[chris malish]

Gents, hoping one of you has a quick answer. I have an old 5 gallon bucket of Berryman carb cleaner that I have been hoarding for probably 10 years now. The full strength nasty kind. It came in a 5 gallon metal bucket with a dipping basket. I just noticed it has been leaking (haven't had to pry into that corner of the garage in a while). I presume either the chemicals ate through the metal or it has rusted, or both...

Question: can I store this stuff in a 5 gallon Home Depot type bucket or do I need to find another metal one somewhere? (where?). It occurred to me maybe the chemicals would eat through the PVC or ABS or whatever plastic that such buckets are made of.....

Thanks,

Chris

[Schurkey]

Metal bucket, air-tight lid.

[Greg Reid]

Where can you get a five gallon metal bucket nowadays?

[chris malish]

Thanks.

[chiphead]

Metal bucket for sure. I have a gallon of the same stuff, and it ate through the original can. I had to find another metal paint can from a big box store. It's bad stuff, hexavalent chromium, benzene, cresols, etc. Don't get it on you.

[Big Bear]

Had same problem. Used a 5 gallon plasic oil bucket. It already ate through a metal bucket. Why use another?

[MatthewKlein]

Originally Posted by chris malish

Gents, hoping one of you has a quick answer. I have an old 5 gallon bucket of Berryman carb cleaner that I have been hoarding for probably 10 years now. The full strength nasty kind. It came in a 5 gallon metal bucket with a dipping basket. I just noticed it has been leaking (haven't had to pry into that corner of the garage in a while). I presume either the chemicals ate through the metal or it has rusted, or both...

Question: can I store this stuff in a 5 gallon Home Depot type bucket or do I need to find another metal one somewhere? (where?). It occurred to me maybe the chemicals would eat through the PVC or ABS or whatever plastic that such buckets are made of.....

Thanks,

Chris

I've had 2 in plastic pails for years. So far so good. They ended up in plastic after the metal pails leaked.

[PunchT37]

I used to work for a petro chemical plant. All the corrosive chemicals went into black drums instead of the red ones. Difference? The black ones had a plastic liner in em.

[lust4speed]

I would say that not all plastic buckets are created equal. My first experience with carb cleaner came decades ago when I used a toothbrush to help scrub gunk off the carb. Noticed a residue on the carb and it was the dissolved plastic bristles.

Think the basic problem with metal buckets is the water settles to the bottom and it is simply the water eating away at the metal.

[chris malish]

5 gallon metal bucket from Sherwin Williams Commercial = $19. Lid for same was $9.

I poured from the old into the new in the garage with the bay door open and got a headache just from that. When I came inside the wife was like "WTH have you been doing? You reek." Had to change my brand-clean clothes and then she made me take a shower before we went out for dinner. Also it appears about half of it had leaked out and evaporated over the past year (or however long it's been since I last used the stuff).

The pictures of superfund sites look like they use some kind of blue plastic barrels. But I didn't do any further research into whehter a regular paint bucket would have worked just fine. I have a feeling I'll be having the same issue in a few years.....

[Greg Reid]

I was asking about where to get the metal bucket because I need one for my wood stove to shovel the coals into. As for the original topic, It's hard for me to imagine any kind of carb cleaner eating through a heavy gauge polyethylene plastic bucket. I don't know but I bet it would've been fine.

[chris malish]

I bought a small metal trashcan from Home Depot (like a mini trash barrel you would take to the street, same section as outdoor garbage cans) for shoveling coals into out of my offset smoker. I think it was more expensive than the paint bucket from Sherwin Williams but I think it would work better for that purpose.

[61-63]

If it's only ten years old it's not the nasty stuff. Nasty mebby compared to what they may make now but they stopped making the real deal carb cleaner waaaay longer than ten years ago. Just saying.