Saturday, September 15, 2012

Storyville gets a Nature's Head


We recently decided that it was time to start thinking about replacing the heads on Storyville. For all my land lubber friends, you probably know me well enough by now to realize that I'm talking about the toilets on the boat. I know what you're thinking – gross. It get's even grosser (is that a word?) when you think about the hoses and holding tanks and everything that has passed through them in the last 30 years.

We have several friends that are using waterless composting toilets. It just makes so much sense for us so, we decided that it was worth looking into. It would mean that we could do away with two thru hull – don't worry about what that is if you're not a boater, but if you are, you know what a benefit that is – and, bonus, we would get rid of all those stinky hoses and the holding tank as well. Creating more room for storage. Just kind of plug and play, so to speak.

We decided to try to bring one back with us from our visit to Houston. The packing box was just under the airlines size requirements and well under their weight requirements. We were still a little nervous, not knowing what to expect with the shipping. It all went incredibly smoothly. We were stopped by customs when we entered the DR. They sent the box through their scanner and decided that they needed a better look. They were a little surprised when they opened the box. You should have seen the look on the inspector's face when he lifted the lid! I guess he was worried that we were traveling with a used toilet. Oh well, it worked! Free shipping.

Anyways, we got the toilet back to Storyville and she is now fully installed, thanks to Troy's hard work. The removal of the old system was the worst part of the ordeal and I will spare you the details. Let's just say that Troy is my hero for handling that stinky, nasty job.

It took us a little while to find the composting material. We took our Dominican friend, who speaks great English, with us to 3 different nursery’s, but the language barrier proved to be too high because he didn't know what peat moss was and we couldn't describe it. They really don't have much use for that here, I guess because the ground is very fertile. We did a little more research and decided to try a mix of coconut husks, banana leaves and mulch. Wish me luck.

Let the composting begin!

We give a great big thanks to Gene Cupples, owner of Eco-mmode, distributor for Nature's Head in the Kemah area. Click the link above to learn more, or give him a call at 419/306-3351.


The old head, ready to come out

Nature's Head

Ready to remove the old system (yuck)



That is a picture of "gross" right there.  The old holding bag.

Ready to compost!

Installed and ready to go!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Job! I hope I am the first of your friends to pee in it! Danrell "Island Dream"

RobertVB said...

Deana you might want to get some compost to get it started. Find some rotting leaves or grass with a little bit of dirt in it to get the composting started. Dont ever completely clean it out. This is one case where bacteria is your friend and does all the work for you.

RobertVB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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Mike McGuire said...

Great job detailing the installation. This is the first I've heard about that kind of head. I'm curious about the odor level, though. Higher? Same? Less?

Now I'm off to research yet another boating topic....thanks. ;-)

Mike

Troy and Deana Jones said...

Believe it or not, there is really no odor. The urine must be emptied every few days and you can smell that when you open the system, but during use I have not smelled any bad smells, especially compared to the old system that we had. So far we are very happy with it.

Troy and Deana Jones said...

Believe it or not, there is really no odor. The urine must be emptied every few days and you can smell that when you open the system, but during use I have not smelled any bad smells, especially compared to the old system that we had. So far we are very happy with it.