Bakery Buckets and Cleaning

[palmer4th]

So I picked up some Bakery Buckets when I came across them the past few months, and I'm just getting around to cleaning them! I'm pretty sure all the buckets where washed once at the bakery because they are pretty clean. However most of them do have some smell to them. (glaze, garlic, frosting etc ect....) I took one of the two gal buckets and filled it up with warm water and a cap full of bleach and let it set for a half hour or so... The smell seems to be gone!?!?! Anyways I really would like to get any tips from people who have used them before or am I even on the right track with bleach? How much is to much/to little??? Thanks to much!!!!

[S Culver]

The bakery buckets are great. I generally wash with dish detergent and a sponge inside and out because they get stacked together and sit on the floor. I dry with a towel and let sit overnight stacked apart upside down to completly dry so they will not stick together or mildew when stacked together. Then I put them inside clear lawn trash bags to keep them clean and sorted. The ones with filling and frosting I use but use the ones with pickles and strong smelling things are used for the kids farm chores as I'm not sure the brine would'nt taint the sap.

If you are using drops to the buckets to the ground a 7/16" hole in the side works with the 5/16" tubing. A 1 1/4" hole in the side works great for either the health spouts or the traditional 7/16" spouts with a top flange. Drill the hole just under one of the bucket flanges on the side. I usually use the second down from the top.

Good luck

[palmer4th]

Hey thanks for the info!!! I was wondering how detergent would work, Im glad to hear it does! I was worried it would then take on the flavor of the soap or something.

[TF Maple]

Bleach water should be 200 Parts per Million strength left in contact for 1 minute to sanitize anything. That solution is one half ounce of 5.25% bleach to a gallon of water. If you have hard water you might want to double it to one ounce to a gallon of water to make sure you have at least 200 ppm of chlorine. That double strength would be one part bleach to 128 parts water.

[palmer4th]

Hey thanks TF maple: Thats the info I was looking for about the bleach.

[TF Maple]

You are welcome. I did the calculations for the amount of bleach last year because everyone was guessing how much to use, and I wanted to use the right amount.
I use bakery buckets too and washed them with real hot water followed by a couple minutes of bleach bath. I would wash one and put the bleach water in and swish it around, then leave it sit while I washed out the next bucket. Then pour the bleach water from the previous pail into the one I just washed...and repeat for each one.
After 3 weeks of collecting sap I bleached again because mold was starting to grow in the pail bottom. Actually, I collected sap and my wife came along with the bleach water, and that took care of the mold for the rest of the season.

[PapaSmiff]

TF Maple
I picked up a few buckets from the local bakery a few minutes ago. I'm going to the basement sink now to give them the bleach wash. I've been washing my buckets using the exact same process you just mentioned, but I had been guessing about the amount of bleach. I'm glad you put the correct amount of bleach in your last post - I've been guessing correctly.