Toilet Conversion Part 2 - 6/20/2014

9/24/2015 Here's the thing. First off, Blogger sucks. Who knows where the pics went. Sigh..... Secondly, I no longer recommend the C-Head. Go with the Nature's Head, it may be spendy but it's not a $500 bucket toilet. I'll go into this in more detail at some point but for now just know that if you can't afford a good composting toilet, just go with the bucket. It'll be less mess and hassle.


My C-Head arrived today in a big Home Depot box.  I had been following the tracking with much anticipation.  I tore into it like a kid on Christmas morning. :-)

The ventilation hood adapter for the storage bucket.  

Even came with instructions on how to get it out of the box.

It was packaged quite well.  

I had this old shelf from a computer desk in the basement and hacked it up to make a base.  Unfortunately the toilet flange sticks up from the floor & can't easily be removed as it is attached to the tank. Plus the nut on the plug sticks up a bit too.  This was quite the project, involving a circular saw and a roto-zip which I finally found in a box tonight after looking for it for ages.  I have drifts of chipboard dust in the basement now..  

The toilet slid into place.  It was a tight fit.

With the cover in place

Cover removed, ready to use.  Did I mention it was a close fit?  Um, yeah.  I can't open the cabinet. F&*%!  :-)

Top lifted to access the collection containers.  Apparently this is the only way I will be able to access the bathroom cabinet.  :-(  Ah well. I do need to see if I can disassemble the box behind the toilet or make the hole in it where the water pipe comes out bigger so I can push the water line back inside.  Even that inch will help.  I could also, after the 30 day return policy is up, possibly sand down that edge that sticks out from under the seat.  Or I could just live with lifting the top. I don't keep stuff I access frequently in that cabinet anyway as it was hard to access before, and the water pump & a ton of piping takes up most of it. We'll see how it goes.

Liquid & solids collection containers.

I haven't used it yet.  I need to get the coco coir, or if I can't find that I suspect Feline Pine cat litter might work great too.  It's basically compressed pine sawdust, and any moisture turns it back into sawdust.  And it has a pleasant smell.  My first impression of the toilet  is positive though, it's well built and the design makes sense.  I like the look of it better than the Nature's Head too.  It looks more like a regular toilet while the NH looks like something from the space shuttle.  :-)  I'll update when it's seen some use.

Toilet Conversion, Part One. 6/14/2014

Since I plan to dry camp/boondock a lot, the limited capacity of my holding tanks was a concern. 30 gallons gray and 23 gallons black water capacity requires serious conservation. Not to mention, one small sewer leak was all it took to make me think dragging around 180 pounds of poopy water had a lot of potential for disaster. One that I didn't enjoy dealing with.

 I had bought a Nature's Head for my boat but never installed it. I liked the concept for the boat and thought it would be just as good in the RV. Everyone who has one seems to be happy. Unfortunately the NH would not fit in the RV. No how, no way. So I now have a C-Head, which is smaller and lighter,  on order and it should be here in a week or two. I was going to wait till it got here to yank the toilet, but today was under 80 deg. Days this cool are few and far between in June so I took advantage of it. It just means there will be some doodie bag usage in my future if I camp before the new head gets here. :-)   This was way easier than I thought, which was very nice.


The old toilet, Thetford AquaMagic. There are two nuts under caps on either side and a water connection in the rear.



The toilet lifted off easily. The bolts are crooked as I had already removed them and forgot to take a pic prior. So I stuck them just barely back in. You get the idea. There was also a foam gasket that I tossed.



I have to get caps for both pipes.




Until then, so as not to have sewer odors or, god forbid, splashes, I used an old pint glass as an impromptu plug with a Target bag gasket. :-)

(Update 6/15) I made it to Lowe's today, and thankfully they had the correct plug for the toilet pipe. It's called a test cap. Don't ask me why.

Oatey 3" test plug. 4.99 at Lowes. 

This is the cap I bought for the water pipe. I may have to pick up some Teflon tape, we'll see when I fill up the water again.

The old toiler removed. It weighs about 2 pounds. I had not intended to keep it for when I sell the unit but I might as it's not that big or heavy. I'll think about it.