Having lived for a bit with the new version of our DIY Composting toilet, I thought I'd share a few things that we've found.
First of all: Overall, this is the best one of these we've built. It's compact, easy to deal with, far easier to dump than earlier versions, and the urine separator works VERY well, taking a minimum of fiddling about with to make drain properly.
I had been afraid that the notch we put in the holding bucket would either leak or weaken the container too much, but that hasn't been the case. The Bucket pulls out of it's base just fine, is simple to dump, and easy to return to service.
The slightly lower exit point for the urine tube, combined with the right angle fitting means the tube is far less likely to kink and that the flow to the diverter container is a relatively straight shot, with no urine being left in either the diverter itself or the tube. This means no smell and no discoloration, which is great.
As with our previous design, we're finding that we are emptying the urine container every day or every other day and the dry solids every week to ten days. If this seems a bit shorter than usual, the current quarantine means we're spending a LOT more time together on the boat and very little elsewhere, so all our . . .um. . .business gets done on the boat and almost none in stores or in the Marina bathrooms.
Some minor, mostly easily fixable, drawbacks: The notch in the containment bucket is a bit sharp, which means if we're using a liner, it's prone to being punctured or torn by the plastic as it's put in place. A bit of sandpaper should fix this.
I still need to find some better sealant for the threads of the right angle fitting on the diverter. It drips a bit into the dry solids, which I'd rather it didn't. Will be trying some 4200 later this week, which I suspect will clear it up.
The snap on toilet seats all seem to have the same problem: The pins that act as hinge for the seat cover are too short, and the cover often disconnects from them. I really wish Reliance or one of the other companies would fix this. As it is, it's a minor annoyance.
The main thing I think I like about this version is that. . .well. . .it just LOOKS nice, aside from working well. It looks like it belongs there, which pleases us. Unlike some of our other versions, this one also gives you an option as to where to place the urine container, which i can see being a plus.
All in all, this one is a keeper. The build will take you all of about half an hour and cost well less than $50 US. You can find the instructions on this new build HERE, along with links to our original build and to the booklet we've published on Amazon about making these things.
More shortly
M
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| The new iteration of our DIY Composter |
I had been afraid that the notch we put in the holding bucket would either leak or weaken the container too much, but that hasn't been the case. The Bucket pulls out of it's base just fine, is simple to dump, and easy to return to service.
The slightly lower exit point for the urine tube, combined with the right angle fitting means the tube is far less likely to kink and that the flow to the diverter container is a relatively straight shot, with no urine being left in either the diverter itself or the tube. This means no smell and no discoloration, which is great.
As with our previous design, we're finding that we are emptying the urine container every day or every other day and the dry solids every week to ten days. If this seems a bit shorter than usual, the current quarantine means we're spending a LOT more time together on the boat and very little elsewhere, so all our . . .um. . .business gets done on the boat and almost none in stores or in the Marina bathrooms.
Some minor, mostly easily fixable, drawbacks: The notch in the containment bucket is a bit sharp, which means if we're using a liner, it's prone to being punctured or torn by the plastic as it's put in place. A bit of sandpaper should fix this.
I still need to find some better sealant for the threads of the right angle fitting on the diverter. It drips a bit into the dry solids, which I'd rather it didn't. Will be trying some 4200 later this week, which I suspect will clear it up.
The snap on toilet seats all seem to have the same problem: The pins that act as hinge for the seat cover are too short, and the cover often disconnects from them. I really wish Reliance or one of the other companies would fix this. As it is, it's a minor annoyance.
The main thing I think I like about this version is that. . .well. . .it just LOOKS nice, aside from working well. It looks like it belongs there, which pleases us. Unlike some of our other versions, this one also gives you an option as to where to place the urine container, which i can see being a plus.
All in all, this one is a keeper. The build will take you all of about half an hour and cost well less than $50 US. You can find the instructions on this new build HERE, along with links to our original build and to the booklet we've published on Amazon about making these things.
More shortly
M
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