Compost toilets are becoming more and more popular in bus, truck, and van conversions now. They have the advantage of not requiring as large of a freshwater tank, any blackwater tank; which takes up real estate in, or under the bus, and requires additional plumbing in and out of the blackwater tank, and the messy chore of emptying it on a regular basis.
If you were to build a new bus from scratch and had plenty of room for a blackwater tank, and money was not an issue, would you go with a regular RV flush toilet or a compost toilet? Or would you choose another type of toilet such as an electric toilet?
Sonja always wanted a composting toilet, why I don't know but that is an argument I never gave up on lol she lost that one,never appealed to me dumping those in trash cans at rest area and I see it all the time
No way Jose.
I'm old enough to remember using a backhouse, privvy, biffy, outhouse - call it what you will they were nasty. We spent 7 years living part time on a boat. Hippy Bill and Donna 2 slips over had a composting toilet which Bill was unreasonably proud of. On the one occasion when we had supper onboard I wasn't obliged to use their facilities but Marilyn was. As far as I'm concerned it was only a slight improvement over a cat litter box.
Privvies composted just fine but that doesn't make them a good idea. For me the greatest advantage of a bus conversion is that you can take all the conveniences of home on the road. Flush toilets are pretty much at the top of my list of required conveniences.
Gary you have been spending too much time with the schooly and tiny home crowd.
I will only use traditional. BTW, my father's 1967 Chevy Stepvan Adventureliner had a Destroylet. It burned the waste with propane fire. Space was at a premium on that rig, which might be reason for it
I will only use traditional. BTW, my father's 1967 Chevy Stepvan Adventureliner had a Destroylet. It burned the waste with propane fire. Space was at a premium on that rig, which might be reason for it
I think compost or bucket ended when the Romans figured out how to route water. Then came copper pipes and then PVC. Add gate valves to a tank and no more funk in the trunk.
But I am used to not changing to something else if what I have works well for me. (But don't follow my lead. I'll be the last guy to put solar panels on my bus too).
I don't mind dumping. Then I flush the tanks. Twice. Just seems to make the bus happier. I'd rather run water and pull 'T" handles than have to touch bags of the good stuff. I'm old enough that I am D-U-N done changing diapers on a baby or a bus.
Put me down for water Gary.
I guess if you don't mind cleaning up after your dogs when walking, it probably might not be an issue.
I was dumping at a KOA once and did my double flush as usual. The guy next to me asked if I was having a problem with my tanks. I said "Nope...just like to clean things out well". He said "I hope that works because it seems to waste a lot of water.".
I've heard the argument that it wastes water a few times.
Anytime I hear that "waste water" thing, MY understanding is that water is not wasted. It is a closed system. Except for what we left on the moon or dump from the space station, it just moves around that planet. It evaporates, then rains. There is drought and flooding, but water is not wasted.
Which is why it does not bother me to flush about 3 times when in the bus!
Quote from: Tedsoldbus on December 11, 2022, 01:14:35 PM
I was dumping at a KOA once and did my double flush as usual. The guy next to me asked if I was having a problem with my tanks. I said "Nope...just like to clean things out well". He said "I hope that works because it seems to waste a lot of water.".
I've heard the argument that it wastes water a few times.
Anytime I hear that "waste water" thing, MY understanding is that water is not wasted. It is a closed system. Except for what we left on the moon or dump from the space station, it just moves around that planet. It evaporates, then rains. There is drought and flooding, but water is not wasted.
Which is why it does not bother me to flush about 3 times when in the bus!
Flush for me. I know some people who think once the water goes down the drain it's gone forever.
Quote from: tr206 on December 11, 2022, 01:59:25 PM
Flush for me. I know some people who think once the water goes down the drain it's gone forever.
It is not gone forever, if you ever played golf in Vegas there is a reason for the signs telling you not to lick your balls ;D.I had to explain the sign to buddy one time he had it totally wrong
Clifford, that sign was just for the dogs.
Definitely no composting toilet for me. And I agree with Tedsoldbus on the concept of wasting water.
RV toilet here with the rolling ball and a 75 gal black tank.under it so we can put up with a lot of sheet.
We liked Art Carney too & do our own septic work at the ponderosa. Maybe it was my dad being superintendent of the city's sewer dept. Lol
A good built in tank washing system does save a lot of time and water though,it does get a little boring when there is a line waiting to dump and a person spends 20 minutes washing his tanks out, no offence Ted :^
Flush and Black tank for us.
We considered a composting toilet when building the Bus, a couple advantages.
1. You do not have to position the Toilet directly over the Black tank.
2. You could stay Boondocked longer and not have to look for a dumping station and move the bus when the tank gets full, just take out the bag and store it somewhere (much like we do with the dog).
I would rather connect a hose and drain it all away (My Favorite part of RVing) rather than have to handle a bag full of the stuff (especially after a weekend of Beer and Tacos) and I would still need a Black tank for the urine diverter.
If the Composting toilets gain in popularity and the sewer connection/dump station setup becomes fewer and harder to find, I might have to reconsider.
On a side note, how many of you, like us, pretty much designed your Bus layout around putting the Toilet over the Back Tank?
Peter
I would rather deal with the grossness of a black tank dump intermittently than the grossness of a compacting toilet every time.
Flush toilet.
Hey I was just wondering... Since DEF is pig piss can you just piss in your DEF tank?
Jim
I have been told before by some that the whole dumping the Black tank thing (along with smoking) is a dirty disgusting habit then I sez "Well so is wiping your @$# and no one's banning that"... ;D I would suggest it is easier to clean up a ceramic bowl after one of those explosive events YMMV.
No offense taken Luvrbus. I have a place near home to dump that is never crowded but I hear you. We do a lot of state parks especially in Florida and there is a "dump on the way out" kind of thing. I never linger there out of respect to others and just do the double flush when I get home.
I do NOT have septic at the bus barn so we try to bring it home clean, but I may have to add septic in the coming year. When we did the barn with a long gravel driveway, cement for the slab went up after we decided to build. We started to run out of money before we ran out of barn. I opted for foam insulation in the building (which also went up after the bid) over the septic dump at that time.
But glad every time I walk in there that we did the foam. Cooler in summer and pretty toasty in the winter with minimal heat. I have a farm water bib just out the door of the barn but no inside water. We mostly just store the bus there and bring it the 1/4 mile home to prep for a trip, but looking back it would sure be nice to be able to dump over there when we get home....
With permits it will run us about 6K. Ouch...
"Sell another house Rita...!"
I know y'all won't like this but...
Decades ago (and I'm quite sure any applicable statute of limitations has long since run out) when I was living in a travel trailer and moving around a lot, I'd sometimes find a likely spot and simply dump the tanks in the tall weeds. Usually this was done on Dad's farm in the hay field, and often in the presence of rain.
Now say what you like about the nastiness, spreading of disease or whatever you choose, the risks were very minimal. First off, the holding tank had served the function of a septic tank in taking care of the first stages of decomposition and black water was always the only thing to come out. Secondly I was not disease ridden so there was little concern with that, and nobody was eating off the ground there. No pigs grazing so no risk of enabling a triconosis cycle and with harvest time for the hay being weeks away no real issues there. In reality I don't see all that much difference between that and a leach bed. Any smell was dissipated quickly enough as the water soaked into the ground and the grass thought it was kinda nice.
Now if it was out west where the water would flash off and leave the solids I could see where you might want to run the discs over it afterwards and not mention it to your neighbors, but it sure beats spending thousands on a septic tank and drain field.
Another thing I occasionally did when I was going to stay in one spot was to dig a pit that was big enough to hold the contents of the holding tank and when it got full drain it into the pit. In between it would leach out and dry up and when I moved on I would fill it back up. You could fill the pit with limestone gravel if you wanted to, then you have a proper leach bed. Simple solution. You can't do that just anywhere but the less said the better and the neighbors won't mind if they never know about it. Bear in mind the septic tank function is done by the black water tank. The pit then handles the function of the leach bed. As long as you don't run it over it'll do just fine.
Jim
Personally I prefer a flush toilet for 1 reason. When nature calls it goes down to the black tank period.
With a composting toilet you eventually have to handle what went into my black tank by seperating it (urine gets dumped from here) and removing the solids and adding peat moss or playing with it.
Nope, not.me.skippy.
Siberyd
Quote from: siberyd on December 12, 2022, 05:21:37 PM
Personally I prefer a flush toilet for 1 reason. When nature calls it goes down to the black tank period.
With a composting toilet you eventually have to handle what went into my black tank by seperating it (urine gets dumped from here) and removing the solids and adding peat moss or playing with it.
Nope, not.me.skippy.
Siberyd
The price of those will floor you too ,plus the size makes for a smaller shower
There is nothing simpler than a fresh water gravity flush toilet. And you DO NOT have to have the toilet right over the tank. My buses black tank was lengthwise on centerline with a 4ft pipe to the tank-never a problem. My truck conversion has a 3ft drop and 6ft run to my tank, again never a problem. How do you think your toilet at home works sending the water charge all the way to the street?
To combat the wasting water, I have an additional drain from the gray tank to the black tank for rinse out.
Plus on my kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower, I have a warm up valve for the hot water that returns the warming water back to the water tank. Good Luck, TomC
I was having a sandwich when I read Siberyd's description.
Anybody want the rest of this sandwich???
That cinches it for me. Make mine water.
Quote from: Jim Blackwood on December 12, 2022, 12:55:30 PM
I know y'all won't like this but...
Decades ago (and I'm quite sure any applicable statute of limitations has long since run out) when I was living in a travel trailer and moving around a lot, I'd sometimes find a likely spot and simply dump the tanks in the tall weeds. Usually this was done on Dad's farm in the hay field, and often in the presence of rain.
Jim
You and me likewise. The only refinement I'd add is you let 'er fly and then pull ahead before you button things back up so you don't have to wade through the wet stuff. We lived on an acreage for several years - it was dead simple then. I always like to dump immediately after a move so that the stuff gets well mixed up. So I'd come home, pull out either into the field if it was cut or not up yet or on the edge if there was crop and then pull the rip cord. I recall telling the landowner one time what I was doing. He couldn't have cared less. I agreed that I wouldn't charge him for the phosphate if he didn't charge me for access.
At least half the world's population has a much more relaxed relationship with human waste than we do.
Emptying Septic tanks in Colorado went way up since I lived there. The trucks used to spray it on crop fields east of town. Now it has to go to a waste water treatment plant.
While we're on the subject of waste some may remember in an earlier post on this post I mentioned my father being a superintendent to a Municiple sewer plant. Well as a younger boy I remember taking some of the tarpon we caught in a canal near the sewer plant to the sewer plant and throwing the tarpon into what was called a sediment tank. Dad said tarpon are scavengers and will eat the sediment. well many years later the sediment tank had malfunctioned, so they had to shut it down. Low & behold it was large tarpon blocking up the piping & getting hung up in the valves. Who would have figured? One more note was the area called the drying beds were overgrown with the biggest tomatoes & watermelons I'd ever put my eyes on. Evidently the seeds move through the human digestive tract without breaking down. I gotta say who would have thought? Lmao
Quote from: dtcerrato on December 13, 2022, 05:19:55 PM
While we're on the subject of waste some may remember in an earlier post on this post I mentioned my father being a superintendent to a Municiple sewer plant. One more note was the area called the drying beds were overgrown with the biggest tomatoes & watermelons I'd ever put my eyes on. Evidently the seeds move through the human digestive tract without breaking down. I gotta say who would have thought? Lmao
I remember as a young kid being told you could drink the water a mile down stream of a sewage treatment plant. I also remember that it was always safe to drink water out of a mountain stream...
Well there's "safe" and then there's safe.Our bodies have a miraculous ability to deal with a lot of things, especially when we are younger but some things we don't handle quite as well and much of it depends on the level of contaminants. I expect that drinking diluted sewer water on any kind of a regular basis is a sure road to trouble but chances are you could get by with a small exposure without even noticing it. Depending on the person and a lot of other things of course. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And as we get older we should be a little more particular about it. A full filtration system? Yeah that's impressive especially at that price. Necessary? Probably not, and that looks like a lot of filters to change, could cost more than the system over time. Best solution is a good water source and yes, I do have a filtered water tap on my sink.
Jim
We do pride our two properties on opposite corners of the continent (FL & AK) that each has a deep well. Not real deep but below surface water into ground water. Medicinally natural untreated water keeps us regular. When we are served water in a restaurant we request lemon with it to neutralize the chlorine taste... :^
Restaurant water has improved since several years ago. In the cities, the chlorine was so strong, the water was almost undrinkable.
Quote from: chessie4905 on December 14, 2022, 07:03:09 AM
Restaurant water has improved since several years ago. In the cities, the chlorine was so strong, the water was almost undrinkable.
Most restaurants have R/O systems ,did you know Coke or Pepsi will only let you use non R/O water in their machines it has to be tap water only I had to redo one in the last restaurant the plumber tied into the R/O system and both refused equipment till it was corrected with their special little 1/4 in check valve for $500.00,the PH in R/O water drops in seconds is the reason and R/O will try and take the C02 from the air.LOL ever wonder what water a Mexican Coke or Pepsi was used
I love forums that tolerate thread drift especially this one as talking about pure water on a flush or compost toilet discussion. :^
Gotta love it. It makes for diverse conversation...
Quote from: dtcerrato on December 13, 2022, 05:19:55 PM
While we're on the subject of waste some may remember in an earlier post on this post I mentioned my father being a superintendent to a Municiple sewer plant. Well as a younger boy I remember taking some of the tarpon we caught in a canal near the sewer plant to the sewer plant and throwing the tarpon into what was called a sediment tank. Dad said tarpon are scavengers and will eat the sediment. well many years later the sediment tank had malfunctioned, so they had to shut it down. Low & behold it was large tarpon blocking up the piping & getting hung up in the valves. Who would have figured? One more note was the area called the drying beds were overgrown with the biggest tomatoes & watermelons I'd ever put my eyes on. Evidently the seeds move through the human digestive tract without breaking down. I gotta say who would have thought? Lmao
So that is why watermelons are seedless now and tomato plants cost 5 bucks each :( I recall granddad going to get the tomato plants at the drying beds before they disked under at the plant
I will answer as a Custom Coach Builder that we are.
We build both buses and Van conversions.
Vans : we like to use the Dometic toilets that use a small cassette toilet. There is a door on the side of the van to remove the tank. A customer can dump at a dump station or dump into a portable tank. They make it in different options. The basic unit has its own water tank and uses almost no water on any version. The larger version uses the onboard water system. Again, very little water use. Best and #1 option in our builds
Buses: You don't want the above unit as you do not want the hole in your wall. But, Using the Nature's Head toilets and other brands. What you need to keep in mind is this. Some require you to carry the stink pack from the bathroom to the outside of the coach to dispose of. Many states have outlawed disposal in trash. It must be disposed of at a dump station :-[ You are only reducing water use at that point. Most all makes of toilet will require you to run a 12 volt fan at all times to get rid of the fumes it produces. You may hear that at night. We will always recommend looking for a toilet that uses as little water as possible.
Manufactures have not done that good with promoting the water use of their toilets. You are still required by LAW to have a black water and fresh water tank on board regardless to pass inspection. Gray water tanks are not required but, a standard when there is a toilet installed in the system. This was a upgrade to the rules we follow.
I sure hope this helps. This is what we have been taught as far as the rules go. Any state can pull your rig in for a full inspection even if it is a private ownership. You don't want to not pass an inspection. I have yet to ever hear of anyone I personally know ever get stopped. But, it is on the books as they say with DOT
[quote author=TwoFeathersRD link=topic=36471.msg423373#msg42
I sure hope this helps. This is what we have been taught as far as the rules go. Any state can pull your rig in for a full inspection even if it is a private ownership. You don't want to not pass an inspection. I have yet to ever hear of anyone I personally know ever get stopped. But, it is on the books as they say with DOT
[/quote]
Az will pull you in they have a check station at a rest area not far from the place @ RimRock on I 17 they set up for a couple of weeks.If somebody with nothing to do calls in because the dump valve is leaking a little going down the road, they will stop u and write you a fix it ticket. A lot of times people using a misting system for cooling get pulled over somebody called on thinking they are dumping sewer happen to Sonja before. The Trooper just shook his head when she why he stopped her and told her busy body people with nothing else to do, have a good day and drive safe