Kiwi Bog
A Compact Composting Toilet
This is the website of the Kiwi Bog Company
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Kiwi Bog A Compact Composting Toilet This is the website of the Kiwi Bog Company |
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cartoon by local artist Daryl Crimp. Supplied with all bogs |
Kia Ora and welcome to our siteWhat we doWe manufacture aesthetically pleasing compact composting toilets that can be used in baches, cottages, campervans (movans), boats, and caravans as well as most remote applications. The Kiwi Bog is built to comply with New Zealand and Australia standard AS/NZS 1546.2:2008 which is a joint standard for waterless composting toilets. Kiwi bogs works on the urine separating principle. The most up to date pictures are shown on the Photos and Solar pages
NewsWednesday 31st March 2021
This image is of yours truly under the strict supervision of “Our Bird”. You will no doubt note our modern air conditioned factory! We are considering offering a DYI kitset for those wanting to build their own bogs; We would supply all the componentry except the container. It would include seat, fan box with wiring, urine tray and plumbing to pipe urine. It would also include instructions for construction and assembly with photos of an example build. Thursday 11th June 2020 Just a note to interested or intending purchasers. We will be in the North Island from 24th of this month for around a month. This may mean that bogs are not available for this period as we have no stock at present and are otherwise busy getting ready for our trip. We will have our caravan which has a bog installed so that may be available to inspect for people considering purchase. Throughout our time up north we will can be contacted on both our landlines and cell phones. Landline is 03 546 9769. Our plans are only to travel up as far as the lower Waikato at present but our plans could change while away. Urine trays may be available throughout as we expect to be travelling with stock and will be able to send while away. Please contact us for more information. Wednesday 29th April 2020 Well: A new year, a new virus (not on this site!) and a new host for this site. This time a kiwi host so we are hoping for long term stability as well as being pleased to bring the business into our own country. With a very busy end of 2019 with heaps of bogs and trays sent out things have gradually quietened. Last month we just supplied parts while we were in lockdown. Now we are managing contact-less purchases or sending bogs as usual. At the moment I am building one sold bog and another for stock (for as long as it lasts). We will get the Trademe listing back but haven’t any plans to add the bogs themselves as listings there. Judith and I had been watching videos and news from Wuhan over the new year so we went into isolation in January well before the official. With us both being older we appear to have greater risk at least in the early stages. None-the-less it still might have been too early. Lets hope it doesn’t spread from here. Keep safe and well out there. Saturday 30th November 2019 Unfortunately and very reluctantly we have to increase our price for the Bog. Fortunately we are able to leave other products unchanged but costs for components used in the bogs have increased hugely in the many years (9?) since we last increased our prices. Another change is that we are now offering our urine trays on trademe although at a higher price and with free freight. We have only been on trademe for just over a month but we have certainly noticed the increase in purchases of trays over this short time. Thursday 12th September 2019 Just to confirm that we are as always still here. This site seldom get the attention it needs but is hopefully somewhat serviceable. Building bogs and heath issues compete for time and attention. One thing that is missing is more detail of the trays of which we sell more than bogs, so the Urine tray page now includes better photos of our tray. Unfortunately after what must be around 10 years we are going to need to increase some of our prices. To give intending purchasers some warning this will not happen until late November this year. One of our more unusual sales recently has been for “willie” the tug boat which was last in service in Greymouth but has found a new home in Napier where it has been very professionally renovated. Hope to have photos sometime. Monday 21st January 2019 Well more than a year has gone since I worked on this site. Unfortunately lots has got in the way of which some has been building and supplying bogs and trays. Our very first customer just contacted us to report that their urine tray had split and needed replacement. Their oldest bog is 15years and trays were then made of plastic and connected by flexible pipe. They have two others that they purchased subsequently. So not just our first, but one of those that purchased three over years. Trays are now, like the rest of the bog, made of thick fibreglass which will hopefully last more than 15 years. We keep thinking about weak points exposed over time and have identified the wiring as one, not just the 12volt socket but the wire itself becomes brittle. So we have started using self-tap screws round the flue outlet to hold the fan box in place and to offer whole fan box replacements for those that eventually fail or become unreliable. Most old fan boxes can be replaced by these new boxes although the tasks to achieve replacement are more complex and numerous for older bogs. We also sheave the wires in heat shrink to protect them and prolong life. For a number of years we have been using 24 volt SUNON maglev fans. They still run at 12 volts and use less power and make much less noise than at their rated voltage. Being “maglev” means that they employ magnetic bearings which seem to increase their lifespan considerably without the friction attendant roller bearings. One problem reported may effect customers in exposed westerly places where extreme wind gusts can blow back through the flue which is a most undesirable circumstance. We have investigated a whole raft of solutions but the most practical seems to be to increase the fan voltage from 12 toward 24 when exposed to these wind gusts. Fortunately laptop power adapters frequently produce 19 volts (or more) and may offer a practical solution. We are also looking at variable power supplies that can deliver up to 24 volts and will offer these in our ever swelling price list once we have imported them. To re-iterate that the absence of update of this site does not reflect the availability of our products just my laziness or otherwise occupation. We are just a small home business and are past retirement age – (except the parrot). At some time in the future we may pass the baton to people with more youth and energy but we aren’t there yet. In the meantime we keep our prices down by not accepting any credit risk and buying components at the best prices we can get. Our customers are almost without exception great people and their return for more bogs is the greatest compliment they can pay. I am preparing a simple video of the bog and another of the tray so that people who prefer that means can quickly get an idea of what we make. Sunday 17th December 2017 A happy Xmas and New Year to everyone. We find more sales are including solar power and many also including the new Bog Lights. We have upgraded our charge controllers to include two USB outlets to take advantage of the higher power solar panels now supplied The new controllers monitor the battery voltage and it is reported on the display which is an excellent indicator of the state of charge of your batteries once you get used to reading both when charging and not. Friday 1st September 2017 Marley have changed their 65mm pipe bend that we used as our flue outlet connecting the bog to the flue pipe and the new product no longer fits appropriately. We have managed to make an alternative outlet but it changes the appearance of the bog, particularly while no flue is connected. Two fittings now replace one. Updated photos are now on the Photos page. We have noted that the fan wiring has become brittle on older bogs so will start sheaving the wiring in an attempt to prolong it’s life. After considerable prototyping we are able to introduce a Bog Light as a new product. Solar kits are increasingly purchased with a bog and as they now include a 30 watt panel they are a viable option where no mains power is available. It also includes two usb outlets so the extra power from the panel can be used to charge usb devices. Photos of the new charger are on the Photos page. A single led strip is probably sufficient to light most toilets. At the heart of the bog light is an infra-red controller whose on time is adjustable and which will only turn on in dark conditions. They come pre-wired with solar kits for those new customers who order them. For existing customers there a simple connection to your present charge controller required. Sunday 7thMay 2017 We have just moved to a new host so sorry to anyone who has experienced disruptions while we have moved. Delighted to report a large number of repeat customers. Most purchasing their subsequent bogs months or years after their first. We have one customer with 4, at least 4 with 3 and a very large number (higher than I can count!) with 2. Lots of solar systems too. We are now able to get a 30watt solar panel for about the price we used to pay for a 5watt one. Panels are getting ever closer to a dollar per watt but still have a fair way to go. We live off grid and our first panels cost $6 per watt. We need to update our solar kit-sets so you will note some pricing and detail changes on our price list, unfortunately the batteries are no cheaper although there are some improvements in technology. We are currently working on updating our site as much info is outdated. To see the currently manufactured bog in detail please look at Photos Sunday 23rd October 2016 We have decided to make a few more bogs to meet the current demand before doing the work on the moulds. While work on updating the website is slowed by other pressures we have put up a jumbled assortment of photos of the latest bog and these can be seen on Photos Tuesday 11th October 2016 We have returned home from Christchurch and are now making up three bogs to fill outstanding orders. After these there will be a short pause while our moulds are cleaned up for the future before we are back to normal production – hopefully before xmas. The work on this site has not proceeded as hoped due to the lower bandwidth (cell) in Chch so it will now proceed apace as time allows. In the meantime you can see updated photos of our current bog on this page and also on the photos page. Sunday 27th August 2016 We are now in Christchurch and doing some work on this site. So please excuse any irregularities. We plan to move this blog to it's own page as partt of this overhaul. Expected return to Nelson is around the last week of September
Thursday 7th July 2016 We have just finished a busy few months making bogs and will be taking some time off over the next few months with trips to Wellington and Christchurch. Bog orders may take longer than usual to fill during this time so please check before you order. We have prepared a heap of new bog photos which we will place and link on this site over the next two months. Its about time we updated our photos some of which are very out of date. The most significant changes are that the bog shells and urine tray are now manufactured from fibreglass and the urine tray is now attached by stainless nuts and bolts. Tuesday 19th May 2016 Yes of course we are still here. This is a new web host so hope everything works for you ry South Island residents may like to know we will be Christchurch for over a month from late August. Our cell phone will reach us or the internet. With increasing use of our bog by persons other then customers and their families we have need of addressing the problem of occasion faeces in the urine outlet. We have found that some users are not using either the stool provided at purchase or a replacement. It is critical to the correct action of the bog that the users knees are level with or higher than their waste when seated on the bog. Existing customers may not be aware of this need as we ourselves have not been. It is particularly important for persons of shorter stature such as teenagers or children. For the really young a child seat may be ideal. We are now supplying laminated bog instructions with each bog and these are available to all customers if you drop us an email.. Wednesday 7th January 2015 Just a chance to wish everyone a happy new year and to prove we are still here (there). Now over 12 years in business. Prices remain current and we are still manufacturing to order or supplying from stock. We are delighted at the number of repeat orders we are getting from existing customers. We continue to improve the bogs as time goes by and whenever a new idea proves successfull. The whole bog is now made of fibreglass and very solid (brick s**t house). Sunday 26th May 2013 We will be undertaking a “show and tell” trip to the North Island during July and can show a working bog to anyone interested. We will get at least as far north as the middle of the island and maybe further. We will also be coming up the West coast and down the East. If you are interested give us a call on 027 449 1699 and we may be able to meet up. Thursday 11th April 2013 We are having quite a bit of trouble with our kiwibog.com website because someone (who shall remain nameless) forgot to update the site registration. So in the meantime we have purchased this site kiwibog.co.nz so that you can still access everything online. As a result our email has changed to don@kiwibog.co.nz. Going forward we hope to maintain both sites without differences. Sunday 17th Feb 2013 Well we have been slack. No updates for quite a while although we have been busy making bogs throughout this time. We continue to make around 2 a month. The first significant change is that the urine tray is now made from fibreglass and is much more solid. It is now bolted into the bog top with stainless bolts. Unfortunately the second change is to our prices. Our costs keep rising and we have no choice but to pass them on. A further change to models in the last few years is that the top is free of the bottom of the bog as urine drops from the tray outlet to be received by a funnel on a stalk rising from the urine outlet in the bottom of the bog. This makes bag changes and cleaning much easier while assisting with odour removal as there is an air gap between the urine outlet and the funnel so that the fan removes any odour. Thursday 30th September 2010 With a GST increase due tomorrow we have amended our price list. We have absorbed the increase on some items but have had to increase our bog and tray prices as these have not been raised for many years although our costs for componentry have. Hope you will still find our prices affordable. We have manufactured and supplied around 150 bogs to date. Wednesday 2nd July 2008 Can't believe it is so long since we last updated these pages We have been busy making bogs and finding new people and firms to do our fibreglassing. Finally things have settled more and a new revision of this site is underway but obviously not finished as yet. When time permits it gets attention. We keep improving our bogs a little with each one and now have a very classy product although it still retains its hand-made appeal. We have attached stainless latches to each side of the bogs and are planning to revert to plastic just for the urine trays. This means that trays may be available again as we have had to turn away many prospective purchasers while we weren't making them as a separate item. Thursday 10th May 2007 Our move didn't really happen. It is still a possibility but not likely in the near future. We would still love to live and run Kiwi Bog from off grid but are staying where we are for the time being. Fibreglass bogs continue to be the norm although we are also looking into rotational moulding too. A hacker got into our site last month but has been seen off by our hosts. Some may have got a message from google advising of our infection. Be assured it is gone now. Saturday 3rd February 2007 Fibreglass bogs are now a reality and are far more rigid than the plastic. The urine trays are now glassed into the bog top. Although they are rougher inside they are still easy to clean and retain their elegant good looks. Kiwibog is on the move for the foreseeable future. From early March for an indefinite time kiwibog will be on the road. First in the North Island till 20th March then in the South. Mostly round Nelson and The West Coast. This means you will need to catch up by email or cell phone (027 4491 699) until we re-establish ourselves with a land base (we may not get a landline again) Tuesday 7th November 2006 We have finally been forced to raise our basic bog price to over the thousand dollar mark this has followed significant price increases for all the bog components over the last four years which mostly seem to have risen with the cost of petrol. Fortunately we remain about 700 dollars cheaper than our nearest known compeditor. We are now forced to make our bogs from fibreglass exclusively as the plastic sheet we first used and had manufactured especially for us is now prohitively expensive. We have changed our bog too: whereas we used flexible pipe from the urine tray to the outlet we have now replaced this with a funnel so that the top of the bog is no longer tied to the bottom and can now be completely removed for cleaning or changing buckets and bags. Sunday 11th June 2006 One of our customers has appeared on the Nation radio Country Life programme or 2nd of June http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/countrylife They are the peel forest outdoor persuits centre who have two bogs in their eco lodge and are intending to purchase more. They describe theirs as working well and their desire to purchase more speaks for itself. We are delighted to get such positive feedback. Friday 26 May 2006 I can't believe its well over a year since updating this. Oh well. We unfortunately have had to increase our price for our bog made from plastic sheet as the cost of both the moulding and the raw sheet has risen astronomically with the rise in petroleum products. The good news is that we now have available bogs made from fibreglass that are still at the old price. This is because fibreglass is cheaper for us than the plastic sheet we have had to have made especially to our specifications. These new bogs are identical to those made from plastic sheet with the exception that the inside surface appears rougher. It is still easily cleaned and I am advised that it is 'food grade'. We have now included our manufacturing check list on this site so you can see exactly what comes with a bog. We have recently upgraded our manufacturing process to include as short length of urine pipe with a right angle bend to even further ease the installation process for our customers. Wednesday 16th March 2005 Well a while since last updating these pages and a lot has been happening. Good sales of the bog continue including to Australia. We find an increasing need to support do-it-yourself bog makers. We are selling the urine diversion tray to those who already have toilets of their own construction who now want the improvement of urine separation. This dramatically reduces the maintenance time as faeces alone accumulate much more slowly than faeces and urine together. In addition we are now able to supply a kitset to those who wish to do some of the work themselves or want to use their own cabinet. We find that with the poor weather our solar kit is not sufficient in some areas so we have added a new "super solar kit" with doubled charge and storage. We have made a few changes to the bog itself too; the height is reduced by about 50mm so as to make the need of a stool redundant (and easier to mold) and we now only supply a rotating vent as an optional extra. We supply a roof shroud and passive vent of our own design as standard. The height change only effects the bottom of the bog and moves the top closer to the floor. Again we are planning a sales trip to the North Island for July or August. Anyone wanting to see a bog is welcome to give us a call and we will see if we can make it to your area. Despite increasing costs of materials and molding we are able to hold the price to $995. New brochures will be out in the next few months. Friday 21st May 2004 Sales continue unabated with great feedback from our customers who have nothing but success to report from their bogs. We are planning another display at the Nelson EcoFest and hope to travel in the North Island again later this year. More details as they come to hand. We have been trialling a worm based composting solution for people whose bogs get a lot of use. The results are reported in our new web page treating outputs. Our next move is from plastic bags to starch so that there is never again a need to empty the bag. Monday 1st March 2004 Our first customers have now purchased their third bog for their far north home. Wednesday 26th January 2004 Finally back to work after a good break. Hope everyone has had a great Xmas and new year. We are getting an increasing number of enquiries from Australia so have investigated the cost of shipping a bog to a customer there. Door to Door airfreight costs around $NZ 270 and the bog without our GST is $NZ884. Therefore Australian customers should be able to buy a bog for around not much more than $AU1000 even with your own GST. Wednesday 19th November 2003 Well. Another wild few months. Good sales up North, some continue back home too and more for yachts. Many sales using the solar supply. We have decided to offer a 30 day money back guarantee to anyone buying a bog site unseen. We are now getting quite a few sales from people who trust us enough to not need to see the bog in person. So to show how much we believe in the bog we have undertaken to refund any purchaser who buys a bog unseen and returns it to us within 30 days of purchase in good condition. We know of no one who would have returned theirs so we are pretty sure of our offer. Sunday 7th September 2003 Just to confirm that we are travelling in the North Island from next Sunday (14th) until the 1st of November. If you would like to see a bog give us a call on 027 4491 699. The EcoFest was another great success with even more people than last year. We noticed a more serious attitude generally toward green alternatives. In return for a bottle of good whisky, Daryl Crimp has done a cartoon to fit under the bog seat lid to dissuade males from urinating while standing. This sticker is now supplied with each bog. Forgot to mention below that we had tested the bog on a person of more than 150Kg weight with no problems. Tuesday 22nd July 2003 We are now recovered from the circuit of the South Island in June. Heaps more sales and really enthusiastic response, particularly from people on the coast. In Hokitika a council officer sought us out to express his delight that we are manufacturing our bogs here. We have also continued to receive orders from all over the country. Most notable for us is our very first customers purchasing their second bog almost a year after their first. They are replacing an American composting toilet and commented when placing their order that they "want something that works". There can be no better recommendation. Our next show and tell trip is becoming more defined. We intend to travel to the North Island mid September and to return early November. We will have stock with us and are happy to call on anyone interested in viewing a working bog. We expect to visit both coasts as well as the middle of the North Island. We will travel North of Auckland if there is sufficient interest there again from potential customers. Catch if you can the Nelson ecofest the 23/4th of August where we will again have a caravan with an installed and working bog on show. Friday 25 April 2003 Dates for our show and tell trips are more fixed. South Island occupies the whole of May. The first two weeks on the West Coast, Queenstown, Wanaka, Southland with the latter weeks Otago, Canterbury and East Coast to Blenheim before returning to our base in Nelson. For the North Island we have six weeks or more planned for late September, October and early November. More precise details of the North Island places later this year. Friday 4 April 2003 Sales continue unabated and we are now planning show and tell trips for later this year. North Island should be September and we may do the South Island before then. More details in due course. We are also responding to customer suggestions on our site with more detailed photos of some specific areas. There is a new area philosophy to give me space for the sort of mindless rants for which I have become famous. Friday 30 January 2003 I've done a bit of work on the site. Hope that you find the improvements worthwhile. The links page is particularly improved. Don - your webmaster and general factotum. Monday 27 January 2003 What a rush before Xmas. Sorry to be so long in updating this site. We circumnavigated both the North and South Islands with our caravan. Building bogs as we went filling orders, checking on our existing customers and taking orders for bogs to be supplied in the new year. We are now just getting underway again with the good news that our problems with bog moulding have now been resolved by a local supplier. Its great to have the work done here in Nelson where we have closer control. We have now supplied 19 bogs to customers and now have nine bogs in stock. Not too bad since our start August last. We have one yacht customer who has just reported success with their installation and how much better it is than the alternatives. They just love the absence of smell even when the bog is in use. Some advice; sugar apparently can neutralise the odour from urine, it just takes a teaspoon or two washed down the urine path. If you add garden or composting worms to your faeces before settling them to compost the end result can become a lovely thick mulch. Monday 14 October 2002 Now some six weeks later. A time filled with attention to our bog's mass production. We are just returned the manufacture of our plastic components back to Nelson but with a new company that seems to work the way we do. We had a disastrous experience with a Christchurch plastics moulder. Nice mirror-glass building but. We continue to receive an average of two enquiries a day. So we are just waiting on the repair of our caravan to undertake quick circuits of both the South and North Islands. We will call on those who would like to see a working bog and our existing customers to ensure that all is well for them. We intend to make it as far north as Kaitaia and south as Dunedin and Queenstown. A huge number of recent enquiries have been from the deep south. More details of our impending travels as soon as we can. Wednesday 28 August 2002 Well - here we are back again after a very successful trip as far north as Kaitaia and south as Christchurch. Delivering bogs to those who had placed orders, showing to others checking with suppliers etc...... Just today attended a seminar in Chch on Composting Toilets organised by Andrew Dakers from Lincoln University. The seminar was attended by about 20 interesting people with diverse roles and experiences. One of the more interesting people was Johannes Heeb who is president of the international Ecological engineering society. He had some great ideas for urban use of composting toilets including the idea of separating faeces and urine at the toilet but allowing the urine only to flow through the present sewerage pipes for collection, storage and utilisation as a fertiliser. Can we get a trial going here - what chance? As our first customers install their bogs I will be able to report their experience and opinions through this site. I also plan to do quite a bit of work to clean up the site and to get the links menu option going again soon. Wonderful response from everyone we met. All universally impressed with the aesthetic appeal of the bog. John Kenderdine at the Far North Environment Centre was extremely hospitable and supportive. We now plan a mail out to all the environment centres who are ideal sources for people with an interest in composting bogs. Thursday 15 August 2002 Our trip north stopped before it had really started with a crash on the way to Picton. This rolled our caravan and did considerable damage but fortunately none to us. We have rebooked and are trying again tonight on the Straitsman. In Wellington tomorrow without the Caravan or the opportunity to see or smell a working bog. None-the-less we will have a few bogs with us for demonstration and sale. Contact us on cell phone 027 449 1699 if you would like us to call on you. Wednesday 14 August 2002 We are about to head toward the North Island for a whirlwind tour of just over a week. If you live there (our condolences) and we could call in to show you the bog in person. Just contact us on 027 449 1699 or email us at info@kiwibog.com for attention within a day or so. We are in Wellington on 14th,15 of August, Auckland around 18,19 of August and even will be in Christchurch on the 26th. Monday 12 August 2002 Our bogs were launched at the Nelson EcoFest on Saturday last 10th, August by Nelson's newest MP. Mike Ward for the Green Party. This was as a result of the counting of special votes and Mike himself had first learnt of his success only a few minutes earlier. The launch of our kiwi bog became his first official duty. We achieved great publicity and quite a number of orders with even more prospects for the future. Saturday 10 August 2002 We have our base 7mm ABS plastic material made for us and nearly 100 sheets arrived today just in time to build some bogs to take north next week. launched at the Nelson EcoFest on Saturday last 10th, August by Nelson's newest MP. Mike Ward for the Green Party. This was as a result of the counting of special votes and Mike himself had first learnt of his success only a few minutes earlier. The launch of our kiwi bog became his first official duty. We achieved great publicity and quite a number of orders with even more prospects for the future. We are about to head toward the North Island for a whirlwind tour of just over a week. If you live there (our condolences) and we could call in to show you the bog in person. Just contact us on 027 449 1699 or email us at info@kiwibog.com for attention within a day or so. We are in Wellington on 14th,15 of August, Auckland around 18,19 of August and even will be in Christchurch on the 26th. |
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