On Fri, 09 Jun 2006 14:11:31 GMT, Stuart Noble
wrote:


Not much consolation for the poor sod who's just bought the house though.
I can't believe someone hasn't come up with one of these that works,

Fundamentally the problem is that you can't design one that works.
Or at least not one that works without lots of caveats about use.

To design a mincing machine for body waste is fairly easy, that's
what Sanibog have done. If you want to make one impervious to
anything that goes down a normal toilet (such as toys, teaspoons,
cotton wool etc) then life becomes much more difficult as you have to
separate out unprocessable items from processable and having done so
deal with the unprocessable (mixed with the processable) in a way
which doesn't involve the use of arm length rubber gloves and a
gallon of bleach.

Add showers and sinks and the difficult becomes impossible as in hard
water areas you are adding the grey sludge formed at low temperatures
between soap and skin and the Calcium salts with an effective binding
agent (hair). Trying to make a flap valve that copes with this on
one side and effluent on the other without frequent cleaning is an
exercise in futility.

or at least one that can be fixed easily.

Making it more easily cleanable would be straightforward but not a
selling point. "You Mk3 Bogpump can easily be dismantled for monthly
cleaning" isn't going to sell any units.

They're certainly not going to go
away, having made all kinds of flat conversions possible,

At least until people experience the noise they make the smell they
produce and the joys of (not) using them. This of course is not a
problem for either the builders or developers.

--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/