Bad Gas Can Design

[Tom&Shelly]

We needed another gas can, but all we could find at our local Ace Hardware seem to have redesigned spouts that requires at least one hand to operate, besides the two I already need to lift and pour (accurately) 5 gallons of gas.

We bought this one:

https://www.acehardware.com/departments ... ns/7797590

and I'm about to go back and return it, with predjudice! Turns out the way it works is that you have to press down on the red thingy, then pull the nozzle back down and hold it. If you let go it snaps back. Here's the kicker: gas leaks around the outside of the nozzle, and gets all over your hand.

I'm guessing this new design was mandated by a bureaucrat who's never been outside the beltway in DC, and designed by an engineer who's never been outside the loop in Chicago, neither of whom ever owned a small gasoline engine.

If I can dissuade just one reader from buying one of these fire hazards, I'll feel justified in this post. Seriously!

Tom

[tony.latham]

I'm guessing this new design was mandated by a bureaucrat who's never been outside the beltway...

You sound like me cussing the guy that has never run a boat--doesn't know about current-- but thinks he knows where a river-side boat ramp should be located.



Tony

[Sparksalot]

Your tax dollars at work.

“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

[Indiana Rambler]

I’ve had the same issue. I’ve gone to the auto parts store and purchased a new spout (like the good old pull the cap off and pour) and drilled a small hole where the vent USED to go and put a brass barb fitting or a screw in type, then found a rubber cap to go over the vent while being stored. Thanks California!


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[Tom&Shelly]

I’ve had the same issue. I’ve gone to the auto parts store and purchased a new spout (like the good old pull the cap off and pour) and drilled a small hole where the vent USED to go and put a brass barb fitting or a screw in type, then found a rubber cap to go over the vent while being stored. Thanks California!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ya, I thought about modifying it. Thing is, we only bought the 2nd gas can because our 2 1/2 gallon can wouldn't quite hold enough to put treated gas into the chipper and log splitter, and I thought buying another nice simple cheap gas can would be easier than making two trips to the gas station. I had no idea idiot bureaucrats had gotten involved. I saw two types at our hardware store (and later, reading reviews, I picked the worst of the two), and also replacement nozzles at $10 for one and $15 for the other. The whole f**** gas can shouldn't cost that much! Spending that much on the nozzle just to have to modify it to defeat the moronic mandates has me grinding my back teeth!

I mean, it's a nozzle! Geez! It is (should be) basically a cap made of gas resistant plastic, a rubber gasket, and a tube made of the same type of plastic. I wonder if one couldn't make one with a 3D printer. If the manufacturers are mandated to worry about it spilling gas, they should just give us a second cap with no nozzle that we can exchange each time we want use it.

But, I'm ranting.

Of course, the threads on our old can are different from the new one, so simply swapping nozzles wouldn't have worked.

Anyway, we had filled the new can on our way home and added the gas treatment before realizing it's unusable. So we managed to pour that into the old can, without using the new nozzle, with the help of a funnel, and from there into the engine's gas tanks. Then I returned the new one and got my money back. If they didn't know me at the hardware store they might think I simply "borrowed" their can for a one time use.

Now that we realize the government screwed this up, we're on the lookout for a gas can at garage sales and the like.

Tom

[Squigie]

Someone stole a bunch of plastic gas cans from my back porch and shed a few years ago.
Didn't take tools, lawn equipment, or any of the newer cans - just the old ones that were:
A) Full of bad gas, or even water. (Mostly from a Subaru that I bought as "non-running", only to find out it had been sabotaged - engine and fuel tank filled with water and dirt.)
B) Old enough to be sun-bleached and brittle.
And/or, C) Already leaking.

Summary: They were crap cans that were sitting there until I had a good method for disposal.
It didn't really hurt at all when they disappeared, since they did me a favor by taking them.

I never understood it.
They left the new cans, the cans full of good gas, the good cans, the cans marked "race" for 108 octane race gas, and anything of actual value.
Now you have me wondering if they did it for the spouts/nozzles.

[halfdome, Danny]

I'm glad this topic came up as I hate the spouts on our plastic cans.
I've removed the thingie that makes it difficult to use on one can but it's still not that great to use.
Check out what someone came up with to solve the problem.

It's called Easy Pour Rigid Replacement spout and vent for pre-2009 gas cans
I'm going to order one to see how it works.
Danny

[rjgimp]

Now that we realize the government screwed this up, we're on the lookout for a gas can at garage sales and the like.

Tom

LOL! Good luck. You're familiar with supply and demand? Supply is virtually zero because those who still have one don't want to part with it and demand increases every time someone like you goes to the hardware store and tries buying a new gas can for the first time in 25 years. ***IF*** you find an old style vented can for sale, the spout is usually junk because it has cracked from age. I have found replacement spouts for the old cans but they are up to about $13 lately. They were about $5 back when the gubbamint's "new and improved" can design came out. I've been working for a buddy in the lawn care business the last few years. Imagine trying to manipulate one of those new ^&*(&^%$##%!!!!!! two-handed spouts attached to a five gallon can!

One of the excuses often given for the new cans and spouts is the elimination of spillage. I spill more now each and every month than I did in 20 years with the old style!

[MtnDon]

?

https://www.surecanusa.com/gascan

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/surecan- ... --19302801

?

[Ottsville]

I am cleaning out a family member's house. It seems he "collected" two things - pump sprayers and gas cans. The pump sprayers are basically useless to me, but every gas can with old style nozzle is going straight to my shed. The old school spouts are like gold.

[Tom&Shelly]

?

https://www.surecanusa.com/gascan

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/surecan- ... --19302801

?

Looks like it might be a quality design; but at a commensurate price!

I started looking at the interwebs, and now realize this whole EPA mandate has been an issue for at least 10-12 years. As several folks mentioned, most of us only buy a few gas cans in our lives, so we wouldn't know. It happens I moved here in 2007, and must have bought one then. (When I moved to LA in the mid-90's I left the lawn mower--modified to eliminate the dead man switch--and evidently whatever gas can I had in those days, with the folks who bought my townhouse with a little yard.)

So, since the EPA only has jurisdiction in the USA, what do Canadians have? I noticed Canadian Tire sells a brand called Scepter, who say they put the vent back in, after a lot of complaints. Their 25 liter can is $27 Canadian, or $21 USD, which is still way too high, but about what I paid for the one I just returned, without the Rube Goldberg nonsense. (Would love to hear from Canadians on this forum about what they have, and like.)

When Canada opens back up, a trip to a hardware store on that side of the border may be on our to-do list....

Tom

[fishboat]

A government reg to eliminate a (liquid or vapor) leaking gas can isn't a terrible thing. The issue is the design that some company(s) come(s) up with to address the reg.

There's a simple (<2 minute) "adjustment" that can be made to the spout in question that makes using it a non-issue. Search you-tube..it's there.

[featherliteCT1]

One of the things I dislike about some of the new cans is that during storage the spout sticks down into the fuel. So, when you take the spout out to use the can, fuel drips off the spout and/or gets my hands contaminated with stinky fuel.

[Tom&Shelly]

A government reg to eliminate a (liquid or vapor) leaking gas can isn't a terrible thing. The issue is the design that some company(s) come(s) up with to address the reg.

There's a simple (<2 minute) "adjustment" that can be made to the spout in question that makes using it a non-issue. Search you-tube..it's there.

Well, the government reg is a problem if there isn't a workable solution. Evidently, there's not.

Sure, I could buy a $10 nozzle, and fix it (by violating the EPA reg myself). I should be able to buy a nozzle for about a buck that doesn't have the problem in the first place. And I should be able to buy a gas can with an air vent without drilling a hole in it.

Anyway, I'm thinking about simply using a water can, if the plastic doesn't dissolve... Bet the EPA loves that idea!

Tom

[rjgimp]

A government reg to eliminate a (liquid or vapor) leaking gas can isn't a terrible thing. The issue is the design that some company(s) come(s) up with to address the reg.

There's a simple (<2 minute) "adjustment" that can be made to the spout in question that makes using it a non-issue. Search you-tube..it's there.

Paying twice what I used to pay before the gubbamint "fixed" the cans and receiving a product that works half as well, then spending MORE of my time and/or money to research how to fix it and carry out said 'adjustment' is first class, grade A... BULL COOKIES!!! The gas cans we had 30 years ago worked great, lasted a long time, were readily available, and could be had at a reasonable price.

Also, if you seriously think removing a vent will eliminate any "leakage" of vapor I have several bridges to sell you. As soon as one attempts to release any liquid from the can (in which pressure has been building all ^&#)@ day because there is no vent) the vapor explodes out of whatever tiny opening becomes available, taking droplets of gasoline with it and splashing those droplets all over everyone and anything within close proximity.