Airhead is in.....and I am well pleased

Final install of the Airhead Composting toilet. 

Composting marine head, revisited.....

NOTE:  If you find the following post too descriptive I'm not sure you will enjoy long term sailboat life.

Its hard to believe that it was over 6 years since I first mentioned the idea of installing a composting marine head on TIH.  The idea was rapidly knocked on the "head" by the boss.

Times have moved on, we now know a number of cruisers who have installed and love their composting heads.  Lynne has stated that she "might" be open to the idea.  Ok!  It helps that we have two heads on board, the forward one is a Lavac connected to a holding tank.

There are three main marine composting head manufacturers / suppliers (correct me if you know of more);

The Airhead

Nature's Head

C-Head

The one that I am most interested in is the Airhead.  I like the overall design and was impressed when I met and spoke to the aptly named Geoffrey Trott.  Do your own research and pick the one that works for you.

 Firstly, let me clarify a few points for anyone unfamiliar with marine toilets and composting toilets.  

1.  Body Waste (Urine and feces) does not magically disappear after we use the toilet, despite what modern society would have us believe.  This fact becomes painfully obvious when on a boat.  If you poo on a boat someone will have to deal with it later.  If your boating experience consists of touching a lever with your foot, hearing a reassuring whoosh and seeing everything disappear then you are on a power boat.  This is the ubiquitous VacuFlush system, which just means that you have hoovered the shit down a series of pipes into an inaccessible place deep in the boat. It will sit there, feeling annoyed and plotting.  

2. It is illegal to dump untreated waste inside the three mile limit.  You can dump "treated waste", unless you are in a NO DISCHARGE ZONE. "Treated Waste" requires a Electro Scan or similar device.  No discharge zones are becoming more common and will continue to do so.

3.  Your boat will require a holding tank to hold the waste until it can be pumped out at a pump-out station,  pump-out boat or outside the three mile limit.  From my research most live-aboards have to pump the holding tank every 3 to 5 days.  This is  PITA.  I you secretly dump your holding tank into the bay / harbor at night eventually karma or the Marine police will catch up with you.

4.  Holding tanks require hoses and pumps.  These have to be changed out at various intervals.  I you choose to install the standard macerating 12v pump you can count on this being an annual event.  If your macerating pump has worked flawlessly for 6 years and you tell me, it will hear you and die. 

My point is that if you live on a boat you will have to get up close and personal with poo at some time, or pay someone else to do it.

Enter the composting marine toilet;

1.  The lower container is partially filled with moistened coconut fiber or peat moss.  This is sealed off with a trap door.  You can either poo directly through the open trap door or onto a paper coffee filter with the trap door closed.  Opening the door then allows the coffee filter and its contents to drop through.

2.  Because of the limited time the poo stays in the toilet in does NOT actually compost.  It is simply mixed with the peat or coconut fiber.  Because urine is separated you are not dealing with the Porta Potty effect (i.e. a slurry of waste in a bucket).  I am reliably informed that the smell is minimal.

3.  Urine is diverted into a smaller forward tank which has to be dumped every three days.  On the Airhead (and possibly on others) there is a connection to pump this urine into a holding tank.

4.  A tiny computer type fan is constantly running and vents the head, via a hose, above deck. 

5.  Every 60 or so uses (said to be a month for a cruising couple)  you will have to;

     a.   Remove the top section of the contraption.

     b.   Empty the contents of the lower section into a plastic bag.

     c.   Dump the bag and its contents in a suitable site.

If you or someone else on board can't handle this then a composting marine head is not for you.

A few other minor issues; 

1.  I have heard that bug infestation can be an issue.  The vent hose has a screen.  Sometimes users have resorted to bug killing chemicals to control this.

2.  Dumping of the poo/fiber mix in a sealed plastic bag in a dumpster appears to be legal or at the very least a grey area.  It will be interesting to see how this evolves.  I'm sure the Diaper industry will have a major say in any attempt to regulate dumping and at the very least buy the appropriate politicians.

Long story short, the installation of a composing toilet on TIH is a POSSIBILITY.  To this affect I borrowed one (not use) from a friend and did a test install.  Much thanks to Karen from my neighboring Whitby 42 who acted as a model.

"Things go better with Coke"

I had this stubborn calcium buildup in the for'd head for some time.  Tried some of the usual stuff with limited success.  Then in a moment of inspiration I poured in a liter bottle of coke that was laying around after a party (our one marina kid wouldn't touch the stuff with a barge pole).   Left it there for a week while I was away and voila;

If you Google "toilet + coca cola" you will discover that I'm not the first to try it.  I just hope my through hull and hoses are intact.

Holding Tank location

Half (well maybe more) of my problems on TIH are finding the optimum locations for equipment.  I spend a lot of time on older boats that have undergone many upgrades / additions / refits over the years.  Much of this equipment has been installed by "professionals" with no consideration for access to fittings or the ability to overhaul the item itself.  On one boat I delivered the cooling water impeller could not be replaced without lifting the engine.

I have been faffing about, for ever, with the location of the holding tank and the hot water tank.  The decision about the holding tank has finally been made.   This will remove one option when I make the decision about the hot water tank.  

Forward heads revisited......

A loonnggg time ago I had planned to give the forward heads its own holding tank. After much cutting and grinding I realized that this was going to be more trouble that it was worth. While I accept that holding tanks are a necessity I consider them a major PITA. Having two would just double the experience. In any event I need the space for the bow thruster.

As per LAVAC drawings I had not installed an antiphon valve in the waste hose, this was a mistake. The water siphoned back into the bowl and while it did not overflow it did back-flow waste from the hose with the inevitable smell.

Antiphon valve now installed. All hoses/pump etc. surface installed for ease of maintenance. Wife not majorly impressed but she won't be maintaining it AND its the boy heads.



In keeping with the "boy heads" element it will pump directly overboard (where legal) or back to the holding tank in the engine room. As I hate "Y" valves I have copied this system from another W42.

Costco Marine.....

Like RJ over at the Westsail 42 blog I like to check into Home Depot, Lowes, Costco etc. when doing boating projects. Don't get me wrong, it frequently pays to buy proper "marine" products. I tend not to skimp on safety, stainless items, electrical cable and wire and rope. Ditto with bronze and deck fittings.

Below decks, however, sometimes house stuff is more than adequate. The boss had pointed out that she wasn't overly fond of all the white Formica in the after heads. I had to agree that over the years it had lost some of its shine, but the question was what to replace it with. I have always liked bamboo plywood, some of which is now being used for flooring. At $240+ per sheet this was a little on the steep side. Enter Costco bamboo flooring, $69 for enough to do the front of the sink area and the new locker over the hot water heater.



The new locker will have slide out wire linen baskets and the sink will be courtesy of Ikea Marine;





The macerator pump in the top picture will be connected to a Lavac head in such a way that I can replace it with a manual pump after it has died for the third time.

Still too hot to work.......

but not too hot to pull things apart.

The lockers in the aft heads were not too bad. Just a little de-lamination due to chain-plate leaks etc. (big surprise, not). However, the bottom right hand corner contained an above water bilge drain, which could only be serviced by leprechauns with very long arms. I find hiring these to be very very expensive and will have no fitting on-board that cannot be serviced by an overweight, extremely lazy, aging cruiser.

I also have plans for the sink area which may or may not materialize.

So out came the sink, the bulkhead between the head and the Engine room and the front face of the lockers.

As they say, so far so good. Now if I can just put it all back together.

My kind of boat heads.....

But I have been told that people find me weird enough already!!!!

Check out;

Homegrown Evolution

Lavac is in.... +/- a few bits....

I haven't been goofing off, well not totally. Occasionally life and what passes for real work intrudes on my time on the boat. The goal with the forward heads was total simplicity. Easy to use, easy to clean, independent of electrical supply etc. I am looking for a nice retaining clip to hold the top of the hose against the bulkhead, but it must allow for easy cleaning around the hose.

This is known as a hospital saddle. I have not located a source yet.

Measure twice, cut once...a wise policy....

except on a boat its BS. Measure twice, cut four times, shave a bit off, and finally in desperation hammer into place. On a boat there are no right angles, just a lot of wrong ones. The holding tank is going in, whether it wants to or not.

The original location of the sonar from hell, ideal place to put a 13 gal holding tank.

Dry fit, looks good.

Cut the remaining liner to discover that the lip of the forward water tank (which may be removed later) gets in the way.

Lower the floor below the tank, simple, NOT.

Now to run the inlet and outlet hose.

Mock up of Lavac installation

The difference a little paint makes...

Boating aesthetics

If left to my own devices TIH would certainly be heading along the lines of the vessel shown above (Note: I am not being critical of the boat, in fact I'm pretty impressed by the canvas work). My ideal boat would have all the hoses, wires, pumps etc. mounted in the living areas of the vessel and not in lockers, under deck boards, behind liners etc. This would make maintenance much easier. It would also make TIH a "boy boat" and pretty much guarantee that I would be cruising singlehanded.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the boss approved the mounting of the lavac pump on the interior bulkhead (that's a wall, for you landlubbers) of the forward heads.

First layout attempt... forward Heads...

Possible variations -

Place holding tank under floor if I cannot get sufficient volume in the top locker. At the moment it looks like I can get about 10gals which was adequate on our last boat when we only had one head.

Mount macerator on top of holding tank if access is possible. This would permit a smaller diameter hose down to the thru hull.

Check out S/Y Luna for a nice refit using a Lavac Click Here

All comments welcome. You can also e-mail to whitby42 "at" gmail.com

Plan for forward heads....

On my last boat I installed a Lavac with a "drop through" holding tank. This system is common on European sailboats especially in charter.

Eriu's Heads




The system worked extremely well. I would only change two elements.

1. I would surface mount the Blake pump to make it easier to service.
2. I would take the hull pumpout from the top of the tank and use a macerator pump to empty the tank at sea. I would loose the "drop through" element but I did not like having fittings on the bottom of the tank.

The Lavac is a great heads. Check it out here

The “Heads” revisited……

From my previous post on the subject you will be aware of my view of “heads”. In my opinion heads should be simple, idiot-proof and easy to maintain. The old “red bucket and chuckit” system favored by British pocket cruisers in the 70’s seemed to fit the bill. The composting head was an interesting development. Unfortunately, the composting head has been “knocked on the head” by the Admiral. So it’s back to square one.

The original Whitby’s was fitted with two manual toilets connected to a central holding tank located just aft of the galley and over the forward end of the fuel tank. The tank was heavily constructed of fiberglass with an aluminum lid. This system necessitated long hose runs and access to the tank for hose changing and inspection was difficult.

'Snakes on a plane (boat)"

There are three operation modes for any heads.

1. Direct discharge
2. Discharge of treated waste
3. Retention of untreated waste onboard

I have no problem with method 1. at sea.
I prefer method 2. where permitted by law (i.e. outside of no discharge zones).
Method 3 is the most problematic as it involves;
a. Finding a pump out station.
b. Sailing outside coastal waters (3 to 9 miles depending) to dump as per 1.

My Plan, therefore, is to have the two heads operate on different systems. The forward head should be a simple manual system with a small holding tank. The aft head may be electric (yes, I know this breaks all my rules) connected to a “Lectra San” treatment system.

The "heads".........

I have always been amazed that boaters will spend hundreds of dollars to move a "poo" three feet, in the misguided hope that they will never see it again. The one fact about boating is that it brings us into sharp contact nature, this includes beautiful sunsets and bodily waste. Unless you are prepared to pay someone a lot of money you are destined to get "up close and personal" with fecal matter at some stage.

Peggy Hall is the agreed expert on such matters and I would recommend her book without reservation;

"Getting rid of boat Odors etc."

Like Peggy, I am no fan of holding tanks having discovered that pump-out stations are rare in most locations. I was therefore interested in a the idea of a composting "head". The Airhead being one example.



The provisional plan is to install one in the for'd heads with a "Lectra Scan" dealing with the aft Heads.