Bio toilet for the cottage — how to choose the best option and what to pay attention to (110 photos)

Every summer resident is faced with a "toilet question". Connecting to a full-fledged sewer system is expensive, and often simply impossible. The classic solution is a wooden outdoor booth above the pit. It's cheap, but it's not necessary to talk about practicality and comfort. Nowadays, manufacturers offer an excellent alternative — toilets.

Once this accessory was the prerogative of astronauts and pilots, but today odorless toilets that do not require pumping are available to everyone.

The essence of functioning is extremely simple. Externally, such a toilet does not differ from an ordinary toilet bowl, only instead of a sewer or a cesspool, an autonomous system works. The market offers many models with different characteristics and principles of operation.

In general, toilets can be classified according to two criteria — the method of waste treatment and mobility. There are stationary, portable and limited portable options, each of which is endowed with its own advantages and disadvantages.

In addition to the scope of the toilet, the criterion of mobility is dictated by the method of disposal. Let's talk about the varieties of toilets for this characteristic in more detail.

There is an opinion that the best toilets for cottages and gardens are peat. And this statement is not without meaning, because only environmentally friendly ingredients act as an absorbent — peat and bacteria living in it.

And this means that the processed products can be sent to the compost heap with a light heart, and subsequently used as fertilizer. It can be placed both indoors and outdoors, but in the first case ventilation will be required.

Positive

• Absolute ecological cleanliness.
• Slow filling of the waste tank.
• Cheapness of operation. Despite the fact that special peat is required (there is an insufficient content of microorganisms in the usual one), this does not particularly affect the cost of maintenance, and the peat toilet is rightfully considered the cheapest in the service.
• Frosts are not terrible, which makes it possible to use outdoors.

Minuses

• If installed indoors, additional ventilation is required.
• A heavy waste tank, which can create inconvenience for people with disabilities.
• For the above reasons, it requires a stationary installation.
• Uneven distribution of processing material to waste.

Liquid

The ideal combination of work efficiency and mobility are liquid toilets. The working substance in them is a special liquid, depending on the type of which certain conditions of use are imposed.

Liquids based on live bacteria are an environmentally friendly and more expensive option. Waste with this approach can be placed in a compost pit, and in a few years a high-quality natural fertilizer will be ready.

Formaldehyde liquids are rarely used for suburban areas, due to extreme toxicity. However, there is no doubt about the effectiveness in this case, and if it is possible to take waste to the place of centralized sewerage, then this option can be considered.

Waste processed with the help of ammonium-based liquids is also dangerous for garden crops, but only partially. For garden trees or lawn, such a recharge will not be harmful, but it is better to keep such a substance away from vegetables and berries.

The device is elementary — the upper part is an improvised toilet with a miniature flushing tank. The lower part is a reservoir in which the waste products are treated with a liquid to a homogeneous mass without fetid aromas.

Positive

• High mobility. Easy to move to the right place. It is enough to fill up — and the toilet is in working condition, without any stationary problems. Such a toilet can be taken with you on vacation, placed in the trunk, which will really appeal to conscious gardeners who lead an active lifestyle.
• Uniform treatment of excrement.
• When using the appropriate refueling, it can be completely eco-friendly.
• Relatively inexpensive service.

Minuses

• It will be necessary to empty the contents of the storage tank quite often, of course, if there is no desire to sacrifice portable qualities by installing a larger tank.
• It cannot be used during frosts, which imposes restrictions in winter.

Electric

With the development of suburban infrastructure and the welfare of the population, such toilets are gaining popularity. Depending on the design, they are miniature dryers or crematoriums. The second definition sounds scary, but you shouldn't worry — only feces will suffer. Dried excrement or ashes from their burning can be used as fertilizer.

 

Liquid waste is usually discharged into the sewage system or into the ground, there are rarely models that completely dry all the waste, but they are not widely distributed, since they require a large amount of energy.

As many have already guessed, all that is needed for the operation of such a toilet is electricity and ventilation, or flavoring devices as an alternative to ventilation.

Attachment to the power grid implies a stationary form of use, but there are models with autonomous power sources.

Positive

• Fast recycling.
• Easy to maintain — the residue at the outlet is very light.
• Compact, can be harmoniously integrated into any interior.

 

Minuses

• High purchase and maintenance cost.
• The need for power grids.
• Ventilation is mandatory if the design does not provide special devices for neutralizing unpleasant odors.
• High probability of breakdowns. The toilets described above can only be broken physically.
• Models with liquid waste disposal are unreasonably expensive to maintain.

Which one to choose?

The variety of offers on the market makes the eyes run away, and the consumer inevitably wonders how to choose a toilet that suits him. First you need to decide how and where you will use the toilet.

For a cottage, a vegetable garden, a country house, when portability does not matter much — the peat option is ideal. The combination of price and simplicity throws into the background all the disadvantages of such toilets. It can be safely installed on the street, and the waste received at the exit will go to fertilizers for the infield.

If mobility is important, then there is nothing better than liquid toilets, they can serve you both at home and on a trip, and when you think about rearranging / redeveloping the room — no problems will arise.

Are you a fan of green technologies, and most of all you care about aesthetics and operational advantages? Then the electric version is your option.

The next thing you should pay attention to is how many people will use it and how intensively. If you often have mass parties at your dacha, then in the case of liquid devices, an unpleasant incident may happen — the waste tank will simply fill up and until it is cleaned, the toilet cannot be used. If you do not want to overshadow the rest with an unpleasant routine, it is better to choose another option, or a model with spare tanks.

And, of course, it is impossible to ignore the financial side of the issue. It is necessary to soberly assess your financial capabilities and correlate them with your needs, discarding the desire to brag to your neighbor. In addition to the already mentioned basic differences in purchase and service prices, there is also a manufacturer factor.

Numerous online stores are full of photos of toilets for cottages from various manufacturers for every taste and purse. It is not entirely objective to agitate for our own, but I will still take responsibility to assert that domestic manufacturers are absolutely in no way inferior to the best German and Finnish companies, which are considered the best today.

And yet, as in the case of any household appliances, the price is often unreasonably high just for a big name. Therefore, you should not blindly follow the most popular company, study the market and you will surely find a product of the same quality much cheaper.

The cost of consumables should also be taken into account. Tempted by the low price of the device itself, you can bitterly regret if it turns out that the absorbent and other refills for this toilet require special and cost a lot of money.

Photo of the toilet for the cottage