Composting Toilets on Sailboats | Beginner’s Guide to Marine Composting Toilets

Comments · 203

• RO

  @roggedaniel · 10 months ago

  We had the same bug problem in the Caribbean, same nature's head toilet, but fixed it the following way.  First, we used silicone to seal up the seam between the interior and exterior molding of the toilet.  Then, we started sprinkling a tiny amount of diatomaceous earth into the solids container every few days.  No more bugs.  We will never, ever, ever go back to a holding tank.

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• SA

  @SailingKaruna · 10 months ago

  I'd say your composting  head summation is accurate. I think there's + and - to both head systems. I personally would never go back to Jabsco and a holding tank. The compost head just smells a little earthy. It's never offensive. I sail solo and empty the urine tank daily. I never find it to be a big deal.After peeing,  I spritz the urine opening religiously with vinegar and water. I clean the rim daily. Friends have not had any problems using it, nor has pee overflowed. I've had it for nearly 2 years and love it.

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• MA

  @markgordon4688 · 10 months ago

  I have had composting toilets' on my boats since 2004 (Airhead) and to me it's a no brainier. I sail mostly on Lake Superior now but have crossed the Atlantic and two years in the Caribbean with no issues. For the past 15 years I have been doing 10 day charter trips on on our 40 footer with up to 6 onboard. We carry 2 "Pee Jars" and have three solids containers with peat moss in them ready to go so every few days I switch them out. Following "Leave No Trace" best practices, when we get into a wilderness anchorage and have a full one we hike up into the woods, dig a "cat hole" and bury it (toilet  paper always goes into a waste basket next to the toilet and is carried to the end of the trip then thrown away). If I relied on a conventional marine head with a holding tank, I could never get more than 3 days from a pump out which are few and far between on Lake Superior, with my composting head I have unlimited range. Would never go back!

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• GR

  @gregsage1605 · 10 months ago

  The marine head is the bane of my existence. I have had both holding and composting heads and hate them equally. Standard heads break at the most in an opportune times in places that you can't get parts so I have always carried  a couple of rebuild kits. In BC pump out stations are more rare than I would consider reasonable, and walking around with a jug isn't my idea of a good time. And composting heads are every bit as much work cleaning and replacing fans, dumping the lovelies.... I'm back to a wet head. I've replaced as much or the hoses as I can with PVC pipe and built a stainless tank eliminating most of the smell. And when It breaks, which it does, I'm be back to thinking that at least with a composting head I won't be replacing pumps.... Inevitably, sometime, somewhere,  something is going over the side and I'll feel bad about that too.

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• ST

  @SteveReitzel-x2o · 10 months ago

  Great video. I think your comments are spot on.  We have had a composting toilet on our Hunter Legend for the last few years.  It works extremely well for my wife and I.  With guests, its a little more complicated.  The composting toilet is more "hands on" than the typical marine toilet, and as mentioned in the video, urine is the Achilles heel.  Our toilet takes generic plastic one gallon milk jugs for urine.  We have about 4 of them and whenever they are close to full, we switch the jug out.  An overflowing jug is as bad as it sounds, especially if the user was not you.  I like the tip regarding spraying the solids section with a non-stick spray.  We'll try that next year.   The big plus for compost toilets for us, is allowing us to be out on the water and not having to worry or plan around regular pump outs.  Solids can be dumped in a garbage bag and stored in a rear locker until we return to port.  At this time, we are still pro compost toilet.

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• JD

  @jdaltonpe1 · 10 months ago

  I've lived with a Natures Head on board for 12 years and would never change back. The urine dumping is very inconvenient so I bought a cheap aquarium pump and plumbed it to dicharge overboard.You can still dump by hand if you want but I never do. Seems to me that putting pee into a lake or ocean won't hurt anything. It only takes the flip of a switch to drain the urine. Another trick I learned was to put mothballs in the lid of the head when restocking it with fresh peat moss or coco coir. Those little bugs will avoid your head and your bug problems are over. I also bought a bunch of extra fans and set up a double fan system in the vent hose so the fan is no longer mounted on the top section of the Natures Head - more oxygen to the compost and no worry about getting the fan wet while cleaning the top section.

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• LA

  @langstonholland9272 · 10 months ago

  Best boat oriented composting review ever. Thanks Tim.

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• HA

  @harleysoltes · 10 months ago

  Thank you for the coco coir tip. We were getting a lot of flies in our RV from the Nature’s Head. But we love it and would not go back to the regular head. Highly recommend running liquids into your old holding tank.

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• TO

  @tonybedortha2191 · 1 month ago

  Great info video,  i learned a lot,  thank you 👍

• LE

  @leeeldridge-p4d · 8 months ago

  Australian. Nowak Isand Sharpie 26. Sail the Lower Murray lakes. Day trips and longer camping trips with no pump out possible. We bought a Cuddy for our off road camper (TVAN). It worked a dream and was vastly easier to use than all other methods. Fits in the same spot as PortaPoti. Fits into a PortaPoti bag too.  It is light so moving it between places is easy for this 75 yearly male. When out alone on the boat I use a pee bottle and the Cuddy for browns. Paper goes into a paper bag. I have run the fan 24/7 and not run the fans for 6 weeks. No difference in smells. One instance of vinegar fly and just cleaned the whole lot out on the lawn and left in sun for a day. Clean with citric acid in spay bottle. This also keeps pee smell down. I have friends with other brands in their campers and no one will go back to canisters or holding tanks. People here seem to use chopped hemp instead of Coir in the tropics. "Young Hemp" Available as packaged kitty litter from pet stores.

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• RI

  @richardspurlock3300 · 10 months ago

  We use a composting Natures Head toilet about 6 to 8 months of the year in our boat or our travel trailer. Since our boat is a MacGregor 26X which is small and had no holding tank the composting toilet is great. So when we built our travel trailer we just use the same toilet in both the boat and the trailer as swapping between the two takes very little time. We have been doing this since 2016 when we did our first great loop trip.

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• MA

  @markbrannan · 10 months ago

  for a boat, get one of the units that has no urine tank and just has a urine outlet.   Then route that to a reasonably sized holding tank below.   Bonus: if you want to pump out that tank, you can use a simple diaphragm pump instead of a macerator.   Or pump out the urine at a normal pump out station.   Keeping urine and feces separate is the big idea in keeping the overall smell levels and grossness to a minimum.

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