What do you think about composting toilets

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Does anyone have any experience of using a composting toilet, and if you do would you consider using the in your house or only when you are out at some summer cabin, camping van, etc.

I'm curious what the procedure of emptying and cleaning them is, if they smell, etc.

Mirmar

I never used one but I would also wonder about the smell if it was at home.

Piri

There are different types! The really big ones that is for outside and smaller house friendly.

Usually it is used with peat it can be with kind of tap to 'flush' it automatically or doing it manually. As well to avoid smell house friendly ones has air pipe and liquids pipe.

They don't really make bad smell, some of them is up to a month for 4 peoples. Some campsites are using it and it is for bigger traffic and now it is really becoming more common even in the living houses more rural of you have where to use it afterwards.

I had never own do it but used and of it is just simply maintained it is not having issues. Oh just it is not good to put food leftovers. Some have buckets inside so it is easy to cl an up.

I am kind of 'poop storage' expert 💩

Ash

Not sure I would ever consider it for my house but it seems like something that can work well for camping trips, cabins in the middle of nowhere etc. I guess it depends a lot on whether it would have a very awful smell.

I am Ashlynn

I think there are a kind for houses that are centralised, so all of the waste doesn't sit in the actual toilet in the bathroom but gets sucked out and stored in a bigger tank somewhere outside. I might have just imagined remembering that though.

Piri

I am Ashlynn but composting toilet is not that - they don't need the outside tank.

The ones with outside storing tank look like simple toilets flush with water and everything is stored in the tank outside kind of local system. It can be stored and cleaned once in awhile or they can have some some recycling biological s.ystem. in all cases it is not composting process.

I am Ashlynn

Sometimes I get sucked into things on the internet.

So I found a site with a review of the best composting toilets of 2021, and they all seem to be completely different, but they had a nice little list of good and bad points of composting toilets.

Pros/Benefits:

Heavily reduces water usage and wastage
Uses far less power than regular toilets
They don’t smell (when used correctly)
They provide homemade fertilizer
They’re super easy and cheap to install
They don’t require plumbing and plumbing maintenance

Cons/Disadvantages:

The Smell can be an issue when not used properly
The up-front cost is expensive
The usage and maintenance is more hands-on than regular toilets (but you get used to this)

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

I am Ashlynn The up-front cost is expensive

This is true actually!

I just looked at some designed for cabin or home and they were a lot more expensive than I imagined

Öko Kaapo

My parents have in the cabin, I never notice any bad smells from it at all.

Arvīds

I don't think I ever used one, but maybe in some camping site, it would make sense for them to use them maybe?

Do not know if I would want them in my house, and to need to carry bags of pee and droppings through the house.

Ash

They don't smell when used correctly? Knowing how some people are, if this ever becomes normalised, you will definitely end up with a lot of people that don't read the instructions properly and then complain about the smell.

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