Removing odor from a blue barrel

[flyingbison]

Picked up a used blue barrel on Ebay, and it has a strong odor like some kind of scented soap on the inside of the barrel and the underside of the lid. Cleaned it a couple of times with a heavy duty degreaser, but I am wondering how to get rid of the scent. I currently have it open in the garage to air out for a few days.

Would some kind of baking soda mixture work? What about bleach?

Anyone have experience with this, or at least a theory I can test out?

 

[Odyssey]

4 tablespoons of baking soda in a quart of warm water should deodorize and clean it.
I've used a mild solution of bleach and water for disinfecting after a long winter the barrel has spent in a musty basement.

 

[sailsman63]

Lost two entire freezers of food to a power outage once - sitting for a week in July (We'd left on a Saturday for a fishing week, power went out on a Sunday, and we were the only residents on a stub line.) Lovely smell that venison left, I'll tell you!

We scrubbed with Bleach, Baking Soda, what have you. What finally got the smell out was loosely crumpled newspaper in every bit of spare space. Change every day or two for a week.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

White vinegar.

Baking soda.

Take to a car wash and pressure wash.

 

[saltandsky]

I once bought a barrel off eBay that the add said had "Food Meal" shipped in it. Awful smell.
I tried Baking Soda, I tried the newspaper thing, I tried vinegar, I tried bleach. No joy with any of those even after days with each method.
What eventually worked was leaving it open in the sun on the deck for about three weeks.
Good luck.

 

[yellowcanoe]

our neoprene booties are a permanent yard art item in the sun

otherwise perhaps this? Add dog in need of destinking and you can have two for one

http://home.earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/home/sk00001.htm

dont seal the barrel.....

 

[redoleary]

+1 to yellowcanoes link. My dog took a skunk straight to the face a year ago and I made a paste with peroxide and backing soda (don't think we used the dish soap) but we did a couple applications of that and and it really worked a treat. On day one you'd have to get within about a foot or two of her to smell it. So I would imagine coating the inside of the barrel with the same paste then rinse and repeat a few times is worth a shot.... and it's a cheap solution too.

 

[flyingbison]

Thanks, all. I gave it a good soaking bath with some baking soda, and a little bleach tossed in for good measure. Seems to have worked for the barrel, but the underside of the lid still has a little residual odor to it, so I have a baking soda slurry soaking on it now in the stationary tub. If that still doesn't work, I'll try the recipe in YC's link.

Fortunately it's not a foul odor, but I still don't want my food picking it up.

I also contacted the seller through Ebay to ask about cleaning it, and he is going to send me another one for free, so it looks like I'll end up with 2 of these, though they're a bit larger than I would ever really need. Any other good uses for a HDPE blue barrel?

 

[Waterdog]

Any other good uses for a HDPE blue barrel?

Unfortunately no, they are only good for long back country trips by canoeists . Glad to hear the odor is clearing out. I am a big fan of baking soda and hot water followed by a good air drying in my growlers. They're much smaller obviously.

Cheers.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Unfortunately no, they are only good for long back country trips by canoeists . Glad to hear the odor is clearing out. I am a big fan of baking soda and hot water followed by a good air drying in my growlers. They're much smaller obviously.

Cheers.

Oh no pass them along. Some camp roads are used all winter ..some are quite long and hilly and every now and then a blue barrel is cradled on a sawbuck with sand and a shovel along side We have an old warped barrel that is now in duty with driveway sand and grit.

 

[flyingbison]

Unfortunately no, they are only good for long back country trips by canoeists . Glad to hear the odor is clearing out. I am a big fan of baking soda and hot water followed by a good air drying in my growlers. They're much smaller obviously.

Cheers.

That reminds me ... I also have about 20 growlers in the basement that I need to find another use for.