Update: I’ve recently become aware of the fact that Google Search is excluding any pages on this site that have any Amazon Affiliate links on them at all, even though the affiliate account has long expired (from lack of use). They may in fact be penalizing the entire site for that.
The links have been removed, but this is one of two posts I created where removing the links greatly decreases the usefulness and convenience of the entire post. I apologize for that, but it doesn’t appear that there’s anything I can do about it.
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Recently I’ve been in a couple of the local Lowes Home Stores more than once for projects, and I noted that they have white plastic 5-gallon “paint” buckets conspicuously labeled “FOOD GRADE”, “HEAVY DUTY” and “BPA FREE” for $3.98, and Gamma Seal screw lids to fit, also of course food grade, for $7.28, which is cheaper than I remember them being.
A lot of people know about this option but a lot more need to. Five-gallon plastic paint buckets have been a valuable storage option for a long time, but they were also a pain to deal with- getting them closed took a rubber or plastic mallet and a lot of noise, getting them open again took either a special prying tool and some elbow grease or a little cutting, which made it a little less secure from then on. Neither option was what the ladies typically regarded as friendly. I did that for some time, along with food-grade aluminized heavy-Mylar five-gallon bucket liners to protect the actual food inside. It was worth the hassle because the five-gallon pails are a highly-evolved solution, they have to be absolutely water (paint) tight, cheap and durable enough to hold up on construction sites, which is a remarkably destructive environment- just look at their tools, which generally look like they were misplaced for a few weeks- in the cement mixer.
The Gamma Seal lids solve that problem permanently. They apply like a regular paint bucket lid, with a mallet, but it only needs to be done once and never needs to be removed because they turn the lid into a screw-hatch with a gasket seal… well, it has two gasket seals, really, a larger foamy black one that’s usual for paint bucket lids to seal to the bucket itself, and a thinner off-white one made of some more durable stuff (silicone?) to withstand the repeated opening and closing of the screw-hatch.
So, what you get for for $11.26 (or so) is a five gallons of very durable, air-tight, waterproof, easy-to-open and easy-to-close storage, which, if you think about it, is one hell of a lot cheaper than ammo cans, or fake ammo cans, or Chinese fake ammo cans, or plastic fake ammo cans, or… just about any other option I can think of, if you really need durable, easily re-usable and water-tight.
The sales blurbs for the lids keep emphasizing feed and kibble, which seems to me a failure of imagination. I can envision using these for a great many things besides food, especially in flood-prone areas, places where hurricanes and tornadoes are a problem… well, anyplace can experience disaster, but the extra value here is in the durability and waterproofness. Anything that can fit inside.. I can see it being great for some electronics, like the microphones, headphones and recording gear, radios, binoculars, handguns and ammo for any firearms, valuable or essential tools, pretty much anything valuable and/or delicate.
For emergency bug-out kits this is near-ideal. The fact that they are self-contained with handles is a bonus, it makes it much easier and faster to grab stuff and throw it in a vehicle for a bug-out situation. The buckets can preserve their contents against a whole slew of hazards and are easily grabbed (handles) to load in a vehicle. Obviously you’ll need packs against the possibility of having to abandon the vehicle, but it makes no sense to restrict yourself to what you can carry and waste all that capacity if you’re hoping to retain the vehicle. Even if you’re staying at home the long-term storage capability is a huge bonus for storing food, and for storing anything that will fit if flooding is even a remote a possibility. These things could easily save you thousands in property losses.
I also don’t think you have to postulate a disaster, or storing the gear in them all the time. The buckets nest and the lids stack, they don’t take up a lot of room if you have several. Facing reports of an oncoming severe storm, however rare, I think it would be very comforting to have some stashed away somewhere, ready to pull out to get your most valued possessions through, and maybe your pantry contents. Hell, some moving days can be as nerve-wracking and hard on delicate possessions as a disaster, for the really valuable stuff I can see this being a great alternative to relatively fragile cardboard boxes.
At least keep it in mind as an option.
Myself, I figure I’ll just get in the habit of picking one of each up every time I’m in Lowes, when I generally need a shopping basket anyway. At just over $10 a set they’ll accumulate over time, and I’m confident they won’t go to waste. (Update- I’ve increased my acquisition rate considerably now that we’re facing a long-distance move.)
See my remarks elsewhere about freezer tape as an option for marking contents. Also, Amazon has the Gamma lids in colors for a strange range of prices, but currently starting at $7.47 for black, so it’s possible to color-code them for contents as well, which might help prioritize things after a disaster.
I just wish that the paint buckets came in sizes up to maybe 20 or 30 gallons, there’s a lot more I might use these things for that just won’t fit. Or, maybe a long tube with paint-bucket rims at each end?
– Robert the Wombat
Update: I’ve recently become aware that Home Depot seems to have dropped the Gamma Seal line entirely, at least around here, and replaced it with a different brand that seems far inferior for about the same price. Bad news. I think the brand name is “Leak-Tite” or something similar. The new ones are easy to spot, they just have one “rail” molded across the top to be gripped to screw the “hatch” open or closed, unlike the two cross-rails (or four radii) of the Gamma Seal. That’s not the problem, the biggest clue I found to lack of quality in the ones I examined is that there was NO gasket, none, between the lid and the paint bucket, meaning that they rely entirely on the precision of the paint-bucket manufacturer for a precise fit and seal, a factor that is beyond their control.
Maybe I’ll try them- if there comes a time when none others are available. Hopefully Lowes has not followed suit, but I don’t get there as often to check,
– Robert the Wombat