Air Head

[Jay Knoll]

Hi Everyone

Anyone have any experience with these?

https://www.airheadtoilet.com/Air%20Hea ... ystem.html

[JFOkie]

Jay,

Two of my friends have this on their vessels, one of them is a live- aboard. I've done a lot of research and would like to install one on my 27FC, but it would be too much work (cutting into the fiberglass base that the head sits on).

If used and maintained properly, these are great. No smell and easy to clean out and discard the waste. My other friend empties the solid waste container mid July and then late September when he hauls out for the season. Actually his wife does it and she says it's easy to do and no smell.

If I had the time, I would renovate my head and install this. My plan was to then add two additional batteries where the holding tank was.......perhaps one day.

Good luck.

John
M/V Nirvana

[Mark Deeser]

I so look forward to installing something like this on my boat to avoid the joy an cost of the obligatory pump out.

[NickScheuer]

We've been using a Nature's Head (almost identical to Air Head) for two seasons and would not go back to conventional Ports Pottys, which we used for 30 years. The NH unit need only have the urine bucket emptied every several days. The solid waste container goes all summer for us.

[Bidgood]

We have had an AirHead for two years now on Bidgood (30 FC). We spend 30 nights a year cruising, Mostly 4-5 day trips. I have only changed the biomass (Peat moss) once. The liquid tank needs to be emptied after three days depending on the fluid consumption, which on our boat is excessive.

I would not go back to a conventional head after my experience with the composting head. There are a myriad of little tips to make these types of heads user friendly, but for the most part it is just a short learning curve and, once you get it, they are clean, odor free, and easy to maintain with few working parts.

They are a little pricey if you want to swap out a functioning marine sanitation system. But if you go that route you will not regret it.

IMHO

Tom

[JFOkie]

Nick & Tom, how involved was it to convert your head to install the composting unit? The base that holds my head is too high for me to mount a AH or NH unit and it would be quite involved to cut out and remove the fiberglass base.

Everyone I know that has a composting head love them and wouldn't go back either. Thanks for the information.

John
M/V Nirvana

[NickScheuer]

I've never seen an Albin-27's, so know nothing about how their fiberglass interferes with an Air Head or Nature's Head. The way I mounted our NH required a 1" thick wooden board be fastened to the sole in the head compartment to provide a mounting surface sufficiently wide to fully support the lower unit of the Head. The Albin-25 has a raised fiberglass molding that was not wide enough to fully support the head.

One detail that made our installation much easier is that the boat came to us with a loose conventional marine flush toilet and a loose holding tank. It would have been much more work to install those. The original owner had used a ports Potty for many years. The guy we bought from wanted to install the Marine Toilet, but procrastinated.

[Bidgood]

John,

The conversion was quite simple. I took the old marine head and all of the plumbing, tanks and extraneous stuff and threw it in the dumpster. Then I installed the Air head. Finally, I had a beer and said a job well done....

[JFOkie]

Tom,

I'm going to modify my head (the one on the boat) over the winter and install either an AH or NH. Not sure how the 30' head is layed out, but the 27 FC has a fiberglass base that I'm going to have to cut out or lower in order to not have the new head be too high off the floor. I may also remove the vanity and sink as the sink is so small. So if I do a total remake, I will also modify the shower system and look into a better drain system for the shower. As it is now, the shower water goes into the bilge; not a good thing for many reasons.

I hate having to deal with the waste tank for the head. Once I remove it, I may install another battery or two and a pair of solar panels on the wheelhouse roof. From what I've researched, both the NH and AH have very good reviews.

Thanks for the info.....I'm looking forward to having a beer at the end....and then use my new head.

John
M/V Nirvana

[Jay Knoll]

A YouTube review

http://youtu.be/iSoXocqfjc8

[Bidgood]

John,

I chose the Air Head because it had a smaller profile and fit the area. I also have a raised area where the marine head was. I just put the new Air Head right on top so, it is a little high but it works just fine. I will take a picture over the weekend and post it. I also have extra fluid bottles for those extended trips.

[JFOkie]

Jay, Great video, thanks. Bidgood, a picture would be helpful.

Thanks,
John
M/V Nirvana

[Jay Knoll]

And one from airhead

http://youtu.be/XVYs5moyWes

[DesertAlbin736]

Glad to see some posts re real world results with composting heads such as Air Head and Nature's Head. Our recent experience cruising the Gulf Islands in British Columbia and the scarcity of pumpout facilities in that locale also got me thinking of alternatives to marine heads with holding tanks. To summarize, pump outs in the Gulf Islands are few and far between. The holding tank on our Albin 25 is only 9 gallon capacity, with the bottom and top 2 inches, that is the space below the suction outlet at the bottom and the inlet at the top really makes in 6 or 7 gallons of actual usable capacity. It was a major PITA in that we had to resort to a pee bottle and going ashore to outhouses as often as possible.

We have a Y valve on the boat and could in theory dump overboard, but the valve sticks and I didn't trust that it wouldn't get stuck open, or worse just break. Furthermore, there is a proposal afoot (as reported in Boat US magazine) to make the entire San Juan Islands archipelago a no-discharge zone.

I think one would fit in the A25 head compartment OK, except the bowl height might make it awkward to sit on without bumping ones noggin on the overhead. Of course cost is a major issue. For now I can live with the current setup for weekend use on our lake as we have free pump outs at either of two marinas on the lake, and if I overhaul or replace that Y valve I can go 3 miles offshore and dump at sea on coastal cruises, for example on the 30 mile run from Dana Point to Catalina Island in SoCal.

[DesertAlbin736]

More thoughts on the Air Head:

If and when we convert to a composting head, here's the current set up we have and the dimensions involved that we have to work with. Air Head specs, which with the smaller marine seat version seat appear to take up a bit less space that Nature's head, is 19.25 inches tall, 17.5 inches deep at the bottom and 18 inches deep at the top, 15.2 inches wide not counting the crank handle. The crank handle increases width to 18.44 inches.

When it comes to available space within the Albin 25 head compartment, the outboard portion of the floor is raised 6 inches to accommodate the curve of the hull. That raised portion tapers from a width of 10 inches forward to 13 inches aft, for a total fore and aft length of the head compartment of 32 inches. The lower inboard portion of the head compartment floor is 13 inches wide.

In the case of our boat, the vanity sink had long since been removed and replaced with a shelving unit on the aft bulkhead and we don't have that sink available to re-install even if we wanted to. It might work better if once all the conventional plumbing was removed the head could be set at an angle in the aft corner. Whatever the case, it's a major expense that won't be necessary as long as we're weekending or doing short cruises with good access to pump outs.

But if we do another extended cruise to places where pump outs are hard to find, that would be the way to go.