On 9/26/2012 9:16 PM, Gordon Shumway wrote:
....

Other than allowing air during pouring you may want to keep it open
while the can is just sitting. My gas cans are kept in my shed and
with the big temperature swings in the Midwest the cans will either
swell up like a blimp or collapse to the point of only about half of
their capacity. Of course during transport the vent should be closed.

Yes, definitely leave the vents open so the shed can fill with gas
vapors.

The negligible amount of vapor won't be any more harmful than the
older style cans were. It seems we all survived those dangerous
things.

How "negligible" it is depends on the size of the shed and how much air
flow there is, but I certainly would concur that leaving a vent open on
stored gasoline (or fuel of any other variety) in a closed area is not a
good idea just on general principles.

It's the Midwest here as well and certainly we have reasonably extreme
temperatures, especially high temp's in midsummer. I only have a couple
of 2-1/2 gal old-style plastic containers for final transfer to the
lawnmowers, tiller, chainsaw, etc.; the 5-gal cans are all old metal oil
cans from hydraulic fluid, etc. so haven't had such a problem. The
small plastic 'jugs' don't seem to be a problem altho the one of them
has a split spout that has been "repaired" to keep it going as I detest
also the new spouts and have resisted replacing it for that reason. At
some point I may have to investigate the fix-up of a new one such as the
subject video if/when the spout finally gets so bad as to not be able to
cobbled to hold any longer...I also have to agree w/ the earlier poster
on the utility of funnels other than it is handy to not to have to use
one all the time...

But, if the plastic cans are swelling noticeably in hot weather, my
recommendation is to only fill them 2/3rds full or so, _not_ to leave
the vent open...besides the potential vapor ignition hazard it promotes
volatization of the higher fractions faster as a secondary disadvantage.

--