Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Not to worry, minor toilet explosion totally under control

Yes, well, so, in an earlier post I described the low-flush toilet connected to the compost bin through a macerator pump, and how I had learned to be very economical with the flush water so as not to overflow the compost bin.

Too economical as it turned out.  Over the course of a week or more, the pump became slower and slower to turn on after a flush, and the toilet developed a disturbing 'belch-back' behavior.  Sure enough, it eventually backed up.  Not in the long skinny line from the pump to the bin, but in the short wide pipe from the toilet to the pump.

Pigpen was annoyed.  His diagnosis is that more flush water is needed in Number Two Situations.  This in turn makes his planned overflow-processing plant bed mission-critical, instead of being just a nice-to-have accessory.  That is to say, there may not be a window of operation between enough water to flush and too much water for the compost bin, or if there is, it is very small and will require an experienced touch on the pedal, like the touch the Skipper needed to start his 20-year old diesel, you know, before it threw a rod and became a yard ornament.  I digress, but that's the end of my little story 4now.

Here's another news-of-the-future link for all you sustainnibals:





2 comments:

Cosmic Monkey said...

Jesus Christ, the composting bucket toilet is simple and works well. What is the problem with it? Are you all just trying to complicate simplicity or what?

Graham S. Wright said...

Simple yes. Works well? Gotta disagree with you there cos/mo. Tried it, hated it, don't want to be in charge of selling it. So we tried to come up with something new & better. Like I've said, it would be best if the house was designed to accommodate a large compost bin right under the toilet, but it wasn't. Best we could come up with for our retrofit situation here, was to put the bin in the greenhouse and pump it over. Seemed like it ought've worked. As to our Lord and Savior, where would Jesus poop? I have no visibility on that.