Earlier this year I had an article published in the Cruising Helmsman Magazine in Australia, I thought I would put it on my blog for anyone to read. If you are not into composting toilets then get over it. Here it is..........
Installing a Composting Head
Here in New Zealand the issue of sewerage release into our waterways has been a controversial topic for many years. Not only for city sewerage management systems but also for local and visiting boaties. Maritime New Zealand states that "Sewage may not be discharged within 500 metres from land, or in water less than 5 metres deep". It is a given that you do not discharge in an enclosed waterway. But no checks are carried out on boats and their sewerage management systems by Maritime Authorities(well they have never checked our yacht). Some Marinas seal your head on checking in, but they are a rare bunch. How much longer will it be before stricter measures are bought in?
The sewage management options for Boaties are pretty limited. Holding tanks have been the go for many years, but in reality who actually uses them? And if they do, where do they pump-out the effluent? Not everyone wants to take a run out to sea to empty a holding tank, and pump-out stations are few and far between around the New Zealand coast. Lectra-san units, Macerator's, or gas heads ??? To our way of thinking they seem complicated, prone to breaking down, and reliant on large amounts of electricity or gas. On our Westsail 32 Kabuki, we have a fairly simple electrical plan, with no desire to be running our engine every time we flush.
This issue had been a topic of contention for Paul and myself for years, and now that we plan to live on-board again we have decided to take drastic (some may call it fool-hardy) action. After much research and nagging on my part we have invested in a marine composting toilet. Looking on the Internet I discovered three brands of marinised composting toilet, Sun-mar, Nature's Head and Airhead. They are all produced in America, and apart from Nature's head, have been around for 10 years or more.
We decided on an Airhead composting toilet as it had good reviews on the Westsail Owners Forum, and it was more within our price range. The Airhead consists of a solids/composting tank with agitator, topped by a bowl with a collection bottle for urine. A paper bowl liner carries the solid donation to the composting tank through a trap door. The bowl is designed so that urine flows into the collection bottle. A 12 volt fan, provided to aid the venting system, draws moisture from the solids tank to assist the composting process. Coir peat fibre is used as the base material in the solids tank, with the aid of some compost starter. The whole unit is made of roto-molded heavy duty resin, with a standard toilet seat fitted.
When it came time to purchase the unit, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was an Australian based distributor for the Airhead. "A Better Way to Go", a company based in Richmond, Victoria was able to supply the unit to us here in New Zealand. The supplies for the unit, paper bowl liners (coffee filters) and coir peat bricks are available here in our little home town of Whangarei. We did get a few questions from Customs about the unit, not to mention the odd looks at the Catering supply store.
Removal of existing head:
The first step for us was removing the old head and associated pipes, pumps, seacocks and holding tank. This was a job we did not look forward to, but it had to be done. As our head had not been used for about 5 months it was a little less offensive than it could have been. Removal of the toilet pan was done by Paul one evening, this involved cutting pipes to extract the unit from the boat. The next step was removing all the pipes associated with the holding tank, pump-out system, and also the unused wash-down pump (down-sizing our electrical systems). It is amazing the amount of pipework a 32 ft yacht can have stuffed up into hidden cavities.
The hardest part came next, removing the holding tank. Upon inspection it became obvious that we had two options:
1: rip the forward berth apart to remove the tank in its entirety.....or............
2: cut the tank in half.
Option 2 was chosen, I was nominated to clean the said holding tank before cutting commenced. This job was not as bad as expected............but then I am of a sunny disposition. Paul proceeded to cut the tank using a grinder, but reverted to the trusty hand-saw after second thoughts about the dust. It was just as well we did cut it in half, as we would not have got it out of the boat in one piece.
Next on the list for removal were the two thru-hulls associated with the toilet system. Our Westsail was built with Groco seacock's and thru-hull's, they have an expandable rubber cone instead of a ball. The seacocks and thru-hulls had been in place for 35 years, Paul was worried they would need to be ground out of the hull. But with a bit of ingenuity, He removed them without a hitch, see my blog "westsailingbum.blogspot.com". Next came patching the hull where the thru-hulls had been. This was accomplished by Paul with help from the Fibreglass expert at the yard to do the fairing. We have gone from having 7 thru-hulls down to 5, the less holes the better is my thought.
Installation:
So then we had the fitting of the throne, a fairly simple procedure. The Airhead unit fits onto the existing head plinth without any need for re-building. The existing holes in the cabinetry accommodate the exhaust fan hose. The place where the old wash-down pump was attached to the bulkhead is perfect for the Exhaust fan, the wiring is right there as well. We only had to install a new vent through the hull just under the rub rail and attach the brackets that the Airhead sits into. The Airhead unit is pretty much the same size as our old head, being perhaps a little higher and coming forward an inch or so more.
Bonuses:
1.We now have this huge locker up forward where the holding tank used to be, how long will it take to fill that?
2. The removal of the old toilet system has eliminated the ever pervasive toilet smell that lingered on my side of the forward berth. I have a feeling the pipes and holding tank where porous.
3. Peace of mind, I know that I will feel more confident about our toilet arrangements, I was always worried about blockages, leaks and flooding (yes I did nearly flood the boat once).
Tested:
We managed to put the unit to the test over the Labour Weekend holiday. We soaked a Coir Peat brick in 4 litres of water until it expanded to a soil like consistency (this took about 4 hours), this was then placed into the solids tank. We then commenced with the "donation" process. No worry about too much toilet paper, no pumping, and no smell. Admittedly it was only 3 days of use, but we have been down to the boat everyday since and the system is quietly composting away.
I know that this sort of system is not suitable for everyone, as some of us are more sensitive about our bodily functions than others. Paul and I have already had experience with composting and composting toilets, so we perhaps are a little bit ahead of the field. I believe it always pays to keep an open mind about new idea's, or in this case old idea's re-invented.
After this was published I did an online update on the magazines website, and answered some questions, see below.
Hope you enjoyed your foray into composting toilets. :-)
Congratulations on becoming a published author. Very interesting article.
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