Some Composting Toilet Mods

You know, sometimes it seems like we do a disproportionate amount of writing on this blog about composting toilet systems, but there seems--by what you guys are viewing--to be a huge amount of interest in them.

The current iteration of our design, using a snap on lid.  Instructions are here.

The new system aboard Constellation continues to work quite well, but as with any other boat, we hurt for storage and floor space, so with that in mind we decided to built a bench seat for the composter.  This would allow us to use the bench for the wood pellets we use as biomass, as well as trivial stuff like, say, toilet paper.

An additional bonus would be that we can use a conventional toilet seat.  Most of our composting toilet designs have been build around the snap-on lids that let you turn a 5 gallon bucket into a camping toilet.  These work fine, and are a quick and easy solution, but they seem to have a limited lifespan.  The ears on which the lid pivots tend to crack off eventually, and though that is a minor expense and inconvenience, doing something more permanent seemed prudent.

So we began with just clearing the space and measuring the height of the existing toilet/urine diverter set up.  This, being a boat, is a little iffy because almost nothing is square, but one does what one can.

The container bucket, base, and urine diverter.

Shelf supports attached.

The shelf itself is pretty simple.  Cut out is the same diameter as the urine diverter, and there is a support running along what will be the front of the shelf.

New shelf in place with toilet seat.  Plenty of room for Magellan's litter box and the urine container.

You'll need to find a Round toilet seat to accommodate the urine diverter (lots of them are oval, and far deeper than you'll want).  The back of the seat is just bolted through the shelf like it would be bolted through a porcelain toilet bowl (bolts are generally delrin plastic or nylon, which is nice since they don't rust, and generally come with the lid).

So far we're pretty pleased.

It's been one day of rain after another here on the Chesapeake, and our pier suffered a nasty lightning strike a few days ago, damaging a lot of electronics on several boats (some running into several grand).  Fortunately, all we lost was our ceiling light in the galley, which I'm replacing today.  With a little luck and some better weather tomorrow, we'll get to go out.

Stay Tuned

M