I can’t keep jugs of fluid in my shop anymore. I am probably out around $400 in detailing products and lubricants now.
The bottles will deform, sometimes they are sucked in like the top picture and other times they will be completely bloated the opposite direction. They will then eventually split at the seams of the bottles.
The newest craziness is I had two 5 gallon buckets with one stacked in the other. Last weekend I tried to separate them and I absolutely could not do it.
Today I went out in the shop and the outside bucket completely split up the side and not even at a seam.
What on earth is happening in my shop. What is causing these pressures to change so drastically that it causes buckets and jugs to split??

Temperature?

^^^ That's my guess. Or more changes in temperature.

The air pressure and temperature when they were packed. Packaged while cooler than your garage, expanded. Packaged at a higher air pressure, expanded.

I had about 10 quarts of used oil ooze out of my plastic oil drain container. I was wondering why I smelled oil for about a week.

I don't know about your bottles, but when I was bottling cleaning products for my business, I had a similar situation.

Here's a photo of one of the set-ups that I provided to the stores that carried my products.



Some of the products, most notably the Deodorizer (bottles with the red label and red cap), would react with the HDPE bottles that we used, and cause the bottles to buckle and sort of try to collapse.

I was advised that this could be avoided by using fluoridated bottles, but the cost of these was prohibitive. I wound up bottling the stuff in a lower concentration and reducing the price, since the end user would need to use more of the product with the lower concentration. I calculated the price reduction so that the customer would wind up paying the same price, and I saved money by not buying the more expensive bottles.

You shop is Time Cube.

Temperature is steady and so is humidity. Stays between 50 and 70 degrees but there are never big fluctuations in temperatures.
It has happened with jugs that have never been opened and jugs that have been opened a bunch of times.

All shop walls are solid concrete including the ceiling. There is a door into the basement on one wall and a garage door on another. Three sides are below grade back wall is not.
Ceiling is fully insulated as is the garage door. The shop is not wet and I keep it around 50% humidity.

My upstairs garage has much larger fluctuations in temperatures and I have no issues like this.

How about large swings in barometric pressure? Where are you located geographically as far as storms or tornadoes are concerned?

What's the ventilation system like in your building?

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
How about large swings in barometric pressure? Where are you located geographically as far as storms or tornadoes are concerned?

What's the ventilation system like in your building?

We get storms and tornados.
No HVAC, no windows, no ventilation. I run a dehumidifier in the rainy spring time.

quote:

We get storms and tornados.

Is there any chance you can correlate occurrences with weather activity?

This will be good to learn about if someone knows the answer(s). I have similar problems with my bottles, both automotive fluids and detailing products in plastic bottles etc. Some stay ok, others get all effed up. If bad chemistry interactions are responsible shame on the manufacturers.

^There can definitely be interactions with the substances inside plastic bottles, but it wouldn't explain why buckets are sealing together.

The buckets are easy to explain, gravity gradually forces the top one down into the bottom, when natural day-night temp. fluctuations occur, the bottom one splits. if you can somehow maintain an air gap between the bucket walls, it should do the trick. I have had buckets nested so tight they were almost impossible to separate.

To investigate further on the bottles, fill one with plain water and set it along side one with a history of splitting. Another with a very volatile liquid, e.g. acetone, might provide another data point.

Are the contents particularly volatile? If you won't lose too much product, vent the tops on some to compare results.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:

quote:

We get storms and tornados.

Is there any chance you can correlate occurrences with weather activity?

No real way to tell as I don’t know when it actually happens as it could be weeks/months before I am going for the fluid to find it.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
The buckets are easy to explain, gravity gradually forces the top one down into the bottom, when natural day-night temp. fluctuations occur, the bottom one splits. if you can somehow maintain an air gap between the bucket walls, it should do the trick. I have had buckets nested so tight they were almost impossible to separate.

To investigate further on the bottles, fill one with plain water and set it along side one with a history of splitting. Another with a very volatile liquid, e.g. acetone, might provide another data point.

Are the contents particularly volatile? If you won't lose too much product, vent the tops on some to compare results.

So far I have lost 2 separate gallons of car soap, one gallon of fabric and carpet cleaner.
Brake fluid, ATF, Dexron, jug of Fast Orange. Over the last 5 years or so.

Guessing lack of ventilation. Need some exchange of air. Then some way to control temp/humidity.

I’d call the company that made and sold the product.

There may be a chance that their plastic bottle/jug supplier made them in a defective or substandard way.

They might replace your products.

Good luck to you.
.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
I’d call the company that made and sold the product.

There may be a chance that their plastic bottle/jug supplier made them in a defective or substandard way.

They might replace your products.

Good luck to you.
.

Oddly (to me), panelling is the term used to describe bottle shrinkage/collapse - often to the point of rupture. Slight changes in the composition can affect this and often times the end product manufacturer is unaware of these changes. Most companies that make liquid products purchase containers from a molding company.

Here's a bit more info: Panelling of Plastic Bottles

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
^There can definitely be interactions with the substances inside plastic bottles, but it wouldn't explain why buckets are sealing together.

I had the exact same problem until I started putting a single paint stirring stick vertically between each stacked bucket. Viola. Works perfectly. Duh on me, I had to read about it on the internet.

quote:

Originally posted by mdblanton:

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
I’d call the company that made and sold the product.

There may be a chance that their plastic bottle/jug supplier made them in a defective or substandard way.

They might replace your products.

Good luck to you.
.

Oddly (to me), panelling is the term used to describe bottle shrinkage/collapse - often to the point of rupture. Slight changes in the composition can affect this and often times the end product manufacturer is unaware of these changes. Most companies that make liquid products purchase containers from a molding company.

Here's a bit more info: Panelling of Plastic Bottles

That was excellent. It answers all the questions.