Water bottles aren’t forever, even if you don’t damage them.
A few years ago I purchased 3 3-gallon water bottles at a now-defunct Kmart in the big town about 50 miles away. One got a small leak last winter, the other two have soldiered on but I’m going to demote them to reserve status…
…because for some reason the bottoms have stopped being flat. They still hold water just fine but transporting them in the Jeep is a pain; they won’t stay upright unless forced upright by other heavier objects, which are rarely present. Sooner or later they’ll roll to the back, force the damaged latch on the rear door, and go bouncing down a rocky slope which will probably be the end of them.
So, since Generous Readers sent me a bunch of new water bottles two months ago, most of which have been chillin’ full of water in the back of Ian’s Cave, I decided to swap some inventory around. New bottles forward, old bottles back.
Do they ever get pretty warm after you fill ’em? Wondering if rising interior pressure and warm plastic is slowly pushing them into something more spherical.
Won’t say it’s never happened, though the only way to get them that hot would be to leave them out in the sun and I carefully avoid that because UV degradation is damned near overnight here.
Do they fit in milk crates? If so, it would be a great way to protect the bottom from damage both external and from water pressure as you shift.
If not, well, cobble together some plywood or palette box bottoms. In your free time, of course.
It looks like, as the water gets warm from sunlight or cabin temperature it expands and the pressure causes the base to expand. I wonder if a carboy air lock with bung used in wine making would solve this issue? As the pressure builds the air lock would release the pressure like a safety valve saving the water container. You would just need to make sure the bung fit the container properly. The air lock could be added after you arrived at home to avoid spilling in he Jeep.
https://www.midwestsupplies.com/homebrewing-equipment/fermentation-equipment/stopper-and-airlocks
Anon, that’s a cool idea. As a brewer I’ve used a lot of those. The one downside though is that cooling cycles can actually suck in liquid in the airlock so in a situation like Joel’s it’d require constant monitoring. Might be easier to just crack the caps a bit.
Like glass, plastic is never really stable. It just changes more or less slowly depending on composition and temperature.
Dopey me, forgot what my name was…
bmq215 – You make an excellent point. I thought Joel’s containers were the ones with snap on lids, not screw on.