A real royal DIY Throne

Where are you using your DIY THRONE composting toilet? 

We’re using it in our bunkhouse on our rural property where we live full-time. It’s not our only toilet, but it’s our primary bathroom for our family of four. A real royal DIY Throne.

Why did you choose a composting toilet, and, more specifically, a DIY THRONE composting toilet?

The bunkhouse is a designed to be a temporary structure, so hooking it up to a permanent septic system seemed like a huge, expensive undertaking that we just weren’t up for. We had experience with using a composting toilet for full-time living in our RV, so it just made sense to set up our bunkhouse bathroom in a similar way. We chose the Throne specifically because it was simple, easily customizable to fit our needs, and the cost was reasonable.

Have you had any experiences with composting toilets before building the Throne and how has it been for you?

We traveled full-time in our renovated Airstream with an AirHead toilet from 2016 to 2022, when COVID hit and we stopped traveling. We still use the toilet in the Airstream occasionally, but we much prefer using the Throne in the bunkhouse.

We like the Throne much better for its simplicity. It doesn’t have a flap to cover the solids or a crank, but we’ve found we don’t miss those things at all.

Over years of full-time use, our Air Head toilet has broken in a few different ways. Insect screens have fallen apart, hardware has worked its way loose and fallen out. Most recently the spring that closes the flap broke so it doesn’t stay fully open or closed. It’s also gotten pretty gross. We’ve tried to keep it clean, but there lots of crevices and layers of plastic there that accumulate the most awful grime you could imagine.

Our Throne diverter is a single layer of plastic, so there’s no trouble cleaning it. There’s no odd inaccessible crevices. There’s also no flap, screens, crank, or odd hardware to break or go missing.

How was your experience building your DIY toilet?

I loosely based my design on the plans, but I took some liberties. Our toilet is a bit shorter than the plans call for, and I used a hardboard wall panel for the vertical edge instead of wooden spars and a shroud. I also added a few details with a router like rounding off the top edge and cutting a groove so the top of the diverter would sit flush.

What’s your routine for managing your toilet?

I routed the liquids out the exterior wall to a couple of plastic 5-gallon Hedpack jugs. When one is full, about every 7-10 days, I switch the hose to the other one. I empty the solids bucket every other week or so when it’s full, then add some wood shavings to the bottom to make dumping easier next time. We cover our solids with pine shavings that are sold as animal bedding at the local ag supply store.

What do you like most about your DIY THRONE?

It’s simple! No crevices, so it’s easy to clean. No levers, flaps, or cranks, so its not intimidating for guests to use. All the parts are cheap and simple and just as functional as the more complicated expensive options out there.