In general, a good household composting toilet should last you around 15-20 years. Your average household toilet, by comparison, should last around 50 years – accidents and plumbing issues not being factored in. So all told, the domestic composting toilet system isn’t significantly worse than the traditional model, and actually provides many benefits that the traditional toilet doesn’t!
In this article, we’re going to look at some of the most common questions about the composting toilet, and how to maximize its lifespan through responsible usage – so let’s take a look.
How do you maintain a composting toilet to make it last longer?
There are a number of things to think of when you want to maximize the lifespan of your toilet – some of it is just common sense. A modern, correctly installed, domestic compost toilet shouldn’t require massive amounts of user intervention, but there are one or two things to look out for.
Number one is just to make a casual inspection of the system once a month to ensure that it’s functioning correctly, that all of the seals are correctly applied and that there are no leaks or other visual issues.
Secondly, is ensuring that the tank is emptied an appropriate number of times per year. Failure to do so may cause wear and damage over time.
How do you know when to empty a composting toilet?
You will know it’s time to empty your toilet because the composting chamber will be full. If you are paying attention to your system it should be easy enough to gauge when this needs to happen. The chamber of your toilet will usually be easily accessible and will have some kind of aperture or gauge with which you will be able to tell how full your system is.
How often do you empty a composting toilet?
In general, this depends on the size of the capacity of the toilet and the size of the family/community that’s using it. There are some models which will require changing every three months approximately, and there are some, more complex models, which may not need changing for a year or more.
Due to the fact that it’s a relatively new toilet technology (more or less half a century of use in the west), there isn’t one standard built of compost for which you can give a definite answer.
When doing your research, try to be more specific about the kind of toilet you’re looking for, shop around, and you will find a more precise figure.
Can you pee in a composting toilet or will you have to empty it more?
If the model of toilet has one chamber for both feces and urine, the pee may make the process of decomposition take longer. This is why it is recommended that you add additional solid mass (such as peat-moss, for example) to absorb it and speed it up again.
However, there are some models of compost toilets that have two separate chambers and require the user to split their waste between the two. In this case, obviously, you need to follow the instructions and avoid mixing the two.
Mixing the waste in one of these will not only slow down the process significantly but also cause stronger smells than would otherwise exist, so exercise caution!
Where does the toilet paper go in a composting toilet?
Toilet paper goes in the same chamber as the feces and breaks down just like any organic solid mass. So, if it is a toilet with separate chambers, make the point of putting it in the solid waste compartment.
Otherwise, in the case of single-chamber toilets, you can simply dispose of the paper as normal without any additional fuss.
Which toilet paper breaks down the fastest?
Don’t worry, you don’t need any special kind of toilet paper – your day-to-day supermarket brand will work just fine. If you want it to break down faster, however, we recommend using single-ply, as it takes up the least amount of mass and therefore will break down slightly quicker.
That said, there are some companies that produce toilet paper that is designed specifically to break down faster in composting toilets. I would recommend if you are using a domestic model – not a portable RV toilet – that this may prove to be overly expensive without much of a payoff.
How do you get rid of composting toilet waste?
Depending on the type of toilet, there are a number of ways you can do this. In the event that your toilet separates into liquid and solid, you have a two-part process. Urine can be diluted with water and used to effectively fertilize plants – reportedly, one adult produces enough urine to fertilize 300 pounds of wheat in a year.
The separated solid mass likewise should be turned into usable humus (not hummus) that you can mix with your potting soil and spread in your garden.
As a mixed tank will mostly be comprised of water (as most human waste is), after this moisture has been ventilated off you should be able to use it however you like.
Practically, getting rid of the waste will often be a simple matter of opening the chamber and shoveling the composted waste into bags or wheel-barrows, before moving it to the desired part of your garden for dispersal. The specifics of how this happens exactly will be dependant on the model that you have installed in your home or homestead.
What is the best toilet for a tiny house, that lasts the longest?
When looking at a tiny house, space is at a premium, and therefore you’re probably going to want to buy a smaller, more portable model of the composting toilet. There are many manufacturers who make composting toilets for campers and RVs, designed to take up little space and to last a long time.
In general, you’ll have to empty out one of these on a more regular basis – think once a month for solid, once or twice a week for liquid. This of course, depends on the make you decide to go with, but what you trade off in terms of effort, you more than make up for in cost and size-efficiency.
