Why I changed my composting toilet

Having used a Bambooloo for the past three years, I finally swapped it for a simple Joolco GottaGo composting loo.

First off a little about myself which may explain more about why I made this change. I am a 61-year-old male who works from my off-grid tiny home here in Plimmerton, Wellington, NZ. Health-wise, I am on a number of drugs, with one of the side effects being that I tend to pee a lot. Why does this matter? The main reason I explored the change was to try the pee separator the Joolco toilet provides, and at under $NZ500, it was worth me comparing this loo to my original Bambooloo.

The Bambooloo

I originally purchased my Bambooloo as I like the look of the unit. I faithfully used this toilet over my first 3.5 years of living in my tiny home and had no issues with smells. This is mainly due to getting the composting mix right. However, after two years, the plastic hardware on the Bambooloo started to deteriorate, which was really annoying. I patched the loo up and started to explore other options for the future.

The other issue with the Bambooloo was the fact that it does not separate fluids from solids, and with my health condition, I would fill my loo 2-3 times a week, mainly due to the amount of fluids I pass (especially during the evening hours) and in the middle of winter, this can be quite a pain.

The buckets provided by the Bambooloo supplier never lasted; the plastic handles tended to break after about 12 months of use. I tried to clear out my loo more frequently (When it was half full) to put less strain on the weight of the bucket, but unfortunately, this practice never worked well and just meant the process of changing out my loo happened much more often.

I decided to research finding a new solution because I wanted to see what the difference was when you separate fluids from solids.
NB: The Bambooloo had taught me that composting loos can work well, when you get your composting mix right, and there is no issue with smells.

Joolco GottaGo

After comparing several alternatives, most of which were over $NZ1500+, I decided to try a Joolco GottaGo (Composting option) mainly because of its price (under $NZ500) compared to other loos. The idea was that if it worked well, I could always upgrade to another model later on.

Here is why I decided to try this loo… albeit nervous about whether the separator would work.

It's recommended for blokes to sit when urinating so that urine doesn't end up in the solids container.

The urine outlet features an automatic sealing mechanism that allows urine to pass but prevents odours from escaping. When doing No. 2, you slide open the latch, which is similar to most chemical toilets.

I initially used both my Bambooloo and Joolco for a couple of weeks, and then decided it was time to retire the Bambooloo. The GottaGo is far superior, and the ability to have the separation makes a massive difference. The separator works really well!

Not only is the changeover process for the Joolco so much cleaner and easier, but the savings in the amount of composting materials needed are substantial.

A big bonus is that you don't need to use as much composting material, and after two weeks, I'm only just thinking about changing out the No. 2’s container. Also, the containers on the Joolco toilet are of much superior quality and are easier to clean than the clunky, heavy, and poorly designed Bambooloo buckets.

It became very clear that using the Joolco GottaGo would make my life easier and save me a lot of money on consumables over the next 12 months.

OK, the Joolco is sold mainly as a toilet for travellers, but I'm so happy with this loo that I've decided it's all I need for now.

If you are looking for a composting toilet, I thoroughly recommend you give the Joolco GottaGo a try.

Tony Cutting
for Kiwi Tiny Home