Posted: 7/21/2013 7:02:24 AM EDT
|
Last year in preparation for hurricane sandy I filled some 5 gallon gas cans. Recently I decided to use three of them up and see how well they worked The first was a crappy plastic CARB compliant POS I got at walmart. The second was the CARB compliant red metal faux jerry can made by midwest sold at harbor freight. I replaced the nozzle with an EZ pour spout and added a vent made from a tire valve. The third was a stock jerry can and spout from atlantic british.
The first can was filled and stored as is and held no pressure. The valve on the spout leaked continually when pouring and emptied SLOW since it doesn't seem to be vented - took over 5 minutes to fully empty. The spout felt very cheap and I was afraid to put any stress on it for fear of breakage. All in all, it was bad enough that it went in the trash. The Midwest/HF can had issues but overall worked out better than expected. There was an audible hiss when I loosened the valve stem cover so it was sealing well and held pressure. IIRC the nozzle nuts included in the EZ pour kit didn't match the threads on the can so I recycled the nut that came with the CARB spout. This worked but because the EZ pour nozzle was somewhat narrower than the original, the base popped out of the nut when pouring and created a spill. However, once I reassembled it and properly tightened the nut it worked great. So long as you respect the fact that the nozzle is on the delicate side it was pretty good. No leaks and it emptied quickly- about a minute and seemed to be the fastest of the three. There is a metal screen filter inside the spout that came loose and fell into the can but it's not clear that this is even necessary. The can is definitely not something I would use to transport fuel but for shed storage it's fine. If I could find a plain nut that could seal the can without the nozzle it would be ok for transport but not as good as a real jerry can. The can no longer seems to be listed on the HF website and may be discontinued but here is the manufacturers page. The cost was comparable to a real jerry can, hence you might as well just get a real jerry can and be done with it. The atlantic british jerry can was awesome. Audible hiss on opening meant it held pressure. No apparent swelling or degradation of the seals. The nozzle attached solidly with no leaks when pouring. Time to empty was similar to the modified HF can, maybe a bit slower but still good. Perfect for both storage or transport. My only beef is the clip supplied to attach the spout to the can for storage is flimsy and doesn't hold well at all. The spout needs to be duct taped or something or else it will fall off the clip and be lost. If anyone has a better solution I'm all ears. Bottom line is get real jerry cans and a spout and don't screw around with anything else. |
|
Quoted:
Why don't you post this in the Fuel Can Oracle too. If a fuel can is not ok to transport fuel then the can os also no good for storage. What I meant was the spout seemed a bit fragile, but you could certainly say that about any of the new CARB cans. You could transport fuel in it, but a real jerry can is way better. If I could find a cap that would seal that can without the spout it would be great. |
|
While I don't advocate getting the newer plastic fuel cans, I tend to wind up with some if they are on closeout for around 5 bucks out the door. I tend to use them for refilling other stuff, like when I know I need to fill the big mower and little mower and maybe this or that. Anyway, while messing around on amazon the other day I ran across fuel can holders made for some of the newer plastic fuel cans. Now some of the holders cost a whole lot of money, but depending on what you already have and all that you could look at a few pictures and possably make yourself a holder for your fuel cans. If starting from scratch I tell everyone to just figure out how to order the 4 pack of new ones. I have plastic scepters and surplus fuel cans and probably a few junk metal fuel cans here and there. I also have a lot of various plastic cans around and a lot of them are blue and made for kerosene but they will hold gasoline if I want to haul some gasoline in them. Anyway, depending on what you have and if you decided to modify some of the yucky plastic cans to have vents and a working pour spout you might want to make a holder specifically sized for it. I have an old trailer I am making into a project trailer and one thing I am going to do with it is set it up to haul some fuel cans to the gas station when I need some fuel. Making a holder specifically for this purpose will help those fuel cans out greatly. I use my scepters and surplus cans here and there when rotating fuel, but honestly they only get used when rotating fuel. I help out family and friends and what not and if someone needs to borrow a fuel can the cheap plastic fuel can is all I tend to let out of my sight unless I really trust the person. I don't care if I get the plastic one back. And during power outages I know full well some folks with generators won't have enough fuel, they can borrow the lawnmower gas can. They are not borrowing my good stuff. |