You’re excited about embracing the minimalist lifestyle with a beautiful Tiny House on Wheels. You’ve poured over floor plans, dreamt of loft bedrooms, and calculated your power needs. But before you sign off on your build, there’s one non-negotiable decision that will shape your tiny home experience: Which toilet is right for your tiny home?
This choice is a bit more complex than in a traditional house. It dictates where you can park, what permits you need, and how truly “off-grid” you can be. At Aussie Tiny Houses, we ensure every one of our beautiful, architecturally designed models can accommodate your preferred system. However, the choice fundamentally comes down to this: do you prioritise the familiar convenience of a plumbed system, or the ultimate portability of a waterless option?
We break down the three leading toilet options for a Tiny House on Wheels (THOW)—the standard flush, the eco-friendly composting toilet, and the high-tech incinerating system—so you can make an informed decision for your tiny living adventure.
1. The Familiarity of the Standard Flush: A Trade-Off for Mobility
For many, the idea of a standard flush toilet represents traditional comfort and zero-effort convenience. After all, it’s what you’ve used your whole life.
The Clear Advantages
A plumbed toilet is as easy as it gets. You install it, you flush it, and you rarely think about it again. There’s no emptying, no adding bulking material, and no maintenance beyond a quick clean. If you’re building a tiny house that will remain semi-permanent in one location, connecting to existing town services, this may seem like the simplest path.
The Major Mobility Barrier: Permits and Plumbing
However, for a true Tiny House on Wheels, the standard flush system introduces the biggest legal and logistical hurdle. As outlined in our Frequently Asked Questions About Tiny Homes, choosing a plumbed toilet means:
1. Connecting to a Sewerage System or Septic Tank: This requires heavy plumbing work and a dedicated waste system on the land where you park.
2. Council Permits: This is the most restrictive factor. It becomes the customer’s responsibility to obtain the services of a qualified plumber and secure the necessary council permits for connection. Because council approval often views your THOW as a permanent structure once connected to a fixed sewage line, you lose the essential flexibility and ease of relocation that a tiny house on wheels is supposed to provide.
The Verdict: If your tiny house is intended to be a stationary granny flat or secondary dwelling connected to services, a flush toilet is an option. If you dream of ultimate freedom, moving every few years or seeking true Off-Grid Tiny House living, this choice severely limits your options.
2. Embracing Off-Grid Freedom with the Composting Toilet
The composting toilet is the system of choice for the vast majority of our clients and the epitome of sustainable, mobile tiny living. It is a fundamental component of our comprehensive Off-Grid solutions.
The Eco-Friendly & Waterless Advantage
Composting toilets operate without water, making them an ideal solution for self-sufficient living. They use a urine-diverting system that separates liquid waste from solids, preventing odours and allowing solids to naturally break down into a safe, soil-like material.
Key Benefits:
- Water Saving: These systems can save tens of thousands of litres of water each year, supporting sustainable off-grid living.
- No Plumbing Required: Composting toilets don’t connect to a sewer line or septic system, so no plumber is needed, and council approvals are minimal — perfect for mobile tiny homes.
- Odour Control: Modern composting toilets use quiet, continuous fans to vent air from the solids chamber outside, keeping the bathroom completely odour-free without chemicals or frequent manual intervention.
Maintenance:
While relatively low-maintenance, composting toilets do require some care:
- Liquids: Urine containers generally need emptying every 1–3 days, which can be safely diluted for use as fertiliser.
- Solids: The composting chamber is emptied every few weeks to months, depending on usage and system type. Some split-system units can go up to six months between emptying.
The Verdict: The composting toilet is a core feature of off-grid tiny house living, combining sustainability, cost savings, and the freedom to live independently without relying on mains plumbing.
3. The Incinerating Option: High-Tech, High Heat, High Cost
A third, less common but increasingly popular, system in the tiny house space is the Incinerating Toilet Tiny House option.
How Incineration Works
This type of toilet uses electricity or gas to literally burn solid and liquid waste at a high temperature. The waste is reduced to a small handful of sterile, pathogen-free ash—much like fireplace ash—which is emptied periodically.
| Feature | Incinerating Toilet | Composting Toilet |
| Water Use | Zero | Zero |
| Power Needs | High (for the burn cycle) | Low (for a small ventilation fan) |
| End Product | Small amount of sterile ash | Compost/soil-like material |
| Odour | Minimal during use, often an odourless gas vented outside. | Minimal/None due to ventilation and urine diversion. |
| Upfront Cost | Highest (Often AU$8,000+) | Moderate (AU$900 to AU$3,500+) |
Pros and Cons
The primary advantage is the incredibly small, sterile, and easily disposed of byproduct. You don’t deal with liquids or composting material. However, the major drawback is power usage. The incinerating cycle requires a significant burst of energy, which can be a major issue for completely solar-powered, off-grid Tiny House systems. They also have the highest initial purchase price.
Comparing Complexity and Lifetime Costs
Choosing your toilet should be viewed as an investment in either comfort and connection or freedom and sustainability.
The Cost of Connection
A standard flush toilet unit is the cheapest upfront, but connecting it to services or installing a certified septic system can add over AU$10,000 to your project—not including the time and uncertainty of navigating Council Approval Tiny House requirements. Once connected, your tiny house is fixed in place, and you lose your mobility.
The Cost of Independence
The Composting Toilet Australia system requires a higher unit cost, but immediately saves you the $10,000+ installation fee and the cost of water use forever. Your ongoing cost is primarily electricity for the fan (very minimal) and bulking material (like peat moss or sawdust). The trade-off is your time for maintenance.
The Incinerating Toilet option has the highest unit cost and high energy consumption, making it the most expensive choice across the board, only justifiable if you have plenty of spare power and absolutely cannot tolerate any manual waste processing.
Which Toilet Best Suits Your Tiny House Lifestyle?
| Lifestyle Goal | Recommended Toilet | Rationale |
| Maximum Mobility & Off-Grid Living | Composting Toilet | Waterless, requires no plumbing, minimal power, and is Australian-approved for mobile dwellings. |
| Stationary Home / Granny Flat | Standard Flush Toilet | If you have secured council approval and are permanently connected to sewer/septic. |
| High Budget, Low Maintenance, Ample Power | Incinerating Toilet | Reduces waste to sterile ash but demands a high power draw. |
At Aussie Tiny Houses, we specialise in delivering certified, high-quality Tiny House on Wheels models designed for flexibility. While we will install a flush toilet if you plan to be stationary, we highly recommend exploring the freedom, sustainability, and legal simplicity that a quality Composting Toilet Australia system provides for true tiny living.
Ready to take the next step? Check out our range of models on our Tiny Houses page and start planning your perfect, self-sufficient tiny home today!
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