What is a vent housing?
The vent housing is an important part of ensuring your unit is working properly. You will find this located on the side across from your power button. The vent housing allows the circulated air to move out, keeping a consistent airflow.
A common misconception about venting your unit is it is not really for odor. If you are experiencing an odor in your unit, it may be from an improper mixture of your medium, too much or too little water will affect absorbency, usually resulting in odor. Another culprit of odor would be keeping your urine bottle and unit clean, it is a toilet after all!
Your unit needs airflow to maintain moisture levels from building up and allow oxygen for the composting process. We go into more detail about composting and why these factors are important in other articles
Do I need to Install a Vent Hose?
Short answer yes. More explained answer, depending on you build and environment is how you will have to vent. Each unit comes with a 5 foot vent hose. This would be great for more humid conditions and small spaces where airflow is restricted. A popular instillation is in slide out cabinets, we see this increasing in vans and buses (schoolies). The vent hose can be cut to fit or ordered in additional sizes depending on your build. For more information about how to install your vent hose check out this video.
There may be a chance that you will not need to vent at all. If you have proper ventilation in your build and are not seeing excess moisture build up within you solids bin you should be okay not to install a vent hose.
For our boaters and humid locations where air is more dense and a faint urine smell starts to occur, try adding charcoal filters to your vent housing. These can be used with our without a hose.
So just like most answers in life it boils down to what works for you, your build, and your lifestyle. We suggest starting of without venting and work your way up if you are unsure how your conditions will turn out.
Can I Move the Vent?
Yes, we have designed your unit to be able to change the vent placement to the other if need. This should help when working in small spaces where every detail is crucial to the success of your build. maybe your space can only accommodate if the hose is on the other side. Your unit will come standard with the filter intake on the left and the fan housing on the right.
Simply pop out the vent and the fan housing and pop them back into to place. This video will help, you may need a flat head screw driver to help pry the housing loose. In other articles we will cover the fan and other components of your unit.
