PSA: don’t use air pressure in your drums of bleach!

I mention the gravity flow idea to you in your original post. Farmers have been doing it for decades. They do it with gas and diesel fuel, no air pressure needed, gravity does the work.

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My tank is gravity feed and the bottom is about 6ft off the ground. No air needed. I do have the advantage of having it filled regularly so I don’t have to deal with that.

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Yikes, that’s scary. I just started using the air transfer method with my 55 gallon drums of SH. I guess I’ll be switching over to using a 12v pump!

Yes, please do switch back to a pump. This is seriously not worth it. I’m feeling better this morning, but yesterday I was pretty freaked that I had caused some lung damage. Only time will tell, for sure.

I’m very fortunate that it did not blow out the top, and soak the entire shop from the ceiling down. I’d be looking at thousands in tool damage, not to mention drywall and other things that would no doubt need work. And it’s even not my shop.

We had one fried extension cord, and some flash rust on a table saw top that I was able to clean off. And an exceedingly chill friend/shop tenant who laughed it all off. Feeling very blessed.

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God had mercy on you brother. It could’ve been a much harder lesson to learn.
I had spilled some when I was first transfering it into my storage drums. The smell in the enclosed area was very intense. It didn’t cause shortness of breath, but my throat started burning mildly afterwards and I was hypersensitive to chlorine smell. It went away after a few days.

Is there a way to plug an everflo pump into an outlet? Would be much easier than getting a battery to run it off of.

That’s scary stuff. So glad you’re okay and feeling better. Mine cracked around the edges but nothing like yours. I normally order from a supplier. The one I had crack was from a pool store. You return the drums for an exchange. My supplier gives brand new drums when you order. I’m able to get it to flow at around 8 psi so that’s where I’ve been keeping it at. Sometimes a little more. I think instead of having the regulator right on the tank I’ll connect another section of air hose with the regulator in the middle that way I’m away from the drum. I usually have mine sitting outside in front of the garage. I love the simplicity of it but will definitely be a little safer about it. This story reminds me of my gasoline incident where the fast fill spout came off and through about ½ gallon of gas in my eyes, mouth, and nose. I was blind trying to feel for the garden hose and smelled like gas even after 10 showers…lol… I said that at least it wasn’t SH. I remember you saying you thought SH wouldn’t be as bad because it loses effectiveness so fast. At least we can compare notes now. :grinning: Just kidding. Super glad you’re okay.

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Wow, I had forgotten all about that. After my experience, I think I’d still take the SH over gasoline. But to be fair, I wasn’t bathed in it like you were. I immediately rinsed off my arms and face where I got splashed a bit, and didn’t notice any burns today, despite how warm it felt on my skin when it happened. My eyes are little pink today, but no blurriness.

8 psi is probably safe, especially if they’re giving you a brand new drum each time. These drums seem to just get reused over and over.

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@Infinity Alex, thanks for sharing this information. That is scary and I am glad you are not hurt. I will be looking for a replacement transfer pump. I just picked up one of these to transfer rain water from an IBC tote to my buffer tank (trying to save on my well pump). I wonder how it will hold up to SH if I rinse it after each use? WAYNE PC4 1/2 HP Cast Iron Multi-Purpose Pump With Suction Strainer, Model:55832 - Portable Power Water Pumps - Amazon.com

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No personal experience with it, but I would probably avoid putting bleach through anything with “cast iron” in the name.

My wife’s cast iron cookware will sometimes show surface rust just from the acidity of tomatoes. And it’s well seasoned.

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@Infinity You are probably right. Back to the drawing board.

I thought the exact same thing as Alex when I saw cast iron mentioned. I would just buy a cheap regular 110v transfer pump or even a 12v pump. Those Northern Tool 5.5 gpm 12v pumps hold up great.

I purchased 115v transfer pump at a store that was going out of business. It came with a rebuild kit. It might be worth looking at something like it. I’m not sure what regular price was tho.

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@marinegrunt Thanks Brian, that is a good idea. Doing a little research this evening I found a few little chemical / bleach pumps on McMaster-Carr starting at $500.00 and going up over $1000.00. That is crazy. I will check out Northern Tool.

I bought this guy as a temporary pump last summer… been using him 4-5 times a week since and he still hasn’t failed. Expected it to last a couple of months but I can’t kill it. :skull:

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Cheerwine comes straight from the fountain of youth…

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Positive development. I let my supplier know what happened, and this was his response:

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@SanteeVermont , @fhpressurewashing , and I forget who else we have here from VT: I highly recommend Allen Engineering if you need a bleach supplier. (And not just because of how they handled this. They’ve been great to work with for the last two or three years that I’ve been using them.)

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What did he say regarding your extraction method?

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Yes that’s who we use! Do you go through Mark? They are really busy this year and have limited the amount I can get for my deliveries. Kind of a bummer because I just rented a bigger storage unit to cut down on delivery frequency, but :man_shrugging: what can you do. Glad you’re safe! That is scary stuff.

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Yeah, Mark has been great.

To answer @MuscleMyHustle, he didn’t ask, and I wasn’t explicit in how the rupture happened. I would have answered him honestly had he asked. But I sort of got the impression that this wasn’t the first time it’s happened to one of their customers. :man_shrugging:

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Use a 3M half mask respirator with the acid gas filters (grey with yellow sticker)

3M Respirator Cartridge 6003

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