View Single Post
  #1   Report Post  
Old 13-11-2012, 03:06 PM posted to alt.home.repair,misc.legal,alt.home.lawn.garden
AZ AZ is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Nov 2012
Posts: 2
Default EPA/CARB-mandated Blitz portable gasoline containers (additionalgas can rant)

Q: If you know of a good source for the replacement CAP - please post!

These three videos covered most of my rants:

1. How to fix a Blitz gas can:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lcnwdIYEfI

2. Midwest Can Company gas can modification:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyJcG_gW1xw

3. How to fix the broken Blitz environ-flo cap (which always breaks at
the lower ring due to inferior design):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pzHtmvQ_iM


Here are my observations about the Blitz enviro-flow spout gas cans:

a. You need three hands to pour 5 gallons into a vehicle
(one alone to keep pressing the button - and two other hands to hold the
heavy five-gallon can at chest height since the button hand can not
possibly hold the can).

b. Even then, it takes a dozen minutes to empty the entire five gallons
due to the extremely low gasoline flow volume so you're holding the five
gallons of gas for a long time with those same three hands and you can't
switch position because of the button press (see above).

c. After all that, you MUST tilt the can wholly upside down because of
the absolutely criminal design of the lowest spot NOT being where the
nozzle opening lies. What does the EPA think of the fact you almost
always must leave an ounce of gas in the can to vent to the atmosphere en
masse?

d. But wait. There's more. As your arms tire, you accidentally let up on
the button. Now you have to put the can down because you can't depress
the button while you're holding the heavy can at chest height (try it).

e. Of course, when you screw on the cap after refilling the gas can, your
soft palm is cut by the hard plastic "child proof" tab on the gas can and
the large flaps on the cap. The funny thing is that it takes so much
physical force to loosen the cap, that any "child" with that kind of
strength and hand size certainly already knows enough to defeat the
locking mechanism. Amazing waste of time that 'child proof' lock!

f. Once you do screw on the cap, after a few months, it will invariably
crack and then separate around the circular top. The design puts ALL the
stress at that point! Of course, it all being black, you don't notice it.
Until. Yep. Until you smell fumes and you see gasoline leaking all over
your vehicle. Still, you don't know which can it is so you have to look
closely at all of them - but there will always be one leaking due to the
absolutely horrific design of the gas cap upper ring.

g. The cans are unusable enough out of the box - but there's even more.
Most stores do NOT sell the plastic six-inch flexible spout with the gas
can (it's an option from the factory). So, at Lowe's for example, you
don't get the spout. Now it's impossible to pour into a vehicle at chest
height because, as you all know, a vehicle has a trap door at the
opening. Of course, the Blitz enviro-flow nozzle won't fit deeply enough
to activate that trap door - so you can't pour the gas in anyway.

The solution? I hope Blitz goes out of business (for good); but, until
then, they're all you can buy at Lowes - so your only solution is to find
a cap that is sturdy and that fits (from a lawn mower gasoline tank) and
then to drill a 1/2" hole for a tire-tube vent to fit. After that, you
buy six or seven feet of 1/2" clear thick-walled hose, and you siphon the
gas from the roof of the vehicle, into the gas tank.

It's the only way that works.

If you know of a good source for the replacement CAP - please post!