Dealing with your fears

Composting toilets are outside the experience of most people and a certain "leap of faith" is required to purchase one. Here I will try to address some of the most common fears.

The most common fear is of smell. If I say you can occasionally smell a slight urine odor you may well take this as an indication of a serious smell problem. But it isn't; urine separating toilets are common throughout the world now and do not smell. They don't even smell when you use the toilet. There is a fan running all the time taking even the slightest odor away and up the flue immediately. You can even feel this gentle breeze massaging your neither regions. You can't smell the odor outside because it rises and dissipates. I have put my nose right up to the rotating vent on the roof of our caravan and can smell the bog then but once I pull away a meter I can no longer detect the odor.

Flies are another concern. In still hot weather a few flies do gather round the vent but none go in and even the slightest breeze dissipates them. We get no flies inside because there is no smell inside.

Another biggie is sight. No body wants to have to see their own and everyone else's excretions. I have a strong view about this. I believe that one thing that distinguishes us Kiwis as a culture is our realness. Well we all excrete. The foreign toilets do have a flap or something to hide the pile from view. How are you supposed to know when its full?. The hole is black the bag in the bucket is black and it is dark down there. What's more; think about what happens with a flush toilet. When you've done your business you stand and turn back to face the evidence in order to flush. You don't have to flush a bog. Yes you can see the pile but first you have to look closely. I believe that a healthy person should take a peek occasionally but its up to you, you don't have to see it if you don't want to.

Finally Noise. The first bog we sold went to a couple who already had an American manufactured composting toilet. They were building a new house and had specially insulated their new toilet against noise on account of this toilet. Unfortunately you could still hear it from adjacent rooms. Yes our toilet uses a fan. The fan is very similar to those used in computers but quieter. Even with fin wall you should not be aware of the fan noise when outside the toilet. The fan is cocooned in sponge rubber and runs slower and quieter than in a computer. We are proud of how little noise the bog makes.

Anyway - you don't only have to take my word on these. Now that we have a fair few bogs out there you have the opportunity  to speak to other users. They come from divergent backgrounds too. Not just greenies. Farmers, business executives, tourist operators all sorts.

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