One Man's Quest for Gas Cans that Don't Suck

After the recent hurricane, I bought a generator. To keep the thirsty beast running for more than a day, I decided to buy some new gas cans. Disgusted with the current state of gas cans in America, I set out to buy a set of the best damn gas cans I could find. I've written up my quest in case anyone else is shopping for gas cans and would like to try and avoid some of the crap-tastic products out there today.

http://www.gad.net/Blog/2012/11/22/one-mans-quest-for-gas-cans-that-dont-suck/

Don't forget the gas stablizer!!

FNG said:

Don't forget the gas stablizer!!

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Oh, believe me, I spent far too much time reading up on that stuff too.

Good article.

I always put my generator gas in my vehicles in the spring, and get fresh gas and stablizer for the cans.

I hope your generator works as well as mine. It's been the best hurricane diversion device I've ever seen! I bought it about 4 years ago, and there hasn't been a storm in this area since. You probably know you should fire it up periodically or it may fail you when finally needed. I run mine for about an hour at the beginning and the end of each season, and run the tank dry.

Dave

dapmdave said:

I hope your generator works as well as mine. It's been the best hurricane diversion device I've ever seen! Dave

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:lol: :lol: :lol:
That's what I keep telling my wife when she asks me if we should buy another generator: When you have one, you never need it.
Bought one after Frances in 2004, (graciously paid for by FEMA) and eventually got tired of having to keep worrying with maintaining the gas line / carb clean so it would start when needed (which is never since 2005), and ended up selling it as a result (which paid for a good part of another Guild instead :wink: ).
In addition, my next door neighbor where I live now, is a FPL (Florida Power and Light) employee, (bucket truck operator / line maintenance)
so I know that when / if we ever lose power, it won't be for too long.... :lol:

Thanks for the article. I too have been in a never ending search for a can that doesn't leak :evil: Anyway, right now in jersey, generators are still at a premium so I am going to wait for a while and get one off of c.l in the spring. How often do we need it? well in the 50 years that I have been living here.... never So I figure that the odds are not in my favor for the next 50 :shock:

I bought a Honda generator.

We lose power all time in this part of NJ.

I am kinda amused hearing about certain people complaining about the sump pump dying and watching the basement flood because the power was out.
Um, most people have buckets and wash sinks in the basement?

dapmdave said:

I hope your generator works as well as mine. It's been the best hurricane diversion device I've ever seen! I bought it about 4 years ago, and there hasn't been a storm in this area since. You probably know you should fire it up periodically or it may fail you when finally needed. I run mine for about an hour at the beginning and the end of each season, and run the tank dry.

Dave

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So true Dave, though we have the most useless "power company" here on Long Island, that generators were a must for 90% of victims, err, customers after the big storm here. We were on of the rare ones here that didn't lose their power for a week or more, and have much to be thankful for for just that today. Going forward, we're going to have a generator permanently on line for the next "100 year storm" that seems to happen every year around here lately. :roll:

The same holds true to a somewhat lesser degree with snow blowers here in the Northeast. Got a bit of use out of it the winter before last, not a day last winter. This winter? We'll see...

We were without power for 13 days. Never again. I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

I bought mine on day 12. I therefore did my part because as soon as I bought one, the power came back on.

Default said:

I am kinda amused hearing about certain people complaining about the sump pump dying and watching the basement flood because the power was out.
Um, most people have buckets and wash sinks in the basement?

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Yeah, except that our wash sink has a sump pump in it!

(And it's a damn good thing it does as last year during Irene, the water in the sump was rising faster then the sump pump running full time good keep up with!!!!! So we ripped the pump out of the containment can from the sink, jury rigged a hose to it and dropped it in the sump with only a half inch of freeboard to spare! Even then for a couple of seconds it kept rising! Then, thankfully the level started to lower with both pumps running full time.)

Our generator was purchased to run the sump pumps. With Irene the power never went out so we didn't need it. This year with Sandy we had very little rain but lost power so we ran it intermittently to keep the food cold/frozen in the refrigerator/Freezer and the fish tank heater and pump on.

GAD said:

I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

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That's why I still have mine. It's just a little insurance policy.

Dave