[Public-List] holding tank vent

[Kris Coward]

On Thu, Mar 07, 2013 at 02:38:00PM -0500, Rod Symmes wrote:
> Eeeww - you guys are disgusting.  Or maybe I just have too vivid an imagination  (-:

I maintain that the disgustingness is inherent to boats. In fact, when I
tell people about living aboard, and they start suggesting how romantic
it all sounds, I often start talking about the sanitary system (though
sometimes I have nothing to say, so if it's winter, I ask them for help
carrying water for the tank over from the marina building).

> Kris - how do you like the composting and which one did you choose ?

I went with the Airhead after seeing how happy Richard and Margaret were
with the one they put on Into The Blue. I followed their advice and
mounted it facing forward instead of inboard, though I'm not sure how
well that would work for folks who aren't so slender (especially since I
haven't removed the holding tank hoses from where I might otherwise put
my feet while sitting on it).

I find that I have to empty the solids container on mine 2-3x/year,
depending on how much I'm away, and how often I have people over (and
how many) when I'm not. The liquids seem to have to be emptied roughly
weekly. We've got municipal composting here, and since they accept
disposable diapers, I usually just take my already-mostly-composted
humanure, shovel it into a yard/garden waste bag with a garden trowel,
and sneak the filled bag into someone's compost bin on garbage day. I
wear dishwashing gloves for the shoveling, but I usually hold off on
adding any new material to the container for at least a week before
shoveling (I take advantage of business trips to give my toilet the
necessary break for this), and as a result, the material I shovel out
is not readily identifiable as sewage rather than soil (whether by
smell, or other indications--except maybe some residual TP).

In all honesty, I find shoveling out the solids container to be less
disgusting than pumping out, in spite of the fact that it gives me more
direct exposure to my waste.

There are some big caveats about making sure visitors don't get
squeamish about putting their TP down the hole, and instead let the
trapdoor jam it into the liquids collection area, where it clogs the
drain, diverts urine to the solids tank, and generally makes things much
less aerobic (or otherwise manageable). You may also want to pick up a
cat'o'nine to impress upon your crew the importance of not causing this
problem.

Otherwise, I've found the unit to be clean, non-smelly, and relatively
hassle-free (did I mention that it can take normal TP?).

Cheers,
Kris

-- 
Kris Coward					http://unripe.melon.org/
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