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They need to build jerry jugs with a little 1/4 turn valve at the end of the spout, so that one could actually place the spout in the tank fill before any fuel started pouring out. This seemed so simple...why does such a thing not exist?
Tim:
As much as I agree that West Marine is the absolute worst (at least here in Portland), I purchased this spout there this Spring and it works great.
Interesting how much that spout resembles the California "Ecologically-friendly" spouts that have been on all fuel cans there for at least the last few years (unless they've gotten rid of them recently).
Brian, did you use the spout on a vented or non-vented jug? I couldn't get a real good sense of it from the West Marine page, but I was wondering if it was one of those California tops, that just happens to work great on a "regular" fuel jug that has a seperate vent. The supposed non-spill jugs I'm griping about had no vent (it was incorporated into the spout), so you couldn't just slap on a regular old top as a work-around. They were painfully slow to empty on top of the spillage difficulties.
I suffered with those while cruising and *no-one* could pour from them without spilling. Ironic, as the old fashioned ones created far fewer problems, but at the time I couldn't get out of California to buy jugs. Turned out the best (but still messy) way was to siphon out of the jugs, but then you had the messy, drippy hose to deal with afterwards. Ugh. Nearly enough to make one go engineless.
Oh, my one other gripe with those spouts was that the sheets would hang up on them from time-to-time, which more than once resulted in a broken-off spout. That's because you couldn't put them down inside the jug like the regular ones.
Grumble, grumble ... I guess this is too early for me :-)
I have used that spout on its original jug(no vent), and it worked great. I could not understand how it could spill if as designed. The trick is to trust the spout end to hold the fuel back untill the spout is all the way into the filler hole. then you just press down with the jug and the spring loaded cap moves and the fuel flows. the venting takes place at the cap. the fuel flows at a decent rate and I had no spilling. you never see any fuel. you do not have to go through that akward process of aiming the impending fuel pour out of the traditional spout. trust the spring catch to inhibit any flow even with the jug fully inverted, then when ready depress the spring sleeve with the weight of the jug and away the fuel goes.
Robert has it absolutely right. I purchased the spout because I felt badly that I would spill gasoline in the water every time I filled the 2HP outboard on my dinghy. It really works well.
Hmmm, I wonder if they've changed them? Neither I nor my cruising partner could manage it -- nor could any of the other dozen or so cruisers we chatted with on the subject. When I talked to Steve at Downwind Marine about it in San Diego, he grumbled and said "they're horrible!" And he talks to an awful lot of people who use them.
Not to sound too defensive, but I really do think those caps were unworkable. At the time (2003), they came with these little additional tubes to make the vent work better (as if they'd already discovered the problem and included the parts for you to improve the product), but still it wasn't very good. I'd say it took 5-10 minutes to empty a 5-gallon jerry jug into the tank, letting it flow at it's max speed (diesel fuel).
That being the case, perhaps enough people complained that they've improved them - that would be great!
Can you now stow them with the spout inside? Or is there still the issue of a spout jutting out and waiting to be broken off?
I know, I sound negative -- sorry. The jugs were just one of those things we hated every time we used them, so I get worked up over the topic.
I am open to the idea that they've been improved though.
The trick is to trust the spout end to hold the fuel back untill the spout is all the way into the filler hole. then you just press down with the jug and the spring loaded cap moves and the fuel flows
I think the spout described above is a different spout than the one Rachel is referring to. I too have used ones similar to those Rachel describes and ended up spilling fuel all over the place plus they take forever to pour their contents. A nice spring loaded device would probably work great, but the container I used didn't fit that description. But, like someone else pointed out, why not use a quarter turn valve, put a vent on the container, and let the user have at it.
My solution to the problem is to use a regular container/spout and a long, narrow funnel that I bought at an auto parts store.
