So, there's more to my plan than a porcelain throne.
Located underneath this throne is a straight section of sewer pipe that gently persuades material down into a box in the basement section of the bus.
This is where it becomes harebrained redneck engineering project:
I am, for the most part, going to copy a number of the design features of the nature's head composting toilet.
I had thought about dry auger transport designs, macerator pump black tanks, just straight up buying a nature's head toilet, but I have somehow determined I'd like to play with poop a little bit.
What does this mean exactly?
Well, in my humble opinion, the NH toilet is actually a dehydrating toilet, as it doesn't have enough storage or space to perform any real composting. The interior of the tub on the NH is made of plastic, with a stainless steel stirring paddle rod assembly. There is an easy to acquire container that is constructed of similar material and shape as the NH storage tank. Read on.
I plan on borrowing some ideas from the NH unit with the following items, to assemble the "Super Poop-cooler-tron 9000":
Order of operation, in a perfect world:
Pop open lid on the throne
Sit down and do your business, #1 or #2 or both
Wipe with toilet paper
Sprinkle some magic pixie poop dust on your business. (wood shavings, ash, moss, something)
Close lid
Press the "flush" button
What actually is happening:
There is a 200 quart converted beverage cooler in the basement. It is attached via 8" diameter drain/sewer pipe length from the bottom of the throne to a hole and flange installed on the lid of the cooler.
There is an approximately 10-30 gallon (haven't got a tank yet) urine collection tank for the diverter on the throne.
The cooler has wheels and a handle for ease of transport when full. Inside the vehicle storage basement, there is a lever attached to a cam (ok, a properly bent piece of metal with hinges) that lifts the cooler up to mate the drain pipe with the flange. When the lever is all the way up, the cooler is lifted up and in the "installed" position.
To disconnect the cooler, drop the lever, which drops the cooler about 3 inches, disconnecting from the downpipe, allowing it to be removed from the vehicle.
Installed in the long dimension of the cooler is a stir paddle similar to the NH unit. Instead of a manual turn, a 12 volt worm drive wheelchair motor is attached to the paddle stick.
When pressing the "flush" button, a timed relay runs the stirring motor for a length of time, probably 20-30 seconds. On some regular interval, the stirring motor also runs unattended to keep the poop fluffed.
There is an inlet and exhaust for continuous air delivery into the cooler. The inlet is smaller than the outlet, to encourage a negative air draft from the throne up above, hopefully to reduce remaining stink. This is also a common design feature in dehydrating toilets such as the NH.
I may add a small ceramic heater on a thermostat to the inlet, when it's extra cold or damp outside to aid doo doo dry cycle.
It's basically a supersized NH unit with the tank decoupled by a length of pipe.
Now, for the mexican food scenario:
Everyone has the runs, and it's awful. The cooler is 3/4 full, and now has a layer of watery horrible **** on top. Oh yeah, it's also streaked down the sides of the bowl in the toilet, and along the poop chute down to the cooler.
What's a civilized person to do?
First choice, set the whole thing ablaze and never look back. Not the best choice.
Second choice is to use a conveniently located sprayer on a small hose to rinse the inside of the bowl with as little water as possible, and wipe clean. Maybe dump some extra drying fluff (the sawdust,moss,whatever) and pray it dries out.
Run the stir cycles a lot more, kick on that heater, and it'll probably dry out eventually.
And mark that restaurant off the list.
I think I drank too much coffee this afternoon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PDBreske
So, it looks like the main opening is just that: An opening through the floor to what you're going to use as a composting-type toilet, with the diverter perhaps going to some kind of holding tank.
My concern would be "cleaning up" the main opening after a night of Mexican food. With a typical composting toilet, you have a seat with a (lined) bucket under it. When the bucket is emptied, everything goes out with the trash. With this liquid-separating toilet, there is a few inches of porcelain between you and the bucket, and that porcelain doesn't get automatically cleaned when you empty the bucket. Are you going to wipe the porcelain after every use? And if so, aren't you going to have to get down on your knees to reach way down into the gaping maw?
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