Peggy Hall's response to Air Head
Okay, I've pasted Peggy's response to my comments below from the venting thread. Sorry for the confusion.GTThanks for the clarification, Geoff Submitted by Peggie Hall/Head Mistress on 01/26 at 02:51PM regarding General_interest Although I wonder why you chose to post it in this thread about venting a permanently installed portapotty boat of in the discussion of your Airhead toilet. My information about the Airhead comes from your own website and discussions with the folks at Practical Sailor who conducted the tests of composting toilets and their published review of them. I think you misinterpreted my comment about peat moss. I understand fully why it must be used in a composter. That it's necessary to keep a supply of it aboard is a consideration in deciding whether a composter is the best choice of toilet for a particular owner and his boat. As for price comparisons, you need to dig a little deeper than the BOAT/US catalog for toilet and Lectra/San prices. The lowest price I've seen for the Lectra/San is $729 (Defender). I can be used with ANY toilet, so unless a new toilet is needed too, almost no addition expense. Manual toilets start as low $100...kits to convert existing manual toilets to electric average about $350. The L/S has to be within 6' of the toilet, and equally close to a thru-hull...12' of hose, a vented loop and some hose clamps are less than $100. So the total cost of installing a Lectra/San can be as low as $800. However, there is no one-size-fits-all “best toilet” or system, only the best toilet for an individual boat and its owner. And there are a number of factors that go into selecting the best toilet for any boat: boat size: power resources, holding tank size vs. flush water consumption, availability of accessible pumpout facilities, whether treatment is an option or not, who’ll be using it—only adult "seasoned salts" or children and frequent landlubber/guests, space available, and your budget…even how long you plan to keep the current boat. That's an important point, because the person who asked the question--and to whom I replied--is in coastal waters where the discharge of treated waste is legal, and his boat is big enough to have to power resources to support a treatment device. ...his choices aren't limited to various means of storing waste aboard, he can flush it and get rid of it--by FAR the best solution to dealing with waste aboard HIS boat, in HIS waters...and what I recommended. But those on "no discharge" inland lakes don't have that choice. For some, the Airhead may indeed be a better choice than a marine toilet and holding tank or a portapotty...or it may not be. There's still the matter of sufficient power, peat moss storage, venting etc, to consider, along with the owner's budget. So I suggest you update your website ASAP to include the corrections you posted here, and hang around to answer specific questions...starting with mine:1). According to your own website, the urine storage tank holds "4 days' use per person." Am I wrong in interpreting this to mean that 4 people aboard for a week will fill nearly two urine tanks each...a total of 8 tanks (7 of which must be purchased separately?) full of urine that have to be stored aboard somewhere by the end of a weeklong cruise. 2). If carrying them off the boat and pouring them down a toilet or a portapotty dump station is the ONLY way to dispose of the contents, that's a lot to carry!Your comments?