If you’ve ever enjoyed fishing, cruising or family boating in a Stacer Sea Runner boat or a Stacer Crossfire, you will know that a boat with a toilet (also known as 'heads’) is infinitely better compared to a boat without a toilet.

The most basic function of a marine head is not only to hold in contents when people onboard need to relieve themselves. It functions almost similarly to a regular toilet where the contents are flushed in a tank by rinsing the bowl to reduce staining and prevent the odours to reach the bowl from the holding tank.

Of course, those contents need to be evacuated or else the head will fill up. It’s not the same with a toilet in homes and establishments where the contents go to the septic tank or straight to the sewer. The absence of a sewerage system on a boat means that waste needs storing until the boater can take it ashore. Every traditional boat toilet, therefore, functions by flushing the waste from the bowl into some form of holding tank. That will either be a portable tank that needs to be manually carried to disposal on land or a larger built-in tank that is emptied by connecting a suction hose at a shore-based pump-out facility to your boat’s external outlet. For obvious reasons then, marine loos are broadly categorised as either cassette toilets or pump-out toilets.

There are three main types of marine heads that exist in the market. These heads have varying features that can be suitable to particular types of boats. These toilets can be found in marine boat stores, hardware shops, or online stores.

Cassette Toilets

A cassette toilet is simply a loo with a removable waste tank. Although there is a great deal of variety, it comes in two basic forms: integrated, which is already built into your boat as a permanent fixture, and freestanding, a toilet that you can tuck into whichever corner suits your fancy. For the integrated cassette toilet, the rinse water can be taken from the boat’s water system, whereas in the latter, a limited quantity of rinse water is contained in the upper seat and bowl part of the structure.

The cassette toilet encompasses everything from a simple two-part box that stows away beneath a seat to far more elaborate models, with swivel seats and electric flush that closely resemble an ordinary toilet. A lot of people swear by cassette toilets for their affordability, their simplicity and their reliability. They require very little space or upheaval on board your boat. The fact that you can transport your waste tank to a disposal point is also an advantage in some people’s eyes and the fact that the use of these disposal points is usually free is also a bonus.

Pump Out Toilets

The pump-out toilet is the opposite of portability. They look a lot like your regular toilets at home. This toilet uses a larger holding tank that is permanently fixed to your boat. This means that when the time comes to empty it, you need to use a marina’s pump-out facility to get rid of all the contents. The pump-out toilet comes either from a unit where the tank sits directly beneath the toilet or with a remote tank, where the waste has to be transported away by pumps through a pipe network. If you’re worried about the smell permeating the space, the good thing about pump-out toilets is that there’s virtually no smell in emptying the tank. Pump-out toilets either come in porcelain or a plastic model.

They can often involve a macerator, which chops the waste into smaller parts before sending it through the pipes. This of course is in a bid to prevent blockage, but you still need to be careful to use only the bare minimum of lightweight, biodegradable toilet paper or you could well incur a blockage that requires expert attention.

Pump-out toilets tend to be relatively complex and expensive compared to cassette toilets, but there are plenty of people in the boating world who would be reluctant to opt for anything less.

Other Alternatives

Liquid chemicals are the primary method of dealing with the smells that inevitably occur when waste is stored in a tank. They can either be put directly in your waste tank or they can be mixed with the toilet’s rinse water. There is also the emergence of several more sustainable nitrate and enzyme-based alternatives that aim to replace these chemicals by speeding up the decomposition process. Aside from that, some toilets resemble a lot like a cat’s litterbox; these toilets are known as the composting toilet, which uses sawdust or peat moss to dry out the waste, which negates any smell and renders it harmless. These toilets use no water, they require virtually no maintenance and there is no prospect of blockages. More to the point, you can dispose of the waste by chucking it on your flowerbeds. Their size does tend to limit their usability on smaller boats but their appeal is growing due to its practicality and sustainability.