The 5 Features to Look for in a Composting Toilet

After years of R&D and a combined 34 years of composting toilet use amongst our team, we’ve come up with the 5 most important features to look for in a composting toilet. 

 

Not all composting toilets are built with real-life user experience in mind. From urine diverters that don’t account for male/female anatomical differences to inconvenient maintenance and cleaning, we know both maintenance and daily use can be a pain. And don’t get us started on those nooks and crannies!

1. Easy to Use

For an easy stink-free composting toilet experience, keep the solids separate from the liquids. While a compost toilet that deposits both solids and liquids into one receptacle can absolutely be odor free, it requires more cover material and fills more quickly so we like to keep them separate. Read more about the benefits of separating. 

The key is a diverter that successfully diverts urine into the liquids compartment, every time, for all users – men, women, kids, and even guests who don’t know what they are doing. We’ve found over our years of hands-on research in the field that a good diverter will have a deep and steep bowl to quickly send the liquids down and prevent overflowing into the solids bin.  If your urine diverter does not live up to its job, you’ll end up with too much moisture in your compost and alas, the dreaded smelly composting toilet (for more info, take a look at our “Troubleshooting a smelly composting toilet” article). For a diverter that knows what it’s doing check out the THRONE urine diverter and the ready-to-use Throne composting toilet

2. Easy to Empty

Nobody wants to carry their entire composting toilet outside to dump it upside down. It’s heavy, prone to messes, and unnecessary. A better solution is containers that can be removed from the toilet base and dumped on its own.

Some folks will wonder if it would be beneficial to mix up the contents of their toilet and we say the answer is no for three reasons. 

1. Unless your compost toilet has a massive holding tank, the composting itself will not occur inside the toilet. It takes many months to a year for composting to occurTherefore, there’s no benefit to mixing the contents up. Simply add cover material on top of each deposit and the odor is contained. Read about different covering materials here.
2. Adding a crank arm or auger to mix the contents complicates the toilet unnecessarily. Turning the crank gets very difficult long before the toilet is full, making it hard to use properly. These components also add more nooks and crannies that collect material and are very hard to clean (we’ve tried!). It’s also just one more moving part that can break.
3. For those who are bagging their toilet contents to dispose of in ways other than in a compost pile, a toilet without moving parts inside allows you to make your deposits directly into the bag and simply remove the bag when full. No need to dump the full solids container upside down into a trash bag – a chore that’s always a bit nerve wracking.

3. Easy to Clean

Many composting toilets have far too many small crevices and hard-to-reach areas – places no one wants to clean, especially given the kinds of materials they collect. The worst part? Some of these spots are completely inaccessible, even if you take the whole toilet apart.

Look for a compost toilet with as few moving parts as possible and notice what edges the solids and liquids will touch – you’ll be cleaning all of those. A surprise to many new users is that cleaning the liquids is going to me more of a chore than the solids. Urine builds up deposits that are hard to remove so you absolutely don’t want it trickling into hard to reach areas.  

The Throne Composting Toilets system is built to be as smooth and simple as possible for easy cleaning. The Throne urine diverter is manufactured from non-staining LLDPE, which is durable and easy to clean. The solids bin has smooth straight sides making it easy to hose or wipe down. And the Throne composting toilet base is built without annoying nooks and crannies, so you don’t have to worry about getting out the “biohazard toilet toothbrush”. 

Fit Your Home

In tiny spaces you either plan the space around the appliance/furniture or you plan the appliance/furniture around the space and you’ll make those decisions for everything you put in. If you have the space to install a ready-made compost toilet then all you have to do is pick the toilet, check out its footprint and installation requirements, and build your bathroom space to suit. The Throne Premium is ready – just plop it down and “go”.
For tighter spaces, you may need your toilet to flex to your needs rather than the other way around. The Throne DIY composting toilet system gives you the ability to get the best diverter on the market, add any a la carte components you need, and build your toilet to fit your space and style. From tiny van toilets to rustic outhouse or a sleek skoolie toilet, you can design your bathroom just the way you need it. And not have your toilet control your blueprint.

Fit Your Budget

Living tiny and/or off-grid can be a sustainable choice, not only for the environment but also for financial reasons. An off-the-shelf composting toilet is often one of the three most expensive appliances for building your off-grid home (next to a fridge and electrical/solar setup). But it doesn’t have to be that way! There are plenty of practical options on the market that are less expensive, including building your own DIY composting toilet. Another advantage for DIYing your composting toilet: match it to your style, your bathroom design, and the size of your home! The free Throne Composting Toilets® DIY plans prove that DIY doesn’t have to mean rustic, either! Take a look at our plans and ideas for creating that perfect custom composting toilet.

Conclusion

A composting toilet should make your life easier—not more complicated. After decades of using, testing, and building these systems ourselves, we’ve learned what actually works in real-life tiny spaces and off-grid setups. Whether you’re going for a ready-made toilet or building your own, focus on the features that matter: simple separation, easy emptying, low-maintenance cleaning, a design that fits your space, and a price that fits your budget.

With the right setup, a composting toilet can be clean, stink-free, and surprisingly convenient. And we’re here to help you build or buy one that’s just right for you.

Next Steps:

• Download FREE DIY Toilet Plans and Cut Sheets
• Take a tour of the Throne Premium ready-to-use toilet