Does anyone have any experience with a Sun-Mar Mobile composting toilet? It may be nice to not worry about pump outs or the growing number of no discharge zones.
Composting toilets
- Thread starter Icetug
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Composters are a great choice for a cottage, but not for a boat
You might want to read the literature, esepcially the "specs," for the Sun-Mar Mobile a bit more closely: http://www.sun-mar.com/prod_self_mobi.html
Excess liquids have to be able to drain, 'cuz wet soggy material doesn't compost, it rots. On land, liquids can just drain into the ground...but they can't legal go overboard on a boat, so they have to be held and disposed of ashore. So there's not much advantage over a holding tank.
That still leaves way too much moisture in waste, so it's necessary to add peat moss to each "flush"...which requires storing a supply of it aboard.
Composters need power 24/7.
Requires a 3" vent stack.
The composter drum must be manually rotatated regularly to toss and aerate the contents...or it compacts and rots.
Because composting is bacterial function, and because bacterial activity requires a temperature above 75 F to work very well (below 60 F, bacteria become so sluggish that nothing happens, and at 40 F they become dormant), composters don't work in cold weather.
$1600 plus installation is a lot to pay just to swap one set of maintenance issues for a different set.
Although I'm not a fan of the Air Head Airhead Toilet either because it also has similar issues, it's a dessicator (similar to a composter) for about half the price. If you're detrmined to go this route it would be a better choice than the Sun-Mar.
You might want to read the literature, esepcially the "specs," for the Sun-Mar Mobile a bit more closely: http://www.sun-mar.com/prod_self_mobi.html
Excess liquids have to be able to drain, 'cuz wet soggy material doesn't compost, it rots. On land, liquids can just drain into the ground...but they can't legal go overboard on a boat, so they have to be held and disposed of ashore. So there's not much advantage over a holding tank.
That still leaves way too much moisture in waste, so it's necessary to add peat moss to each "flush"...which requires storing a supply of it aboard.
Composters need power 24/7.
Requires a 3" vent stack.
The composter drum must be manually rotatated regularly to toss and aerate the contents...or it compacts and rots.
Because composting is bacterial function, and because bacterial activity requires a temperature above 75 F to work very well (below 60 F, bacteria become so sluggish that nothing happens, and at 40 F they become dormant), composters don't work in cold weather.
$1600 plus installation is a lot to pay just to swap one set of maintenance issues for a different set.
Although I'm not a fan of the Air Head Airhead Toilet either because it also has similar issues, it's a dessicator (similar to a composter) for about half the price. If you're detrmined to go this route it would be a better choice than the Sun-Mar.
Peggie's right. You'd just be trading one set of problems for a worse set, IMHO, and spending a fair chunk of change to do so. Trying to keep a dry supply of peat moss aboard the boat makes using a composting head more trouble than it is worth IMHO.
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