Being a Dem/Lib/Prog environmentalist doesn't have to equate with NO common sense (EPA gas cans)

[UTUSN]

So my (plastic?) gasoline container for a small lawnmower had lost its red color after some 20 yrs, looked groady & like it might be decomposing. It was a last item on any list, never seemed to be important enough on any shopping trip. Then was the sticker shock, $10 for a one gallon. And at the store, hmmmm, it had a spout inside, seemed like a good idea at the time, albeit with a hard to press locking teeth ring to unscrew the cap, which wasn't a cap but rather an empty ring holding down the spout and a separate plastic-coin dust blocker. Well, change is the name of the game, so fine.

Well, until the first use. There were actual instructions on the label, that is instructions for a container for liquids: Besides the first locking teeth, the spout has a locking mechanism to twist around the base (yes, it looks like what it sounds like). So there were further instructions inside the peeled-back label, and even these didn't answer the puzzlement.

1) There is no secondary little capped hole for ventilation, will this thing explode when the gas/vapors expand with the heat? 2) Is the spout supposed to be stored dismantled and hanging inside the container?

There was no 800 number on the label, so relying on the computer for this, a YouTube actually popped up demonstrating the use. In French, with a slim fashionable French woman driving a speedboat or motorized inflatable raft or something. But this brought up further questions, like, this is more complicated than I was over-thinking to begin with? She made a big deal about inclining the spout on the edge of the receptacle.

Going to Amazon for the customer reviews, there were tons of them and just about all of them HATED this thing, and said the spout will ALWAYS leak all over the extremities and children, pets, and ground.

So I called the company, notice "nameless" here, which is in CANADA. The receptionist had a French slight accent. The customer service rep was very friendly and answered the questions, no it shouldn't explode because there is a vent thing in the spout although you usually want it covered with the dust coin cover, and you may or may not store the spout inside the liquid as you wish.

I then said this thing is very complicated and that the hundreds (I might have exaggerated) of Amazon reviews all HATED it. She said, "We've seen them." I said, "Well, why do you MAKE this thing like this?!1" And she said, "You can blame the United States government for that. The EPA requires it."

One of the Amazon reviews mentioned this, that if you have one of the old containers to keep it and if you find any for sale at flea markets buy ALL of them.

I had already dumped my old one in the recycling. I retrieved it, washed it with a scrub brush, and the GRIME came off, and while the real red color didn't come back really red, it looks better enough to fill up. It has NO spout and I use a funnel, or rather an empty dish detergent bottle with the bottom cut off.

[Lee-Lee]

1. Yes- there is actually a gray market for non EPA approved gas cans and nozzles

They went and made gas cans so un user-friendly in the name of trying to make them greener that they have driven people into going other routes.

My dad is big into boating, don't ever get him started on gas cans. He actually scours junk shops and flea markets for older cans and resells them to his boating buddies. He will actually have me go get craigslist finds near me for him and bring them to him- everybody calls him the "gas can man".

Also, never mention ethanol to him- evidently to anyone with a boat it is the greatest evil the world ever produced. The rant will go hours.

[Enrique]

2. maybe a ton of gasoline was being spilled

with various consequences such that the regulations are in fact common sense.

[UTUSN]

3. The Amazon reviewers say the spout SPILLS

It has a complicated (or not) spring mechanism that breaks soon with little use, and even before breaking spills/dribbles/pours all over your hands/feet/legs and GROUND. I'm not being anti-eco, just this nutty way of doing something.