BUGS & MOLD! - Composting Toilet Sanitary Tips - RV Life
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ย. 2020
- Tips on how to keep bugs and mold out of your composting toilet!
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We've been full time RVers for over three years now and have had a Nature's Head composting toilet in our Keystone Springdale travel trailer the entire time. In that time we have battled with mold, bugs, and too much moisture in our RV composting toilet.
In this video we'll share with you tips we have learned over the years on how to combat mold and bugs in our composting toilet as well as how to easily combine your gray and black tanks into one massive gray tank!
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This was my solution.
We just returned from our two week trip using the newly installed Seperette, cost $160. We have a class A motorhome and always disliked the standard toilet for a few reasons. The direct hole to the black tank when flushing, the water waste when flushing and knowing there was a tank of crap and urine we were dragging around with us until we found a dump station. I built the very simple box for the Seperette seat product and saw dust compartment. The Seperette simply seperates the urine as a compost toilet does. You supply a 5 gallon bucket for poop and a container for urine, a one gallon jug usually. I was able to find a rubber cap for the 3 inch black tank opening and I cut a hole in it the size of the included hose for the urine. I didn’t want to deal with the urine bottle because I heard that stinks much worse after a couple of days than poop. So the hose for urine drains into the black tank which I now share with the gray tank, almost doubling my gray water storage. The urine mixes with gray water, by the way urine is non toxic, and that gray water is actually safe to drain in into the environment. Just be cool and use biodegradable soaps for washing yourself and dishes. I wipe the plates off into the trash before washing so there is very little debris making it to the tank. The poop simply goes into the bucket lined with a plastic bag. You put sawdust, peat moss or coconut husks in the bottom of the new bag and on top of poop. I drilled a 2 inch hole in the floor for a small computer fan which vents outside consistently and draws a very minor amount if power and cost less than 2 dollars. When the poop bag is full it is leagel and safe to simply toss in any trash can, I researched this fact and it's true. The smell that does exist post pooping is venting out and once poop dries the odor diminishes almost to nothing anyway. The urine hose in my set up naturally forms a “P” trap which eliminates any smell coming from the tanks. After urinating we spray a few spritzes of 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water in the urine area of the Seperette to neutralise the urine odor from the trap. I don’t need to visit a stinky dump station ever because my gray water and urine is actually bennificial to plants so I drain it in a convenient spot when I find one. I now have 100 gallons of waste water storage and use much less due to no flushing. We experienced zero smell from the bucket or the p trap urine tube on our two week trip. We don’t have remove anything other than a plastic bag of poop and sawdust from the rv, poop not even visible through a clear bag . We don’t have to clean the toilet as with expensive compost or cassette toilets. We save water, nurish the planet with our gray water, save dump station money, eliminate the need for sewer trucks running around transporting waste to another facility to process it and…I’ll never go back. If you would like photos of my project let me know where I can send them
The gnats! Helpful suggestions! Thank you.
(Biologist/horticulturist hat on...) Considering that the life-cycle of most unhealthy bugs and molds is consistent with your healthy cleaning schedule, your estimate sounds about right. Great episode! Glad you're staying safe!
Thank you for an expert's opinion!
-David
We use our natures head composting toilet in our travel trailer and our boat. The vent hose in the boat goes up 4 feet above the toilet and we have never had moisture in the solids tank. In the travel trailer the hose goes straight down through the floor so no moisture problem. In the 4 years of using the tank we have had bugs only once and I think it was because we left the lid open too much. We have never made it past 3.5 weeks of use for two people before we have to change the solids tank. We also use about 50 oz of water to hydrate the coconut coir before putting it in the tank.
I dont really know how these RV compost toilets work, but what i do know, is that a sprinkled thin layer of sawdust every day, takes care of smell, moisture, mold and other unpleasant stuff in your toilet. It contains turpentine take is antibacterial and sanitizing, it can hold water several times more that its weight, its natural and it capsules odors. It is also a natural repellant for bugs, almost all bugs but wasps and yellow jackets that use it as building material, but to attract those, you really have to be in bad luck! :) It has been used for these "facilities" for hundreds of years and i assure you it is still working today.
Hi friends. We don't have a composting toilet so this was pretty interesting. Dealing with changing a little more often seems like a better trade off than having to deal with bugs and mold. Drying out the insects is a method we've not heard before. Thanks for sharing these tips.
Would you mind hopping over to our channel and making sure we're still friends there? We've lost some lately and want to make sure we're still friends with you.
We thought we were the only ones that were having issues .. to the point it would stink!!! And no one ever talks about this. It’s because it’s too wet!
We just figured this out a couple weeks ago as well. We started using only 1 cup of water and have found it to help tremendously! Also, in the beginning we thought we could go a month at least before changing.. we now do every 2-3 wks and life is much better 😁. I’m glad to see we are not alone ! Lol
We have 3 Natures Heads - 2 on our boat and 1 in our trailer. We have never had mold but have gotten bugs more often than we would like. Learning to empty more often and keeping the compost at the right moisture level really does work!
diatomaceous earthworks like glass it rips through the exoskeleton of insects that have hard shells and rips them apart slowly it doesn't not dehydrate them
Thanks for sharing this info!
You two are great!
Thanks for sharing your insight.
Love the videos, love the instruction. Warming to the idea of RV with your help.
I accept that you two are willing to deal with the composting toilet and not having to deal with dumping tanks is a priority with you plus you have extra tank area. However, having raised beef cattle and having had to shovel manure for 20 years sometimes twice a day in the winter cleaning the barn, it is not a system for me. The dump station is ok with me. I alternate boon-docking with being where I have dump station facilities. Yes I have a limited time boondocking but not a. big deal for me. However, my compliments on a good thorough video on using this system and solving any problems. Both systems have their required maintenance too. Let’s just say we sure do appreciate those home toilet facilities!!!!!!! Am in FL at Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, very beautiful 2,000 acres and hopefully I miss the hurricane. Happy travels you two!
Such very good information, thanks so much,
Thanks for sharing all your experiences and what you learn from them. We are awaiting delivery of the same toilet and will use your info to make sure to install it correctly.
Thank y'all so much for the tips! Going to try out your suggestions and really appreciate y'all sharing the knowledge. Best wishes!
Great video on the care of composting toilet! Both David and Roe work great together. Take care and God Bless You Both and fur babies.
Thank you for being honest and sharing your experiences.
Obviously, the benefit is you can convert your black tank to grey and have more waste water space. But basically all the options to save water in RVs are things that increase landfill waste. For instance, many RVers save water by using disposable plates so they don't have to wash dishes. (Me included - I'm not trying to say I'm an environmental angel). But saving water in this way is not environmentally-friendly.
Composting toilet is a misnomer. It's not taking human waste and turning it into compost. It's taking the waste and making it safe enough to dump in a landfill. It's not environmentally preferable to a regular RV black tank (assuming the RV owners use responsible chemicals etc in their RV toilet and not all RVers do). There are many reasons someone might choose a composting toilet, and there are ways to make it more eco-friendly, but generally speaking it's not better for the planet than a traditional RV toilet.
I have used Diatomaceous earth to combat ant infiltration before.
Sprinkled around footings and in crawl space. If it isn’t in the way, you might try it around the toilet on the floor.
Thanks for the update David and Roe. Will def have to go back and watch the earlier comp toilet videos and re-watch this one. Have heard you (and other YT influencers) talk of combing the black and gray tanks, but, didn't know/remem HOW y'all did that. Have a much better idea (can't believe how simple you made it), so, reviewing all of the vids will help, I'm sure. Again, thanks for the help.
Y'all Be Safe!
Happy Diwali 🪔 from India 🇮🇳
I don’t have an RV and don’t plan to. I did run across your channel and did some watching. Your videos are very good 😁. I’d never heard of coco coir, but after looking it up I know now. You both are providing a wealth of information to who are novices to this type of living/vacationing ... . Thanks for the effort, great videos 🎯
downcline, good one Roe, I'll have to use that sometime, haha
This was really interesting! Question: how do you dispose of the "used" coir/poop?
They have another video about it. They basically dump it into a trashbag and toss it in the trash. The liquids go down a flush toilet.
That thumb nail - too funny!🤣😆
Great video. Tell me again what ruck you have? You really like it correct?
Hi David
Diatomaceous earth is made from diatoms which are single celled animals with a exoskeleton looks like a microscopic ball with spikes. I use it in the filter for my swimming pool. The reason it kills bugs is because the spikes tear the skin on the bugs and they dehydrate. I also use it in my garden to keep slugs out. but be aware it is considered a carcinogen. just be careful not to breath it into your lungs. lots of info about it on swimming pool web sites. Good luck and keep safe
Greg
Connect the composite toilet Liquid parts (pee bottle) to the Gray tank using a sealed pipe and all the liquids parts will go or drain to the gray tank and you don't have to empty it more often only the black parts (poops) needs to be empty from the toilet.
When I was in training with the National Guard we would just take our little shovel and dig a hole and bury it.Seems to me that’s a little more sanitary.After hearing you talk about how you clean it I don’t want to hear anybody say anything about how nasty it is to dump a Grey and black tank.
@FateUnbound - I'm in the process of building a cabin in some mountain range somewhere. generally a dry climate. Months away from buying a composting toilet, however, it is search and education time. Question: are the bugs coming in through the pass-through positive vent hose or are they endemic in the composting material. Hope you can answer this. Good vid Also--I think it's your accent--I can't understand what type of composting material you're using...coco something. Coconut? What all have you tried?
The "downward angle" she said is required of the vent hose is not true. They have some other issue.
I was wondering using bleach you confirm this idea thanks. Also another topic I would like your opinion on is what help you made the decision type of truck you use using the Chev Silverado 2500 Engine what help you select between a diesel vs gas ?
When you fill it up and use Bleach, where do you go with that liquid? Down the drain or outside?
Hey guys, I was wondering what kind of maintenance do you do for the outside of your trailer? Roof specifically. We have the same trailer just the bunk model. I was wondering if it's ok to walk on the roof? Thanks
Be sure to use a breathing filter when D.E. is in the air. It's not good for respiratory (lungs) systems
I thought best cleaning ,composting ,drying agent is dirt ,soil ,my questin is where and how does it get dumped in non cholera way ,ie in south west deserts can be buried anywhere ,but high water table area say florida you cant do this ?
We’ve just started boondocking more, currently in the Nevada desert on BLM land with no facilities. My question is what do you do with your trash? Is there an app that helps you find trash receptacles in nearby towns? I know you don’t go to RV parks so wondering how you handle that problem, Thanks!
Personally I'm always also looking for recycling. But I'm a part-timer so it's a lot easier to just bring stuff back home if I can't find a place to dump my trash. I find a lot of state parks have totally accessible trash receptacles and sometimes recycling. The visitor centers at national parks and refuges seem to always have lots of trash cans and sometimes recycling containers. And of course gas stations, rest stops, public parks, etc often have public trash cans.
There are apps that show dump stations. And I'm betting pretty much anywhere that has a dump station is going to have a big trash can too. So I suppose you could use that.
The video spends a good bit of time explaining the 3 weeks of changing the coco core media in the toilet. When you are boondocking where and how often do you have to empty the urine container?
Where do you dump the used coco coir? And if what you have in your gray tank is just gray water and the only soap that you used was environmentally friendly soap, can you just empty your gray tank on the ground? I really don't know the answers to these questions.
I do not know if you guys answered this in any previously emails but I have a question. How do you vote? Do you declare your residency with your parents since your house is literally dragged with you where you go? I am sure you do it by mail-in or absentee, but do you claim your permanent residency with your parents or something? Just curious I do not care who or what you vote for as it is your choice.
Also what do you do for retirement savings or planning? If you are driving around all the time and working part time, do you guys keep a 401k going? The practical and logical side of me always wondered these things.
You should have shown how to take it apart
We already had a video where we did that, you can check it out in the video description 👍
-Roe
Why not pour vinegar in it every week?
Thanks guys. Now to sell my wife on the idea. Did you do anything to block off the inlet from the old toilet?
Hey Johnny, David shows the struggle with the old toilet inlet and what we did to close it up in the composting toilet install video. You can find that link in the description of this video 👍 In this case it'd be easier to see it than me try and explain it haha
-Roe
Have you considered plumbing the urine catchment into your black/grey tank? Then you wouldn't have to open the toilet, exposing the solids, in order to empty the liquids tank every couple days.
Thinking of getting a composting toilet for my camper.
Question. Because you vent your toilet directly under your camper, do you find that you get odor issues leaking back inside or in the area if you're sitting outside.
Yes! We had our vent near the front door and had to change that .. so try to route it to the other side of the camper
Since you no longer use your black tank, did you replace it with a fresh water tank? Thanks.
Nope, we combined our black tank with our gray tank for one massive gray tank.
Did you consider plumbing the liquids directly into the black tank? This would mitigate the single most common complaint: dealing daily with the liquid bottle/tank.
They no longer have a black tank. Converted it to a grey tank for more capacity
For insect control, I'd rather spray an unusually safe insecticide, permethrin being my favorite, on the compost and toilet interior, than be chronically inhaling DE. If it can dehydrate insects and your skin (presumably by microscopically puncturing cells, then grabbing water (more likely via evaporation and vapor transport than via liquid transport, due to surface tension effects on such a small scale...like David, I'm an ME) then I'm imagining it possibly puncturing if not drying out lung cells also. It's unclear to me whether DE that gets into your lungs would ever make it out, also.
I've not researched it, but I've heard that some of the destruction done to insects is via it physically cutting up their exoskeletons. I'm guessing it might involve a process similar to using lapping as a metal machining process, maybe it literally polishes off some vital structures of the exoskeleton, or gets between the exoskeleton and innards, with each sliding movement between those, lapping off any attachment points between them, etc.
While there's no evidence of immediate lung damage unless absolutely breathing in clouds of it, I'd be very wary of starting habitual inhalation/irritation at your young and tender ages for the rest of your long lives. I wouldn't want to breathe it for 40 years and then find out that doing so is likely the reason for an emphysema diagnosis. I remember when using asbestos was considered to be routine and OK, even in situations where it generated asbestos dust. I did so myself, and have luckily not paid any price for it.
Who knows which inhalation hazard will be discovered during your lifetime? I'd think DE might be a good guess, with how commonly it's used by pool owners, gardeners, etc. At least those things will make it easy to correlate cause and effect.
Food-grade DE is known for being safe to drink in solution, but not to inhale dry.
What I'd really try first, is doing nothing, and just seeing if the bugs stop showing up with the lack of a nice moist environment after you fixed your venting problem. They may have only been attracted by that.
Who is "Row" what happened to "Ginny"?
Roe is an alternate name (middle? Nickname?) for her that all her friends and family use.
Easier to just use it everywhere
I was told bleach was bad for the plastic parts in general. Isn't vinegar a safer option? Also bleach itself is extremely toxic. Have you tried the sphagnum peat moss option, I know some FTers with natures head prefer that option as well?🤔
Nosey question, are you guys getting itchy feet?
SO MUCH! While we're glad we're in an area that we can get all our medical stuff figured out we're also beyond ready to hit the road again lol
-Roe
no stinky though!
Diatomaceous earth is safe to give to your pets and put on their food to help prevent worms
That's why people shouldn't pee in the pool.
Am big fan of composting toilet concept but no experience , in places with severe water shortage ,drought W/C water closet or crapper, plumbing toilets should be outlawed.Urine can be processed much same way as leach field ,just be cant left in the open ie covered with shallow layer of dirt in the leach field.Think of millions of gallons of drinkable water saved where its so precious .A water cistern system to filter gray water over and over doesnt mean I want to drink it but shower ,wash clothes sure.
YUckO