bucket cleaning

[bowtie]

what do you guys use to clean your buckets? brush and hand or do any of you have a bucket washer? i am looking at cleaning my buckets,about 400, and wondering if there is a better way to do it. also is there a brush made specifically for 2-gallon aluminum buckets. i have a gas powered pressure washer and may just use this.

[bowtie]

ok so i should have looked up this before i posted. my problem is i can't pyramid stack them to dry, with the wind we have in western ny i would chasing down buckets for a week. looks like i have good full day of washing and drying ahead of me.

[mike z]

I have seen brushes for cleaning buckets at maple supply stores. Run about $70. I assume you put the brush on a cordless drill or dream up some type of bucket washer with a basin and motor. The power washer sounds like a very wet proposition.

[Big_Eddy]

There is a bucket brush available. I chuck mine in a CORDLESS drill. I use big plastic bins for soapy water, and my hose to rinse. One kid tosses them in the water, I spin the brush and rinse, toss it to a second kid who lines them up on the grass.

Neoprene gloves are great for this job.

[vermontpure]

I just looked at a bucket brush today at Leader and the want $103.00. Needless to say its still sitting on their shelf. I'll be washing mine by hand with a $4.00 hand brush.

[Dave Y]

I have a bucket washer. The key to washing buckets is do it at the end of the season so they are clean when you want to use them, not at the beginning of the season.

[bowtie]

i wound up washing my buckets, with lots of help, in my bathroom using 2- totes as wash tubes and the shower to rinse them, it was a rather wet proposition. i used dish detergent and a "magic pad" like the mr. clean ones, it worked very well. i will second the opinion that you really need to wash at the end of the season, i "forgot" to last year with some of my buckets and thre was alot more scrubbing involved in them. that will not happen again this year.

[Tweegs]

I have a few stock tanks for the job, soap, bleach, rinse. I adapted the rinse tank drain plug to accept a garden hose and leave the hose on a smidge, just let the water flow over the top of the tank. That keeps the rinse water fresh and the hose doesn’t splash mud and debris all over everything.

Like others, with as relatively few buckets as I have, I can’t justify a bucket washer. Just use a brush and the reluctant help of my wife (perhaps the kids if I can hornswoggle them into being there on bucket cleaning day).

Takes me forever to clean buckets, not so much to get them clean, but get them dry before storage. I have a 4x6 flat bed trailer I set them on (I’m still a muddy mess around here at season’s end), first upside down, then right side up to drain the lip around the top of the bucket. Complete pain-in-the-rump this way, can’t get ‘em all done at once, lids all over the place. Was thinking of maybe putting an A frame on that trailer to maximize space, but I’m certainly open to any suggestions that may fall out of this thread.

[Zamkev]

I've found that the best way to get clean buckets is to have someone else do it. I figure the kids need to work their way up to bigger and more exciting jobs, once they've experienced the fun of washing buckets:) Gotta start somewhere. It can also be a fun activity....

6935

[heus]

Last year I dried my buckets by placing some of them on the lean to roof off the side of the sugarhouse. Sun dried them pretty quick.

[bowtie]

heus, no way you cleaned buckets last year, the ones i got from you were nasty, just kidding they were very clean, now if mother nature would "dirty" them with a little sap. did not get to meet you when i picked them up from you. good luck this year.
looks like pheasants would do well in your area if you decide to raise them.

[heus]

Bowtie hope they are doing well for you. I ended up hanging my remaining 50 buckets and even bought 55 used sap sack holders.

[Galena]

Uhm I just use really hot water, a Euroscrubby and elbow grease...is OK?

[Cake O' Maple]

At the end of the season I wash 5-gallon buckets with dishsoap, a titch of bleach and a dishcloth, rinse really well, then sanitize the inside with a bleach solution for 5 mins and triple rinse. Turn upsidedown on my back porch and pyramid stack til dry, then take a few in the house at a time to turn upright to drain/dry the lips of the buckets, then stack with a cover on the top bucket to keep dust out.