MacGregorSailors.com

While the composting toilets have a significant benefit there are some functional drawbacks as well.
There is something to be said in moving to a black water holding tank and pump-out system.
Two relatively “normal” adults (but are sailors actually normal people) will generally fill a 5 gallon holding tank of a Portalet in about 4 to 5 days. So a 30 gallon capacity black water holding tank should provide about 24ish days between pump outs.

Pump out systems don’t require much manual requirements to lift and carry waste materials.
One can also make a ‘home use’ evacuator to pump-out one’s own vessel should direct access to a pump out station be unavailable.
There are several YouTube videos available on this topic.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

What we’re contemplating is making (or procuring) is a drop in-place Portalet with a 20 to 30 gallon holding tank that can fit where the existing 5 gallon Portalet resides in our Mac26X. Part of this capacity would be 5 gallons fresh water tank for flushing purposes. The Thetford b,ack water packets have always done very well on oder control. We would incorporate a standard marine pump-out capability and vent to the top deck.

We haven’t seen anything available along these lines to purchase as yet so I guess we’ll have to consider making one.
I’m not too keen on going with the SOP of a marine toilet and separate holding tank as that would be more complex and expensive than we’d like to expend at this point.

So if anyone knows of something along these lines we’d really appreciate the pointer in the right direction.
(Otherwise I’m gonna have to try making one from an existing Portalet top half and making a custom fiberglass bottom holding tank.)
(A project I’d rather purchase than build as there are other more interesting projects on the list I’d like to work on….).

Best Regards,
Over Easy

After looking at everything I can, and talking to local sailing shop, I'm going with nature's head composting toilet. This is because I will probably always be on interior lakes only for weekends, maybe longer trips here and there. So the expense of a holding tank is not worth it, plus it would still be a huge hassle to pump out as there is not marinas on lakes I use. Using RV dumping stations presents a different set of hassles. Really, I should just fibreglass over thru-hulls, but may use boat as RV here and there, and in that case I can let grey water out on the ground. Thanks everyone for help to figure this out. Next on list is redoing electrical for charging and proper boat wires.

Another option if one is using a slip (or access to a house outlet) on a regular basis is an Incinolet toilet.
Apparently these are colorless (no smoke) and odorless (?) but require 115 VAC electrical power for a good bit of time to work.
It does however eliminate the need for a black water tank.
Residual ash is a fraction of the “original” volume…

They are VERY proud of their product (pricey) though.
https://incinolet.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiAzp ... voQAvD_BwE



Never personally seen/used one….
Apparently a 10 oz load takes about 1-1/2 hrs to process the a half hour to cool down.
Not sure is it can handle multiple ‘uses’ and then ‘process’ them all cycle - or - if it requires a ‘once use’ then ‘process’ type cycle.
Also kinda unsure of the “odorless” aspect as it’s really a high temp electric evaporator ……

That incinolet is interesting. Requires 20 amp dedicated circuit!! And how does it handle #1?

“Double double toil and trouble/Fire burn and cauldron bubble” ……

Hi All

Came across an interesting article on having a home based blackwater dump station.

Where I grew up we were on city sewer.
My Dad rigged up an external to the house black water dump station for our little travel trailer to make it more sanitary to empty the holding tank once we got home from our trips.
It was just like at a full hookup RV camp site and the waste was processed by the town system.

With that in mind we had the opportunity to add a black water dump station to our SC home when we had the septic leach field replaced several years ago. ( We did this not long after taking ownership of the home as The original septic leach drain field died of old age after nearly 30 years and the numerous Pine Tree roots that had migrated into the old field.) Anyway, we were also having a concrete side yard (to park Over Easy) and walkway cast so we took advantage of the opportunity and tapped into the line between the house and the in ground holding tank.

The caveat with an in ground septic system and a city/town septic system is that the primary deodorant used in most RV and Marine systems use a compound called ‘Formalin’ or ‘Formaldehyde’ as the active ingredient to keep the waste from breaking down. Thetford (and others) are the typical manufacturer(s) of this compound in either liquid or powder form. These compound can very easily kill the good bacteria that breaks down the waste in the home septic system holding tank and leach field.

The point is that if you have a home based blackwater dumping process you might want to take a look at the article in the link below:
https://www.rvtravel.com/dump-holding-t ... stem-2052/

What we do when using ours is to:
-> limit the rate at which we dump
-> limit the amount which we dump to ~5 to 10 gallons a day
-> dilute what we dump by at least 50% with fresh water
-> add a dose of a commercially available compound like ‘RID’ with each black water dump session and again in the following week.
-> regularly add a dose of ‘RID’ monthly to maintain a healthy septic system.
This was part of the instructions provided by the knowledgeable firm that installed our new septic drain field.
In addition we also have the holding tank pumped out every two to three years like we have had done at our prior homes.

Hopes this helps someone from prematurely and unknowingly damage thier home septic system.

Best Regards
Over Easy