Metal NATO water can issue

[James86004]

I have a pair of the blue metal NATO water cans with the food grade plastic liner inside. They have served me well for several years now.

In December we went on a trip and filled them up. We didn't use most of the water, but since we travel so much I left them full. In early January we went on a trip and I found the water came out full of rust in both cans. The source appears to be the seam at the bottom of the cans, it looks like the plastic cracked down there. There was a night in Tucson that was unusually cold, low 20s, so my theory is the water froze and cracked the plastic. After living in Tucson for several years I forgot what freezing temperatures can do.

So, now what do I do? The options as I see them are:

Spray a plastic down in there to fix it.
Fill the bottom up with epoxy.
Rinse it out and just use it as is, being careful not to keep water in there all the time
Buy new cans.

 

[Sirocco]

for the sake of your health, buy new cans.

you say 'NATO' water cans. All I have seen the British Armed Forces use are the 20L Plastic cans (similar to your Scepters). I did not know they did lined metal ones, certainly not seen any over here.

G

 

[silvElise]

I would second buying new cans

 

[James86004]

It is this kind, made by Wedco:

 

[obscurotron]

What are the health concerns with a little extra iron in the diet? In all seriousness, unless you've already got borderline high blood iron, I couldn't find anything to suggest that a little more iron in the diet would hurt you.

As a comparison, cooking with cast iron pans will give you a pretty good bit of iron in the diet, too. Hasn't bothered anyone here that I am aware of.

for the sake of your health, buy new cans.

you say 'NATO' water cans. All I have seen the British Armed Forces use are the 20L Plastic cans (similar to your Scepters). I did not know they did lined metal ones, certainly not seen any over here.

G

 

[ccarm]

Buy new cans. You really don't want to be ingesting rust or dried epoxy or spray plastic. Just save your health, and go for the new cans.

 

[jcbrandon]

James, if you do decide to buy new water cans, I'll be happy to take the old ones off your hands.

A quick Google search suggests that there are no real health risks from rust in water other than undesirable taste that leads you to not drink enough. Older houses used metal pipes that eventually rust from the inside. I'm no expert but I suspect any rust you might ingest from your jerry cans would be less exposure than from other sources.

 

[upatree]

Rust in cans

Whats a little rust! If you can see it in the bottom of your glass just pitch the last swallow. Any water that you drink will have come into contact with iron as rust in the well casing, column pipe in the well as well external piping. In addition "J" is spot on in his comments about the plumbing in older homes. In 30+ years in drinking water systems We never lost a customer due to a little rust but one lady did get quite upset when some got on her new tighty whites. If you want I will be glad to put your cans to good use here in Tucson until I can get them to "J".

 

[Martyn]

There was a problem a few years ago with water cans. Something to do with the plastic liners failing. It was impossible to get water cans for almost a year during which time they came up with a fix to the problem. I've not heard of any issue with the redesigned water cans.

Sounds like you have some from the older style.

I wouldn't recommend trying to re-apply the plastic liner. Apart from being very difficult you'd have to source a food grade plastic.

 

[rural]

http://www.irontoxicity.com/health-care-professional/about-iron-toxicity.jsp

makes it sound bad...
but that is just from transfusions.

the water in essence is safe.

all in all, do what you like. nothing pouring through some cloth to filter wouldnt fix.

 

[Albin]

Sounds like you have two, almost brand new, jerry fuel cans, minus a few minutes with a spray paint can.

You can't reliably fix those for less than two brand new MWCs from LCI, IMO.

 

[off-roader]

You can always buy one of the plastic jerry can shaped containers sold by Sierra Expeditions. It comes with it's own recessed spout and should fit into a Jerry can carrier.
http://www.sierraexpeditions.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=2158

 

[James86004]

Thanks for all the input. If I do make them gas cans, is there any problem with the gasoline interacting with the plastic liner?

If I do get new cans it will probably be those ones from Sierra Expeditions. We were looking at them at the Bill Burke party and Kelly said, "Oh, we should have gotten this kind of can instead of the ones we got."