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Pondering zero discharge toilet options such as the Electroscan waste treatment system and the Air Head and Nature's Head dehydrating toilets (you can't really call them composting) for a yacht. Incinerating toilets would be an option if they didn't need to draw so much power so for a yacht I have ruled them out. 

 

From what I understand the Electroscan has electrodes which need replacing at a cost but you don't need to personally remove waste as you do with the dehydrating toilets but how reliable are they and what is the maintenance routine?

 

I'm drawn to the simplicity of the dehydrating toilet but the urine capacity is so small that I think I would still want to plumb in a holding tank for that. The other issue might be the disposal of the waste depending upon your location at the time it's required. Out at sea is simple enough but what about in other areas?

 

Onboard waste treatment or dehydrating toilet, and if a dehydrating toilet then an Air Head or Nature's Head?

 

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I sold airheads for a while. Great unit, I have one in my boat. The guy who runs airhead is difficult. He's only really interested in selling them by the container load. Get a natures head....

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Also, a lectrasan is a treatment system. You can't use it in a no discharge area - marinas etc. You'll generally get about 700 flushes from an electrode pack, then they won't treat properly. That's $1 a flush!

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I've just been doing a bit of hunting around online and I was looking at the Separett toilets. It appears that they don't use any bulking agent but I did see 2-speed fans on their Villa models so that they could speed up the dehydrating process when dealing with frequent use periods. They don't churn either but it appears that they rotate the container each use to more evenly distribute the contents as you sit down and the waste is going straight into a compostable bag in a removable container. Pretty bulky toilets though.

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My wife's uncle is the NZ agent for Natures Head. Partly for that reason but mainly because of continual family complaints about holding tank smell we looked for alternatives.  At that time we were still in the US and we had sailing friends with both the Airhead and Natures Head units installed.  For us the Natures Head was a better sized product for our available space.  Life intervened and it wasn't until we returned to NZ (boat was shipped not sailed unfortunately) that we installed a Natures Head.  Now, several season in we can't say enough good about it. The height is better than the old manual head, the smell is a little woody (less so with Coconut Coir), it is low maintenance (except for emptying the pee bottle every couple of days) and has been well worth the change and the cost.  

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My wife's uncle is the NZ agent for Natures Head. Partly for that reason but mainly because of continual family complaints about holding tank smell we looked for alternatives.  At that time we were still in the US and we had sailing friends with both the Airhead and Natures Head units installed.  For us the Natures Head was a better sized product for our available space.  Life intervened and it wasn't until we returned to NZ (boat was shipped not sailed unfortunately) that we installed a Natures Head.  Now, several season in we can't say enough good about it. The height is better than the old manual head, the smell is a little woody (less so with Coconut Coir), it is low maintenance (except for emptying the pee bottle every couple of days) and has been well worth the change and the cost.  

I have a yet to be installed C Head.

Any issues with insects, flies with your NH?

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Which version did you get Zozza. I wouldn't mind having a nosey as I very close to getting one myself

 

I will take some pics and post them here. Probably tomorrow, as I'm laid up in bed today with a shocker of a chesty cough and cold.  

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I have a yet to be installed C Head.

Any issues with insects, flies with your NH?

 

Our experience has been 3 summers of use for the seasonal holiday week plus alternate weekends on board. With this usage (3-4 people on board) it has been operating on 1 'charge' of peat/coir per summer season and a second for the 'winter' use.  The boat is kept in the BoI for the summer period.  Winters the boat is back in Whangarei and except for the coldest 1-2 months the head is left operate able.  We have not had any issues over winter.  Summer years 1 and 2 we used Hauraki Gold Peat.  The first we had a small infestation of midges in early Feb.  We treated with Diatomaceous Earth and cleared it up almost overnight.  Year 2 we proactively added some DE before the weather got warm and had a very few midges at all.  This last season we changed to Coconut Coir to see if a more 'refined' product had less issues (Peat is more woodsy smelling but while dirt cheap takes up larger volumes when stored dry and if the bags are holed is a fine powder that can get everywhere.  The CC is a pressed briquet approx 1/4 the volume of the dry peat.  It also has the benefit of even less smell).  This year we had no issues with insects until just after Easter when we went to bring the boat home again.  We did not have the DE on board so used a quick fly spray and ignored it for the delivery.  The head is sitting at home composting a bit more before emptying.  I just opened it and there is no sign of insects.

 

So, not perfect but so far not a deal breaker issue -easy to resolve and a minor inconvenience.  My hypothesis is that with full-time use of the head a simple proactive addition of DE when temps were 20+ish would avoid the insect issue.  I am planning on using CCoir again next time I charge the head. 

 

Would I do it again -my wife would not let me do otherwise! It has been painless to operate.  The only negative I find is that the ability to use on both tacks is a bit more limited than the old Raritan head (fine on stbd but needs a bit less heel on Port than the old head) although this is related to our needing to mount it on a slight angle because of space.

 

IMG_3585.jpg

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Yes, before I decided to buy the smller C-Head due to my smaller boat - 23 feet at the time, and sold that for a 26 footer, so still small boat so sticking with the C-Head at this stage - the American Owner / Inventor of Natures Head advises me that  Diatomaceous Earth is a fail safe method to get rid of and prevent any insect infestation.

 

I'd be interested in how much DE you needed to use?  You can buy it from most pet shops, and probably other places, and I'd want a good stack of it on board - but how much of the DE you needed to use each time to ward off the the little beggars?

 

On the Coconut Coir, I've got a huge bag of unopened Coconut Coir that I got from a garden place, already wetted out.  But you can buy the smaller compacted Coconut Coir bricks pretty easily online in NZ and just wet what you need when you need it, rather than lugging around a huge bag of the wetted stuff, and I think this might be the way to go for small boats like mine.

 

If I had a boat 28 feet plus, Id definitely go with the Natures Head.

 

Cheers

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It's been interesting reading all the comments. I've decided to go the composting/dehydrated way. My searching has led me to look closer at a non-churn style for the solid waste fitted with a good fan and a urine diversion to a holding tank. Toilets like the Separett Weekend seem to be fine just being vented with a fan without churning or medium being added. This style also makes emptying the solid waste very easy as it is collected in a bag lined container so it's as simple as tie up the bag, remove it and dump it ashore and put in a new bag/liner. No churning is one less thing new users have to deal with, same goes with not worrying about adding any medium to the solid waste as well as need needing to carry any either. Having the urine going to a holding tank means no regular disposal required or overflow to deal with if it gets too full. All systems appear to be a series of compromises and in my case, I'm looking for something easy for anyone to use, could still be used on the hard, low regular maintenance and looks good without taking up too much space. I've found something overseas that I'm going to try. I've talked to the manufacturer and if it works as well as I hope it will then I'm going to make it available in NZ with a couple of possible modifications I have in mind for use on boats. 

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It's been interesting reading all the comments. I've decided to go the composting/dehydrated way. My searching has led me to look closer at a non-churn style for the solid waste fitted with a good fan and a urine diversion to a holding tank. Toilets like the Separett Weekend seem to be fine just being vented with a fan without churning or medium being added. This style also makes emptying the solid waste very easy as it is collected in a bag lined container so it's as simple as tie up the bag, remove it and dump it ashore and put in a new bag/liner. No churning is one less thing new users have to deal with, same goes with not worrying about adding any medium to the solid waste as well as need needing to carry any either. Having the urine going to a holding tank means no regular disposal required or overflow to deal with if it gets too full. All systems appear to be a series of compromises and in my case, I'm looking for something easy for anyone to use, could still be used on the hard, low regular maintenance and looks good without taking up too much space. I've found something overseas that I'm going to try. I've talked to the manufacturer and if it works as well as I hope it will then I'm going to make it available in NZ with a couple of possible modifications I have in mind for use on boats. 

 

Surely the smell will take a lot longer to dissipate, even with the fan running 24/7, compared to the churning Airhead / Nature's Head / C-Head's?  I'm all for doing as less as possible, but these separett toilets almost seem to good to be true?

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That's what I'm going to find out. Separett is pretty big and sells globally so if they offer this style it can't be all bad and C-Head offers a churnless option on theirs too although they rely on the addition of medium in place of a fan. I also think that the toilet fan may want to be the only vent in the head so that the fan draws for the whole head and it won't be competing with another vent to draw the air outside. I think there might be a possibility that if another vent was working better than the fan then it may draw unwanted smell back into the head from the toilet. As the fan is running 24/7 it would also help remove moisture build up from a shower if one was also installed in the head.

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Which version did you get Zozza. I wouldn't mind having a nosey as I very close to getting one myself

 

C-Head pics as promised.

Note - I don't have the urinal container in there.  Anything the size of a milk container will do.

C-Head1.GIF

C-Head2.GIF

C-Head3.GIF

C-Head4.GIF

C-Head5.GIF

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Just measured it, and yes 18 inches.  Didn't realise there was a smaller version - then again, I got mine more than two years ago, so maybe he introduced a smaller version since then.

I can't remember what I have done with his original gallon water container that came with the toilet - but just remember, his container will be imperial, and our metric containers won't be an exact fit.  I just tested a NZ Natural 4 Litre water bottle, and that wasn't high enough.  Might have to jury rig something up. I am thinking a bit of rubber hose, then you can fit that to many types of containers. Might mean if a smaller container you might have to get rid of the wees a bit more often - but probably not a bad thing - in fact, I have a mate that also one of these, and unlike me, he has installed it and uses it and reckons it's great..  He doesn't even bother with the urinal bottle bit. He just uses his C-Head for number two's. When he needs to leak,  it is over the side, or if he has to be more discrete a bucket inside, then the contents of that over the side.

That probably won't work if you have female crew though!

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