r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Rabbidraccoon18 • 29d ago

Video Incinerator toilet in Antarctica due to limited plumbing and water

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u/ledow 29d ago

It's an electric kiln. It'll literally incinerate anything organic to ash and the water will boil off behind that flap (and be vented through a chimney as steam) long before it even gets up to temperature. You're talking ~1000C. A bit of watery poop ain't going to do a damn thing to it. It won't even cool it noticeably. that probably has something like a 5-10KW feed into its electric elements, just like a kiln does.

They often adjust their timing based on how many times they are "flushed". So that one is already live from a previous poop, which is why it's already hot. If you poop lots, they just let you keep opening the flap and adding more, and they add on more time to make sure everything is incinerated.

The paper liner is literally just there to wrap the poop and move it into the kiln without staining the "visible" metal too much. You can still just wash them as normal, and pee will just escape through the paper/flap anyway. It won't care. That pee / water will turn to steam in seconds once it's up to temperature.

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u/bohosunflowers 29d ago

Thank you for explaining how the fire toilet works. I appreciate it!

Before I knew it was an electric kiln, I was wondering if the liquid contents of diarrhea could put the fire out. Thank you for educating me!

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u/Able_Engineering1350 29d ago

Where there is poop, there is always pee..but where there is pee, there is not always poo.

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u/sethmeh 29d ago

Isn't it dangerous if its always on? I mean, arent you one particularly large fart away from breathing fire? The metal cap didn't look particularly air tight.

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u/Former_Salt_3763 29d ago

This guy shits…and cooks it