Dry Flush Toilets

[INTJohn]

[happy dance]!
.
Holding hands is optional on your part.
But no cross-wiping.
That'd be weird...

 

[twomountainlions]

Not sure why there would be a problem if waste isn't disposed immediately (guests is a whole different story). Using pine cat litter eliminates all odor and separating toilet doesn't need to be emptied for a while, in fact pine pellets have own great natural smell. I only empty once in 5 days but that's only because I'm currently using one fully contained within 5 gallon bucket including urine bottle taking up space, it uses very little space but have to be emptied often. "Compost mixture" (not really compost) gets stored triple bagged in a dedicated plastic crate until a trip to town, no smell issues. I had to stop at a place with public flush toilet and even though it was super clean the flush toilets just seem to be gross overall. That dry flush toilet probably requires expensive bags and powder to boot.

 

[Willy]

A friend of mine, a number of years ago, bought the bottom section of a Nature's Head composting toilet from their website (abt $200 at the time) & didn't do anything with it, ending up giving it to me. I bought a urine diverter & built the top section for it out of some wood flooring, a piece of 5/8" ply, a 90 deg black ABS fitting (to attach the vent hose), & attached a toilet lid. It works like a charm & doesn't stink, even when taking a dump, due to the tiny 12v muffin fan used to extract moisture n such from the toilet. abt 1-1/2mo of daily use leaves less than 1 cubic ft of broken down dry'ish poo/coconut coir/TP that I dump into a garbage bag n sling into a Smithrite. It only has a not particularly pungent peat-like odor.

 

[tradesman]

We started withe a diverter and bucket/bag. The problem was disposal with several people even for just a few days (regular restrooms used when available).
Switched to an Airhead, and it is the best. It has a churner, you can leave the poop in there for months and no smell. Easy to clean. The urine container worked, but for several people that becomes a chore to empty. We changed that to an under-floor dispersment system.
Yes its a lot of money, but when you can go a full week or more with several people and not have any smell or disposal, it is worth it. And when its time to dispose, it is more like dirt than poo, so even if you have to put it in a regular trash can somewhere, it's not a wet gooey mess like a bucket system.

 

[rruff]

^Ya'll are starting to convince me that if I ever do buy some land I can put a hovel on, I might just get a composting toilet instead of digging a hole! Ya know... be almost civilized.

 

[twomountainlions]

I fulltime solo, used to have composting toilet in the trailer I had earlier made out of cheap amazon plastic camping toilet, 3 gal bucket, fancy urine diverter and laundry detergent pee bottle and a pet tray underneath it all
Find this takes too much space.

Made new one out of 5 gal bucket, cheap walmart funnel, detergent bottle, composting bags and cheap toilet seat/lid that snaps onto the bucket. No smell and perfect size for one person. I use Feline Pine pellets from any Walmart and I believe it controlls odors very well, that coco cour stuff requres buyng it from amazon and didnt like it anyway. If anything spilled it'd stay within the bucket container, another benefit.Toilet paper goes into the #2 bag, not sure how itd work with real composting toilets, I have no desire to put dirty TP elswhere. If one is real concerned about smells can put gamma lid onto the bucket when driving.

And I got big back water tank and flush toilet, no desire to use it. I tried peat moss and coco coeur was not impressed. Plain pine sawdust also got nice smell to it to control odors. Sometimes drop few drops of fir/pine essential oils into the bucket too. Peat moss just creates earthy smell disnt like it.

 

[regis101]

Keep it super simple (KISS). I use a Boxio toilet--it's a little small but works perfect for a camper van, and a homemade version (that keeps liquids and solids separate) is just as good. Save some wood ashes from a fire pit and use that as your 'cover' material for #2's. Only 1-2 cups usually eliminates any odor. YMMV

I have the Boxio also. It replaces a thereford 135. The Boxio fits in the same space with no mods.