Composting Head User Review

amelia

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2006
RO Number
20462
Messages
241
Hi, all, it has been a while!
We continue to putter away at the homemade houseboat, take short day and weekend trips in it, and by popular grandchild demand, use it as a fine backyard guesthouse.
I see the trials and tribulations of traditional heads continues to be a popular topic, so thought I'd toss this out there.
After much research (thanks, Vic!!) we were ready to spring for a fancy waste-treatment type head, when our NC politicians decided to outlaw them.
Holding tanks seemed bulky and heavy, pumpouts inconvenient and disgusting, so we opted for a C-head composting head.
total investment was $500.
Brilliant! After two years of light-to-moderate use, we remain quite pleased. It is easy to use, simple to clean and maintain, and remains entirely odor-free, bug-free, leak-free, and chemical-free.
The head is compact, about the size of the shoreside toilet, needs no special installation or carpentry, and is lots less expensive than the more well-known brands.
We use cypress shavings in the solid waste receptacle, as we have lots of it readily to hand, free, but many people like the compressed coco-fiber bricks. When it is time to empty it, after several weeks, it takes about the same time as emptying the kitchen trash to dump the dried, odorless lumps and peat into a secondary vented bucket and add fresh fiber or sawdust to the primary receptacle.
Urine is funneled into an ordinary plastic gallon milk jug, easily replaced, discretely disposed of. It is easier and far tidier than dealing with a cat box.
We appreciate the C-Head's sturdy, common-sense simplicity, are quite relieved to have nothing to break, clog, jam, permeate, replace, or trouble-shoot at the worst possible time.
When the traditional toilet technology gets too burdensome or smelly, you might check this option out!
 
www.c-head.com

We have the simplest c-head option, plain white, but could have chosen teak, mahogany, shiny black, etc. Could have bought one with a slanted back if our bulkhead required it, or shorter for low overheads. It seems almost like a custom shop, so responsive is Sandy, the owner-builder.

Drawbacks? There are some. Some guys, non-mariners, are offended by the necessity to sit down, due to the design of the bowl. It is rather shallow, and proper aim is important. I direct these gents to the lee rail. I am informed that most proper ladies have sensibilities far too delicate for such a simple system, but have not met any yet. This particular proper lady is relieved at the no-smell, and easy disposal, and no plumbing, electricity, or water necessary. I like not caring whether the holding tank is full, or whether the nearest pumpout facility is working today. Or whether the NC-Nanny-required potty-log is up to date. I admit ignorance as to what a joker valve (or whatever) looks like, and besides, I am pretty sure we wouldn't have a spare when it was most desperately needed. Fortunately for people like us, it won't be.
The design feature I like best, unique to this brand, is the disposable gallon pee jug. We try to empty ours daily, which is not a problem for us, but if one gets close to full, we screw its cap on, replace it with a (free) spare, and empty and rinse out the other one at the next opportunity.

Simplicity is good for us cognitively-challenged shanty boaters!
 
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