9/14/2003: 10:54 am: RobertEverything Else
Return of the Incinerating Toilet
If you loved part 1 of my incinerating toilet story, you might not hate part 2. Part 1 provided a “quick overview of the Incinolet brand incinerator toilet and the fine people that bring this advanced technology to a grateful world.” Part 2 follows up with an in depth look at the actual incinerating toilet installed at my cabin. Highlights include what happens when metal objects with low melting points somehow make their way into the toilet.
December 20th, 2004 at 6:20 pm
Thanks for the frame by frame demonstration. We are considering getting one. Is there offensive odor involved? Do you know of any cheap alternative? Thanks in advance.
December 26th, 2004 at 9:03 pm
I just returned from a week long vacation where I had no internet access, so my apologies for the long delay in replying.
There is definitely an odor, though I don’t think it is particularly offensive. It definitely smells better than the odor from a composting toilet. I think it smells like french fries cooked in rancid cooking oil. A friend described it as smelling like singed hair. Not exactly pleasant (I don’t expect Glade to come out with a Singed Hair Scented Air Freshener anytime soon), but not awful either.
Wind patterns are key. If it’s not too windy, the odor seems to be not as bad. The warm air exiting from the vent appears to make the odor rise and vanish quickly on a still day. If it’s windy, though, close-by neighbors will definitely smell it. Also, someone posted on one of my other blog entries that marine layers seem to trap the odor, so it’s not a great choice if you live right on a lake.
I’m afraid I don’t know of any cheap alternatives, but I have seen Incinolets for sale on Ebay before.
March 31st, 2006 at 11:51 am
Re Incinolet toilets: We, too, are looking to install one in our cabin. Regarding the “singed hair” smell, does your model have a catalytic converter? The brochure said it was added to eliminate smells… is that more wishful thinking than reality, or does this feature only appear on new models?
Thanks for the info.
August 21st, 2006 at 5:47 pm
We just installed one this summer in our cabin. We were not happy with the smell or fumes. Wondered if anyone had any suggestions about piping it?
April 9th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Could i achieve the same net effect by taking a shit in my wood stove, perhaps re-using the heating energy to cook with?
September 13th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Anonymous - i assume you were being facetious. If you are at all serious, you should consider the water content of feces. Before it will burn, your stove will have to boil the water out of it. Depending on the volume, this can seriously lower the efficiency of your stove. Also, all that water goes up your stovepipe and increases the corosion rate.
I don’t think the elecrtic units get hot enough to completely handle the more interesting stink sources. Same with the solar ones.
I have a remote cabin in Alaska with a propane fired incinerating toilet. It took some tinkering to get it right but it essentially is a welded snorkel stove with a homemade ring inside that acts as a burner. Very low tech, you turn on the gas valve, light the burner, place a heavy fitted piece of steel over the opening, clamp it down so it is more or less air tight, and let er rip. I stole the basic design from storburn in Canada. There’s is a lot safer, prettier, and idiot proof while mine is far simpler.
I estimate it burns between 40 and 60k btu based on fuel usage. It holds 4 gallons but i usually burn it around 3 (don’t want to risk a boil over). When you first fire it up there is a pretty distinctive burning/boiling poo odor. Then it’s gone when it gets up to temperature. Other than the first minute or so, there is no odor out the stack. The key is how hot it gets. You boil off the pee fairly quickly and then it incinerates the solids.
It is absolute hell on the exhaust stacks and i replace them every other year. I suspect the ammonia compounds are doing it but it may just be the water volume.
You have to remember it when burning (i use a kitchen timer) or you step into a 140 degree bathroom 3 hours later. The biggest real danger is that, for about 30-45 minutes after burn, it will brand anyone who sits on it.
September 15th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Wow, that’s awesome. I would be totally willing to try it, but Alaska is pretty far away. Not to mention remote Alaska.
I think you’re right about your design being less safe. I can’t imagine a company getting approval to distribute a product that could easily give users a large horseshoe shaped brand. Good on you for your DIY ethic, though. I should try to build more stuff.
October 29th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Update
I actually talked with an engineer and we changed the design to something much more robust. The stove is still the same (just a thick steel snorkel stove) but the burner has changed. I now have an “L” shaped piece of 4 inch stainless exhaust pipe that goes through the toilet and exits just above “water” line. The pipe is one piece, bent on a mandrel at a shop. No welds or joints in the burner. It is welded to the wall and the weld is pressure gas tight. It took a welding shop to do that as I don’t have those skills.
The burner is just a commercial weed burner in the open part of the L. It is based on a “Rocket Stove” design and burns very very hot. The gasses are mostly what evaporate and incinerate the product. The exit temperature is around 1100 degrees (nice to have engineers and their electronic measuring toys). The liquid burns off really fast and the solids smoke then the smoke ignites and the solids turn to dust.
Advantages, makes a very cool jet engine sound and there is no smell at all. Vitrually no visible exahust at all. As long as there is material in the chamber, external temps are ok. The stove and pipe are red hot. Stove pipe tops out at 600 degrees just above the stove. Burn time for a full stove is about 10 minutes to ash.
In theory you could use sticks of wood but it would take a lot longer and not burn as hot. I also don’t like ash and any liquid close to each other as the mixture can eat metal.
Disadvantage - you have to monitor it close - when empty (or even low) it gets real hot and i think i could easily melt the stove or burn through a stove pipe. I usually shut it off and let the residual gas and heat take care of the last of it.
You can’t sit on the toilet for about 45 minutes after a burn.
This may be more than anyone should know about incinerating human waste. I have tried traditional privys, composters, and other methods but this is by far the best. Remember I’m way off the gridso i don’t think this would work in any place that has codes. It does require some carbon input but I’m not going to save the world at the expense of basic sanitation.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Now, that’s freaking awesome! I love that the first advantage you list is the very cool jet engine sound. I should hack some sound effects with a microcontroller board and speaker for my Toto dual flush - motorcycle for the half flush, jet engine for the full. Not as good as a device that produces the sound itself, but living in a major urban area requires some compromises. Thanks for the update.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I’m an Alaskan and would like to offer my experience with the Storburn incinerating toilet. When it works, it works, but when it doesn’t - which is often - prepare to freeze your arse off while troubleshooting, and not eating any solid foods until you get it fixed. Dave (Storburn Intl owner) has always been helpful, but has never been able to explain the routine issues I encounter. I’ve had it since 2003, it gets little use (one person, work out of town a lot), yet one out of 5 times I run it, it fails. The pilot comes on but teh main burner won’t light, or in one case, the whole unit caught fire due to a corroded pilot line. I’m not HVAC expert, but I have had to learn how to take this thing apart all way down to the skeleton and trouble-shoot piece by piece. A few things I have learned. 1) When it’s cold (below freezing), this unit does not like to operate. Light the pilot first - which may take hitting the piezo in rapid succession 30-50 times - and just leave the pilot lit for 30-40 minutes. This seems to heat the lines and help transfer propane to the main burner. If you don’t wait, and you turn on the main burner, it will delay for 5-30 seconds and then WHUMPF! And blow itself out (and scare the crap out of you, but now you have no where to crap….
2) This unit requires way more time & propane than advertised, and doesn’t reduce the volume nearly as much as promised. A friend who operated several of these for the military had the same results. For example, last week I burned a full load (-5F outside), and it took 10 hours, 15 lbs of propane, and still the burn wasn’t complete. This is extreme, but I have so far had to use about 5-10 pounds of propane per load, have never had it burn in fewer than 6 hours, and typically have about 5 liters or more of ash.
In summary, I regret relying on this unit as my sole toilet facility. I’ve had to deny visitors before BC the toilet was broken and I couldn’t accommodate their needs. Gr. This summer, I plan to build a humanure system, which my neighbor reports success with, even in this climate.