55 Gallon Barrels $10-20 in the GVRD

[mike31154]

I got a few of these locally from a garden center, but still not at that good of a price. Anyhow, if you can get the bung plugs with the lid or barrel, check them out. In many cases you can drill out the bung plug and some of them are threaded so if drilled carefully, you'll have a nice threaded hole to put a valve into. Then, provided the bung plug also has the seal with it, you can lay the barrel on its side. This way you don't need to drill extra holes & add bulkheads, seals etc. You do lose some capacity with it on it's side and of course get or DIY some sort of stand for it, but that's the way I use one of them to collect RODI waste water.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

OMG, you have to be kidding me. $200? I thought $78 was way too much. You can't find any near you?

Not that I've been able to find yet. I have been looking though! Rona has 50gal bins but they're like the blue boxes / black boxes the city uses for recycling and garbage pickup, they're square and to move them you have to tip them back onto their wheels. That doesn't work well if they're full of water and I'm not sure if they're watertight anyways with that axle down on the bottom.

In all fairness the one I came close to ordering was about $80 from uline.ca. It was the dolly at $60 that was the luxurious touch that maybe one could do without. The lid too is around $30.

http://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/H...ootChecked=yes

I've checked other online suppliers (usplastic.com & a few others) but the pricing is all pretty much inline with each other.

I wish I knew someone in the L.M. well enough to ask for the huge favour of just picking one of these up for me and holding it until I came through on my island camping trip but seeing as that's the summer that's kind of too big a favour to ask anyhow. Oh well, some more deals will pop up a bit closer sooner or later. Or I'll get the gumption to suck it up and pay full retail. One or the other.

cheers

[Myka]

Omg, I just Googled "bung"...apparently it IS a real word! My barrels have a 2" bung in the lid which I found useless because I chucked the lids out! Technicall mine don't have lids because the barrels were solid and I had to use a jigsaw to cut the tops off.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Myka

Wtf is a bung?

Good idea! I overfill barrels, tubs, washing machine...etc, etc, etc all the time! I haven't had water on the floor for about 10 days now so I am WELL overdue. I started putting the waste line into a 5 gallon bucket that I set in the bathtub so I can't make a mess. Then I pack the 5 gallon pail to the washing machine. It's a pain in the butt, but I hate wasting water almost as much as I hate cleaning up wet floors.

Bung is the hole(s) in the lid or barrel. Usually two in each lid. There's a screw in cap, or bung plug that threads into the threaded holes.

And yeah, mini floods tend to happen to me as well. I now only make RODI when I'm home and use the timer on my kitchen stove as a reminder to go downstairs & check how things are filling up. Started making some water this morning & almost forgot to turn on the timer, doh, so even that's not foolproof when you get absentminded.

Chuckle, looks like you figured the bung thing out before I got done posting...

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Not that I've been able to find yet. I have been looking though!

It was the dolly at $60 that was the luxurious touch that maybe one could do without. The lid too is around $30.

I've checked other online suppliers (usplastic.com & a few others) but the pricing is all pretty much inline with each other.

Oh well, some more deals will pop up a bit closer sooner or later. Or I'll get the gumption to suck it up and pay full retail. One or the other.

cheers

In a city the size of cowtown there's got to be a source for these things at a reasonable cost! I haven't tried here, but if you know anyone in the grocery business, like a superstore with bulk olives & such, they will often have food safe barrels, since much of the bulk stuff is delivered in them. DIY Beer & wine making businesses will often have these barrels as well. You just need a connection I guess, since selling these barrels is obviously becoming lucrative due to increased demand in the rainbarrel market. The guy in GVRD has obviously cornered a source and kudos to him for selling them at such a killer price.

If you're a bit handy you should be able to DIY a dolly with some casters from a hardware store and a bit of lumber.

[gregzz4]

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/prod...s/Barrel-Dolly

I bought one of these last year for stacking our window-mount A/C units for storage through the winter. Just makes it easy to move them around.
The dolly was only $25, give or take.

The uniseal bulkheads are making me nervous. Thats a lot of water to hold back with a press-fit seal.
Think I'll do some research about mounting one down low.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I wish I knew someone in the L.M. well enough to ask for the huge favour of just picking one of these up for me and holding it until I came through on my island camping trip but seeing as that's the summer that's kind of too big a favour to ask anyhow.
cheers

No need...just contact Dan through craigslist. I'm sure he will still have some next summer as he told me his summer prices are higher due to demand.
Just go by his place on your way through as he's only about 15mins off the freeway on the west side of the Port Mann Bridge

BTW, if I had enough space, I'd store one for you

[Myka]

Thanks for the definition Mike! I really had no idea that "bung" was a word. Now I understand what Beavis & Butthead were talking about when they called each other "bungholes".

[mike31154]

Also brings to mind the saying 'bunged up'. But it's probably best not to elaborate too much on that!! Not sure bung is actually an appropriate term for the plastic barrels since the caps are threaded & if I'm not mistaken a true bung is a friction fit such as in traditional wooden kegs or wine barrels, hammered in & forcibly removed. Egad, I think I'm opening a bungless can of worms here! Faintly recall some old joke about a constipated elephant & a poor little guy who decided to remove the 'bung'.