New IBC totes

What it looks like

A new tote is the easy one to recognize. The bottle is clear to milky, with no scuffs, no stain and no smell. The cage is bright galvanized steel with no rust. The cap and the butterfly valve are clean and the valve gasket is soft.

The UN plate shows a recent manufacture date and no retest yet, since the first retest falls 2.5 years after the tote was made under 49 CFR 180.352. Read it anyway; a tote that sat in a warehouse for years is not as new as its grade.

How a tote gets this grade

Nothing happened before. There is no last contents, which is the point. A new tote with a scuff or a bent bar from shipping drops a grade, so describe any marks you see.

New is also the answer when a buyer cannot or will not accept any chemical history: a storm-season drinking water tote, a repeat food fill, or a customer who needs the paperwork to start at zero.

The jobs it suits and the ones it never does

What to check before you say yes

• The manufacture date on the plate.
• The cage: no dents from shipping.
• The bottle: no scuffs inside and no residue from the factory.
• A closed, screened cap for outdoor use.

In South Florida

In South Florida the new tote earns its keep as the household reserve. June 1 to November 30 is hurricane season, and CDC says to keep at least a gallon of water per person per day for three days, two weeks if you can. A family of four with a 275 gallon tote has far more than that on paper, which is why the real question is how you keep it clean for six months at a time.

A new tote in direct sun grows algae in a translucent bottle. Shade or cover it, and keep the cap closed and screened.

Mistakes we see

• Buying new for a rain barrel, then leaving it open to the sun.
• Skipping the first sanitizing rinse because the bottle "is new".
• Forgetting to replace stored water every six months.
• Strapping nothing down before a storm.

Reading the paperwork and the plate

Ask for the manufacturer's name and the month of manufacture before you commit. Those two facts show whether the tote is truly fresh or has waited on a shelf, and they tell you how much of the first retest window remains. Keep the delivery paperwork with the tote; a household reserve rarely needs it, but a business filling it with an ingredient will be asked for it.

Check the fittings as carefully as the bottle. A butterfly valve with a stiff handle, a cap with a missing vent or a gasket that has flattened in storage will leak long before the bottle fails. Open and close the valve once on the ground, where a drip costs nothing, and photograph the plate so you have the numbers if an inspector or an insurer asks later.

Next to its neighbors