with the composting. I also saw a youtube video of some long time rver's that tried the cassette instead of their natures head and they said they would never use the cassette a second time and put the natures head back in.

 

[Fatboyz]

A urine separating/composting toilet is going to work at any temperature that you can tolerate inside your camper. Did your fire lookouts have true urine separating models, or simple sawdust buckets?

The power draw is that of a small computer fan. I have never bother with a switch. Another option is a solar roof vent.

Sandy Graves of C-Head swears that most people never need a vent, but Nature's Head differ, and I would expect that a vent would be essential for the swampy south.

I suspect that we will install a C-Head in our XPCamper this year and I will certainly plan a roof vent.

I was planning a vent anyway with the black tank so putting one in isn't an issue.

 

[grizzlyj]

My Separett came with a built in 12v fan which says 0.22 amps on it.

 

[JaSAn]

With deepest respect, horses!t. Would love details of your experience. Which model of toilet was it?
We have camped in many tight campgrounds. If there is no odor in the toilet space, there is even less outside.
The odor you are talking about is the reaction of feces and urine. All of the toilets we are discussing separate the two . . .
Now, if you want odor - open a cassette after two days. And dumping?

A very respectable bullpucky to your horsesit If it is odorless why vent outside?

I know the difference between outhouse (urine + feces) and feces smell; this was feces smell. Vented out the side of a pop-up truck camper. One was a c-head and one I don't know. Won't argue about cassette smells.

 

[DiploStrat]

A very respectable bullpucky to your horsesit If it is odorless why vent outside?

I know the difference between outhouse (urine + feces) and feces smell; this was feces smell. Vented out the side of a pop-up truck camper. One was a c-head and one I don't know. Won't argue about cassette smells.

Color me amazed. Had a Nature's Head for years and the only way I could get it to smell was to allow shower water to leak in. (And please forgive my skepticism, so many who post about composting toilets have never seen, let alone smelled, one.)

That said, why vent? To increase air flow and thus speed drying.

And, as to the "nose" involved - the only smell our Nature's Head would produce was an earthy smell, much like that of a garden store, not the sharp, acrid scent of a black tank or cassette. The urine tank, did have an "essence of nursing home" when you dump it. But that pales into insignificance when compared with the bouquet of a cassette being dumped!

Next time, perhaps we can sniff wines!

 

[luthj]

Some owners skimp on the composting medium, or use poor substitutes. Which can make them quite odorous. Also some folks put urine into the unit, or use chemical deodorizers, which kills the bacteria (can cause bad odor).

 

[DiploStrat]

There used to be a horrible video out there by a rather ditzy lady who managed to fill her Nature's Head to the point of overflowing with some form of liquid - urine, I fear. This was the worst "fail" that I have ever seen, but I would attribute it to pilot error.

The "Fit RV" folk are generally fairly good (Their bicycle carrier/skate board is inspired.) They have a very negative take on the Air Head. To be fail, I suspect that they would have the some comments about any product. They seem incredibly squeamish about everything associated with toilets. Clearly, their Air Head leaks. I don't know what to make of their claims of the challenges a high bulk diet. And we never had any great problems with cleaning, indeed, most of the time, there was no cleaning needed.

Finally, did I mention that they are terribly squeamish. (How would they deal with toilets overseas where you can never put paper in the toilet.) I can't imagine how they would clean a cassette or a black tank.

Anyway, shared as perhaps the most critical comments out there.

And here is their take on cassettes. (I do tend to share their view of the joys of dumping a cassette.)

But I do love their bike carrier:

 

[luthj]

Yeah, I have encountered a few composting toilets (urine separating type). None of the *properly operating* ones had an objectionable odor. Now if you make deposits and turn the agitator insufficiently, you can get some odor. Or they might smell a bit nasty for 30 minutes after a large deposit. But I would assume following the use/care instructions with good composting medium would keep the smell tolerable outside. They all had little or no odor inside.

Also, I have a small cassette unit we used when in more populated areas. We rarely put urine into it, and used sodium perchlorate power for odor control. Even after a week in the sun, the dump wasn't nearly as bad as expected. Much better than combined black tanks in my experience. The nitrogen in the urine must mess with the chemistry.

 

[grizzlyj]

I just watched both the toilet clips above and the cassette one was a better advert for composting!
I've had a black tank over three years full time use in Europe and struggled to empty it on occasion. We've also had a built in cassette in a few different vehicles which is what 99% in Europe use. Clothes washing liquid with enzymes in works well in either to help break things down and maybe reduce the smell a bit maybe? We had the black tank outlet freeze up once. I hadn't thought about composting being winter friendly.
Fit RV think walking around with their urine tank is weird. In Europe everyone wanders around campsites etc with cassettes so black tank pipes look weird. The worst thing about cassettes is that people often use the drinking water tap to sluice them, like poke the tap outlet into the cassette emptying tube. Yuk. Once you see that you definitely want a good drinking water filter!

 

[john61ct]

Worst case a well-insulated box and a cheap low-voltage silicon heating pad would work to keep the mix from freezing solid.

Less current draw than an efficient fridge, so easy to balance the Ah usage, latter not needed when ambient gets **that** cold.

 

[Trestle]

Having lived with a natures head for about a year and a half, I can say that is the method I would chose again if I have a mounted toilet. Standing to pee is out of the question though. Did that with one batch of compost medium, and turned it into sewage real quick. The velocity of the urine when standing overcame the gravity action of the diverter. Sat down to pee thereafter, and never an issue again. We were down to 18 F outside, with no issues. Did not notice the smell inside or out (with the exception of the standing pee issue) at any time. Even when working underneath the vent outlet in close proximity (I vented it through the floor) it was barely perceptible. We had better results with the coconut coir than we did with peat moss. Even dumping it oncer per each 6 weeks or so for two people was not that bad. The worst part was emptying the pee bottle. The fan has so little draw that it is not worth calculating unless you are in a seriously low capacity solar/battery system.

 

[Fatboyz]

Having lived with a natures head for about a year and a half, I can say that is the method I would chose again if I have a mounted toilet. Standing to pee is out of the question though. Did that with one batch of compost medium, and turned it into sewage real quick. The velocity of the urine when standing overcame the gravity action of the diverter. Sat down to pee thereafter, and never an issue again. We were down to 18 F outside, with no issues. Did not notice the smell inside or out (with the exception of the standing pee issue) at any time. Even when working underneath the vent outlet in close proximity (I vented it through the floor) it was barely perceptible. We had better results with the coconut coir than we did with peat moss. Even dumping it oncer per each 6 weeks or so for two people was not that bad. The worst part was emptying the pee bottle. The fan has so little draw that it is not worth calculating unless you are in a seriously low capacity solar/battery system.

That's great information. What did you use for the floor vent?