[polite applause]
We own an Envirolet composting toilet at the cottage; it's at least ten years old. More accurately it should be called a composting/evaporating toilet.
Unfortunately it has never done the evaporating part very well [editor's note: ick]. Because of this, I have had to learn altogether too much about the inner workings (or lack thereof) of our toilet.
Per Envirolet's recommendations, I have replaced a 90° elbow in our vent stack with two 45° elbows to improve air flow.
We've taken to aerating more often than the previous owner to ensure proper composting.
We're even using the more expensive Envirolet-brand daily mix of peat and organic matter to mix in so that the toilet works better.
Alas, all is still not well with our toilet.
When something goes wrong with the toilet, usually the first place I look to for answers is the Internet. Finding little help on the web, I called the company that makes the toilet. Then I called them again after my first message wasn't returned.
After I called them twice to speak to someone about the issues and got no response at all, I realized the only way to get them to talk to me was to show up in person.
Envirolet's "showroom" is located in deep south Oshawa [editor's note: ick] and is open from 8:30 a.m until 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday.
The day before going to the cottage for a week I finally had a chance to go down there and talk to a real, live person about the inner workings of my toilet. When I arrived at the location, I could find no trace of the company. I immediately called home to say: "There's not even a sign on the building, am I at the right address?" After receiving confirmation, I walked through the door and found a small desk with a phone and nothing else. This did not look like a company showroom to me.
Someone did show up to greet me (Thanks, Tara) and we had a nice long chat about my toilet. It's amazing how you can talk about a poo hole without saying the word "poo" for half an hour. In the end I walked away with more information than before and a firmer conviction that my toilet was not working the way it should.
My toilet is supposed to evaporate liquid using two fans and a heater (we didn`t use the word "pee" during that half hour, either). Tara helped me figure out how to troubleshoot whether the fans and heater were working.
When I got back to the cottage it was once again down the hatch into the area under the cottage we affectionately refer to as the poo hole; the space where our holding tank is located.
I located the access hatch and realized that I had about four inches of clearance above it before I hit the floor joists of the bathroom above. Despite this, I was able to remove the access hatch cover and examine the drop-in fan/heater unit to figure out that the heater and at least one fan weren't working.
This is when I also figured out that there's something missing on my toilet that should be there; a little switch on the hatch cover that toggles between Fan-only and Fan-and-Heater operation. If the switch wasn't there to turn the heater on, maybe that's why the toilet wasn't doing a good job evaporating! Maybe I just need a new switch!
Astonishingly, I had a brand new drop-in replacement drawer with new fans and a heater! Clearly the previous owners had also figured out the toilet wasn't working properly and had bought the part to fix it, but never got around to it.
--- TO BE CONTINUED ---
There. A really long post about the toilet without using the words pee or poo (other than to say that they weren`t used).
[editor's note: you said "poo-hole"!]
We in the trade refer to it as liquid waste and solid waste. Handy Dad's brother in law (purveyor of canoe hats to the gentry)
ReplyDeleteI was looking at the photos and Eric looks pooplexed.
ReplyDeleteluv
cuz k
You guys know poofectly well that I'm sick of all these crappy jokes. Piss off already!
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