Great video! It was incredible to see the progressive thinking/engineering that went into this toilet! With that being said, after personally using the Airhead toilet full-time , (with a family of 5), for nearly 6 years now, I can tell you that if anyone is having to “ trowel” the solids out, you are REALLY doing it wrong. The solids tank is simply removed and dumped into a bag and taken out. I just switched out our solids yesterday and the process was all done in under 10 minutes, and it was done INSIDE of our tiny house bathroom, without gloves etc. Keep in mind that a MAIN reason for compost toilets is to allow the solids moisture, (roughly 80% water), to be ABSORBED by the organic material so that there is ZERO smell, and contrary to your feedback you received, composting actually DOES take place if you can give it enough time, even after being dumped in the trash, and without smell. The goal is to cover the solids quickly and allow the moisture to be wicked away in the coconut core/peat moss etc. If this is done properly, I/we should be able to confidently uncover the solids tank at nearly any time in the process, and smell nothing but a earthy soil smell. Remember, you will simply be dumping what smells like rich potting soil having kept the balance of moisture in the solids tank. If you have smell with any commercial version of a compost toilet such as Airhead or Nature’s head, (which BTW you have the labels flipped in the intro), than you ARE DOING IT WRONG. With all that said this design is fantastic, and I would simply add organic material to the solids tank to absorb the water in the solids and allow evaporation to take place. Any time I have shown anyone our toilet they are blown away that there is ZERO smell… ZERO… even with 20 days of a family of 5. Again this design looks super clean, and I would love to simply see some sort of agitator added for those who don’t want to smell the goods when changing the solid’s tank. Keep up the great work on the videos👍
This is such a great addition to what I just watched...also previously watching YOUR video (the fam of 5 guy). I have an RV w a fam of 3-4 and the smell and hassle of the black water tank gives me anxiety bc I will be living in the RV again, after a 6-month break. Now I have the confidence in the investment I'm about to make. Thank you so much for putting so much great content out for us newbies and RV/outdoor nerds alike!
A friend of mine has a homemade version of this in his camper van--but without the vent hose. He keeps a 1/2 gallon jug of campfire wood ashes (cold ones) next to his. He states that a ~1/2 cup portion of wood ash (per use) completely eliminates the odor in the #2 section.
After reading others comments I wanted to add something. About the smell. There isn’t any because the poop side has a ventilation fan. The poop actually dries the same as dog poop etc. Once it dries it has almost no odor. And no you can’t smell it from outside the van. The poop is dried from the ventilation of the smell and moisture. And as it gets dryer there is no smell.
One of the benefits of a composting toilet is the composting medium helps to dry out your poop and cover up the odor. Some people don't even vent their composting toilets. A lot of reviews say that there isn't any odor when they empty their composting toilets. I wouldn't want to be parked downwind of your van after you've been pooping in the same bag for a couple weeks.
There is no need to scoop out a composting toilet with a trowel. Either dump the compost container into a trash bag and dispose in a dumpster if you are in a populated area or take the compost container outside and dump it in the woods if you are in a rural area. Having said that, I like the system you selected also. To each his own.
And, why couldn't you carry a small wet-vac to make the process easier? That way you wouldn't even have to take the composting toilet out of its "home" to empty it. You can store the wet vac in your van "garage," and RV storage bay, the bed of a truck or in a plastic bag on a roof rack....
I agree. We had a composting toilet we used when we remodeled our bathroom. It was simply a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet lid on top made for the bucket. We put a garbage bag in it and did number one and two in it and just used saw dust each time to cover it then when it got full, pulled the bag out, tied it up and threw it away.
My objection to the composting toilet is that you have to carry it outside and turn it upside down to empty it because that's too heavy for me. I love this waterless toilet idea! I love the fact that it divides the urine and feces for separate disposal. That urine collector could be dumped down any street culvert or even out in the woods at the side of a road. I used to use a system like this in my boat. You would sit on a seat perched above the water in our bathroom on board, but you would poop into a bag a grocery bag suspended across the seat opening. With just a little care the water would drop to the water below and the poop could be tied up to contain smell, put in the trash and thrown out at the end of the day. It was a very easy thing to do even with a crowd of people on board.
My husband and I aren't even there yet.We drove across country with a truck camper shell and a mattress in back! I didn't want to camp this way,but needed him to remember why we need a contrivance of some sort besides this.I am always daydreaming of what this conveyance will look like,and the bathroom is a big part of this.Thank you for an on the ground review of this product.It it will be something we will consider when we get a camper going!
Seven, I built almost the exact toilet. I ordered the Separatt urine diverter and made a wooden, oval box that was the same size as an elongated toilet seat. The top of the box opened under the standard elongated toilet seat. I added a 1 1/2 plastic flange adapter, in the back, and in it, installed a 12v computer CPU fan. Ran a 1 1/2 sump pump flex hose through the floor. I used a 5 gallon bucket and standard kitchen trash bags. I did use saw duct between uses, which worked well. The pee jug was a few Simply Orange Juice bottles. It ALL worked perfectly.
We had a "cassette toilet" on our boat for several years. The smell was not at all atrocious, but you could notice a distinctive chemical smell from the deodorizer that you have to add. We just poured it out in a conventional land based toilet, about once a week, after midnight. Our new boat has a blackwater holding tank and it stinks, and the hoses and seals require regular replacement, for odor control and there is always the fear of leaking or overfilling your holding tank. It also requires a marina with pump out and costs about $20 to empty. I agree completely that no one uses a composting toilet to compost their poop, if they are using it on a daily basis. It takes more than the week or two that it takes to fill it up to compost the poop, and carrying a couple of five gallon buckets of sawdust on the boat uses a lot of space, and sawdust, kitty litter, or coco fibre is not easy to find at your local marina! We are currently using a 6 gallon bucket with urine separator, a plastic bag trash can liner and sawdust for odor control and moisture absorption. If it works out, but smells we will add a fan and vent to the outside (holes in boats are never desirable). I love the idea of putting one of those moisture absorbing papers in the toilet! The cost of a commercial toilet, other than the "cassette toilet" is outrageous for a bunch of molded plastic!
@@Desperado3248 Yes, but it is a messy job. Inevitably you get some splashing and aerosolization. That is why I always do it after midnight, and clean the entire stall with bleach after I dump it! On the other hand, throwing away a plastic bag full of 2 weeks of poop in a dumpster will really discourage people from rooting around in marina dumpsters!
Luggable loo, around $40. Mouthwash bottle, around $5. Glad White small 25L (48 bags) Febreze Fresh clean scent garbage bags, around $10. $40+5+10 is $55 vs. this separett Tiny waterless toilet at $1049. It's insane how much people will pay for something that alot of vanlifers have been doing for awhile already with basic cheap items. Plus the luggable loo or any bucket with a lid can be moved around so it doesn't occupy valuable space.
I ordered a plastic urinal from Amazon, it comes with a lady piece you can put on the top. It was invaluable to me for middle of the night pee needs in my experimental rental camper van experiment for 22 days.
??? You never used it but already decided it was the best toilet? Seems more like a sponsorship than an honest evaluation. If you've never used it you can not possibly say whether it's good or not. It can look like it's well designed and still have issues. It does have some nice features though. Hopefully they work as well as they look.
I agree with you except that his opinion is coming from the mind of an engineer. He's already taken a vertual poo in it and he can see it from a perspective normal people can't. I'm also an engineer, but I'm probably close to twice his age. So I have the perspective of "every great idea fails somewhere" I'm sure hell revisit his opinion after he stis on it for a while... ;)
Ugh yes, sevenosavage loves complicated things, and the separette is WAY TOO COMPLICATED. I have a strong preference for the Laveo Dry Flush toilet, it simply is the best & easiest.
@@ChipEstrada And, as an engineer are either you or he unable to see the difference between design and execution? I suppose that is akin to "every great idea fails somewhere" but I feel it is a separate issue. How often is a great job of engineering undone by an accountant? I used to see that a lot at Dell, and I am not an engineer.
We travel extensively in our van as Clarity Off-grid. I can verify that having raw poop venting under the van will waft back into the windows and will ruin your outdoor experience. Also having the bin open whenever you sit down will ensure some urine will mix in if anyone leaks while pooping or if a woman doesn’t aim forward enough. In my experience it will be like carrying a pit toilet with you everywhere you go unless there is a way to cover it and especially keep the liquids separate.
Thank you for addressing the fact that composting toilets used in vans and buses do not actually compost. I grew up in an off grid homestead, and composting humanure is a lengthy process! Very cool, but it takes time and many steps.
@@TripUnlimited ...Your post, you said you “sold the nature’s head again”, that’s what I’m referring to. Are you an end user who 1.) bought a nature’s head then 2.) sold it and 3.) bought it back, then 4.) sold it again, due to the fact mentioned in the post you were replying to, that composting toilets do not actually compost. Or are you a retailer (and not an English major) who has been waffling on what inventory to carry?
Cool. Interesting how similar it is to a compost toilet. I think I would still add sawdust or coco fiber each time I used it, because it's better for the environment in the end, and also because it won't smell as bad when you empty the open bag.
I agree with ye T and Gorm. I wouldn't object to having it tall cereal type tupperware beside the loo with wood chips or kitty litter in for sprinkling over the solids. I like what I see of the Seoaret system tho. G Ire
The "trapdoor" closes once you get up, making adding other stuff problematic. I suppose you could sprinkle between your legs if you are young and agile.
There is a saying that "every new broom sweeps excellent". I would like to see in practice how this toilet work in a few months. Excellent video...waiting for the update. Hugs from Colombia.
I'd very much like to see a longer term review and that the exterior smell is like after a week or two of use. With the traditional compost I find it gets mixed through and broken up enough that the venting smell is minimal but I can't see this one drying out or absorbing the moisture and smell quick enough to not stink out your neighbours. I'd love to hear how it goes!
It's heavily dependent on ventilation. If your stationery for days, it's gonna smell. Not like a barn, but you know it's there. If you got loose stools, or do the nr. 2 more than once a day, you're gonna notice. Running your heat pipe from your Webasto through the shower/toilet room(obviously to be able to dry it out quickly and other comforts), will cook the toilet just enough to engage mold and composting gasses. So, I find driving around every other day definitely removes smells. But yes, your assumption is right. There is a lot of moisture that simply does not get a chance to dry out quickly enough. I put a good fan on mine, but the internals on the toilet are so important for this to work, the "seals" are never good enough and the air inlet are not good enough to get a great flow. You could save the money and go with the Simploo, that's mostly the same toilet. ✌️
@@krimke881 Sounds more like that the way to go is still a composting model. Because there's composting medium in there, and you turn a handle and mix the solids up with that, you're left with just that "dirt" smell over time. Ok, so the optimal solution might actually be a a Cinderella Travel, an incinerating toilet that just burns all the waste (liquid and solid) into a tablespoon of sterile ash, but that's very expensive to buy and it uses a fair bit of propane.
The issue is the smell when you have to close the bag. I think that the issue could be addressed with a re-engineer where the container would come out sideways and at the same time it would be pulling the bag close so the smell would be contained. Maybe separate could use this idea for their next model.
If a toilet like this could seal the bag automatically with a press of a button it would be ideal, would be just like the Laveo dry flush toilet but with a more efficient design.
Back in the day in Nam, we had S*** Burners. They would pull out the lower 1/3 of a 55 gallon oil drum and add diesel fuel and lite it up. This was a really smelly job as there would be maybe 6 drums burinig at one time with a guy standing there mixing the drum so as to burn up the s*** as best they could and replace the drum in the S*** House. Normally a 4-6 holer, except for the officiers who had a single holer. Hmmm. Wonder why that was.
I loved watching this video but the hassle of dealing with both compartments still makes me prefer the dry flush toilet. It's more expensive yes but it's easier to navigate. As for number 1 with the dry flush, that can be done directly in the bathroom and flushed away with water.
Ive been waiting for someone to do this forverrrr i was wondering if they would just build around a dry flush make it a little taller to add a urine diverter to the front idkkkkk i need to see someone make oneee
This is a fine toilet at over $1,000. OGO offers a urine separating compost toilet that is smaller for $200. OGO does have one comparable to this toilet. It is only me, so I trust that I can manage the OGO $200 in my van. My plan is to use it only when necessary.
Check out the C-Head toilet I use it. I simply make little sandwich bags of peat moss to cover #2 it’s in a dark garbage bag Number one has a diverter into a gallon jug. My C- Head has no smell at all. And after a couple of weeks I simply dump the sack.
I'm going to get a C-Head toilet. I'm surprised it is not the most popular composting toilet for van lifers, as it requires NO ventilation- No duct, no fan, no electricity, no cutting holes in the van(and no nasty smell!). It was designed by a sailor for boats. Another feature that sold me on it is that it uses standard gallon jugs(water/milk/etc) as the urine container...they can just be thrown away when they get dirty. The main composting bucket can be pulled out to empty without having to remove the entire toilet and perform a tricky two handed cleaning like with the Nature's Head toilet. It has a regular sized flip up toilet seat, too. The clincher? It is less expensive than the other composting brands- and 300 dollars less than the Separett Tiny. THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! And has fewer parts to clean/fail. Again, really surprised more people don't know about it. PS: A ventilation fan can be added to it if desired, but both the company and van lifers/tiny house owners who have done videos about it say it is not necessary.
@@albertocastillo8586 It was $650 when I priced it in May. Wow, if it is 750 now...this pandemic has caused crazy demand in materials and components. Damn. Still cheaper than Nature's Head and by a fair amount, but...damn. I still think it is a superior option, all things considered.
@@Mauronic100 they have a vent option as well. Word on the street is that it works well not vented in cold weather. But if it's hot, you need to vent it or it stinks.
Also not a fan of compostable waste bags. . found some in my trunk that had been stashed there for emergencies & they’d degraded into thousands of tiny flakes. It was like large glitter. (2 years stored in dark trunk). I checked on commode liners - they don’t compost quickly but they won’t split if you store them too long either, sold 20, 50, or 100/ box & can come with a gel pad for wets &/or can toss in some kitty litter. Being environmentally conscious is good, but trash that needs water rinsing & chemical clean up can be more wasteful than sturdy poo bags that don’t let smells out so need changing less often, especially in arid regions.
I agree. For those unfamiliar with it, peat moss is miraculous in its ability to neutralize poo odors. I have an unvented composting toilet in my little travel trailer, unemptied, sitting in the hot sun for months. There is absolutely no smell in the trailer. None. Zip. You have to open the collection container and get your nose pretty close to the business before you can detect anything, and it's a rather pleasant, earthy smell like garden soil. The key is keeping the urine out, making sure you don't have excess moisture, and using enough peat moss to cover/coat all the "deposits". You can use it in a simple bucket toilet that just gets bagged and emptied when full, and it works well that way too. This toilet doesn't look like it is designed to do this, so it might be a bit awkward to get the trap door open to allow you to easily sprinkle some in after each use, but it might be worth a try if someone has odor problems not handled by the ventilation fan.
I agree. The separette is the best. I’ve known it for years. However, I would prefer the urine to directly drain into the grey water tank. As urine is considered grey water. And I also would want my grey water tank set up so that I could dump my grey water while on the highway etc. I have seen RVs that are set up to do this. Once I found out about the separette toilets I’m now convinced every home should have them. With the urine set to automatically drain into a leach field. Plus the water we would be saving throughout the nation would be incredibly wonderful for all our lakes and rivers. Right now a good portion of our water is totally wasted by creating sewage. I’m now convinced that pee and poop should never have been mixed together in the first place. And never should we be wasting water to flush pee etc. We waste too much water using the commodes we have now. Separette is the way to go. It also would reduce the price of having a home.
Having used and lived daily with a "Natures Head" for almost 5 years; I cannot say enough about how easy, cheap and clean it is- all with absolutely zero smell or mess. Obviously anyone throwing shade without any long term experience using a product should be taken with a "grain of salt". Maybe more research on people with long term actual experience using this product would make more sense, before making any purchase.
Only thing I don't like about it is that it is a bit tall for us short people. We need some kind of step or platform to step up onto so our feed don't dangle.
I built a wooden box with a toilet seat lid and a cover lid with foam trips to make them air tight. Put a bucket in it with trash compacter bags and kitty litter. (For camping in my Ursa minor jeep).it works great and doubles as a step.
I’d still stick with my airhead composting toilet. I usually just dump it out with no need to hand trowel it out. The airhead is also super simple, durable, and heavy duty. That thing looks like it has many breakable parts and it still costs the same as the air head. I’d love to see one in person though to see how heavy duty or not it is. The air head has a clear window in the pee tank too. So it’s easy to see when it needs to be emptied. I’m not a huge fan of the nature’s head toilet either. Now if that thing had a bidet built in I would be all over it. That’s the only thing I miss when I’m staying in my van.
I’m building my own composting toilet and installing a bidet. It will drain into the bucket, but I’m going to use cococoir or animal bedding pellets in there, so no big deal.
@@hartmanartsource I've been thinking about doing something similar but only for peeing and having it drain into the pee container. Technically the best thing for the environment is to water the pee down by 1-1 any way. That would limit my TP usage to only poo.
@@angelacarter6593, I have used an old pioneer trick to eliminate my TP usage. I took old washcloths, cut some in half (heavy duty) and others in quarters, and use them (sometimes dampened) to wipe after using the toilet. They go into a bucket and sprayed with hypochlorous solution that I make from electrocuted salt water. It disinfects like bleach. When the bucket is full, I wash them, dry them, and put them back in my “family cloth” box. They are perfectly safe and clean. However, I do keep TP for guests.
@@memoryim a bidet with a very thin, accurate stream, followed by dampened “family cloth” won’t make that much difference with an exhaust fan and using it once a day. Especially using the thirstier media for coverage.
I'd love to see a video of your home made one. I'm currently using a handicap urinal and a bucket with a seat Walmart sells for the purpose. This is for emergencies only!
personally a 5 gallon bucket "porta loo" system using trash bags (and a few cups of moisture absorbing kitty litter ) and a urine bottle works fine. The few times of #2 get tossed in the next dumpster each time.
I had my mind made up on a home made composting toilet, because I thought the original full size Separett looked kind of huge, but this is my new fave!!! Thanks for the great info!!!
Small problem (other than the price, now a little over $1000) is some camping areas have caught on to this trend and request you don't throw the bag in the dumpster. If it fell out and splatted I can understand why.
Thank you!!!! I've always wanted to get a compost toilet but due to a physical disability, I can't lift the whole toilet out and tip it over to dump it. I was looking at the C-heads but they don't have a fan. Love this one.
Good video but a few things i can add as somebody who lived full time on a boat with a composting toilet. (Airhead) for nearly two decades. First up neither the Airhead or the style you have, and there are other similar units are composting toilets. Why very simple? As Separett told you their unit is not a composting unit as the solids dont remain in the unit long enough. Truth is either with or without additional organic material being added it would take about a year for your solid waste to decay to the point of being an inert compost and you'd need a pretty big container to be able to deal with a years worth of poo! All of these units are as most people use them desiccating toilets. How they work and what makes them great for yachts, cabins or vans is that they eliminate 95% of the odour by seperating the solids from the liquids. They then dry, remove moisture from or as you should say desiccate the remaining solids by way of moving air. So the function of the fan is not primarily to remove odour it is to assist in desccicating the remaining solids. Same way as moving air (wind) will help your clothes to dry. So well done you, well done Separett and hopefully now you can continue to use your desiccating for many happy years to come.
I'm thinking you'd have to double or triple bag the unit, I'd hate to have what looks like 2-3 pounds of drying out feces break open on the way out the door, adding cat litter would still have the same weight as a full only feces bucket but make you change the bucket about twice as fast wasting bags and making the "walk of shame" happen more frequently to a public trash can.
Why dont these people just throw it out the window or just carve a hole on the floor and poop while trailer is in motion?? Ive traveled to india where the trains toilet is literally just a rusted hole where you can see the train tracks below.
Awesome job! This confirms all of my research. 6 months ago I started to re-engineer the composting toilet because I felt like they could be a lot better. When I was finished I looked for a toilet that was already in production. Seperette was really close to what I had designed. The important criteria are... 1. Water toilets compound the problem. 2. Why use compost medium if a composting toilet isn't composting anything? 3. If the poo is going to end up in the trash then pooing directly in the bag makes the most sense. 4. Separating urine makes the poo problem smaller.... All of these items are addressed in the Seperette toilet. I'm just starting an ultralight boondocking truck camper build. I concluded that the Separatte Camp toilet made a ton of sense. My goal is to modify the poop chute on it for quick individual bag use and buy small cheap composting bags in bulk. After each dump the bag would be tied off and shoved down a pvc pipe with a bag liner in it. I think I'll be good for a whole month without emptying the pvc tube. But when I do, it will be as simple as removing the liner from the pvc tube and tossing it in the trash. With luck, by the time the bag composts then the poo will be benign and excellent compost. It's also important to note that this method isn't sensitive to particular types of toilet paper, wet wipes, and isn't as "hands on" as some other methods.
I feel like a gallon jug and a 5gallon bucket?(lugableloo )with wag bags is the same thing but i can use the 5 gallon bucket as my trash can an other uses too.
Good review. I built something similar that fits inside of a bench using a Wee Pee urine diverter, a Nature's Head urine bottle, a 5-gallon bucket, and a standard toilet seat. I probably spent less than $150 on it. The original plan was to use a small computer fan to pull air through the enclosure but we found that it's not really needed. We simply cover #2 with peat moss and make sure we empty the urine daily. We haven't had any issues with the #2 smell and if we did we would simply throw it out. We actually have had more issues with the urine bottle developing a stench so it gets cleaned a little more often and I like to put a few drops of Dr. Bonner's liquid soap in the bottom of the bottle after each cleaning.
Hello, I’m a permanent traveler and amazingly I designed and built my own ten years ago. Wow, I’m so clever,but seriously this design is just perfect. I swear by it. Buy it or build it, just go for it. Cheers Mike
When I was a child, we used an outhouse. We used wood ashes (very dirty to store) or lime to get rid of the smell. Your #2 bag is going to have odor. I suggest getting some lime and putting a small amount in your container after each use. It will help keep the smell down, very inexpensive, won't hurt the environment...or use wood ashes...either will work. Blessings!
Wood ash is high in lye content, a strong alkali, and lye/lime can be caustic, can burn flesh, so I have heard the combo of urine and ash can cause a reaction of burning fumes which would be painful on tender bottoms. There is always possibility that some urine can get into the solids area. Although it’s possible that what I have heard may be a myth, I would also recommend caution storing the use of using lye/lime to prevent children accessing it.
I loved your presentation. Yes, I can tell you are an engineer or a detail person like a dentist (me). We have backpacked extensively so having experienced that I think cat holes are the ultimate toilet. I've sort of aged out of RVing but we did travel a few years in a small fiberglass trailer, which had a flush toilet and the black tank. I soon realized the black tank/dumping was something I didn't want to deal with. But we loved the toilet. It worked great. Sometimes products are engineered, as you said, to improve but I think in that process simplicity is put out of the goal. We know engineers have to engineer to keep their job. After viewing hundreds of YT videos and my own experiences I think RV systems are too complicated, and because of this, breakdown is inevitable. I could expound but I won't. In the end we lined our toilet with a plastic liner, like yours, placed a little cat litter for absorption, did what we needed, removed the bag, placed outside in a 5$ blue bucket with a tight lid. This is the Lowes blue tank. We threw the bags in the dumpster as we left the campground, waving good bye as we passed those campers lined up at the dump area. Our bath was exhaust vented. Never an odor. There was never a cleanup. We each have our own preferences when we camp and we found this as close to an outside cat hole as you can get inside.
Agreed. Also in 5 months traveling in my prior van, I only had to cat hole once. It's amazing what a little self discipline to go before you have to go, i.e. on your brain's schedule at a facility, as opposed to your body's schedule when it needs to vacate. In process on my new 159" ProMaster conversion, and will build for a hidden seat that will support double thickness bags underneath it, some absorbent material, then an airtight storage box until a trash can appears in a day or two at most. But plan to use it +/- 4 times a month...
I was planning on doing a lazy composting bucket toilet for my trailer build. Since I don't have a garden to make use of the compost the solids were going to get thrown out anyway. I figured a layer of coco coir, a layer of poop, a layer of coco coir... This should cover any smell like my cats do with cat litter. No stir mechanism needed which allows for trash bags. I lose space with the coco coir but I save on the engineering of not having to seal it too well. It does require lifting the lid to pour the coco coir each time. The >$1000 price for the Separett is not a deal breaker for me, but I want to see if the bucket works out before I spend that kind of money.
We have a Separett Villa in our off grid cabin. It is PERFECT!! So much easier than a cassette like we used to use. With the cassette we HAD to clean every six days....and there are just two of us. With the Separett we pre dug a site to dump the solids. Once a month we take the bag to the site toss it in and cover! One cup of vinegar down the urine tube once a week. Great system!
There is no problem using a compostable bag with a composting toilet, they are readily available, so emptying is as simple as lifting out the bag and dumping it on the compost heap. I would never expect the latest deposits in a com[sting toilet to be composed when it's time to empty. I would never buy one. I might buy a diverter.
Just a suggestion. Every time you finish #2, put a cup of good quality cat litter on top of the movable cover, then seat again, the litter will spread evenly on the poo. I think it will dry it out and minimize the smell.
The only thing I'd be concerned with is the smell on the outside of the van that's emitting from the toilet. That would smell pretty bad, I would think. Could make sitting outside a stinky situation. lol
@@Temple-of-Procrastination Guess you're not familiar with how gas doesn't stay in one place, especially with the outside breezes and such. Read up on it some time. It's alright, not everyone can be a genius. You're doing fine. Don't let this get you down. :)
A legitimate question/ concern. Where I am, free camps are often packed at night (covid19 created a lot more nomaders) with other vans etc often within 3m to 5m. Bad smells is up there with late night loud noises as a social ostraciser.
When my family went trailer camping, we had a Monomatic recirculating toilet. It had a 12 volt pump that recirculated the water at the push of a button.. There was also a blue powder that, when added to the water, got rid of the smell and aided in breakdown of the waste. Back in the 1970s, there was only one common holding tank that combined gray and black water. BTW, it was modeled after the toilets used in commercial airliners.
I've essentially made a DIY version of your toilet in my van. It's a 5 gallon bucket with a urine diverter attachment, and I have a trash bag lining the bucket. I even put a computer fan in to draw the air out of the toilet, and the whole thing is encased in a mostly waterproof box that I built. I still use peat moss over the #2's because it is going to smell regardless of the fan drawing air, and the peat moss helps to trap the odors a bit better even if its not being mixed up with the poo. You'll find out after you use it if it still smells at all, but if so just throw a little bit of peat moss on top and it should help a lot.
@@scott.wallace8625 And better for the environment as peatland is valuable and being lost. Coconut coir is widely available too. Built my own DIY version also. Plans and a separator are available on the net.
You did a fabulous job of reviewing all the toilet options that exist (except for the comment about troweling out the composting toilets). This one has the plus of using bags to clean up, the negative of looking at a pile of poo when it's clean up time, the plus of a really decent looking urine container (is there a sealing valve that shuts out the odor?), and the negatives I always object to of running a fan constantly and draining your house battery for that. I hope the vent pipe was secured a little bit better than what you showed under the van...could something hit that on the road? Anyway, thanks for this video about this new product. We still prefer a portapotti for #1 and a composting bucket with metal liner for #2, with bags for clean-out. So basically we have two toilets.
I converted a van in the 1970’s. I purchased a cassette toilet called a PAC-a-poti from the Sears Catalog, yes I’m old. Camping toilet technology has come a long way since then. I still use it for tent camping. Of course I only use it for short camping trips, not full time. Toilet chemicals are important when using this type of toilet. We use one that has bacteria that breaks down the waste. After we come home from a trip I let the toilet sit for a couple of days so the chemicals can break down the sewage. This cuts down the smell and the waste just pours out. This toilet has served me well over the years. Cassette toilets are very portable and convenient. You just got to know how to use them.
We do the same thing with our Thetford Cassette toilet. We only use the tank for #1, and line the toilet with an 8 gallon trash bag with a little kitty litter in it. Use it for #2, then throw it out. Plastic bags are cheap.
Mechanic Vs. Engineer thoughts. I feel that it’s a great design upon initial impressions, mostly because it is new. But it seems as there are too many moving parts and moving parts are always prone to failure, especially when implemented in a heavy use (yuck) environment. Sometimes things can be over engineered and I’m sure you can relate to that.
No, think I’ll stick with my composting system. Reason: I like the idea that the odor is actually eliminated, not sealed. That sealing ring on the yours is fine, but it is merely containment, not elimination (pardon the pun). With a composting toilet . . . well, at least with mine (on my boat, a Jason 35 - S/V Jenna Simone), after “use” you give several cranks of the churning rod, and after a few minutes you can literally put your face level with the rim of the compartment and there is no odor! And all I have (going to design my own to fit my hull) is nothing more than a five gallon plastic bucket, quarter full of sphagnum peat moss at the bottom and a long-handled weenie roller (without the roller sleeve, of course. find them in a paint store or big home store) that I use by hand from the top (I did have another one with the churn rod going through the side like the actual manufactured ones but it broke). Seriously, it’s like magic. I don’t understand how it can have no odor! Just that earth-black dirt smell. And when dumping it, all it looks like is a bucket of black dirt. And again, nothing but garden soil to inhale. I think it’s God that did it. So yeah, I like knowing that it is transformed into earth-fragranced dirt instead of fresh full-bodied excrement (sorry).
We have a dry flush toilet and we mostly used at night and for emergency only. The bags are a bit pricey so we also used buckets or bags for non #2 activities in those events. This seemed to help overall.
I agree that the separating toilet is the best for van life. We actually made our own, but we send the urine to the grey water tank because in most places it’s ok to do that so long you diluite the urine, at least 1 to ten, which happens automatically in the grey tank as we use the sink or shower. We also have a button we can push while driving on the highway to slowly empty the grey water tank leaving only a small trace of water behind us, eliminating the need to dump at dumping stations and to empty the liquid bottle into a toilet. This method was great while traveling during Covid as we never had to use or even enter into any public toilets….
I love the Separette toilet and company! I had one of the emergency toilets years ago because of both budget and space concerns in my SUV life. I have recommended these to many off grid buddies who are so very happy with them...and it's nice to use when you visit a friends ofc grid cabin! Great video and I love your geeking out over how kewl it works. I'm so glad to see the upgrades they made for even better mobile living use! Keep it Simple Simply, Lesa
Nice video I like the way that one works, it's the first time I have seen that one. I plumbed my Natureshead to a 27 gallon grey tank with an electric ball dump valve. I use the space for the pee tank to hold a couple of rolls of toilet paper. 👍
Wait, so when you pull the solid tank, you get a full throated blast of poo and gut wrenching, revolting, visual and olfactoral nightmare... lemme know how THAT goes in a month.
That’s what I was thinking!! You open the bog of stench and just see a pyramid of your aging excrement for a painful minute that seems like an eternity staring into the sun, just to close the bag up as fast as you can. Nope
Same thought here about opening the poop part.🤢 Maybe putting a cup or a sprinkle of cedar shavings after doing #2 might help. I know it would fill up a little faster but that beats the visual alternative in my humble opinion.
@@jasonlawson8619 True. No cleaning of this type is easy or pleasant. We have the standard black tank system and I’ve had my share of thankfully minor mishaps. I like the idea of not having to use so much water and have been looking at alternative systems for awhile.
You convinced me ....what a piece of engineering , I wanted the sun mar micro since I had a small sun mar one for my boat , but now I need one for my trike trailer ....three wheel dive electric assist recumbent trike with photo voltaics pulling the trailer .....ya the fact that the lid and other covers need not removing is a plus , my previous nature head was a pain and sometimes the stiring mech , was stuck .and you had to find a place to rest the top of the toilet I like the bag and not needing to dump material in there is a bonus since now one can use the room to shower in and not worry about getting the filler wet or tripping on the dam container and scope .....thanks for the video ,
We have a nature's head composting toilet and love it. We have cleaned it a few time and just go out in the woods and dig a small whole and turn it upside down and cover the whole. We usually wait at least 4 days to a week without using it before cleaning and have never found solids, everything was composted down. We have never hand trowled out the composting part. The urine container is white so you can see if the urine is close to getting too full. I am not sure how anyone could let that over fill unless they wanted to get views on TH-cam. It's just a chore you do on the road, every couple days it gets emptied no big deal. Been on the road for 10 months but try to use a pit toilet or gas station toilet for the duty and only use our composter when nothing is available. It works really well because we stay in a campground and then it has time to compost down and we don't have to change it every month. Love it. I just don't think a months worth of number 2 in a bag would not smell without putting in some peet or something for the smell. Good luck
Great video explanation very interesting. The only part that would weird me out is pulling the solid container. Maybe they would add another feature where before you lift the seat, it would automatically wrap the solids bag into a tight closure so there is no "view" and all you would have to do is pull up and dispose of the bag.
This was great! I certainly have a deeper understanding of traveling toilets now. Seriously, though I tease, this was really interesting. I'm still gonna use a big bucket with a lid and cat litter the next time we lose water/electricity. It's what I have on hand. I love watching these videos, even though I doubt I would ever do van life. It's fun to see the clever, inventive solutions you guys come up with. And good as your shower is, my favorite is still the Seattle software guy who built/is still building a freaking big truck out. He has created a Murphy shower! And he was working on a Murphy sink to pair with it! You engineers! Put you in a workshop, give you something to figure out, then step back and watch you go! That's how my Dad was too.
I agree it looks nice. But, isn't it on the same lines of a 5 gal bucket and pee bottle? I am not sure what this cost, but I saw some that looked about as much as a Nature's Head. $1,000 is a bit much for this I think. Other than aesthetics, I am curious what is offers that a gallon bucket along with a pee bottle would not have? Maybe venting? I am looking to do a simple build in a van soon and I'm just weighing all my options. Budget is tight. If this offers something a lot more than a 5 gal bucket and pee bottle, I might consider it for that price. Am missing something?
Thank you for mentioning something that I worked out so many years ago when researching toilets and that is that if you truly wanted a composting toilet to work that you would need to actually remove a bucket load and store it for months and then dump it after it had completely broken down. Although I have always wondered about the legality of dumping bags of poop in standard garbage. I think that this toilet takes the simplest ideas of peeing in a bottle and pooping in a plastic bag (on the very rare occasion that you need to poop in your van, because you are never really that far away from a toilet and if you are that far away from a toilet you can usually use a shovel and poop outdoors) and fancies them up with a smell extractor and some ease of functionality. $3,500 (the price that I googled) for a fancy plastic bag and plastic bottle??? You would have to have more money than sense in more opinion. But I can see the appeal. You could hook a computer fan up to a bucket for like $30 and get the same effect.
Yes if you want to compost it, you would need to keep it for a long time, but it will continue to compost after you have dumped it somewhere appropriate...and if you look at the toilet featured, you will be faced with a really unpleasant sight and job every so often, and you will be dumping pure unadulterated shit in the garbage bins...not nice..
Legality? You realize "standard garbage" includes things like used needles, aging and no longer needed drugs and medication and enough fetid rotting food to make a bag of human waste look like clean stuff. Where do you think all the bags of dog poop end up for those responsible enough to pick it up? You don't actually imagine they take them home and empty it into their toilet and then wash out the bag do you?
@@warrensimpson3276 What about a closed bag of human waste is "pure unadulterated shit"? After you walk your dog, do you take their "pure unadulterated shit" in it, and flush it down the toilet and wash the plastic bag out? There are a million products that are harmful to the environment, and non-biodegradable that get tossed into our collective trash daily that make a bag of human waste sealed in a plastic bag nearly the mildest and most environmentally friendly thing you can throw in a trash can today.
There nothing illegal or unethical about dumping bags of poop in standard garbage. Where do all the baby and elderly diapers go, do you think? And bags of dog and cat poop.
Yes, love this, the other composting toilets are too big and bulky, this one is a little more compact even more so than my jar with tin container which I also put a compostable bag in it, I sometimes put coconut fiber or sawdust in as well to soak up the moisture, but I’d say kitty litter would do the same as I don’t have a fan for it but doesn’t smell and I store it in a box, but is regularly emptied. Love your detailed video 👍
During our trip to Italy last year, local police came to camping ground investigating who is throwing sh** bags into dumpsters. They have a kind of manual waste sorting facility and someone there got a plastic bag with a big surprise 😀. I think throwing out bags with poop is much worse thing to do (especially when there's a month of supply) than using a black tank toilet and emptying it once a week... There are many places where you can do this around Europe. And there is "green" chemistry which allows you to dump toilet in a hole if there is no other option, such as awiwa or green kem.
Cinderella Comfort toilet for me (240v). 1230 watts of solar tied into a Victron system with 21k+ watts / 48v battery bank. Seven O Savage, your videos are awesome. This one had multiple solutions. Good job!!!
You are doing such an awesome job on your van!!!! Thank you for continuing to make videos on every aspect of your build!! I appreciate all the time and effort it takes to put these videos out while building an epic van!!! I have learned so much from both of your builds and with every video I learn more! also you continue to show products I've never seen or heard of. I am definitely going to check out this toilet for my build! Thanks again!
Thanks for the review, looks like a great idea. I agree about the poop not composting in composting toilets and have been bothered by that for a long time because it takes at least a year for human manure to break down properly. This seems like the best option so far. Looking forward to an update once you use it a while.
The entire process can take about 20 days and is the sure way to kill all pathogens and eggs present in fecal matter. It is the best way to ensure human waste is composted properly and can be used on edible fruits and food crops as the matter undergoes high temperatures of about 65°C.
I really like the way you show how to integrate innovations. Thank you for that 🙏 Besides I think those toilets seem to be not only a better alternative to cassette toilets but also a more eco-friendly solution without chemicals and no water consumption whilst staying pretty low tech.
The number one can either go down a regular toilet somewhere or discreetly used to provide some needed nitrogen to some tree out in the middle of nowhere. There are books on how to make "humanure" fertilizer which is probably beyond the ability of the average van lifer.
Hello, my name is Flávio, I LOVED this design and efficiency. In fact the best I've seen so far! Congratulations on your EXCELLENT work, you gained + a new subscriber from Brazil.
Great video. We had one of their toilets in our van and the smell from the vent was terrible. I like the idea but personally don't think they work for van life. I think they'd be a fantastic unit in a permanent structure where you could vent it through the roof or the rear of the building, away from the living areas. We swapped to a Natures Head unit and we get almost no smell from the external vent (which due to the design of our van is on the living side).
@@Alexandra-lx4jq my vent wasn't venting inside. The toilet was inside. The vent went out to the external wall of the caravan but as we sit close to the vent, we could smell what was venting out. Caravans can only be 2.5m wide so it can be hard to escape the smell.
@@Alexandra-lx4jq I could smell it when outside the van sitting under the awning etc. I couldn't smell it while inside the van. If you could vent it to a side of a building that you don't go near etc it would be okay but if it's near an area that you use for living (ie. BBQ, outdoor seating area) then I wouldn't recommend this model.
Would be nice if they had a twist/close-off function like that other one you mentioned....but only at the end before you have to exchange the bag. Then you don't have to deal with the "ugly" sight of your No2's .... :-)
You have to get up close and personal with it too. It's bad enough if it was just your own poo but imagine if it was multiple people's poo all mixed together. It's horrifying.
This is the best van toilet I've seen. It's not only the bestlooking, it's modern and you pointed every single benefit that came to mind. Awesome review thank you.
Great video. Comprehensive, instructive, humourous. Totally agree this is the best option for #vanlife, cargo trailer living, and even tiny homes. I used to have a Nature's Head in my van previously, and agree the overflowing #1 is not fun at all (very much like the drama segment illustrated, lol). Too bad these Separette Tinies are so expensive. But well made and worth the investment. That said, you are mostly silent on the issue of where the #2 goes when it needs to be emptied. When on the road, most people don't have access to a humanure installation (even with a so-called composting toilet), so it likely ends up bagged in the trash. Which, come to think of it, is what we do with doggie poop, is it not? A whole other conversation to be had there about that one... lol
Hi Seven O! This video was posted a year ago and although you are super excited about the toilet then, would you be able to do a follow up video that explains all the pluses and the minuses that you’ve experienced with this toilet?
More options are always good, great video! I'm happy with my cassette, I also use a bidet hose. So the water I use to clean myself with also gets most of the 'material' down into the tank. I find it easy to keep the bowl clean at the same time for the same total water use as an ordinary flush cycle. I think a good chunk of the odor issue comes from people being frugal on the magic blue goo because it's expensive, but you can buy a bulk commercial grade toilet cleaner that does the same job much cheaper but there's nothing to do about the odor from dump sites haha. Just don't breathe for a minute and remember to open the vent valve so you don't get splashed :)
Thank you SO much for sharing this with us! I am loving this toilet! I love that the bags are compostable. You essentially have a composting toilet that is cleaner to handle. :)
Aesthetically and design wise it is the BEST toilet out there. Never in my years of living did I think I would write a sentence like this. But it really is!
That's a really cool toilet, but I would also add woodchips and start the composting process. Or add a compostable bag on the bottom of any compost toilet. Even though the composting process would not finish in a month, it would still be enough to get the process going, and to reduce the size of the waste. I used a compost toilet for a month in a summer camp, and you would be surprised how small the volume of organic waste becomes once it is composed.
Thanks for the scoop on the poop. That’s a really nice looking installation! It looks like the solution that I would use that wouldn’t gross out my wife too much. Please update after you’ve tested the crap out of it for us! 😉
@@seven_o_savage why don't cu just close the plastic bag real tight and put in your microwave or oven and cook it for half an hour with max temperature? Simple
If they could combine the toilet you have with an external cartridge, that would be ideal. I'll stick with a normal cartridge toilet for now, so despite the foul output, it's all in a sealed box I pull from the outside of the van and never look into.
cassett only results in a nondistript brown liquid use the septic safe chemical and dump in any unsecured out house or if your remotely cities have free dump stations during open during the week or down a friend's toilet being in that shower room it would smell that bad except when actually flushing but this toilet is cool to looks more like a weekenders solution than full time
the problem with separating soilds from liquids in a cartridge is being able to dump the solids the sloshing liquid helps break up and carry out solides as wells as pervents "pyramiding" the tendency of a waste pyramid forming at the cassette opening preventing new waste from entering the cassette. but you maybe able to add a specific amount of water to the solid tank to account for this.
I just have to say that I really enjoy your channel, a lot of great insightful things I definitely wish I had. You have an unstoppable positive attitude which is refreshing to see. The shower and toilet are just amazing. I am curious about your air conditioner. As for your toilet, it’s probably still a good idea to add some wood clippings or something to cover up the smell.
Toilet looks like a really good idea. Looking forward to a follow-up video once you've used it for a week or so. I'm a bit skeptical on it not having any smell.
10 out of 10! You did a great job explaining how things work. We have a motorhome and have driven across Canada and a lot of travel locally and enjoy it greatly. We just returned from a 3 week visit to Argentina and plan to travel the entire country next year in a VAN so the toilet video was informative. Thanks.
I like this guy. He gets to the point and doesn’t make it all about himself.
Agree
If there was a lever to close the bag up before lifting it out would be an improvement.
I was thinking the same.
Definitely!
@@MizzCupcake244 THIS toilet is like a thousand doll-hairs!!!!
small scoop of kitty litter when visiting and a more generous scoop before emptying!
When u emptying, what about the smell and the gross poop? That bag looks thin, I'd hate it to break while emptying. 🤦♀️
Great video! It was incredible to see the progressive thinking/engineering that went into this toilet! With that being said, after personally using the Airhead toilet full-time , (with a family of 5), for nearly 6 years now, I can tell you that if anyone is having to “ trowel” the solids out, you are REALLY doing it wrong. The solids tank is simply removed and dumped into a bag and taken out. I just switched out our solids yesterday and the process was all done in under 10 minutes, and it was done INSIDE of our tiny house bathroom, without gloves etc. Keep in mind that a MAIN reason for compost toilets is to allow the solids moisture, (roughly 80% water), to be ABSORBED by the organic material so that there is ZERO smell, and contrary to your feedback you received, composting actually DOES take place if you can give it enough time, even after being dumped in the trash, and without smell. The goal is to cover the solids quickly and allow the moisture to be wicked away in the coconut core/peat moss etc. If this is done properly, I/we should be able to confidently uncover the solids tank at nearly any time in the process, and smell nothing but a earthy soil smell. Remember, you will simply be dumping what smells like rich potting soil having kept the balance of moisture in the solids tank. If you have smell with any commercial version of a compost toilet such as Airhead or Nature’s head, (which BTW you have the labels flipped in the intro), than you ARE DOING IT WRONG. With all that said this design is fantastic, and I would simply add organic material to the solids tank to absorb the water in the solids and allow evaporation to take place. Any time I have shown anyone our toilet they are blown away that there is ZERO smell… ZERO… even with 20 days of a family of 5. Again this design looks super clean, and I would love to simply see some sort of agitator added for those who don’t want to smell the goods when changing the solid’s tank. Keep up the great work on the videos👍
This is such a great addition to what I just watched...also previously watching YOUR video (the fam of 5 guy). I have an RV w a fam of 3-4 and the smell and hassle of the black water tank gives me anxiety bc I will be living in the RV again, after a 6-month break. Now I have the confidence in the investment I'm about to make. Thank you so much for putting so much great content out for us newbies and RV/outdoor nerds alike!
Your van will smell like shit with all the stink fanned out
Ewww😂
Hahahaha sir this is why I cannot do van life I can so relate to this "unique digestive systems"
@Memer Dreamer I feel like a 7 year old for laughing at that. I can't get the image out of my head.
A friend of mine has a homemade version of this in his camper van--but without the vent hose. He keeps a 1/2 gallon jug of campfire wood ashes (cold ones) next to his. He states that a ~1/2 cup portion of wood ash (per use) completely eliminates the odor in the #2 section.
Can also use lime
I really appreciate that you specified they were cold ashes 😆
Maybe adding handful of cat litter after #2 wll be even better for moisture and odor control
@@user70331 I've heard lots of ppl rave about Horse Pellets from a farm store both for camper toilets and for replacing your kitty litter!!!
Any chance your friend will post a vid on how she/he made the toilet?
After reading others comments I wanted to add something. About the smell. There isn’t any because the poop side has a ventilation fan. The poop actually dries the same as dog poop etc. Once it dries it has almost no odor. And no you can’t smell it from outside the van. The poop is dried from the ventilation of the smell and moisture. And as it gets dryer there is no smell.
One of the benefits of a composting toilet is the composting medium helps to dry out your poop and cover up the odor. Some people don't even vent their composting toilets. A lot of reviews say that there isn't any odor when they empty their composting toilets. I wouldn't want to be parked downwind of your van after you've been pooping in the same bag for a couple weeks.
There is no need to scoop out a composting toilet with a trowel. Either dump the compost container into a trash bag and dispose in a dumpster if you are in a populated area or take the compost container outside and dump it in the woods if you are in a rural area. Having said that, I like the system you selected also. To each his own.
at least, take a damned shovel and cover your excrement !
And, why couldn't you carry a small wet-vac to make the process easier? That way you wouldn't even have to take the composting toilet out of its "home" to empty it. You can store the wet vac in your van "garage," and RV storage bay, the bed of a truck or in a plastic bag on a roof rack....
I agree. We had a composting toilet we used when we remodeled our bathroom. It was simply a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet lid on top made for the bucket. We put a garbage bag in it and did number one and two in it and just used saw dust each time to cover it then when it got full, pulled the bag out, tied it up and threw it away.
My objection to the composting toilet is that you have to carry it outside and turn it upside down to empty it because that's too heavy for me. I love this waterless toilet idea! I love the fact that it divides the urine and feces for separate disposal. That urine collector could be dumped down any street culvert or even out in the woods at the side of a road. I used to use a system like this in my boat. You would sit on a seat perched above the water in our bathroom on board, but you would poop into a bag a grocery bag suspended across the seat opening. With just a little care the water would drop to the water below and the poop could be tied up to contain smell, put in the trash and thrown out at the end of the day. It was a very easy thing to do even with a crowd of people on board.
@@SherryAnnOfTheWest imagine cleaning the vacuum
My husband and I aren't even there yet.We drove across country with a truck camper shell and a mattress in back! I didn't want to camp this way,but needed him to remember why we need a contrivance of some sort besides this.I am always daydreaming of what this conveyance will look like,and the bathroom is a big part of this.Thank you for an on the ground review of this product.It it will be something we will consider when we get a camper going!
Seven, I built almost the exact toilet. I ordered the Separatt urine diverter and made a wooden, oval box that was the same size as an elongated toilet seat. The top of the box opened under the standard elongated toilet seat. I added a 1 1/2 plastic flange adapter, in the back, and in it, installed a 12v computer CPU fan. Ran a 1 1/2 sump pump flex hose through the floor. I used a 5 gallon bucket and standard kitchen trash bags. I did use saw duct between uses, which worked well. The pee jug was a few Simply Orange Juice bottles. It ALL worked perfectly.
We had a "cassette toilet" on our boat for several years. The smell was not at all atrocious, but you could notice a distinctive chemical smell from the deodorizer that you have to add. We just poured it out in a conventional land based toilet, about once a week, after midnight. Our new boat has a blackwater holding tank and it stinks, and the hoses and seals require regular replacement, for odor control and there is always the fear of leaking or overfilling your holding tank. It also requires a marina with pump out and costs about $20 to empty. I agree completely that no one uses a composting toilet to compost their poop, if they are using it on a daily basis. It takes more than the week or two that it takes to fill it up to compost the poop, and carrying a couple of five gallon buckets of sawdust on the boat uses a lot of space, and sawdust, kitty litter, or coco fibre is not easy to find at your local marina! We are currently using a 6 gallon bucket with urine separator, a plastic bag trash can liner and sawdust for odor control and moisture absorption. If it works out, but smells we will add a fan and vent to the outside (holes in boats are never desirable). I love the idea of putting one of those moisture absorbing papers in the toilet! The cost of a commercial toilet, other than the "cassette toilet" is outrageous for a bunch of molded plastic!
The most common system uses a black water tank. The cassette toilet with a spare cassette is clean , and can be dumped in any toilet.
@@Desperado3248 Yes, but it is a messy job. Inevitably you get some splashing and aerosolization. That is why I always do it after midnight, and clean the entire stall with bleach after I dump it! On the other hand, throwing away a plastic bag full of 2 weeks of poop in a dumpster will really discourage people from rooting around in marina dumpsters!
Please update in the future after you have used for a few months to give your opinion on how you like it. Looks very promising!
Luggable loo, around $40. Mouthwash bottle, around $5. Glad White small 25L (48 bags) Febreze Fresh clean scent garbage bags, around $10. $40+5+10 is $55 vs. this separett Tiny waterless toilet at $1049. It's insane how much people will pay for something that alot of vanlifers have been doing for awhile already with basic cheap items. Plus the luggable loo or any bucket with a lid can be moved around so it doesn't occupy valuable space.
That mouthwash bottle would be difficult for the ladies though ;)
Is the best looking at the market at the moment. We have the same but not tested yet…
I ordered a plastic urinal from Amazon, it comes with a lady piece you can put on the top. It was invaluable to me for middle of the night pee needs in my experimental rental camper van experiment for 22 days.
@@liorajacob8094 use a shewee!!!
??? You never used it but already decided it was the best toilet? Seems more like a sponsorship than an honest evaluation. If you've never used it you can not possibly say whether it's good or not. It can look like it's well designed and still have issues. It does have some nice features though. Hopefully they work as well as they look.
I agree with you except that his opinion is coming from the mind of an engineer. He's already taken a vertual poo in it and he can see it from a perspective normal people can't. I'm also an engineer, but I'm probably close to twice his age. So I have the perspective of "every great idea fails somewhere" I'm sure hell revisit his opinion after he stis on it for a while... ;)
Good point.
Ugh yes, sevenosavage loves complicated things, and the separette is WAY TOO COMPLICATED. I have a strong preference for the Laveo Dry Flush toilet, it simply is the best & easiest.
@@ChipEstrada And, as an engineer are either you or he unable to see the difference between design and execution? I suppose that is akin to "every great idea fails somewhere" but I feel it is a separate issue. How often is a great job of engineering undone by an accountant? I used to see that a lot at Dell, and I am not an engineer.
We travel extensively in our van as Clarity Off-grid. I can verify that having raw poop venting under the van will waft back into the windows and will ruin your outdoor experience. Also having the bin open whenever you sit down will ensure some urine will mix in if anyone leaks while pooping or if a woman doesn’t aim forward enough. In my experience it will be like carrying a pit toilet with you everywhere you go unless there is a way to cover it and especially keep the liquids separate.
Thank you for addressing the fact that composting toilets used in vans and buses do not actually compost. I grew up in an off grid homestead, and composting humanure is a lengthy process! Very cool, but it takes time and many steps.
That is why we sold the nature’s head again…
@@TripUnlimited huh?
@@TripUnlimited did you buy it back at some point?
@@jimdandy4329 sorry do not understand your question 🤔
@@TripUnlimited ...Your post, you said you “sold the nature’s head again”, that’s what I’m referring to. Are you an end user who 1.) bought a nature’s head then 2.) sold it and 3.) bought it back, then 4.) sold it again, due to the fact mentioned in the post you were replying to, that composting toilets do not actually compost. Or are you a retailer (and not an English major) who has been waffling on what inventory to carry?
Cool. Interesting how similar it is to a compost toilet. I think I would still add sawdust or coco fiber each time I used it, because it's better for the environment in the end, and also because it won't smell as bad when you empty the open bag.
I also just really don't want to look at it
I agree with ye T and Gorm. I wouldn't object to having it tall cereal type tupperware beside the loo with wood chips or kitty litter in for sprinkling over the solids. I like what I see of the Seoaret system tho. G Ire
The capacity is limited.
The "trapdoor" closes once you get up, making adding other stuff problematic. I suppose you could sprinkle between your legs if you are young and agile.
@@Area_Man HAAHHAHAHA
There is a saying that "every new broom sweeps excellent". I would like to see in practice how this toilet work in a few months. Excellent video...waiting for the update. Hugs from Colombia.
I'd very much like to see a longer term review and that the exterior smell is like after a week or two of use. With the traditional compost I find it gets mixed through and broken up enough that the venting smell is minimal but I can't see this one drying out or absorbing the moisture and smell quick enough to not stink out your neighbours.
I'd love to hear how it goes!
Maybe put a smoke stack on the exit pipe. Camouflage it as a flag pole. Extend it higher for days without a breeze. 🤣.
It's heavily dependent on ventilation. If your stationery for days, it's gonna smell. Not like a barn, but you know it's there. If you got loose stools, or do the nr. 2 more than once a day, you're gonna notice. Running your heat pipe from your Webasto through the shower/toilet room(obviously to be able to dry it out quickly and other comforts), will cook the toilet just enough to engage mold and composting gasses.
So, I find driving around every other day definitely removes smells. But yes, your assumption is right. There is a lot of moisture that simply does not get a chance to dry out quickly enough. I put a good fan on mine, but the internals on the toilet are so important for this to work, the "seals" are never good enough and the air inlet are not good enough to get a great flow. You could save the money and go with the Simploo, that's mostly the same toilet. ✌️
@@krimke881 thank you for the feedback mate. Sounds inline with my thoughts. I'll stick with my nature's head
@@krimke881 Sounds more like that the way to go is still a composting model. Because there's composting medium in there, and you turn a handle and mix the solids up with that, you're left with just that "dirt" smell over time. Ok, so the optimal solution might actually be a a Cinderella Travel, an incinerating toilet that just burns all the waste (liquid and solid) into a tablespoon of sterile ash, but that's very expensive to buy and it uses a fair bit of propane.
I agree and as the long term aim is still to compost afterwards, I would still add saw dust, might be slightly awkward with the auto cover though.
The issue is the smell when you have to close the bag. I think that the issue could be addressed with a re-engineer where the container would come out sideways and at the same time it would be pulling the bag close so the smell would be contained. Maybe separate could use this idea for their next model.
You can dump some baking soda before you wanna poo. that reduce the smell by %50.
If a toilet like this could seal the bag automatically with a press of a button it would be ideal, would be just like the Laveo dry flush toilet but with a more efficient design.
Back in the day in Nam, we had S*** Burners. They would pull out the lower 1/3 of a 55 gallon oil drum and add diesel fuel and lite it up. This was a really smelly job as there would be maybe 6 drums burinig at one time with a guy standing there mixing the drum so as to burn up the s*** as best they could and replace the drum in the S*** House. Normally a 4-6 holer, except for the officiers who had a single holer. Hmmm. Wonder why that was.
I loved watching this video but the hassle of dealing with both compartments still makes me prefer the dry flush toilet. It's more expensive yes but it's easier to navigate. As for number 1 with the dry flush, that can be done directly in the bathroom and flushed away with water.
If you’re an engineer, design a dry flush with a urine diverter. Perfect combination! Love your van!!
That sounds like fun 🙂
@@seven_o_savage Better yet, design a less power hungry, incinerating toilet… But also, very excited about this newly designed toilet. 🔥💩🤙🏼
agreed, i made my own version of this, less fancy, for $250
'Engineer' versus ingenuity?
Thanks!👍
Ive been waiting for someone to do this forverrrr i was wondering if they would just build around a dry flush make it a little taller to add a urine diverter to the front idkkkkk i need to see someone make oneee
This is a fine toilet at over $1,000. OGO offers a urine separating compost toilet that is smaller for $200. OGO does have one comparable to this toilet. It is only me, so I trust that I can manage the OGO $200 in my van. My plan is to use it only when necessary.
Check out the C-Head toilet I use it. I simply make little sandwich bags of peat moss to cover #2 it’s in a dark garbage bag
Number one has a diverter into a gallon jug.
My C- Head has no smell at all. And after a couple of weeks I simply dump the sack.
I'm going to get a C-Head toilet. I'm surprised it is not the most popular composting toilet for van lifers, as it requires NO ventilation- No duct, no fan, no electricity, no cutting holes in the van(and no nasty smell!). It was designed by a sailor for boats. Another feature that sold me on it is that it uses standard gallon jugs(water/milk/etc) as the urine container...they can just be thrown away when they get dirty. The main composting bucket can be pulled out to empty without having to remove the entire toilet and perform a tricky two handed cleaning like with the Nature's Head toilet. It has a regular sized flip up toilet seat, too. The clincher? It is less expensive than the other composting brands- and 300 dollars less than the Separett Tiny. THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!! And has fewer parts to clean/fail.
Again, really surprised more people don't know about it.
PS: A ventilation fan can be added to it if desired, but both the company and van lifers/tiny house owners who have done videos about it say it is not necessary.
I checked out their website and videos, this looks like a really cool option. I wonder if you can really get away without a vent
isn't it 750$?
@@albertocastillo8586 It was $650 when I priced it in May. Wow, if it is 750 now...this pandemic has caused crazy demand in materials and components. Damn. Still cheaper than Nature's Head and by a fair amount, but...damn. I still think it is a superior option, all things considered.
@@Mauronic100 they have a vent option as well. Word on the street is that it works well not vented in cold weather. But if it's hot, you need to vent it or it stinks.
@@peterdods425 thanks. Yeah not worth taking the risk for such an easy add-on 🌬💩
I agree that they’re great. Don’t trust the compostable bag though. Mine split 🤢 I now use thick garbage bags.
Must have been a shit experience
So are they really smell free?
Yikes! very good to know thanks
Also not a fan of compostable waste bags. . found some in my trunk that had been stashed there for emergencies & they’d degraded into thousands of tiny flakes. It was like large glitter. (2 years stored in dark trunk).
I checked on commode liners - they don’t compost quickly but they won’t split if you store them too long either, sold 20, 50, or 100/ box & can come with a gel pad for wets &/or can toss in some kitty litter.
Being environmentally conscious is good, but trash that needs water rinsing & chemical clean up can be more wasteful than sturdy poo bags that don’t let smells out so need changing less often, especially in arid regions.
@@TheMagnificentGman 🤣🤣🤣
I would still throw compost like peat in there after each schiznitz but that's just me, to help keep the odor at a minimum.
I agree. For those unfamiliar with it, peat moss is miraculous in its ability to neutralize poo odors. I have an unvented composting toilet in my little travel trailer, unemptied, sitting in the hot sun for months. There is absolutely no smell in the trailer. None. Zip. You have to open the collection container and get your nose pretty close to the business before you can detect anything, and it's a rather pleasant, earthy smell like garden soil. The key is keeping the urine out, making sure you don't have excess moisture, and using enough peat moss to cover/coat all the "deposits". You can use it in a simple bucket toilet that just gets bagged and emptied when full, and it works well that way too. This toilet doesn't look like it is designed to do this, so it might be a bit awkward to get the trap door open to allow you to easily sprinkle some in after each use, but it might be worth a try if someone has odor problems not handled by the ventilation fan.
Buying peat compost is really bad for the environment tho
I agree, I'd do that!
@@qitiji4360 Ise cat litter!
Laundry detergent bottles work great. That’s what we use for urine and we drive 250k miles a year.
I agree. The separette is the best. I’ve known it for years. However, I would prefer the urine to directly drain into the grey water tank. As urine is considered grey water. And I also would want my grey water tank set up so that I could dump my grey water while on the highway etc. I have seen RVs that are set up to do this. Once I found out about the separette toilets I’m now convinced every home should have them. With the urine set to automatically drain into a leach field. Plus the water we would be saving throughout the nation would be incredibly wonderful for all our lakes and rivers. Right now a good portion of our water is totally wasted by creating sewage. I’m now convinced that pee and poop should never have been mixed together in the first place. And never should we be wasting water to flush pee etc. We waste too much water using the commodes we have now. Separette is the way to go. It also would reduce the price of having a home.
Having used and lived daily with a "Natures Head" for almost 5 years; I cannot say enough about how easy, cheap and clean it is- all with absolutely zero smell or mess. Obviously anyone throwing shade without any long term experience using a product should be taken with a "grain of salt". Maybe more research on people with long term actual experience using this product would make more sense, before making any purchase.
Wwe love ours. We use it in our house in a spare room as a 2nd toilet when necessary. Cheapest 2nd bathroom installation ever.
Only thing I don't like about it is that it is a bit tall for us short people. We need some kind of step or platform to step up onto so our feed don't dangle.
@@amywalker7515 ,
a step up to the throne !
The initial cost is outrageous for what it is.
I built a wooden box with a toilet seat lid and a cover lid with foam trips to make them air tight. Put a bucket in it with trash compacter bags and kitty litter. (For camping in my Ursa minor jeep).it works great and doubles as a step.
I’d still stick with my airhead composting toilet. I usually just dump it out with no need to hand trowel it out. The airhead is also super simple, durable, and heavy duty. That thing looks like it has many breakable parts and it still costs the same as the air head. I’d love to see one in person though to see how heavy duty or not it is. The air head has a clear window in the pee tank too. So it’s easy to see when it needs to be emptied. I’m not a huge fan of the nature’s head toilet either. Now if that thing had a bidet built in I would be all over it. That’s the only thing I miss when I’m staying in my van.
I’m building my own composting toilet and installing a bidet. It will drain into the bucket, but I’m going to use cococoir or animal bedding pellets in there, so no big deal.
@@hartmanartsource I've been thinking about doing something similar but only for peeing and having it drain into the pee container. Technically the best thing for the environment is to water the pee down by 1-1 any way. That would limit my TP usage to only poo.
@@hartmanartsource that might work but I’m guessing you’ll need to empty your tank a lot more often to avoid moisture build up and bad odors.
@@angelacarter6593, I have used an old pioneer trick to eliminate my TP usage. I took old washcloths, cut some in half (heavy duty) and others in quarters, and use them (sometimes dampened) to wipe after using the toilet. They go into a bucket and sprayed with hypochlorous solution that I make from electrocuted salt water. It disinfects like bleach. When the bucket is full, I wash them, dry them, and put them back in my “family cloth” box. They are perfectly safe and clean. However, I do keep TP for guests.
@@memoryim a bidet with a very thin, accurate stream, followed by dampened “family cloth” won’t make that much difference with an exhaust fan and using it once a day. Especially using the thirstier media for coverage.
Thanks for the heads up on the new toilet... now I'm going to make one for myself for $50 ish... instead of $1k..
Travel Snacks youtube channel has a good homemade toilet. Urine diverted or is canning funnel
lol 😂
I'd love to see a video of your home made one. I'm currently using a handicap urinal and a bucket with a seat Walmart sells for the purpose. This is for emergencies only!
personally a 5 gallon bucket "porta loo" system using trash bags (and a few cups of moisture absorbing kitty litter ) and a urine bottle works fine. The few times of #2 get tossed in the next dumpster each time.
Thanks! I have been watching videos and not been pleased with the options available. I agree that you have found the best solution to date.
I had my mind made up on a home made composting toilet, because I thought the original full size Separett looked kind of huge, but this is my new fave!!! Thanks for the great info!!!
Small problem (other than the price, now a little over $1000) is some camping areas have caught on to this trend and request you don't throw the bag in the dumpster. If it fell out and splatted I can understand why.
Yes, that can be a problem. Question, where does one put baby diapers, feminine hygiene products, incontinence diapers, if camping.?
Doggy-do bags go in dumpsters...
Informative and funny.
That “Damn girl and pat..” comment had me laughing out loud..at 4am 🤫 shhh. but ya it was funny. Good clip.😉👍
Haha love it! Awesome to hear as I alllllmost left that clip out 😂
Thank you!!!! I've always wanted to get a compost toilet but due to a physical disability, I can't lift the whole toilet out and tip it over to dump it. I was looking at the C-heads but they don't have a fan. Love this one.
Good video but a few things i can add as somebody who lived full time on a boat with a composting toilet. (Airhead) for nearly two decades.
First up neither the Airhead or the style you have, and there are other similar units are composting toilets.
Why very simple? As Separett told you their unit is not a composting unit as the solids dont remain in the unit long enough. Truth is either with or without additional organic material being added it would take about a year for your solid waste to decay to the point of being an inert compost and you'd need a pretty big container to be able to deal with a years worth of poo!
All of these units are as most people use them desiccating toilets.
How they work and what makes them great for yachts, cabins or vans is that they eliminate 95% of the odour by seperating the solids from the liquids. They then dry, remove moisture from or as you should say desiccate the remaining solids by way of moving air.
So the function of the fan is not primarily to remove odour it is to assist in desccicating the remaining solids. Same way as moving air (wind) will help your clothes to dry.
So well done you, well done Separett and hopefully now you can continue to use your desiccating for many happy years to come.
Love the concept of this toilet... my suggestion is layer after each session with catlitter. May mean emptying more often.
Where do you throw the contents though?
I'm thinking you'd have to double or triple bag the unit, I'd hate to have what looks like 2-3 pounds of drying out feces break open on the way out the door, adding cat litter would still have the same weight as a full only feces bucket but make you change the bucket about twice as fast wasting bags and making the "walk of shame" happen more frequently to a public trash can.
@@amethystorgan4293 just like would would a diaper in any trash can while someone isn't looking.
@@markbajek2541 lmfao
Why dont these people just throw it out the window or just carve a hole on the floor and poop while trailer is in motion?? Ive traveled to india where the trains toilet is literally just a rusted hole where you can see the train tracks below.
Awesome job! This confirms all of my research. 6 months ago I started to re-engineer the composting toilet because I felt like they could be a lot better. When I was finished I looked for a toilet that was already in production. Seperette was really close to what I had designed. The important criteria are... 1. Water toilets compound the problem. 2. Why use compost medium if a composting toilet isn't composting anything? 3. If the poo is going to end up in the trash then pooing directly in the bag makes the most sense. 4. Separating urine makes the poo problem smaller.... All of these items are addressed in the Seperette toilet.
I'm just starting an ultralight boondocking truck camper build. I concluded that the Separatte Camp toilet made a ton of sense. My goal is to modify the poop chute on it for quick individual bag use and buy small cheap composting bags in bulk. After each dump the bag would be tied off and shoved down a pvc pipe with a bag liner in it. I think I'll be good for a whole month without emptying the pvc tube. But when I do, it will be as simple as removing the liner from the pvc tube and tossing it in the trash. With luck, by the time the bag composts then the poo will be benign and excellent compost.
It's also important to note that this method isn't sensitive to particular types of toilet paper, wet wipes, and isn't as "hands on" as some other methods.
When ready, please show your solution.
I feel like a gallon jug and a 5gallon bucket?(lugableloo )with wag bags is the same thing but i can use the 5 gallon bucket as my trash can an other uses too.
Nice and simple. You'd be able to use that shower without having to put a toilet in there.
And you could use the other $1000 that you saved for some luxury item or upgrade in your van.
@@pouglwaw5932 Pretty certain the toilet in there means the shower is ALL yours!
@@allyncollins359 Buy a lot of cat litter!
Good review. I built something similar that fits inside of a bench using a Wee Pee urine diverter, a Nature's Head urine bottle, a 5-gallon bucket, and a standard toilet seat. I probably spent less than $150 on it. The original plan was to use a small computer fan to pull air through the enclosure but we found that it's not really needed.
We simply cover #2 with peat moss and make sure we empty the urine daily. We haven't had any issues with the #2 smell and if we did we would simply throw it out. We actually have had more issues with the urine bottle developing a stench so it gets cleaned a little more often and I like to put a few drops of Dr. Bonner's liquid soap in the bottom of the bottle after each cleaning.
Hello, I’m a permanent traveler and amazingly I designed and built my own ten years ago. Wow, I’m so clever,but seriously this design is just perfect. I swear by it. Buy it or build it, just go for it. Cheers Mike
When I was a child, we used an outhouse. We used wood ashes (very dirty to store) or lime to get rid of the smell. Your #2 bag is going to have odor. I suggest getting some lime and putting a small amount in your container after each use. It will help keep the smell down, very inexpensive, won't hurt the environment...or use wood ashes...either will work. Blessings!
Wood ash is high in lye content, a strong alkali, and lye/lime can be caustic, can burn flesh, so I have heard the combo of urine and ash can cause a reaction of burning fumes which would be painful on tender bottoms. There is always possibility that some urine can get into the solids area. Although it’s possible that what I have heard may be a myth, I would also recommend caution storing the use of using lye/lime to prevent children accessing it.
@@joansmith2974 the urine doesn’t go in the solids container
Yes. Lime = no smell
I loved your presentation. Yes, I can tell you are an engineer or a detail person like a dentist (me). We have backpacked extensively so having experienced that I think cat holes are the ultimate toilet. I've sort of aged out of RVing but we did travel a few years in a small fiberglass trailer, which had a flush toilet and the black tank. I soon realized the black tank/dumping was something I didn't want to deal with. But we loved the toilet. It worked great. Sometimes products are engineered, as you said, to improve but I think in that process simplicity is put out of the goal. We know engineers have to engineer to keep their job. After viewing hundreds of YT videos and my own experiences I think RV systems are too complicated, and because of this, breakdown is inevitable. I could expound but I won't. In the end we lined our toilet with a plastic liner, like yours, placed a little cat litter for absorption, did what we needed, removed the bag, placed outside in a 5$ blue bucket with a tight lid. This is the Lowes blue tank. We threw the bags in the dumpster as we left the campground, waving good bye as we passed those campers lined up at the dump area. Our bath was exhaust vented. Never an odor. There was never a cleanup. We each have our own preferences when we camp and we found this as close to an outside cat hole as you can get inside.
Agreed. Also in 5 months traveling in my prior van, I only had to cat hole once. It's amazing what a little self discipline to go before you have to go, i.e. on your brain's schedule at a facility, as opposed to your body's schedule when it needs to vacate. In process on my new 159" ProMaster conversion, and will build for a hidden seat that will support double thickness bags underneath it, some absorbent material, then an airtight storage box until a trash can appears in a day or two at most. But plan to use it +/- 4 times a month...
I was planning on doing a lazy composting bucket toilet for my trailer build. Since I don't have a garden to make use of the compost the solids were going to get thrown out anyway. I figured a layer of coco coir, a layer of poop, a layer of coco coir... This should cover any smell like my cats do with cat litter. No stir mechanism needed which allows for trash bags. I lose space with the coco coir but I save on the engineering of not having to seal it too well. It does require lifting the lid to pour the coco coir each time. The >$1000 price for the Separett is not a deal breaker for me, but I want to see if the bucket works out before I spend that kind of money.
I'm in the same boat as you. Joseph Jenkins' Humanure Handbook has been super helpful for me
if you find it does smell Try adding a very small fan to remove the odour, or think about how you could add one later if needed :)
We have a Separett Villa in our off grid cabin. It is PERFECT!! So much easier than a cassette like we used to use. With the cassette we HAD to clean every six days....and there are just two of us. With the Separett we pre dug a site to dump the solids. Once a month we take the bag to the site toss it in and cover! One cup of vinegar down the urine tube once a week. Great system!
There is no problem using a compostable bag with a composting toilet, they are readily available, so emptying is as simple as lifting out the bag and dumping it on the compost heap. I would never expect the latest deposits in a com[sting toilet to be composed when it's time to empty.
I would never buy one. I might buy a diverter.
Just a suggestion. Every time you finish #2, put a cup of good quality cat litter on top of the movable cover, then seat again, the litter will spread evenly on the poo. I think it will dry it out and minimize the smell.
pine pellets work great, smell great and are cheap!
The only thing I'd be concerned with is the smell on the outside of the van that's emitting from the toilet. That would smell pretty bad, I would think. Could make sitting outside a stinky situation. lol
Really
So you're going to put your nose right next to that pipe and take a deep sniff.
I don't hover around turds
R u mcfly
@@Temple-of-Procrastination Guess you're not familiar with how gas doesn't stay in one place, especially with the outside breezes and such. Read up on it some time. It's alright, not everyone can be a genius. You're doing fine. Don't let this get you down. :)
A legitimate question/ concern. Where I am, free camps are often packed at night (covid19 created a lot more nomaders) with other vans etc often within 3m to 5m.
Bad smells is up there with late night loud noises as a social ostraciser.
@@nitrostudy9049 Exactly Nitro! The smallest of breeze can take those smells to others camp sites while they are out enjoying a campfire.
That's why it separates 1 from 2. Most the odor comes from being mixed.
Keep it up! This was one of the best videos packed with all the information to make an informed decision. You did a really great job!
When my family went trailer camping, we had a Monomatic recirculating toilet. It had a 12 volt pump that recirculated the water at the push of a button.. There was also a blue powder that, when added to the water, got rid of the smell and aided in breakdown of the waste. Back in the 1970s, there was only one common holding tank that combined gray and black water. BTW, it was modeled after the toilets used in commercial airliners.
Hey ! Thanks for the overview and intro !
You added lots of info I’ve not heard yet !!
I've essentially made a DIY version of your toilet in my van. It's a 5 gallon bucket with a urine diverter attachment, and I have a trash bag lining the bucket. I even put a computer fan in to draw the air out of the toilet, and the whole thing is encased in a mostly waterproof box that I built. I still use peat moss over the #2's because it is going to smell regardless of the fan drawing air, and the peat moss helps to trap the odors a bit better even if its not being mixed up with the poo. You'll find out after you use it if it still smells at all, but if so just throw a little bit of peat moss on top and it should help a lot.
Super cool Dalton, I respect the DIY! Probably saved quite a bit of $ too
I use coconut coir. flies hate the stuff. Found in pet stores as reptile bedding or at a nursery's the stuff is insanely absorbent
@@scott.wallace8625 And better for the environment as peatland is valuable and being lost. Coconut coir is widely available too. Built my own DIY version also. Plans and a separator are available on the net.
You did a fabulous job of reviewing all the toilet options that exist (except for the comment about troweling out the composting toilets). This one has the plus of using bags to clean up, the negative of looking at a pile of poo when it's clean up time, the plus of a really decent looking urine container (is there a sealing valve that shuts out the odor?), and the negatives I always object to of running a fan constantly and draining your house battery for that. I hope the vent pipe was secured a little bit better than what you showed under the van...could something hit that on the road? Anyway, thanks for this video about this new product. We still prefer a portapotti for #1 and a composting bucket with metal liner for #2, with bags for clean-out. So basically we have two toilets.
No he didn't actually. This toilet sucks
I’d like to hear your opinion after you have used it after using it
I converted a van in the 1970’s. I purchased a cassette toilet called a PAC-a-poti from the Sears Catalog, yes I’m old. Camping toilet technology has come a long way since then. I still use it for tent camping. Of course I only use it for short camping trips, not full time. Toilet chemicals are important when using this type of toilet. We use one that has bacteria that breaks down the waste. After we come home from a trip I let the toilet sit for a couple of days so the chemicals can break down the sewage. This cuts down the smell and the waste just pours out. This toilet has served me well over the years. Cassette toilets are very portable and convenient. You just got to know how to use them.
Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
We do the same thing with our Thetford Cassette toilet. We only use the tank for #1, and line the toilet with an 8 gallon trash bag with a little kitty litter in it. Use it for #2, then throw it out. Plastic bags are cheap.
Good idea -- but better if you use plant based kitty litter and compostable bag.
Mechanic Vs. Engineer thoughts. I feel that it’s a great design upon initial impressions, mostly because it is new. But it seems as there are too many moving parts and moving parts are always prone to failure, especially when implemented in a heavy use (yuck) environment. Sometimes things can be over engineered and I’m sure you can relate to that.
@Timothy Miller and you tubers hush up those “failures”
We have the larger version in our boat, it’s going on 3 yrs and no parts wearing out.
No, think I’ll stick with my composting system.
Reason: I like the idea that the odor is actually eliminated, not sealed.
That sealing ring on the yours is fine, but it is merely containment, not elimination (pardon the pun).
With a composting toilet . . . well, at least with mine (on my boat, a Jason 35 - S/V Jenna Simone), after “use” you give several cranks of the churning rod, and after a few minutes you can literally put your face level with the rim of the compartment and there is no odor! And all I have (going to design my own to fit my hull) is nothing more than a five gallon plastic bucket, quarter full of sphagnum peat moss at the bottom and a long-handled weenie roller (without the roller sleeve, of course. find them in a paint store or big home store) that I use by hand from the top (I did have another one with the churn rod going through the side like the actual manufactured ones but it broke).
Seriously, it’s like magic. I don’t understand how it can have no odor! Just that earth-black dirt smell. And when dumping it, all it looks like is a bucket of black dirt. And again, nothing but garden soil to inhale.
I think it’s God that did it.
So yeah, I like knowing that it is transformed into earth-fragranced dirt instead of fresh full-bodied excrement (sorry).
I think it's keeping the solids and liquids separated and allowing it to dry before dumping that makes it less smelly.
I want a composting one. I'm going to try and make one
@@amywalker7515 Indeed, keeping the solids and liquids separate makes a HUGE difference!
@@sandiadamson1754 I made my own. super easy! I looooove it!
We have a dry flush toilet and we mostly used at night and for emergency only. The bags are a bit pricey so we also used buckets or bags for non #2 activities in those events. This seemed to help overall.
I agree that the separating toilet is the best for van life. We actually made our own, but we send the urine to the grey water tank because in most places it’s ok to do that so long you diluite the urine, at least 1 to ten, which happens automatically in the grey tank as we use the sink or shower. We also have a button we can push while driving on the highway to slowly empty the grey water tank leaving only a small trace of water behind us, eliminating the need to dump at dumping stations and to empty the liquid bottle into a toilet. This method was great while traveling during Covid as we never had to use or even enter into any public toilets….
ewww. you dump unine on the road while traveling? I don't want to be behind you on the road!
I love the Separette toilet and company! I had one of the emergency toilets years ago because of both budget and space concerns in my SUV life. I have recommended these to many off grid buddies who are so very happy with them...and it's nice to use when you visit a friends ofc grid cabin!
Great video and I love your geeking out over how kewl it works. I'm so glad to see the upgrades they made for even better mobile living use!
Keep it Simple
Simply,
Lesa
Mines junk. I'll make you a deal on it 😀
Nice video I like the way that one works, it's the first time I have seen that one. I plumbed my Natureshead to a 27 gallon grey tank with an electric ball dump valve. I use the space for the pee tank to hold a couple of rolls of toilet paper.
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Wait, so when you pull the solid tank, you get a full throated blast of poo and gut wrenching, revolting, visual and olfactoral nightmare... lemme know how THAT goes in a month.
That’s what I was thinking!! You open the bog of stench and just see a pyramid of your aging excrement for a painful minute that seems like an eternity staring into the sun, just to close the bag up as fast as you can. Nope
Same thought here about opening the poop part.🤢 Maybe putting a cup or a sprinkle of cedar shavings after doing #2 might help. I know it would fill up a little faster but that beats the visual alternative in my humble opinion.
It's not for the immature that's for certain.
@@jasonlawson8619 True. No cleaning of this type is easy or pleasant. We have the standard black tank system and I’ve had my share of thankfully minor mishaps. I like the idea of not having to use so much water and have been looking at alternative systems for awhile.
A full throated blast?? 🤣🤣🤣
You convinced me ....what a piece of engineering , I wanted the sun mar micro since I had a small sun mar one for my boat , but now I need one for my trike trailer ....three wheel dive electric assist recumbent trike with photo voltaics pulling the trailer .....ya the fact that the lid and other covers need not removing is a plus , my previous nature head was a pain and sometimes the stiring mech , was stuck .and you had to find a place to rest the top of the toilet I like the bag and not needing to dump material in there is a bonus since now one can use the room to shower in and not worry about getting the filler wet or tripping on the dam container and scope .....thanks for the video ,
We have a nature's head composting toilet and love it. We have cleaned it a few time and just go out in the woods and dig a small whole and turn it upside down and cover the whole. We usually wait at least 4 days to a week without using it before cleaning and have never found solids, everything was composted down. We have never hand trowled out the composting part. The urine container is white so you can see if the urine is close to getting too full. I am not sure how anyone could let that over fill unless they wanted to get views on TH-cam. It's just a chore you do on the road, every couple days it gets emptied no big deal. Been on the road for 10 months but try to use a pit toilet or gas station toilet for the duty and only use our composter when nothing is available. It works really well because we stay in a campground and then it has time to compost down and we don't have to change it every month. Love it. I just don't think a months worth of number 2 in a bag would not smell without putting in some peet or something for the smell. Good luck
Wish I knew about that when I was truck driving a decade ago. That would've worked very well out on the road. thanks for the reminder though.
I was thinking about this for the 18 wheeler with two draw backs. One is putting a hole in the vehicle that I don't own. Two is that price!
Great video explanation very interesting. The only part that would weird me out is pulling the solid container. Maybe they would add another feature where before you lift the seat, it would automatically wrap the solids bag into a tight closure so there is no "view" and all you would have to do is pull up and dispose of the bag.
Maybe just open the poo port and dump in some compost matter to cover it, then lift the lid and bag it up.
This was great! I certainly have a deeper understanding of traveling toilets now. Seriously, though I tease, this was really interesting. I'm still gonna use a big bucket with a lid and cat litter the next time we lose water/electricity. It's what I have on hand.
I love watching these videos, even though I doubt I would ever do van life. It's fun to see the clever, inventive solutions you guys come up with. And good as your shower is, my favorite is still the Seattle software guy who built/is still building a freaking big truck out. He has created a Murphy shower! And he was working on a Murphy sink to pair with it!
You engineers! Put you in a workshop, give you something to figure out, then step back and watch you go! That's how my Dad was too.
5 gallon bucket with luggable loo seat w/ pine shavings. Cheap, efficient
I agree it looks nice. But, isn't it on the same lines of a 5 gal bucket and pee bottle? I am not sure what this cost, but I saw some that looked about as much as a Nature's Head. $1,000 is a bit much for this I think. Other than aesthetics, I am curious what is offers that a gallon bucket along with a pee bottle would not have? Maybe venting? I am looking to do a simple build in a van soon and I'm just weighing all my options. Budget is tight. If this offers something a lot more than a 5 gal bucket and pee bottle, I might consider it for that price. Am missing something?
Thank you for mentioning something that I worked out so many years ago when researching toilets and that is that if you truly wanted a composting toilet to work that you would need to actually remove a bucket load and store it for months and then dump it after it had completely broken down. Although I have always wondered about the legality of dumping bags of poop in standard garbage. I think that this toilet takes the simplest ideas of peeing in a bottle and pooping in a plastic bag (on the very rare occasion that you need to poop in your van, because you are never really that far away from a toilet and if you are that far away from a toilet you can usually use a shovel and poop outdoors) and fancies them up with a smell extractor and some ease of functionality. $3,500 (the price that I googled) for a fancy plastic bag and plastic bottle??? You would have to have more money than sense in more opinion. But I can see the appeal. You could hook a computer fan up to a bucket for like $30 and get the same effect.
Yes if you want to compost it, you would need to keep it for a long time, but it will continue to compost after you have dumped it somewhere appropriate...and if you look at the toilet featured, you will be faced with a really unpleasant sight and job every so often, and you will be dumping pure unadulterated shit in the garbage bins...not nice..
Yeah, it's supposed to take 3 to 12 months for the harmful microbes to break down.
Legality? You realize "standard garbage" includes things like used needles, aging and no longer needed drugs and medication and enough fetid rotting food to make a bag of human waste look like clean stuff. Where do you think all the bags of dog poop end up for those responsible enough to pick it up? You don't actually imagine they take them home and empty it into their toilet and then wash out the bag do you?
@@warrensimpson3276 What about a closed bag of human waste is "pure unadulterated shit"? After you walk your dog, do you take their "pure unadulterated shit" in it, and flush it down the toilet and wash the plastic bag out? There are a million products that are harmful to the environment, and non-biodegradable that get tossed into our collective trash daily that make a bag of human waste sealed in a plastic bag nearly the mildest and most environmentally friendly thing you can throw in a trash can today.
There nothing illegal or unethical about dumping bags of poop in standard garbage. Where do all the baby and elderly diapers go, do you think? And bags of dog and cat poop.
Yes, love this, the other composting toilets are too big and bulky, this one is a little more compact even more so than my jar with tin container which I also put a compostable bag in it, I sometimes put coconut fiber or sawdust in as well to soak up the moisture, but I’d say kitty litter would do the same as I don’t have a fan for it but doesn’t smell and I store it in a box, but is regularly emptied.
Love your detailed video 👍
During our trip to Italy last year, local police came to camping ground investigating who is throwing sh** bags into dumpsters. They have a kind of manual waste sorting facility and someone there got a plastic bag with a big surprise 😀. I think throwing out bags with poop is much worse thing to do (especially when there's a month of supply) than using a black tank toilet and emptying it once a week... There are many places where you can do this around Europe. And there is "green" chemistry which allows you to dump toilet in a hole if there is no other option, such as awiwa or green kem.
True, however with a compostable bag used, you could also dump it into a hole or bury it.
How do people deal with disposable nappies and sanitary pads?
Cinderella Comfort toilet for me (240v). 1230 watts of solar tied into a Victron system with 21k+ watts / 48v battery bank.
Seven O Savage, your videos are awesome. This one had multiple solutions. Good job!!!
6'5" and living in a van? You ARE savage! I'm enjoying your videos.
You are doing such an awesome job on your van!!!! Thank you for continuing to make videos on every aspect of your build!! I appreciate all the time and effort it takes to put these videos out while building an epic van!!! I have learned so much from both of your builds and with every video I learn more! also you continue to show products I've never seen or heard of. I am definitely going to check out this toilet for my build! Thanks again!
Thanks for the review, looks like a great idea. I agree about the poop not composting in composting toilets and have been bothered by that for a long time because it takes at least a year for human manure to break down properly.
This seems like the best option so far. Looking forward to an update once you use it a while.
The entire process can take about 20 days and is the sure way to kill all pathogens and eggs present in fecal matter. It is the best way to ensure human waste is composted properly and can be used on edible fruits and food crops as the matter undergoes high temperatures of about 65°C.
I really like the way you show how to integrate innovations. Thank you for that 🙏
Besides I think those toilets seem to be not only a better alternative to cassette toilets but also a more eco-friendly solution without chemicals and no water consumption whilst staying pretty low tech.
The number one can either go down a regular toilet somewhere or discreetly used to provide some needed nitrogen to some tree out in the middle of nowhere. There are books on how to make "humanure" fertilizer which is probably beyond the ability of the average van lifer.
Hello, my name is Flávio, I LOVED this design and efficiency. In fact the best I've seen so far! Congratulations on your EXCELLENT work, you gained + a new subscriber from Brazil.
This toilet is pure genius. Thank you for your review, it will help me to make my space liveable in my Ford E350 Super Duty Commercial Vehicle
Great video. We had one of their toilets in our van and the smell from the vent was terrible. I like the idea but personally don't think they work for van life. I think they'd be a fantastic unit in a permanent structure where you could vent it through the roof or the rear of the building, away from the living areas. We swapped to a Natures Head unit and we get almost no smell from the external vent (which due to the design of our van is on the living side).
@@Alexandra-lx4jq my vent wasn't venting inside. The toilet was inside. The vent went out to the external wall of the caravan but as we sit close to the vent, we could smell what was venting out. Caravans can only be 2.5m wide so it can be hard to escape the smell.
@@Alexandra-lx4jq I could smell it when outside the van sitting under the awning etc. I couldn't smell it while inside the van.
If you could vent it to a side of a building that you don't go near etc it would be okay but if it's near an area that you use for living (ie. BBQ, outdoor seating area) then I wouldn't recommend this model.
Would be nice if they had a twist/close-off function like that other one you mentioned....but only at the end before you have to exchange the bag. Then you don't have to deal with the "ugly" sight of your No2's .... :-)
You have to get up close and personal with it too. It's bad enough if it was just your own poo but imagine if it was multiple people's poo all mixed together. It's horrifying.
I've used a Thetford toilet for years and it seems much more convenientient and hygenic to use and empty than any of these.
This is the best van toilet I've seen. It's not only the bestlooking, it's modern and you pointed every single benefit that came to mind. Awesome review thank you.
Great video. Comprehensive, instructive, humourous. Totally agree this is the best option for #vanlife, cargo trailer living, and even tiny homes. I used to have a Nature's Head in my van previously, and agree the overflowing #1 is not fun at all (very much like the drama segment illustrated, lol). Too bad these Separette Tinies are so expensive. But well made and worth the investment. That said, you are mostly silent on the issue of where the #2 goes when it needs to be emptied. When on the road, most people don't have access to a humanure installation (even with a so-called composting toilet), so it likely ends up bagged in the trash. Which, come to think of it, is what we do with doggie poop, is it not? A whole other conversation to be had there about that one... lol
Hi Seven O! This video was posted a year ago and although you are super excited about the toilet then, would you be able to do a follow up video that explains all the pluses and the minuses that you’ve experienced with this toilet?
More options are always good, great video!
I'm happy with my cassette, I also use a bidet hose. So the water I use to clean myself with also gets most of the 'material' down into the tank. I find it easy to keep the bowl clean at the same time for the same total water use as an ordinary flush cycle.
I think a good chunk of the odor issue comes from people being frugal on the magic blue goo because it's expensive, but you can buy a bulk commercial grade toilet cleaner that does the same job much cheaper but there's nothing to do about the odor from dump sites haha. Just don't breathe for a minute and remember to open the vent valve so you don't get splashed :)
Thank you SO much for sharing this with us! I am loving this toilet! I love that the bags are compostable. You essentially have a composting toilet that is cleaner to handle. :)
Aesthetically and design wise it is the BEST toilet out there. Never in my years of living did I think I would write a sentence like this. But it really is!
That's a really cool toilet, but I would also add woodchips and start the composting process. Or add a compostable bag on the bottom of any compost toilet. Even though the composting process would not finish in a month, it would still be enough to get the process going, and to reduce the size of the waste. I used a compost toilet for a month in a summer camp, and you would be surprised how small the volume of organic waste becomes once it is composed.
Thanks for the scoop on the poop. That’s a really nice looking installation! It looks like the solution that I would use that wouldn’t gross out my wife too much. Please update after you’ve tested the crap out of it for us!
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Well done video!!! Your Pace and demeanor keeps you dialed in...awesome info too!!!
Thank you! Love the channel 🤙
@@seven_o_savage why don't cu just close the plastic bag real tight and put in your microwave or oven and cook it for half an hour with max temperature? Simple
@D H saves mooney
If they could combine the toilet you have with an external cartridge, that would be ideal. I'll stick with a normal cartridge toilet for now, so despite the foul output, it's all in a sealed box I pull from the outside of the van and never look into.
Does cassette style really give off bad smell?
cassett only results in a nondistript brown liquid use the septic safe chemical and dump in any unsecured out house or if your remotely cities have free dump stations during open during the week or down a friend's toilet being in that shower room it would smell that bad except when actually flushing but this toilet is cool to looks more like a weekenders solution than full time
the problem with separating soilds from liquids in a cartridge is being able to dump the solids the sloshing liquid helps break up and carry out solides as wells as pervents "pyramiding" the tendency of a waste pyramid forming at the cassette opening preventing new waste from entering the cassette. but you maybe able to add a specific amount of water to the solid tank to account for this.
I just described. I'm a Civil Engineer. Well done -- very methodically and clearly presented.
Thanks C J!
We have just installed a
Seperett Tiny on our Wide beam canal boat ! Best one around !
I just have to say that I really enjoy your channel, a lot of great insightful things I definitely wish I had. You have an unstoppable positive attitude which is refreshing to see. The shower and toilet are just amazing. I am curious about your air conditioner. As for your toilet, it’s probably still a good idea to add some wood clippings or something to cover up the smell.
Toilet looks like a really good idea. Looking forward to a follow-up video once you've used it for a week or so. I'm a bit skeptical on it not having any smell.
Please update us again with a follow up video after X months of use, I'm sure many of us would watch those types of videos.
Yes, and make sure you are the one cleaning and emptying it rather than getting a report from someone else doing so:)
Fantastic Video- Just Ordered one!
10 out of 10! You did a great job explaining how things work. We have a motorhome and have driven across Canada and a lot of travel locally and enjoy it greatly. We just returned from a 3 week visit to Argentina and plan to travel the entire country next year in a VAN so the toilet video was informative. Thanks.