Figured I would give an update on the natures head I installed a month ago.
For starters we have had a few accidents but we figure thats its part of the learning process. We happen to pee a lot more than I imagined and when I say "we" thats being my wife, 3 year old son, and me. We overfilled the pee tank twice because its difficult to see if its full at times, unless your pee is yellow. Ill need to drink more beer! We now dump it every other day. If you don't know, when the tank overfills it will spill into the holding carriage so its not the end of the world. Just panic for a few seconds and clean up the mess takes about 10 minutes. Urine should to get all over the cabin.
Now installing the natures head in a westsail is not difficult but it doesn't belong anywhere organically - if that makes since. We mounted it facing aft, opposite the old heads mounting platform. This was decided for two reasons a.) when sailing it allows the urine to flow downhill into the proper holes. b.) it was the only place that made it not so elevated, my wife is short and my son is three. If we mounted it on top of the old head platform it would be so elevated that even for me to sit on, and I am 6'1", would have required that I make a stepping stool just for the head.
And a few other truths. The head works great so far and since its cheap for peat moss that's a bonus. We have not installed a fan or ventilation yet and I tell you No smell still. We will install the fan and ventilation as soon as we feel its in the right spot, I am considering cutting out the fiberglass head mounting platform but man that's a lot of scaring on our beloved westsail. One small issue I have is teaching my strong peeing boy to hit the holes or sit down and pee. He is still three so thats not natures heads fault, I'm glad I am not paying for diapers anymore. With that said at times a urine smell alerts me that the boy missed again. We do place brown sugar in the urine tank to neutralize the smell.
So far we have not needed to change the dark mater but I have peeked inside when changing the urine tank. Its look is of dirt and paper and smells like dirt and paper. Not sure how to remove it yet other than by hand or scoop.
I am seriously considering placing a electrical pump in the urine tank to discharge it overboard when out at sea but again it's just a thought.
An improvement would be - A better seat, this hard plastic is just to hard on the buttocks.
Since photos here are tricky here ill post something on my blog soon.
I forgot to mention that we use a small yellow flower print squirt bottle to sort of rinse the urine left behind afterwards. Going number 2 is simple and mess free.