Solving the Stuck Stacked 5 Gallon Bucket Problem - It's This Simple

Storing five gallon, plastic buckets, because they have so many uses, is great, until you try to un-store one (pull one from the stack). Then you are reminded of the power of a vacuum, and how hard it is to overcome one when you are the only one in the room. In the end, you have to call three friends and uncle Tim (the Toolman type) to get one or two free.

Generally, you wrap your feet around the bottom bucket and it works, but that REALLY is a slippery slope. It, as often as not, doesn't go as well as planed and hoped. Likely as not, you manage to turn a stack of buckets into two stacks of buckets.

To overcome the vacuum problem, I've wondered why bucket manufacturers didn't add a straw down the side of the bucket. Actually, several, in case the one got crushed. That would allow air into the bucket and solve the super vacuum problem.

Meanwhile, lacking the drive and equipment to add those straws, I experimented. Like Edison and other great minds (come on, just go with it), I learned ways not to do it. For example, hot glue.

A hot glue line ran down the side of the bucket does create a gap between the bucket it's placed on and the bucket it's dropped into, but hot glue could, I suspect, be used to provide excellent tire traction of an icy road. In short, it solves the vacuum problem and creates a friction problem.

Just one more experiment in, I borrowed my first idea, which was, cut 1/16th inch pieces off a board and just stand a couple of them along the insides of a bucket, before dropping the next bucket in. This worked. However, it meant I had to keep the thin sticks upright, as I dropped the next bucket in, and not lose track of them, for later re-use, when I pulled a bucket out.

Then came my stroke of lame genius - hot glue the sticks in place, so they could be stacked, then removed from the stack with relative ease until their end of use date. The stick part was solid. The lame part came with [and, please, keep this on the down-low], I actually considered hot gluing the sticks to the inside of the buckets, before realizing they'd work just as well attached to the exteriors, and wouldn't affect the contents of the buckets, or be affected by the contents of the buckets.  

                 SIDE NOTE: This may be why we don’t store tubes of toothpaste and tubes of other, very dissimilar contents near each other in the bathroom.

In the end, this approach will work fine with round and square buckets.  I posted more details and photos of this on the INSTRUCTABLES site. The web page is a bit more drawn out because you have to have steps to post. The actual page can be seen here:

                                                                                                  https://www.instructables.com/Solving-the-Stuck-Stacked-Bucket-Problem-Its-This-/

I toss a scrap piece of 2x4 in the bottom of each bucket.

Went that and other routes, but got tired of dealing with them when most the buckets were out in play. That said, it's a good solution because it raises them enough to solve the problem.

John F Dean wrote:I toss a scrap piece of 2x4 in the bottom of each bucket.

Yeah, it's a giant pain; there's a suction effect when they are jammed together. Setting them out in the sun introduces enough differential expansion to bash/twist them apart.

Sun? What's that?

[snort]

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Yeah, it's a giant pain; there's a suction effect when they are jammed together. Setting them out in the sun introduces enough differential expansion to bash/twist them apart.

Stumbled across this video, on several ways to unstick &/or prevent sticking, and decided to share it, here:  

Kelly Craig wrote:Sun? What's that?

[snort]

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Yeah, it's a giant pain; there's a suction effect when they are jammed together. Setting them out in the sun introduces enough differential expansion to bash/twist them apart.

Well, any source of differential heating would help. You could strap them to the side of a goat.

I use the bucket to store a wad of plastic bags so that there is always some air gap so the buckets don't stick together.

Of course, I have never had that many buckets at one time that are not full.

Carla Burke wrote:Stumbled across this video, on several ways to unstick &/or prevent sticking, and decided to share it, here:  

Another method not mentioned in this video, is using a pressure washer, aimed at the crack between the buckets. (similar to the compressed air method) The high-pressure spray can get through and force the buckets apart.

Mentioned in the video, is variation in manufacturer of the buckets. Usually, if the buckets are from the same manufacturer, the dimensions and tolerances are such that the pails don't get stuck. Mixing buckets together from different sources in one stack will cause some of the worst sticking. Slight differences in diameter or taper of the sides will mean the buckets wedge together and seal tightly, especially if wet. It may also stick just one way, such as A into B = stuck, but B into A = not stuck... Once you get your particular stash of buckets figured out, your buddy will come 'help' and unwittingly stack A into B as many as he can.

The chunk of 2x4, or a tennis ball, or a soda can/bottle, 'thing' that size... keeps the buckets apart just enough, but then you don't always have those with you out in the field.

This was a good one. Many of the ways are far more of a pain than I'd want to deal with, but the latter ones show my method could be improved on in that much shorter pieces could be used (e.g., 6" long pieces at the top).

Carla Burke wrote:Stumbled across this video, on several ways to unstick &/or prevent sticking, and decided to share it, here:  . . . .