As a newbie reading through many old posts to learn and catch up, I noticed there has often been a need by some for a source of bleach storage containers. Having just recently installed a Stenner pump myself, I'd been in need myself. I set up a 6.5 gal bucket for starters (which gave me a little over 5 gal usable volume) but I wanted something larger as a more permanent fix. I found these on eBay at a price as good or better than I had seen posted in the past on TFP, and I bought one, which arrived today:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370611596456
I bypassed the eBay auction process and bought directly from the seller for her minimum bid starting price ($15.00 + $14.13 S&H). The seller's direct email is [email protected] if anyone would like to do the same, and she will send you an invoice/payment request through Paypal for payment.
Over all I am highly pleased with this purchase for my intended purpose. A few comments about these jugs that might be of interest to some:
1. The title says "15 gals" and the description says "holds 14 gals with a little space left over". I will be drilling through just under the lid for the hose, so I'll lose a little storage area in the neck, and there will always be a little unusable space in the bottom (i.e. you will start sucking air before you can pump that last drop). So I'm expecting to have at least 13.5 gal of usable storage and hoping for 14 gal. I do intend to measure when I get it set up and fill it for the first time so that I can make fill level gauge markings on the container.
2. The container originally had pool stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid) in it. I noticed on the MSDS that CYA doesn't play well with oxidizers, but of course they are talking about mixing highly concentrated stuff. I figured the powder would empty well with little residue, and after rinsing would be very clean of any residue. The listing stated these had been "filled with water, scrubbed, and rinsed". Mine arrived with a little odor inside though it looked clean. As a precaution, I added a little water, scrubbed the inside quickly with a SOS pad, and rinsed. I didn't spend 5 minutes on this and then the only smell was the light plastic smell that you'd always expect. I would appreciate hearing from the chem gurus if I should be more concerned about a potential harmful chemical reaction between bleach and any residue from the original product.
3. Speaking of scrubbing and rinsing, the outside of my container was not as clean as those pictured. You can see some of the old label still on the lower right jug in the eBay picture. Mine had probably at least 2-3x as much old label residue still on the jug as that one (and there were originally labels on front and back). Some brownish glue was also used to attach the labels, apparently as a back up in case the self adhesiveness failed. Of course all this doesn't hurt anything functionally, but just looks a little worse cosmetically. I scrubbed the area fairly aggressively with an SOS pad, was able to scrape any thick spots of the brown glue (drips or runs) with my fingernail, and got it cleaned up within probably 15 min as good as the ones pictured that look clean. There is still a little brownish discoloration from the glue if you look close, but it doesn't stand out on the dark blue background.
4. It was shipped promptly, but by USPS Parcel Post, which took a week in transit to get to me. It was not boxed or packaged in any way. The seller simply taped the handles down, taped the lid to make sure it didn't accidentally unscrew in transit, and slapped a half page self adhesive shipping label onto the lid, so I would guess there is thus some risk of minor scuffing in transit though mine arrived in good shape. There was some minor scuffing on bottom, I'd think most likely from being slid across a concrete floor instead of being picked up and carried when it originally contained 100 lbs of stabilizer. The shipping label didn't easily peel off the lid... a little soaking in water and light scrubbing was required to remove it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370611596456
I bypassed the eBay auction process and bought directly from the seller for her minimum bid starting price ($15.00 + $14.13 S&H). The seller's direct email is [email protected] if anyone would like to do the same, and she will send you an invoice/payment request through Paypal for payment.
Over all I am highly pleased with this purchase for my intended purpose. A few comments about these jugs that might be of interest to some:
1. The title says "15 gals" and the description says "holds 14 gals with a little space left over". I will be drilling through just under the lid for the hose, so I'll lose a little storage area in the neck, and there will always be a little unusable space in the bottom (i.e. you will start sucking air before you can pump that last drop). So I'm expecting to have at least 13.5 gal of usable storage and hoping for 14 gal. I do intend to measure when I get it set up and fill it for the first time so that I can make fill level gauge markings on the container.
2. The container originally had pool stabilizer (Cyanuric Acid) in it. I noticed on the MSDS that CYA doesn't play well with oxidizers, but of course they are talking about mixing highly concentrated stuff. I figured the powder would empty well with little residue, and after rinsing would be very clean of any residue. The listing stated these had been "filled with water, scrubbed, and rinsed". Mine arrived with a little odor inside though it looked clean. As a precaution, I added a little water, scrubbed the inside quickly with a SOS pad, and rinsed. I didn't spend 5 minutes on this and then the only smell was the light plastic smell that you'd always expect. I would appreciate hearing from the chem gurus if I should be more concerned about a potential harmful chemical reaction between bleach and any residue from the original product.
3. Speaking of scrubbing and rinsing, the outside of my container was not as clean as those pictured. You can see some of the old label still on the lower right jug in the eBay picture. Mine had probably at least 2-3x as much old label residue still on the jug as that one (and there were originally labels on front and back). Some brownish glue was also used to attach the labels, apparently as a back up in case the self adhesiveness failed. Of course all this doesn't hurt anything functionally, but just looks a little worse cosmetically. I scrubbed the area fairly aggressively with an SOS pad, was able to scrape any thick spots of the brown glue (drips or runs) with my fingernail, and got it cleaned up within probably 15 min as good as the ones pictured that look clean. There is still a little brownish discoloration from the glue if you look close, but it doesn't stand out on the dark blue background.
4. It was shipped promptly, but by USPS Parcel Post, which took a week in transit to get to me. It was not boxed or packaged in any way. The seller simply taped the handles down, taped the lid to make sure it didn't accidentally unscrew in transit, and slapped a half page self adhesive shipping label onto the lid, so I would guess there is thus some risk of minor scuffing in transit though mine arrived in good shape. There was some minor scuffing on bottom, I'd think most likely from being slid across a concrete floor instead of being picked up and carried when it originally contained 100 lbs of stabilizer. The shipping label didn't easily peel off the lid... a little soaking in water and light scrubbing was required to remove it.
