Cleaning 275 gal. Tote

[hanson]

I picked up a tote that had garlic oil in it. Anyone have a good way to clean this thing??

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Good luck! It is difficult to get odors out of plastic and 275 gallon totes are very difficult to scrub. I hope you didn't have to pay too much for it!

[KenWP]

Wash with hot water and a good degreaser and then go to a wine makeing store and ask for the product for washing out equipment that also takes out the smell. They should know what it is you need.
To wash out one of those totes put a 45 or 90 degree on the end of your pressure washer wand and use that to get the top part. Just don't try and hold it out side of the tote as it whips around pretty bad. I made my living for almost 20 years on a pressure washer wand and came up with several ideas for getting little corners that had to be cleaned.

[3rdgen.maple]

just sell garlic flavored maple syrup. If and I say if you could ever get the smell out I think you would be lucky. But whatever you try I would put it in the back of the truck fill it half full and drive around with it for a long time. It will slosh all over the inside.

[Fred Henderson]

I drove around with one in the back of my truck for 2 weeks. I filled it 1/3to 1/2 full,. I put in some desolved dish washer soap and it did a great job of cleaning it.

[TapME]

the commercial for dawn dish soap, or joy. Get one that dissolves grease and run in the back of the truck as has been said. It will do a great job. We use it all the time to clean our hands at the machine shop and it works magic. The smell, well that's a different problem, we still have buckets with pickle smell in them and they have never off flavored the syrup.

[ennismaple]

I'd throw a bunch of baking soda in it too - it gets rid of odours.

[KenWP]

There is a product called Cascade Plastic Booster for cleaning hard to clean plastic food containers. It takes out stains and smells. Try that also. Filling it with coffee might work also.

[Clan Delaney]

just sell garlic flavored maple syrup. If and I say if you could ever get the smell out I think you would be lucky. But whatever you try I would put it in the back of the truck fill it half full and drive around with it for a long time. It will slosh all over the inside.

No joke! You could sell your garlic maple syrup at the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival! (http://www.garlicandarts.org/)

[hanson]

To bad I'm in WI. I maybe could have cornered the garlic maple syrup market:lol:
Thanks for all the input guys. I'll let you know how it goes.

[mtnmeadowmplfarm]

I bought one that had vinegar in it. Put two boxes of baking soda in it and filled it 1/4 full. Scrub it regularly and let it sit for a week. Cant smell it in the tank and never had an off flavor.

[Brent]

we bought 5 of those totes that had Coke or Pepsi syrup in them. We washed them ten different ways then got a bunch of pancake fans and laid them on the top openning, took the valve out of the bottom and left it running for 5 weeks. You could still tell what had been in them but it was very mild. By the end of the season you couldn't smell anything.

[Farmboy]

I need to get one of those for this season. A storage tank at the sugar shack. That way if it needs to be moved can just pick it up with the forks on the skidsteer and off I go.

[KenWP]

So far I found white barrels this summer that held food safe lubricant for meat processing lines. I need to find some with the tops for hauling sap in the truck. There has to be totes around also but how to find one is the problem.

[concord maple]

Does anyone know where to get one of these totes in the western NY area that would be considered food grade? Been looking for a couple of weeks now and the only ones I can find would not be considered food grade. I've looked on eBay and Craigslist.

[concord maple]

Just got an e-mail back from a guy in my area that has a couple of them and they previously contained vanilla extract for making vanilla ice cream. I would assume this would be OK once they are rinsed and pressure washed. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[KenWP]

Of course vanilla is food grade material. I would say that just a really good washing and rinise would work on them also. I have to check around a bit more and see how many killing plants we have around here.

[tiggy-at-mac.com]

I too bought some of the vinegar totes. Used a pressure washer and many rinses. Employed them as permeate water tanks, which effectively made them big rinsing vessels for the season. Now that I emptied them out just yesterday, I finally could barely smell the stuff.

Had it been garlic, I might have tried using them for sap or syrup and sending the product to Transylvania. -tig

[hanson]

I finally got around to cleaning my totes. The trick is hot water and a gutter cleaning attachment. I had to bend the gutter cleaning attachment a little more to clean the top by the opening.
I started spraying the top and by the time the top was clean the rest of the tote was almost clean.
It wasn't nearlly has bad as I thought it would be but hot water is the ticket.

[red maples]

I got 3 white 55 gallons drums the other day and 1 was fine it had sushi rice seasoning in it (sweet vinegar but more sugar than vinegar) cleaned up nice with hot water just smells a little sweet. the other 2 had something smelled like lemon lime soda of some sort couldn't get the smell out! took them back and exchanged them to make sure I got more of the sushi seasoning ones. the guy said they had Mountain Dew syrup in them!!!

[KenWP]

I have to check around a bit better for one more 45 gallon barrle before Dec as I can't use the truck around here after that and the season usually starts before March 15 when I can drive it again.