Here are the basics of using & cleaning the Cinderella Incinerating Toilet.

This article series describes the brands, properties, installation, and maintenance of incinerating toilets - a waterless system for onsite waste disposal where a septic system cannot be installed. Incinerating toilets use electricity or gas to produce heat which literally incinerates the waste.

Cinderella Incinerating Toilet Basics

What is an Incinerating Toilet?

Incinerator toilets use electricity or gas to burn the waste placed into the toilet.

This incineration produces a small amount of ash that must be regularly emptied, typically once a week; the toilet also requires other cleaning procedures at longer intervals.

[Click to enlarge any image]

To use the toilet a paper liner is inserted into the bowl, the toilet is used, then "flushed" by pushing a "flush" button to drop the waste and liner into an incinerating chamber.

The waste is reduced to ash; gases of combustion are vented outdoors through a plastic vent and chimney.

This toilet can support up to four people in normal daily use, and uses can be successive, without waiting for the incinerating cycle to complete.

Watch out: the manufacturer warns that the toilet will be seriously damaged if it is overloaded.

Don't neglect the regular cleaning cycle that, for two people can be about once every 7 to 10 days.

How to Turn the Cinderella Toilet On or Off

To operate the Cinderella incinerating toilet must be plugged in, and its controlling circuit breaker turned-ON.

Check that the toilet is plugged-in to its wall receptacle.

and below we show the electrical panel access cover:

Find the electrical panel and identify the breaker that powers the toilet.

Turn on the toilet circuit breaker. In our photo below the 220V toilet circuit breaker is in the ON position.

Watch out: the manufacturer recommends that when the toilet will not be used for a month or longer it's best to leave it un-plugged, reducing the risk of electrical storm or other damage.

To unplug the toilet it's best to turn off its circuit breaker first to avoid arcing.

Below: you'll see that the toilet's display panel will light to indicate that the toilet is ready for use.

The display window will tell you the toilet's status such as "Incinerating" or "Cooling down" and may alternately blink between one of those states and "Ready for Use".

To turn OFF the toilet, switch OFF its circuit breaker. If you found the toilet un-plugged when you turned it on, then when the toilet is again to be out of service for a time, switch off its circuit breaker and then un-plug the toilet from the wall.

Really? When you un-plug the Cinderella, you may notice that the toilet's control panel lights continue to be illuminated and even to blink when you switch off the circuit breaker.

That's normal. For safety this toilet includes a backup battery that will keep its cooling fan running in the event of an electrical power loss during an incinerating cycle.

3 Easy Steps to Use the Cinderella Incinerating Toilet

Here are photos of the typical and simple steps to use an incinerating toilet, using the Cinderella Comfort toilet as an example.

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I'm showing lifting the toilet lid and toilet seat in two separate steps but of course you can usually lift them both at once in order to install the paper liner.

1. Install the paper toilet liner or "bag":

Open the toilet lid (first photo) and also lift the seat (second photo above) and install the manufacturer-provided paper liner.

Below I'm making sure that the edges of the Cinderalla toilet bowl liner are neatly under the edges of the folding seat.

Watch out: if you allow the toilet liner sides to fold in away from the toilet bowl you may find pee splashing outside the liner.

If that happens I simply use a squirt of window cleaner and a clean soft paper towel to remove any marks or stains from the stainless steel tolet bowl.

Neater counts as you'll reduce the chances of a collapsed bowl liner or a leak.

You'll see that the incinerating toilet liner is shaped to fit the bowl.

Fold down the toilet seat so as to hold the paper line in place. [Photo above]

Watch out: always use a paper liner. Otherwise you may damage the toilet and at the very least, you will create a nasty mess to clean off of the toilet bowl surfaces.

The paper toilet bowl liner for your toilet may be provided by the manufacturer and is likely to be specific to that toilet brand or even model. But all incinerating toilet paper bowl liners are going to be fitted to the proper shape for the bowl of the toilet they serve, and the paper is formulated, often by a thin biodegradable wax coating, to be waterproof to avoid staining the toilet bowl.

2. Use the toilet as you would any normal toilet, with this exception:

Watch out: all uses of the toilet by everyone should be made sitting down, regardless of gender, preference, or machismo.

Standing up to pee is going to make a mess that ought not need further explanation. Use of the toilet by small children should be supervised by an adult.

Watch out: Only waste urine, feces, and toilet tissue should be emptied into an incinerating toilet. Don't use the toilet to try to burn or dispose of anything else or it may be seriously damaged.

Above: The manufacturer shows how to use this toilet with a simple illustration imprinted inside the toilet lid.

Watch out: do not use your incinerating toilet to try to burn any other sort of trash; you are likely to damage or even destroy it or in the worst cases, cause a building fire.

3. Close the Lid & Flush the toilet using its flush control. For the incinerating toilet in these photos that means simply pushing the flush button.

When the Cinderella "flushes" you'll hear its chrome bowl make a clunking noise as the bowl opens to drop the liner and waste into the incinerating chamber.

You will hear the toilet's vent fan continue to run all during the incinerating cycle, and the fan will continue run for some time after incineration is complete in order to safely cool down the unit.

Watch out: regular cleaning and maintenance are needed to keep your incinerating toilet working properly.

Be sure to follow the specific instructions from the manufacturer of your incinerating toilet model and brand. An example of this cleaning procedure is given at

CINDERELLA COMFORT TOILET CLEANING PROCEDURE

What if the Incinerating Toilet Paper Liner Doesn't "Go Down" when the Incinerating Toilet is Flushed?

Occasionally, if there is only a small amount of waste, the liner may not drop when you flush the toilet.

You'll know if this problem has occurred when you open the toilet lid and see the old toilet paper bag/liner still in place after the flush mechanism has been activated.

The solution is easy: just pour a bit of clean water into the paper bowl liner, as shown in our photo.

About 6-8 ounces (one cup or about 240 cc's) is plenty.

Then activate the flush mechanism again and tell the waste and paper liner goodbye.

How to Clean the Cinderella Comfort incinerating toilet

As-Needed: Clean the Incinerating Toilet Bowl Surfaces

Occasionally after a few days of use you may see a few marks or stains on the chrome toilet bowl chamber.

We use a non-bleach spray household cleaner such as a mild glass cleaner product along with a soft paper towel to wipe the bowl surfaces back to their natural shiny clean condition.

The manufacturer also sells their own recommended safe, non-abrasive toilet cleaner.

Watch out: Throw the used paper towels in the trash, not into the toilet.

Watch out: do not use bleach cleansers or you may damage the toilet or even produce harmful or toxic fumes.

Weekly: Clean the incinerating toilet ash container

It's worth considering the frequency and ease of cleaning of the toilet to remove the incinerated waste ash.

Remove the ash chamber cover at the bottom front of the toilet by pressing the buttons on each side of the cover. [Photos above]

Above I've removed the ash bin cover and set it aside to the right; you can see that the ash container's handle is pushed fully to the left to its "locked" position.

To remove the ash container grasp the handle and rotate the bin so that the handle is in the center - photo below.

Now pull the bin straight out from the toilet [photos below]

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After checking to be sure that the steel pan is not too hot to touch safely, you can lift out the center pan that contains the ash, leaving the insulating base on the floor.

In the photos above the ash bin was clean.

Below we show a typical volume of ash after this incinerating toilet was used at typical frequency by two adults over the course of a week: about a teacup of ash.

And below we illustrate how the incinerating toilet is cleaned each week.

We use a soft flat wooden stick to scrape the cooled ash chunks into a waste bin or into a paper bag that is then folded for disposal in household trash.

Watch out: The manufacturer warns not to use metal tools to scrape or clean the ash pan as that may damage it and lead to its failure.

Next we pour enough warm water into the ash pan to bring the water level to any caked-on deposits on the pan sides; the pan is allowed to soak and then is gently scrubbed using Cinderella's own personal soft bristle brush (provided by the manufacturer.)..

After it has soaked long-enough to soften any hard ash deposits we empty the ash-water into a septic system, flush toilet, or where permitted at the base of a tree that could use some ash as fertilizer. Remember this is non-toxic, harmless ash.

Nevertheless, I label the brush and my soft (non-damaging) scraper stick as "Cinderella" so that visitors to the home don't either use them for something else or lose them.

We may need to repeat the soak, gently-brush, and rinse cycle 2 or even three times to remove all ash deposits.

When the ash pan is free of ash we dry it with paper towels and we're ready to return the ash pan to the insulating base and to re-assemble the toilet.

The cleaned pan is restored to its insulated carrier

Below: the ash pan and pan carrier are assembled and ready to be re-installed into the toilet base.

The ash assembly slides into the incinerating toilet base.

And the pan is rotated clockwise to lock it safely in place: below

Above: the ash pan is locked in place and we're ready to re-install the fibreglass cover over this opening.

 

Ongoing Maintenance - Steam Clean your Toilet's catalytic converter at Every Ash Pan Cleanout

Here's a service tip from Cinderella.

In July 2021 Cinderella released this updated maintenance suggestion:

EVERY time you empty your ash container, pour 1 liter of water into the insert before placing it back into the toilet.

Once back in the toilet, start an incineration to complete what we call a steam clean of your Catalytic converter (the air filter).

(This is now step 8 in the company's published Maintenance Guide. )

Toilet cleaning log

To remind guests that the toilet needs to be cared-for, not just used, we keep a calendar near the toilet; the last-cleaned-date is marked in the calendar to help a user determine when the ash receptacle is due for cleaning.

Really? Well that's not the whole story about cleaning an incinerating toilet. Above we show typical weekly cleanup steps: easy, painless to follow. The manufacturer recommends a more-thorough cleaning after every 500 uses or annually.

More thorough cleaning, depending on incinerating toilet brand and model, may involve slipping the toilet off of its connection to its exterior vent, cleaning the vent assembly with a chimney brush, and rinsing the toilet base or incinerating chamber itself with clean water.

Annual Maintenance for the Cinderella Toilet

EVERY 500 flushes or annually, it is recommended that you do a reverse flush of your catalytic converter. This is done by pouring hot water through the exhaust pipe. Cinderella has made it simple with this step by step video guide to walk you through the process.

See the CINDERELLA MAINTENANCE VIDEO at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ugYbAYvIAE

Cinderella Toilet Installation Guides & Manuals

Cinderella Incinerating Toilets

• Cinderella Incinerating Toilets, is a Norwegian incinerating toilet design & product. For North American users, an Ontario, Canada company, provides several models of both electric and propane-powered incinerating toilets.
  
  Cinderella incineration toilets are available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and (through Canada) also in the U.S.
  
  Company Contact: Cinderella Eco Group, Cinderella Head Office Norway: Cinderella Eco Group AS, Lyngjavegen 2, 475 Midsund, Norway, Tel: +47 77 71 15 00
  
  Cinderella incinerator toilet factory: Hovedveien 34, 9061 Furuflaten Email: salg@cinderellaeco.no marketing@cinderellaeco.com or service: service@cinderellaeco.no Website: https://www.cinderellaeco.com
  
  Cinderella incinerator toilet Canada Office. Cinderella Eco Group, Canada, 2 Robert Speck Parkway Suite 750, Mississauga ON L4Z 1H8 Canada
  Tel: +1 (905) 281-8566 Fax:+1 (905) 306-7542 Email: support.canada@cinderellaeco.com Tel: 905.281.8566
  
  Joey McNeil, Mobile: 647.408.3827 Email. joey.mcneil@cinderellaeco.com Web. https://www.cinderellaeco.com/ca-en
  
  Canadian Exporter to the U.S. Contact: ITI, Incinerating Toilets, Inc., Canada, exporter of Cinderella models, 1572 Little Hawk Lk. Rd. Algonquin Highlands, ON, Canada Tel: 888-646-2664, Website: www.incineratingtoilets.ca
• CINDERELLA INCINERATING TOILET - in our guide to incinerating toilets
• CINDERELLA INCINERATING TOILET INSTALLATION - detailed steps in a successful Cinderellat toilet installation
• CINDERELLA INCINERATING TOILET USE GUIDE - how to use & clean an incinerating toilet - you are on this page
• CINDERELLA ELECTRIC INCINERATOR TOILET CLASSIC MODEL IO MANUAL [PDF] Op. Cit.
• CINDERELLA ELECTRIC INCINERATING TOILET COMFORT MODEL IO MANUAL [PDF] Op. Cit.
• CINDERELLA PROPANE INCINERATING TOILET IO MANUAL [PDF] Op. Cit.
• CINDERELLA COMFORT TOILET CLEANING PROCEDURE - found on this page
• CINDERELLA INCINERATOR TOILET MAINTENANCE GUIDE [PDF] - update from Cinderella July 2010, retrieved 2021/07/28 www.cinderellaco.com
• CINDERELLA MAINTENANCE VIDEO at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ugYbAYvIAE retrieved 2021/07/28 www.cinderellaco.com
• CINDERELLA INCINERATING TOILET at HIGH ALTITUDE
• Lasky, Julie, "They Found a Rare Species in the Catskills", The New York Times, May 5,2024, p. RE-9. This article describes the use of a Cinderella toilet in a tiny 192 sq.ft. Bolt-Together-House - actually cabin - in the woods alongside a stream in Delancey, New York, in the Catskill mountains. For related information
  
  See FAMILY CIRCLE MAGAZINE: BOLT-TOGETHER-HOUSES & Tiny Houses

Excerpting from theexplorere.no (Norway),

The Cinderella Incineration Toilet incinerates human waste without using water or chemicals. It can be powered by either propane gas or electricity and does not require connection to a sewer or other infrastructure. It is quick and easy to install.

The toilet can also handle toilet paper and tampons, and the only by-product from the process is sterile ash that can easily be deposited with household waste

On average, a family of four produces a coffee cup’s worth of ashes during a week of use.

This eliminates the risk of contamination from sewage and hinders the spread of illness and disease from human waste.

Above and below we show a Cinderella Comfort incinerating toilet installation showing both the toilet and its exhaust vent system.

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Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

How do I use an LP Gas-Fueled Incinerating Toilet at Higher Altitudes?

I'm searching for info on use of the Cinderella Freedom (gas) incinerator toilet at higher altitudes, specifically 10,500 feet. North American distributor says the product has been tested to 1050 meters (3150 feet). Anything beyond that he cannot give any guarantees. Unable to find any related research about this. Anyone have experience in use of incinerator toilets at altitude?

Any reason(s) a propane fueled incinerator toilet would not work at such an altitude? Feedback would be much appreciated. - On 2022-04-09 by C F -

This Q&A were posted originally

at INCINERATOR TOILET SYSTEMS

Reply by Inspectapedia Com Moderator (mod) - use of the Cinderella Freedom (gas) incinerator toilet at higher altitude

@C F,

Worth getting some details asyou may need adjustments to gas combustion at that altitude.

Are the mfgs engineers willing to give advice?

On 2022-04-10 by C F

@Inspectapedia Com Moderator,
Thanks much for response. My inquiry to mfg in Norway via their US customer support email address was forwarded to North American distributor in Canada. All he said was they could make no guarantee of operability. Has not responded to my follow up email requesting additional details.

Your observation makes sense as the gas powered generator we occasionally use required smaller carburetor jet to function satisfactorily at altitude.

Your response also made me wonder if there are adjustable propane regulators or those made for high altitudes that might help. Will look into that. Any suggestions about related references or resources would be appreciated!

On 2022-04-13 by Inspectapedia Com Moderator (mod) - OK to install a Cinderella gas-fueled incinerating toilet at high altitude?

@C F,

Here is the key information for your using a Cinderella toilet at higher altitudes:

The CINDERELLA distributor, the Canadian company was very generous with me when I had complaints about a part. However I'm not sure that they have engineering staff available. That needs to come from the manufacturer.

Details of our discussion are now in a dedicated article found at

• CINDERELLA INCINERATING TOILET at HIGH ALTITUDE

found in our article

• GAS APPLIANCE OPERATION at HIGH ALTITUDE
  

On 2022-04-13 by @C F - OK to install a Cinderella gas-fueled incinerating toilet at high altitude?

@Inspectapedia Com Moderator,

Thanks so much for your time, your recommendations and the information you provided in answer to my questions!

Now realize there are many rather obvious reasons why a propane fueled incinerator toilet designed and built to operate at lower altitudes would be very unlikely to work (or be safe) at much higher ones.

Will try reaching back out to the manufacturer to see if they may have a high-altitude conversion kit for the Cinderella Freedom toilet; or if there is any way to order one customized for our high altitude off-grid cabin.

Thanks again!! Will let you know if we receive any reply.

Is there a liquid capacity limit before using the burner cycle on an Incinerating Toilet?

Is there a liquid capacity limit before using the burner cycle? thank you - On 2020-08-21 by e - I

Reply by (mod) liquid or volume capacity for incinerating toilets - "visits per hour"

Yes, e, incinerating toilets vary in the volume of waste that the toilet model can accept between incineration cycles, but at least as important is the incineration frequency designed into the toilet.

For example the Cinderella Comfort incinerating toilet has a capacity of 4.7 liters or 1 Imperial gallon.

Some incinerating toilets are designed to accumulate a larger volume of waste before infrequent (and in some cases noisy) incineration cycles.

But other models such as the Cinderella Comfort toilet described in this article run an incineration cycle at the end of every use.

That toilet's design permits the toilet to be used safely and comfortably during an incineration cycle [incineration pauses automatically during use by detecting that the toilet lid has been lifted] while others may prohibit use entirely during the burn process.

A more-useful way to answer your question is to read the incinerating toilet's specifications for the number of people that the toilet claims to support for full time use; some may also include a peak-use number, expressed as the number of occupants or users per day or per hour.

For example the Cinderella Comfort incinerating toilet is designed for no more than three to four visits per hour and

Watch out: a maximum of 6 visits in an hour to this particular incinerating toilet brand and model is not recommended.

Other incinerating toilet brands and models will have similar restrictions.

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Continue reading  at CINDERELLA INCINERATING TOILET CLEANING GUIDE or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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CINDERELLA INCINERATING TOILET USE GUIDE at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

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INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to TOILET INFORMATION

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