Using the composting toilet: the 5 biggest mistakes to the toilet and how to avoid them

The use of the composting toilet is super easy: drop your pants, take a seat, let go, wipe, sprinkle, done! Nevertheless, there are one or two faux pas that can cloud your toilet happiness. We've collected the five most common mistakes to the toilet and give you tips on how to avoid them. So you stay lucky and also happy, like the poop in the drying toilet. ;)

By the way, you can find detailed information on how a composting toilet works, how to clean it or how to dispose of it in our article about dry composting toilets.

Flush the urine canister with water

Probably the biggest mistake when using the composting toilet is to flush the urine canister with water. At first glance, this seems like a good idea. After all, water makes you clean. What you don't see, but sooner or later smell: urine scale forms due to the combination of water and residual urine. This is a stubborn companion that can only be driven out of the canister by repeated rinsing with vinegar essence.

Our Tip:
Never rinse the canister with pure water, but always with acetic acid. Dilute this beforehand in a ratio of 1:7 (1 part vinegar to 7 parts water). This way you are on the safe side that your composting toilet remains hygienically fresh and above all fragrant.

Wet toilet paper when using the composting toilet

Pleasant on the bottom, a problem in the composting toilet! Moist toilet paper interferes with the drying process in the solids tank of your composting toilet. Even when additional litter is used, the residual moisture remains in the wipes and is slowly released into the waste, causing unpleasant odors.

Our Tip:
If you don't want to do without the fresh feeling of damp toilet paper, switch to substitute products. These are applied directly to the toilet paper and dry much better. Bula popo foam is very suitable.

Use of cat litter

What makes the cat happy, leads to frustration when using the composting toilet. Although granulated cat litter binds moisture, it also forms large, hard lumps. These cannot absorb any more moisture. So, if the trades collect in your solids' container, drying with cat litter doesn't really work well anymore. In addition, the bag becomes heavy due to the granule lumps and can tear when removed.

Our tip:
Make sure that the litter used when using the composting toilet is fluffy and can absorb moisture well. Sawdust, small animal litter, Terra Preta, coconut bricks or even dried coffee grounds are very suitable for the composting toilet. If it absolutely has to be a litter for cats, switch to biological litter. We have dedicated a separate blog article to litter for composting toilets. Take a look. :)

Pee standing

Peeing into the composting toilet from a standing position causes flooding. The urine splashes into the separating insert, spills over it, and thus moistens not only the solids, but also the rest of the environment around your toilet. This has nothing to do with aim or skill, but is good old physics.

Our tip
Sit down, relax, let it run.

The wrong sitting position when using the composting toilet.

This mistake is made primarily by female users of the composting toilet. The cause is simply anatomical. We ladies are simply built differently than the men of creation. If a woman sits in a fixed position on the toilet, liquid and solid cannot be optimally separated. In this case, the urine runs into the solids' container.

Our tip
Vary your sitting position when using the composting toilet as a woman. Move a little further forward for the small business and back over the solids tank for the big business. You'll see that with a few trial sessions, you'll quickly become a composting toilet expert. By the way, it's perfectly normal for a few droplets to end up in the back of the potty. In this case, simply sprinkle a little litter over the solids after using the toilet.