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http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/your_money/Complaints-surface-about-new-gas-cans
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Residents who own old gasoline cans might want to keep them around. Many complaints are coming in about the new spill-proof cans now required by the federal government.
The can looks self-explanatory, until you try to use it. Even the manufacturers are not happy about the new changes.
It's hardly leak proof, and just when you think you figured out the new spout? It leaks again. More problems arise once you examine the child safety lock.
The new cans, which cost more than double the price of their old counterparts, came on the market more than one year ago, after the Environmental Protection Agency -- in a 144-page document -- ordered new regulatory standards to control ground and air contamination from portable containers.
Gas cans now must: have a spout that closes automatically, be made out of a plastic that prevents gas from evaporating, and be equipped with a child protection safety lock.
A neighbor who has filled up motors for years didn't have much luck with the new can, either.
"This sucker is leaking," he said.
He too got gasoline all over his hands -- and his hot lawn mower motor.
"I don't like it," homeowner Ed Bradley said. "It takes a man and a boy just to get the gas cap off."
Sandy Kingsland has heard the complaints about the new cans. And he'll probably hear more as inventories of the old cans clear out. But unless you're willing to pay $20 for an old can on eBay, you're stuck.
"And when this pushes down, that allows the gas to come up, and when you see it fill up, it shuts it off and the flow of gas," said Kingsland, of Kingsland's True Value Home, as he talked through the new can.
He finds himself giving lessons with the new cans.
Manufacturers are aware of the complaints, but say it's been tough designing a product to meet all the EPA requirements.
If you shop around, you can find spouts that are easier to use, but they all require the two-handed pouring action. Plus, you have to spend more money on top of the extra money you had to spend on the new can.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Residents who own old gasoline cans might want to keep them around. Many complaints are coming in about the new spill-proof cans now required by the federal government.
The can looks self-explanatory, until you try to use it. Even the manufacturers are not happy about the new changes.
It's hardly leak proof, and just when you think you figured out the new spout? It leaks again. More problems arise once you examine the child safety lock.
The new cans, which cost more than double the price of their old counterparts, came on the market more than one year ago, after the Environmental Protection Agency -- in a 144-page document -- ordered new regulatory standards to control ground and air contamination from portable containers.
Gas cans now must: have a spout that closes automatically, be made out of a plastic that prevents gas from evaporating, and be equipped with a child protection safety lock.
A neighbor who has filled up motors for years didn't have much luck with the new can, either.
"This sucker is leaking," he said.
He too got gasoline all over his hands -- and his hot lawn mower motor.
"I don't like it," homeowner Ed Bradley said. "It takes a man and a boy just to get the gas cap off."
Sandy Kingsland has heard the complaints about the new cans. And he'll probably hear more as inventories of the old cans clear out. But unless you're willing to pay $20 for an old can on eBay, you're stuck.
"And when this pushes down, that allows the gas to come up, and when you see it fill up, it shuts it off and the flow of gas," said Kingsland, of Kingsland's True Value Home, as he talked through the new can.
He finds himself giving lessons with the new cans.
Manufacturers are aware of the complaints, but say it's been tough designing a product to meet all the EPA requirements.
If you shop around, you can find spouts that are easier to use, but they all require the two-handed pouring action. Plus, you have to spend more money on top of the extra money you had to spend on the new can.
