Composting Toilets

When my husband and I moved from the city to the country eleven years ago we began to investigate ways in which we could conserve water.  We were going to build a new home, have a sandpoint well and wanted to do what we could to decrease our water usage.  We chose to get a composting toilet. Needless to say, it has been an experience beyond flushing, if you know what I mean. I’m going to tell you what the manufacturer’s  don’t tell you. Please understand the following is our personal experience and may not always be what you hear from the manufacturer or ever be a problem for you if you choose this route of conservation.

1. The composting toilet needs to be vented.  And, even though, we weren’t told that if your home is more than one story, and if you have trees around your house the venting may not always keep the smell related to composting human waste out of your home.  Guess what!  We live in a two story house in the woods. (We had to add an additional fan into the venting pipe.)

 

2. There is a heater at the bottom of the unit that helps with dehydrating the waste.  And, much to our chagrin, the heater should not be placed on a cement slab.  Guess what!  We have a cement slab!  Placing the unit on a cement slab may not work efficiently during the winter months as the slab gets cold and the heater tries to heat the slab and doesn’t dehydrate the waste. Not good. (We place a small rug under the toilet in the winter.)

 

3. The humus/mulch that is purchased needs to be mixed with water otherwise it flies everywhere and there is no formula as to how much water to add so it took us awhile to figure out the right ratio.  This gave us some waste that was too dry and made the waste clump up and then not fall into the grate that ends up in the humus tray for drying. And, other times we made it too moist and the dehydrating in the humus tray wasn’t able to dry it out.  (We eventually learned what the ratio was.)

 

4. Be prepared to do repairs.  In the nine years that we have had the “Toilet” we have had to replace the motor, switch, and fan several times.  This necessitated ordering the part and waiting for it to arrive as our local distributor often didn’t have the parts we needed.  So, for several days, you may not have a working toilet. In replacing these parts, you need to remove the top of the toilet and the waste in the toilet at the time of repair is staring you in the face while you are replacing parts.

 

5. Don’t let the toilet get aerobic. (I’m not talking exercise here.) If the compost mixture stays too moist, animal life can live in the waste product.  So if all of a sudden you notice flies coming out of your toilet, you may discover maggots in the compost.  When this occurs, you will need to take the top off, and remove any waist that is there and clean the entire toilet out. We took it outside to do this.  Another fun day in the woods.  It was suggested that we place a “No Pest Strip” next to the composting drying tray and make sure the waste doesn’t get too moist. (That is the humus/mulch water ratio thing.)

 

After eight years we are still  using our composting toilet and I’m sure we have saved a lot of water over that time.  It may have been close to 20,000 flushes.  That would be about 32,000 gallons of water.  Not bad. We have discovered our toilet is labor intensive.  But then, so is recycling, cutting your own wood, hanging your laundered clothes outside instead of using the dryer, hauling water from a pump, and all those other tasks our ancestors did every day without thinking about it.  My comfort zone is that we chose to save water by having this toilet, and we’re doing that.  Knowing there is a more pleasant alternative available to us is also a comfort.

Jla/Kerrick, MN