275 Gallon Plastic Tote with Detergent

[bix]

I recently purchased a 275 gallon tote and it had detergent in it. The detergent had an orange scent to it. What can I do to get that scent out of the tote?

I have a 2x8 evaporator, and I am curious how much fuel oil I would burn per hour if I decided to switch to fuel oil fired instead of wood fired?

[heus]

bix,
I've cleaned my 275 tote (that had pop syrup in it ) several times and it still smells like Coke. I purchased it from Atkins in Ontario. I put my first sap in it today. Waiting to see if I have Coke flavored syrup. If so I will have a tote for sale real cheap.

[Haynes Forest Products]

NO NO NO dont even try. If you cant wash a SS tank with soap because it will leave a bad taste What the heck do you think that thing would do to sap. Use it for diesel fuel. Then when the soap smell is gone clean out the diesel smell and use for sap...JUST KIDDING Sometimes you just have to say NO.

[3rdgen.maple]

Haynes you can only haul concentrate for Ocean spray if you had fuel in it. But seriously I would be thinking of finding another tank that did not have scented detergent in it.

[Sugarmaker]

I might try some Clorox and water, or vinegar and water. After that if the smell is still there try some sap and the taste it after a day to see if you pick up the taste.

Good luck with the tank.

Chris

[KenWP]

I tried to wash out a big Tide plastic bottle and it dosn't seem to want to let go ofthe smell either. It's not worth bothering to wash it further anyways but the tote is big enough to worry about. That or sell it to Haynes.

[TF Maple]

[QUOTE=Sugarmaker;99996]I might try some Clorox and water, or vinegar and water. After that if the smell is still there try some sap and the taste it after a day to see if you pick up the taste. 

Make sure you don't try both bleach and vinegar together. The acetic acid from the vinegar will release poisonous chloride gas. Not that you were going to, just a word of warning.

[heus]

bix,
I've cleaned my 275 tote (that had pop syrup in it ) several times and it still smells like Coke. I purchased it from Atkins in Ontario. I put my first sap in it today. Waiting to see if I have Coke flavored syrup. If so I will have a tote for sale real cheap.

Just wanted to update my post last winter. I ended up using the tote with no problems. It still smells like Coke when I smell it, but it never had any affect on my syrup or sap last season.

[lew]

THis is a little different but somehow the same. Several years ago there were many (100's) Dr. Pepper soda syrup barrels that came onto the market here in New York. 30 Stainless steel, nice heavy gauge barrels. They stunk to high heaven of Dr. Pepper naturally. I and others tried all sorts of different scenarios trying to get rid of that smell. We ended up using live steam and that didn't cut the smell. That Season we filled the barrels with syrup and and sampled throughout the year. No off flavors or smells were found. HOwever, when we steamed the barrels to clean them after syrup storage, they smelled like Dr. Pepper. I ended up selling the barrels (along with a lot of other equipment) when I foolishly thought I was getting out of the syrup business. The new owner can still smell Dr. Pepper to this day.

So, the smells may be imbedded in the plastic tote forever, but, MIGHT not transfer to whatever is stored in it.

Food for thought (Not sure if pun was intended or not).

[nymapleguy607]

I found someone with 300 gallon totes that said they some had iodine in them and that other had some type of chloinated cleaner. According to him he has had lots of people buy these for sap, but I think I will keep on looking. The olny reason I was interested was they cost 100 bucks each, but I don't think it is worth the risk of cross contamination. Any thoughts