Anyone have a composting toilet?

[Alterration]

The farm we bought has a great little tack area with a toilet. Said toilet drains directly to the sinkhole at the back of the farm (clearly not up to code snort). Sadly, when they put the new septic in, they didn’t hook up this little toilet to the new septic and so the toilet sits, abandoned and useless.

I have a few options. Sure, we could connect it to the septic but it’s pretty far, and I’m not sure how much we are able to dig because of the location. It’d be a pretty big job.

But we could put in a composting toilet, and have the best of both worlds. I’ve been perusing composting toilet ads lightly, but does anyone have one? Words of advise?

[Zigzag]

I know a barn that had one. Owner didn’t clean it often and it was gross. Maybe if you keep up with regular cleaning it would be ok but I don’t think I would ever want one.

[pony_baloney]

My barn has gone from an RV toilet (awful!) to a composting toilet, and it’s great. I don’t know much about them or the differences between them, but there’s no smell and cleanup, from what I hear, is much easier. Ours is similar to this one:

GottaGo

The front is for wet stuff, the rear for solids. You spray with vinegar after using and you’re good. I’ve only used it for the former so I don’t know how easily the solids go down.

[clanter]

I was on an advisory board for the US Forest Service developing equine trails on government lands. For the trailheads we installed composting toilets using the US Forest Service guidelines. As far as I know what we installed in the mid 1990s are still in use today

https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/pdfimage/95231803.pdf

[luv2lope]

I was at a barn that had a composting toilet— I would rather shit in the bush instead, the thing was disgusting. I opted to pee in my horse’s stall rather than use the composting toilet.

[Alterration]

Do you know what type it was? There are many different types.

It sounds like either way - with a toilet, cleanliness is important. I wouldn’t pee in the one that exists either because it’s kinda dirty (it needs to be taken out and replaced no matter what solution we ultimately choose).

I hate portajohns, they make me gag because for whatever stupid reason I feel the need to look before I use it - but that’s an option for us too.

[cayuse]

I also feel the need to look . That need led me to buy a camping toilet type thing for my horse trailer.

[2DogsFarm]

I have neither, but how about an incinerating version?
Incinolet is a brand I’ve seen advertised.
I’d rather use the elecricity than have to deal with disposal from a composting version.

[Alterration]

@2DogsFarm

I have neither, but how about an incinerating version?
Incinolet is a brand I’ve seen advertised.
I’d rather use the elecricity than have to deal with disposal from a composting version.

An incinerator might work. We’re a really small boutique barn, so it wouldn’t be much use, but I do on occasion have the hay guy ask, or a boarder or worker ask. Right now I let them in the house, but that’s kind of embarrassing for them.

[Kimstar]

The farm where my retired horse is boarded had a port-o-potty. It was very good. It had a light inside, was heated in winter and had “running” water to flush and a sink with soap to wash your hands. You stepped on a foot pedal for the flush - the toilet had a “hatch” over the outlet so you didn’t see anything nasty - and a different foot pedal for the sink water. I’m not sure what schedule they were on for emptying/refilling, but it was pretty clean, didn’t smell and was convenient.

You might call a port-o-potty company and see what type is available and the cost.

Unfortunately, they stopped renting it to cut down expenses, but I don’t think it got a lot of use because not that many people seem to visit their horse there.

I miss it but have resorted to using my horse’s stall when I need to pee.

[Salty]

Last time I went to Inavale they had those super nice portapotties and they really were good. I’ve also used composting toilets and they were very clean, with no smell, but if it were for my place, I would look into incinerator toilets because of the grossness factor re cleanup.

[pony_baloney]

My BO considered an incinerator toilet but the bathroom is right next to where the hay is stored. She didn’t want to take any chances with that.

Our old RV toilet was similar to a portajohn toilet, but with a sliding door covering anything inside. There is nothing to see in the kind I attached in my last post. And so far, no smell or flies either. Now I don’t dread using it, and no need to take a few deep inhales before dashing inside.

[enjoytheride]

At a place I boarded they had a toilet installed and drained it into the manure pile, which was in the middle of the horse pasture.

[Alterration]

I don’t know how I feel about any of that ROFL

[fanfayre]

Is there a possibility you could install a little lift station in the ground just outside the wall of the barn toilet, with a little sewage pump to shoot it over to your septic tank? Unless your system is seriously undersized (highly unlikely) the little bit added to the tank will not negatively impact your system (especially since you can only ever use 1 toilet at a time

How very weird: I had a whole section on composting toilets typed out as well. but that part didn’t show up!!!

Anyway, composting toilets work well when the ambient temperature never drops below 75F(?) I believe. SO if you have winters, you WILL need to supply an external heat source to keep the temperature above that critical temperature. Any lower and the bacteria that break down the feces and urine into, well, compost, go into ‘hibernation’ mode, or die and that’s when you (g) end up with smelly messes [in other words, a pit toilet].
IF you’re able and willing to add to the operating costs by including a heat source, a composting toilet may work for you.

[Alterration]

The septic is really far away, on basically the opposite side of the property, and there’s a whole house with a bunch of concrete in between where the toilet is and where the septic is. It’d be a lot of pipe and a lot of digging that I’m not sure is worth it for what little use this toilet will get.

[fanfayre]

Hi @Alterration;
I had a whole other paragraph typed out that didn’t get included when I pressed post, so I’ve added it now.

[Alterration]

@fanfayre

I had a whole other paragraph typed out that didn’t get included when I pressed post, so I’ve added it now.

Thank you! I’m going to check that out now because the early ones seemed to be available in places where it definitely got colder than 75, but perhaps that was a different type or they composted in a way that kept the heat up like a mulch pile? My last research on this was many years ago

[Bogey2]

LOL! seriously…it was work just to pee in it…wouild not want to poop in it!