Any reason you would NOT use a Homer bucket

[rac]

I have been able to get some free buckets from Publix and they have been quite helpful however I want to put up around 20 more large buckets. HD is selling the homer buckets for $3.58 with lids so I am tempted to buy them there. I have Mylar bags and Oxygen absorbers. Other than the Mil thickness, can anyone tell me why they would NOT use these buckets?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I have been able to get some free buckets from Publix and they have been quite helpful however I want to put up around 20 more large buckets. HD is selling the homer buckets for $3.58 with lids so I am tempted to buy them there. I have Mylar bags and Oxygen absorbers. Other than the Mil thickness, can anyone tell me why they would NOT use these buckets?

I have some stuff put up in them. I also like the orange lids that can be used for distance markers post shtf too. The lids are not that strong so use plywood if you stack them

[splat23]

I went to one of my local grocery stores today and asked for their buckets. They are going to save 1 gallon, 2 gallon and 4 gallon buckets (with lids) for free.

They are from the bakery department and are food grade.

They are going to give me 100 of the 4 gallon and as many of the others as I want.

I had to call and go to two other places first before I got this deal.

I doubt I'll need 100, but they are free and have many use's.

You might see if other stores have bigger ones for free. I don't know why you couldn't use them as long as the food doesn't come into contact with the buckets. I was told non food grade has chemicals that can leach into the food.

Splat

[crossbow]

I have been able to get some free buckets from Publix and they have been quite helpful however I want to put up around 20 more large buckets. HD is selling the homer buckets for $3.58 with lids so I am tempted to buy them there. I have Mylar bags and Oxygen absorbers. Other than the Mil thickness, can anyone tell me why they would NOT use these buckets?

I have over 300 HD buckets full, but I always use Mylar inside of them.. they're some of the best pails on the market as they have a gasket

[rac]

Thanks all. I now have my weekend shopping list. Homer buckets it is. I will continue to supplement with the free ones from Publix. Thanks for the quick and detailed responses.

[crossbow]

Thanks all. I now have my weekend shopping list. Homer buckets it is. I will continue to supplement with the free ones from Publix. Thanks for the quick and detailed responses.

many HD store give veterans a 10% discount, so be sure to ck the place you go, if your not a veteran, take one with you, they have to show a card from the VA..Our Lowes also give veterans a discount, but their pails are crappy.

[Lowdown3]

I've never used the Home Despot buckets so I can't say from experience. Their is a fellow on another forum that claims that years ago he packed a bunch of stuff in these buckets with no mylar and in a couple years the food "turned orange." No pics provided so I don't know for sure. But something maybe to check after a while.

We have red, green and blue buckets along with the normal fare of white in our storage and have never experienced this color leach type thing, including with food not packed in mylars. He claimed it was specific to the Home Despot buckets.

BTW, Home Despot supports the gay community, actively promoting and sponsoring "parades", etc. so you might want to avoid shopping there anyways.... American Family Network threw a jihad, I mean boycott :) on them over it.

[TerryK]

I had rice sitting around the house for over a year in the plastic bags they came in. Recently went to Costco and bought some sugar and flour and another large bag of rice. I had some mylar bags and O2 absorbers I ordered from Frugals several years ago. The O2 absorbers were knocking around in the garage and the indicator button had turned dark (instead of red). They were only 300cc anyway so I trashed them and got some 2000cc ones on Amazon in 4 days. 3 bags of 10 for about $18. I decided to stop sitting around on my butt and to bucket up the food I had. Home Depot, Lowes and Ace all now also carry white buckets. Lowdown, I didn't know about Home Depot in your post above. Anyway I paid a buck more per bucket to get the white ones. They seemed to be stronger. I used the orange lids because they were the only ones with gaskets.

Bottom line is in just a couple of hours today the wife and I put up 4 buckets of rice, 1 bucket of sugar and 1 bucket of flour. I also repacked 3 superpails of Montana Wheat that came without mylar. Used the same 20 by 30 mylar bags as I used for the 5 gallon buckets.
Each bucket got two 2000 cc oxygen absorbers. I never sealed mylar before but I used a teflon coated iron and a short 2x4 and it worked great. I was also able to seal up the partially used clear plastic package the O2 absorbers came in. As I watched, the indicator tab turned back to red in just a couple of minutes.

The trick is to fill all the buckets with food and then iron the mylar closed, leaving just a couple of inches unsealed to put the O2 absorbers in. At this stage you cut open the O2 absorber package and take out however many you are going to use. Then immediately seal it back up. It was open for about 30 seconds.
Pop the O2 absorbers into the small unsealed opening of each bag, squeeze out as much air as you can, and then iron the last few inches closed. I waited a few hours to make sure the mylar bags pulled a good vacuum before tapping on the bucket lids.

The whole process went really fast and I am kicking myself for not doing it earlier. I think we can sometimes get so bogged down in all the little details that nothing gets done. Don't try to make it rocket science. Dont second guess the process. Dont speculated about using hand warmers or vacuum pumps instead of regular O2 absorbers. Dont make it more complicated than it needs to be. I think Lowdown said it somewhere else "to just stop talking about it and do it."

[Lowdown3]

Congrats on getting it done! :) It wasn't that hard was it? People over complicate it, but it's really simple.

[Boyd]

I've never used the Home Despot buckets so I can't say from experience. Their is a fellow on another forum that claims that years ago he packed a bunch of stuff in these buckets with no mylar and in a couple years the food "turned orange." No pics provided so I don't know for sure. But something maybe to check after a while.

We have red, green and blue buckets along with the normal fare of white in our storage and have never experienced this color leach type thing, including with food not packed in mylars. He claimed it was specific to the Home Despot buckets.

BTW, Home Despot supports the gay community, actively promoting and sponsoring "parades", etc. so you might want to avoid shopping there anyways.... American Family Network threw a jihad, I mean boycott :) on them over it.

I am going to have to agree to disagree with you on the last paragraph LD, I have a sister and adopted brother who are both gay, and trust me, growing up, it wasn't choice, it was how they were.

PS, my sister is a black hawk mechanic and has served 3 tours before coming back to Fort Campbell.. once in Iraq, twice in Afghanistan and a stint out in white sands NM for whatever she's not allowed to tell me.

She keeps her preferences private, and I'm proud of her for her service. Her first tour would have ended her min requirements..

[Sech]

I had rice sitting around the house for over a year in the plastic bags they came in. Recently went to Costco and bought some sugar and flour and another large bag of rice. I had some mylar bags and O2 absorbers I ordered from Frugals several years ago. The O2 absorbers were knocking around in the garage and the indicator button had turned dark (instead of red). They were only 300cc anyway so I trashed them and got some 2000cc ones on Amazon in 4 days. 3 bags of 10 for about $18. I decided to stop sitting around on my butt and to bucket up the food I had. Home Depot, Lowes and Ace all now also carry white buckets. Lowdown, I didn't know about Home Depot in your post above. Anyway I paid a buck more per bucket to get the white ones. They seemed to be stronger. I used the orange lids because they were the only ones with gaskets.

Bottom line is in just a couple of hours today the wife and I put up 4 buckets of rice, 1 bucket of sugar and 1 bucket of flour. I also repacked 3 superpails of Montana Wheat that came without mylar. Used the same 20 by 30 mylar bags as I used for the 5 gallon buckets.
Each bucket got two 2000 cc oxygen absorbers. I never sealed mylar before but I used a teflon coated iron and a short 2x4 and it worked great. I was also able to seal up the partially used clear plastic package the O2 absorbers came in. As I watched, the indicator tab turned back to red in just a couple of minutes.

The trick is to fill all the buckets with food and then iron the mylar closed, leaving just a couple of inches unsealed to put the O2 absorbers in. At this stage you cut open the O2 absorber package and take out however many you are going to use. Then immediately seal it back up. It was open for about 30 seconds.
Pop the O2 absorbers into the small unsealed opening of each bag, squeeze out as much air as you can, and then iron the last few inches closed. I waited a few hours to make sure the mylar bags pulled a good vacuum before tapping on the bucket lids.

The whole process went really fast and I am kicking myself for not doing it earlier. I think we can sometimes get so bogged down in all the little details that nothing gets done. Don't try to make it rocket science. Dont second guess the process. Dont speculated about using hand warmers or vacuum pumps instead of regular O2 absorbers. Dont make it more complicated than it needs to be. I think Lowdown said it somewhere else "to just stop talking about it and do it."

TerryK...

Just to let you know....if you packed the sugar in mylar bags with the O2 obsorbers, you might wanna redo those. After a few weeks the sugar will turn into a nice big ole 5 gallon shape brick......Take it from me, cause I been there...done that...and didnt even get a T-shirt.....Only problem was is that I had about 20 buckets full of sugar and had to cut open each and every bag....and break up the clumps and using my wifes strainer, I was able to scrape the clumps back down to a useable product....


Just my 2 cents worth

Steve

for whats its worth...the same applies to salt as well....

[barfife]

TerryK...

Just to let you know....if you packed the sugar in mylar bags with the O2 obsorbers, you might wanna redo those. After a few weeks the sugar will turn into a nice big ole 5 gallon shape brick......Take it from me, cause I been there...done that...and didnt even get a T-shirt.....Only problem was is that I had about 20 buckets full of sugar and had to cut open each and every bag....and break up the clumps and using my wifes strainer, I was able to scrape the clumps back down to a useable product....


Just my 2 cents worth

Steve

for whats its worth...the same applies to salt as well....

Then how is the best way to store sugar and salt for long term?

[TerryK]

Thanks everyone but I did not use O2 absorbers in the sugar bucket. Just poured it into the mylar bag in the bucket and sealed the mylar. I understand that if you use an O2 absorber, that as it removes the O2 from the bag, it creates a vacuum that squeezes the sugar together and the grains eventually fuse into one big block. Not bad if you're trying to make old fashioned rock candy.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Congrats TerryK ! I too buy the orange lids with gaskets even if I use other buckets from various sources though I recently discovered a local hardware store with some white ones that have gaskets now too.

[Lowdown3]

You'll likely find that any way you pack salt and sugar, over time it ends up hardened. Just let it sit on the shelf for a little while and you'll see what I'm talking about.