What's the trick to preventing stacked plastic buckets from sticking together? (2024 Update)

Like everyone else, I often stack similar sized plastic buckets, but, over time, they almost always become close to impossible to pry apart without excessive force and undue swearing.

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There must be a simple "trick" that prevents them from sticking so tightly that one has to bang and curse to pry them apart.

What "trick" do you use to keep your plastic buckets from sticking together?

Reply to
subinsilicon
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Per snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com:

I had not thought about a solution - besides muttering to myself and pulling.

But now that somebody has raised the issue.....

I am going to try dropping a small chunk of styrofoam insulation (broken off from a hunk of the 1" blue stuff that litters the ground around many local construction sites).

I'm thinking that anything big enough to prevent the sides of the buckets from mating perfectly would do the job.... old golf balls, a hunk of gravel, whatever.... it's just that I have a piece of the blue stuff laying around.

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

I did try hanging thick paper real estate flyer on the edge of the bottom bucket - and it seemed to have worked in my test, but it was a pain to keep in place as I was assembling the buckets, so, it doesn't seem to be the best of solutions.

Also, since these laundry buckets came with a small plastic cup, I also tried putting the cup on the bottom. This seemed to have worked a bit - but - of course - it makes the stack much taller (by a few inches each bucket).

Those two relatively failed ideas were why I was asking in the first place, since I can't be the only one to curse the fact that the buckets are always stuck together when I need them.

There must be a clever solution to this common problem.

Reply to
subinsilicon

Doesn't have to be "a few inches" just enough to prevent the seal from forming.

A little experimentation will determine exactly what thickness you need. You then simply need one more bucket to hold the spacers while you're using the buckets.

Reply to
dennisgauge

Really, what the trick is is to buy your pails from the same manufacturer. There is no "standard" when it comes to the height, width and taper on plastic pails, so as long as you mix different pails together, you're bound to get some that will wedge themselves together that they will be extremely difficult to separate.

However, if you look in your Yellow Pages under "Containers" or "Pails", you will se companies selling plastic pails in your area. As long as the pails you buy are made by the same manufacturer, they will all have the same taper, height and diameter, so they'll nest together without wedging tightly into one another.

Aternatively, maybe talk to any restaurant in your area and ask what kinds of pails they throw out most often. Then, just as them to throw those pails your way.

Reply to
nestork

I bought a long roll of thin plastic tubing - the soft stuff used for pond pumps. Drop a U-shaped length of the tubing into the bottom bucket, leaving the long end of the roll of tubing hanging out. Stack the next bucket, take the tubing and drape another U-shaped length inside it. Repeat with each bucket. Instead of messing about with a chunk of wood or styrofoam for each bucket in the stack, you just have the single roll of tubing. Less aggro.

Reply to
Moe DeLoughan

On 4/18/2013 9:51 AM, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: ...

Drop a short chunka' tubafor or similar in the bottom first--anything so don't quite bottom out works...

Reply to
dpb

Drop a short chunka' tubafor or similar in the bottom first--anything so don't quite bottom out works...

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

If you have an air compressor, try taking an air blower and blowing air down the sides. it will break the vacuum and they'll come apart

Reply to
ChairMan

I'd throw out the buckets I don't need. Stacked like that, only one is in use.

Another solution would be putting something in the way so they don't air seal. Anything, a rag, some folded paper, a short stick, or something larger in the bottom of the bucket.

Reply to
Dan Espen

Drill holes in the bottom to let in air to break the vacuum :-)

Reply to
harry

I have not tried it, but saw that if you take a piece of tubing around 1/4 inch in diameter and long enough to go from the bottom to the top of the bucket with an inch or so longer, that would break the vacuum seal. You put it in the bucket before stacking them.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

If you hadn't ignored the OP's link to the picture he posted

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you would have seen the buckets were not only from the same manufacturer but they were identical.

Pay attention there will be a quiz tomorrow! :-)

Reply to
Gordon Shumway

Put something in the bottom to prevent bottoming out. Doesn't matter what, I use pieces of wood.

Reply to
dadiOH

The only trick I ever found was to NOT stack them. Keep each one by itself.

Reply to
generic

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:b8f15db0-871e-41a8-81ea- snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

leave a bit of water in each bucket?

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

There have been several good ideas such as blowing compressed air down the sides, putting paper or cloth down the sides and plastic tubing down the inside to keep it from making a vacuum seal. Since your recycling, do as I do and save the little plastic blow tubes like are used on everything from canned air to WD-40. You can tape them to the sides of the buckets and use them to prevent a vacuum seal. It's recycling two different types of plastic. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Per snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com:

My first try was with a hunk of blue foam about 1" x 2" and it only worked if it was more-or-less in the center. Way off to one side, and the buckets mated.

Release 1.1 will be longer pieces - long enough so that they cannot wind up too far off center.... like 8 or 10 inches.....

I'm also starting to think that scrap wood will be better because it won't blow away after it's dumped out of a bucket.

Now that I'm thinking about it.....

If I were determined to spend some money, 1.5" or 1" dowl, cut accordingly.

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

I have three stacks of three kinds of buckets. Each stack contains identical buckets to the others in that particular stack. Two of the stacks do not stick to each other because of the shape of the buckets on the outside. The third stack sticks like glue. The buckets that do not stick to each other have vertical ridges around the perimeter near the top of the bucket that stick out far enough so that the ridges keep the bucket from dropping fully down into the bucket underneath it. Simple design that stops the sticking. Don't know if there are any manufacturing or distribution advantages to non-stick, but it sure makes it easier to use them around the house, garage and garden.

Reply to
hrhofmann

WD-40

Reply to
John

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