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As anyone living in the United States that has bought a gas container in the past several years knows, fuel/gasoline container spouts have changed. The new spouts have a locking/safety mechanism and I have yet to find one that isn't a real pain. The locking mechanism is a minor annoyance, but they leak more often than not when I dispense gas into my lawn mower.

How can I fix/rig my gas can so it works more like the old gas can spouts?

UnhandledExcepSean
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    Go to a yard sale or garage sale and buy an old style one. – Michael Karas Jun 17 '15 at 21:19
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    The new spouts don't vent well either. I've had a few gas cans blow up like balloons, deforming from rectangular to round. – Tester101 Jun 17 '15 at 21:38
  • I know, I've even gone as far as looking on foreign websites to see if they'll ship them to the U.S., but apparently that isn't allowed by customs. – UnhandledExcepSean Jun 17 '15 at 23:03
  • I'm also checking into the possibility of using a "water can" that looks suspiciously like a gas can but is a different color of plastic. – UnhandledExcepSean Jun 17 '15 at 23:18
  • Are you sure it isn't a problem with assembly? I'd suspect that you might have done something silly, like not tightened the spout all the way or cross-threaded it. I have had a can with one of the "new style" spouts (vent through spout), and have not observed this problem one bit. – ThreePhaseEel Jun 18 '15 at 00:31
  • I believe these cans are not supposed to vent well, that's the whole point. It's about VOC emissions in places that have high ozone levels. By essentially sealing the can, they prevent the gasoline from evaporating and becoming a VOC emission (which ultimately turns into ozone). – Joel Keene Jun 18 '15 at 03:19
  • @ThreePhaseEel Positive I assembled it correctly. The leak is at the safety mechanism on my current can, not where the can and spout meet. Odd thing is it doesn't always leak. – UnhandledExcepSean Jun 18 '15 at 11:16
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    @JoelKeene I guarantee I lose more gas dispensing into my mower than would ever evaporate. – UnhandledExcepSean Jun 18 '15 at 11:17
  • @Ghost Very fair point. I speak only of the intent of the design, not it's ultimate effectiveness. I was actually answering someone above who noted that these cans don't vent well. – Joel Keene Jun 18 '15 at 19:14
  • @AloysiusDefenestrate I ended up buying that particular product and it was a snap to install and makes my gas can function in a more traditional manner. If you want to set the as an answer, I'll accept. Thanks to everyone else for suggestions and input! – UnhandledExcepSean Jul 05 '15 at 23:24

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I'm sure nobody would counsel you to sidestep rules and regulations, but if you google "ez pour water spout", you might find something like a water spout that's similar to an old gas spout that ships to 50 states. (For what it's worth, I might possibly be a satisfied user of this product, but use your own judgment.)

Aloysius Defenestrate
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