Sealing push-pin style airflow vents on water containers

JW - December 12, 2020

I have a 10L water container with the push-pin style airflow vent. I know this style of container was not recommended, but it was cheap. It definitely leaks when the container isn’t upright.  I plan to store the container upright, but I’m just being extra cautious.

I was thinking of sealing the push-pin plug by wrapping the plug with some Teflon tape. And then some scotch tape over the plug to prevent it from accidentally falling out.

Has anyone dealt with this issue? Any ideas or criticisms of my idea? Would the teflon tape even work? Would it be considered food safe?

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I was actually just reading theprepared’s article about water storage containers and learned about push-pin vents. Is this what yours looks like? (taken from that article)

I personally don’t have a good answer for you or experience with these, but I can offer my suggestion from looking at these pictures. 

I do not think that the teflon tape would help out too much. I would be scared that the pin would push the tape down into the container to be lost forever. Teflon tape works by adding a bit of material between multiple threads of a screw and the other part(not sure what it is called). If you add teflon tape to this plug, there is really only one thread, the plastic of the container.

What I would do is push that plug in as far as it can go, with a little bit of turning pressure too. Then tip the container on it’s side and see if it will leak. Notice the flow rate. Then add a bit of teflon tape and do the same and see if the leak stops or is slightly better. 

Teflon tape should be safe, as it is used in plumbing and other water containers.

If you do not get into your container very often and are just using this for long term storage, I would place a piece of teflon tape on the plug, push it in as hard as I can, then take a hot glue gun and put a bead of hot glue around the opening and the plug. Then maybe a piece of duct tape over all of that. The hot glue won’t be hot enough to melt the plastic, and can come off super easy just by pulling it off with your fingers. It will hold things in place well, and maybe seal up any gaps a little.

I’d love to hear about your results and what you end up doing!

 

I just tried using the Teflon tape. It seems to work! I wrapped the tape around the push-pin a few times until the tape started to stick. I’ve tested for about 30 minutes with the container on its side, and no water has leaked out so far, whereas it used to leak at around 2 drops per second.

Conrad, yes the push-pin in my container is very similar to your posted images. For context, my container is a Reliance Aquapak 10L container. Unfortunately, without the teflon, it would leak even while my finger was applying pressure to the push-pin.

So far, it doesn’t look like I’ll be needing to use hot glue. And a simple piece of tape to keep the push-pin in place should be enough, since the Teflon tape seems to be enough to stop the leak.

I never ended up trying this, but another idea I had was to use plumber’s putty to seal the connection between the push-pin and the container. Just another idea for others reading this, if the Teflon tape doesn’t work.

 

I’m glad that tape worked, that is awesome! I’ll have to give it a try if I ever get a pushpin style water container.