I've just spent the last hour pouring, or attempting to pour, 5 gallons of gas into my vehicle from one of the new style gas cans. I had no idea how badly they suck. I wish I had kept my old cans!
- The spout is too short
- The flow is extremely slow
- You need 3 hands to hold the can and operate the mechanism. I finally put a zip tie around it to hold it open.
- 5 gallons get heavy after a long time holding it up
One of you engineers out there should invent a better gas can, you'd make a fortune!
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I have never had problems using my "new" gas can. Perhaps you bought one that is poor quality?
THIS is the one I bought. It's going in the trash asap!
I have a few of these that I had to get before I got the good shit at Rural King. You can make them better. First throw that garbage spout away and buy this for it. https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Pour-Gas-Can-Replacement-Spout/dp/B06WRRXG1X
Then pry out the fill flow limiter thats only purpose is to make filling the gas can a bitch. Throw it away also and do what a responsible human is supposed to do and just be with the can always while filling. It will make those tolerable. They are what I use to fill the good cans with gas.
+1 on the EZ-Pour replacement spouts. Also, if you live near a Tractor Supply they tend to carry them.
I immediately take the entire spout off and just pour and aim making it much less safe the original design that was completely logical.
Buy this.
I did but there is some kind of plastic insert in the can that blocks the tube from going in.
I think it's funny that in an effort to prevent gas spilling from the container the regulations have likely doubled the amount of gas spilled by the average user. The do, indeed, suck.
Welcome to the wonderful world of bureaucrat regulatory logic.
Edit: Actually, I should not blame it all on bureaucratic "logic". They would have (probably) never had the chance to get involved if it was not for:
(1) people who are dumb/drunk/high/whatever doing things they should not like pouring gas onto a fire
(2) sleazy personal injury lawyers
(3) juries with people that are even dumber than the people in point #1
In addition to companies going bankrupt and hard working people losing their jobs so lawyers can get rich and people can get compensated for their stupidity, you then get the regulators to make people solve problems that don't exist and this results in ... things like the new gas cans.
Link for the history of the gas can issue below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTQtVsggZXY
Dont even get me started on tier four motors where now we get to put piss in a tank. Gimme all the motors for 2007 and earlier baby. Honestly with urea(DEF fluid) all the emissions we have supposedly prevented but all the plastic jugs that have been created to store all the def is probably more damaging to the environment than the emissions saved. Not to mention the serious cost in all the bullshit added to the motors that break and cost way more money to fix now.
Hokienator, your statement reminds me of one of my fundamental axioms in life:
The more fancy-dancy and high tech a piece of equipment is, the more things there are on it that can break.
1 of 2 books that I do feel should be required reading to graduate high school is The Death of Common Sense.
Reminds me of my dad complaining about electronic ignition being too hard to fix and how he preferred a good old fashioned distributor. Personally, I don't mind having a maintenance free system vs. one where it seems like you're always under the hood.
Keep in mind, for all the stupid, overly complicated advances, we also get some really damned useful ones. Sometimes you have to bear with the dumb stuff for the sake of encouraging ingenuity across the board.
Oh yes, I'm totally with you 07. Believe me, I'm glad we are not still driving Model Ts. Advancement is good when useful. My big thing is that I want things that work and do the job they are designed to do. Not that have all the add ons that are of little value and just add cost as well as break.
I loved the Top Gear where Richard and Jeremy went on vacation without Capt. Slow and they were staying in Monaco and they bet eachother they could get their car to stay out front because that's where the most exotic cars were. So one of them brought a Model T and no one at the hotel could start it because it was too complicated.
I always think of Scotty in the Star Trek 4 movie: "The fancier the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."
I've now moved into being an electrician and shit they make today is a joke. Anytime I can get my hands on older electrical components(I do industrial) I horde them like the grinch on christmas. I'm the same way with power tools give me all the belt drive simple motor and pulley driven stuff you can get. It lasts and is meant to be fixed, today its all if it breaks chuck it and buy a new one and as an avid follower of Mr. Red green it grinds my gears.
Of they cant find you handsome, they should atleast find you handy.
Red Green, my fav. Canadian!! "If the women don't find ya handsome, they should at least find ya handy"
Thats the attitude man!
TIL DEF fluid is composed of urea.
Once you have to actually buy the junk so the machines computer will let the machine run you start digging to see why you need it and lets just say there was some nice words said once we realized what we were buying by the pallet.
I would say you could alternatively grab a Navistar engine from as recently as 2012, but the amount of hoops they jumped through in the name of saving their customers from the devil known as DEF meant a sharp increase in engine failures from the extra complexity in the intake/exhaust system.
I won't beat around the bush with this. If you can get to a Rural King pick up a couple of these and never, ever look back.
Greatest "Gas" Can in the World
I've never seen a product description that ended with a larger *wink*
Those things are badass. The old style Jerry cans work good too but the seals tend to leak and you have to use a separate funnel. I've seen them advertised as ketchup cans. What a joke.
Thanks for the tip!
The reviews are priceless.
I learned very quickly to not fill it full, if I go about 3 gallons its much easier to handle with two hands.
Been around for like 8-10yrs, and yes, they're horrible.
They are bad. I got so frustrated that I took my drill and just drilled through all of the bullshit that is in the spout. It now acts like a completely normal gas can and I don't have to pinch, pull or tug anything.
This is exactly what I did. Just performed a little...."surgery"......
Maaaaaaan, I thought it was just me when I struggled with mine!!! Hahaha
Thank God I'm not alone
Dude, these replies are priceless. They have given me a good chuckle. I had no idea all the frustrations, I'll hang onto my pre-2009 lawnmower can, and will remember the tips above shall it ever fail and I need an easier way to dispense my "velociraptor blood".
Hmm. Sounds like user error to me
Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
You must be a Help Desk Technician
Yes, but did we provide you good customer service?
I know your computer isn't working but can you fill out this survey on the web and give me 5 stars?
The only one of the new cans I even remotely like are the ones where they have the button on the top of the spout to open the spout theyre nice actually. That all being said as someone who used to be a logger running chainsaws all day we didnt tolerate the stupid ass new cans so we use these bad boys, theyre simple and even have a nice detachable funnel if you need one for something else.
This is absolutely the only new style, safety gas can worth spending money on. I know Lowe's carries them. And you won't be disappointed.
EDIT: Only one leg and no responses. I'm a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I ain't worried about the legs. Just hope that doesn't mean y'all skipped over my recommendation. It would just be your loss. This is seriously the only safety can worth buying.
I'm sure it works well, but seems awfully complicated and expensive, when all I need is a plastic container that I can get the gas back out of.
The garage sale special with the old-style spout also works fine.
It may be the best can that meets the current CARB standards, however I still find myself fond of good old gravity and effective displacement for pouring liquid from one container to another. For hard use in the field, I see way too much stuff that can go wrong with that can. We did without moving parts on fuel cans for 100 years. I vote we go back to that.
If they put whiskey in this new type of container nobody would ever get drunk.
Did I say it was the best gas can on the planet?
No, I said it's the best one (That I have found. And I feel like I have bought and cursed them all.) that meets the new safety standards.
I'm old enough (barely) to remember oil cans (yes...real cans like a giant can of tomato paste) that you punched a metal spout (which you owned and kept in your garage) into to the can to pour the oil out, after you had made a nick in the opposite side of the can with the same spout to allow the air to go into the can as you poured. Same as old beer and soda cans we used to open with the old school can opener before the pop tops came out. You still can use one of these old school can openers to punch triangle holes in cans of many types of pourable foodstuffs.
Some inventions like pop top cans (where the tab doesnt come off) and plastic oil quarts with a screw off cap are teriffic, but some shit should be left alone. Ive seen and dealt with these new gas cans twice and theres no fucking way i'm ever getting rid of the 5 or 6 normal easy to use gas cans i have.
Rant Over. Get the F off my lawn.
Don't want a safety can?
Don't fucking get a safety can!
But if you do want to get a safety can, I highly recommend this one.
That's literally all I said in nutshell.
Did I advocate for this over any of the shit you mentioned? No.
So get off your own goddamned lawn! You're drunk. You're in your underwear. You've soiled them again. The neighbors are talking. And the sheriff said he isn't going to be as nice as he was the first 12 times.
I'm sorry if you took offense at my post. I wasn't trying to say anything about you at all, and when i said 'these new gas cans' i meant the new designs in general, not the specific one you showed. I'm sorry if I came off the wrong way. I was really being sarcastic (poorly) about the get off my lawn stuff, but I was being serious of my nostalgia for times when things were simpler.
My bad, man. I had no issue with your post other than it's placement making it seem like you were offering a counterpoint to an argument I wasn't even making.
Admittedly, I took my response a little far. I was already in a mood. So, I apologize for that.
But no harm, no foul.
Its all good bro...i probably should have made my post a original reply and not a reply to your post.
We're good in my book......
I'm laughing my ass off at both of you, for different reasons entirely.
I couldn't agree more! Everything on the market now is crap, but the one you linked is the highest quality crap! I logged in to post the link and you beat me to it.
I still have one of these. You mean they've made something worse?
I honestly think these are worse than the new style that this post is about. That is once you google a few how to videos to figure out how to press in the damn green button. The new style you can somewhat control the flow and you don't rely on resting the gas can on that black hinge thing.
Yard sales.....that's seems to be the only place you can buy a decent gas can anymore.
I have spilled much more gas with the new style cans than I ever spilled with the old style cans that actually worked.
Seriously, whoever designed the new style cans should be summarily executed for the damage they've done to the environment.
I think their goal must have been to promote battery-powered tools.
Just get an appropriate funnel:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sfj-r6200rd
It sucks. I take the whole thing off and just use a funnel.
What exactly are we trying to prevent with these 19 different buttons? Why cant it just be a funnel that goes into the can with a childproof cap and another child proof cap for an air release? I dont have enough hands to operate these stupid thinge they have today.
I think it has more to do with control of the vapors for emissions and/or accidental spills.
This ^
My masters thesis had quite a bit to do about greenhouse gas emission in the long haul trucking industry and the elimination of spills and fumes during refueling is a problem that has got a lot of attention.
I have two gas plastic gas cans that I thought absolutely sucked until I turned the thing upside down, nothing spilled. I pressed the collar down just by pushing the can against the opening in the tank. It filled, then the spout was long enough that when it was almost full the gas blocked the air intake and it stopped. I pulled the can out of the tank and finally realized what I had been doing wrong all these years.
So what did you find out regarding the problem of fumes? Huge issue?
Not as big as the fuel source itself but on average there's always spillage when refueling - eliminating it won't take us to the land of sunshine and rainbows but it certainly doesn't help to spill it.
It seems like I've spilled more trying to balance a five gallon can while pushing a button or twist something to the right position and pulling a trigger and balancing it over a piece of equipment than I used to spill with the old-style can.
It also seems like all the newfangled solutions are proprietary and not interchangable, resulting in useless plastic cans with no cap at all when you break one in frustration.
But there may be some recency bias in there.
I emailed the company that makes the can, they responded back this morning. The response didn't address any of my complaints, it just said "perhaps you would prefer our smaller 2 gallon SmartControl can".
LOL. There customer service response was basically, "Sorry you couldn't handle our Mens Large sized can, perhaps you would prefer something in a Ladies Petite?"
I am as pro-environment and anti emissions as can be but its gas cans we are talking here. If America is concerned about emissions, stop the methane releases from fracking, to start with. Sorry, politickin'...
My dad has four or five old beat up metal gas cans in his shed. Metal spout and everything. I might have to get those antiques and put them to good use.
It's common to see plastic gas cans on the side of the road. The last two I've picked up have been the older variety that work normally.
This might be the most TKP OT post of all time, and I love it.
I disagree. We're an engineering school that also has a sizeable and notable Ag department. Gas can discussion seems par for the course. Mayonnaise, on the other hand? I steered clear of that mess.
Correct, that was my intended point.
I totally read that as the most OT TKP post ever, instead of the most TKP OT post ever. My bad.
I have one of these for diesel fuel for my tractor. It works pretty well but only because I can set the tank on its side on my tractor step and the spout goes right in the fuel tank. Just have to hold the button down for awhile to put in all five gallons so it definitely helps to not have to hold the tank too.
I've got one of those, too.
It's one of the better solutions to the diabolical scheme that made something that's pretty simple into something we now have to work at. I've definitely had worse compliant cans, and it took me several unsuccessful tries to find it.
Still need two hands and a knee to make it work.
This is something I didn't even know was a issue. Looks like I bought a simple gas can just in time when I bought a house in 2009. I get that spills can be an issue with the old cans, but most of those are easily rectified with a funnel.