Used IBC totes for farms, growers and rain catchment

Who buys, and what for

Farms, growers and gardeners catching rain are the people the buy side serves, and Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve is farmland on that scale. The Reserve covers 93,000 acres, about a third of the county, and helps retain more than 500 farms. Texas A&M AgriLife says a 1,000-pound heifer may need about 20 gallons of water a day in hot weather, so a herd's water is counted in totes.

Which grade for which job

A rinse does not make a chemical tote fit for drinking water. Food-grade use needs documented food-grade history.

How to ask

Use the request form below. Say what the tote is for, how many you need and your ZIP code. For water, say whether it is for stock, irrigation or rain. We reply with what fits. We have set no price, minimum or delivery date, so the site names none.

For rain, the rainwater guide has the roof-yield math and the screening advice.

Water jobs need history, not looks

A tote that looks clean may not be fit for water. The CDC advises against storing water in containers that previously held toxic chemicals and says food-grade containers are best, so the only reliable test is a record that the tote held food and nothing else.

For rain, the University of Florida’s IFAS extension notes that stored rainwater is generally for non-drinking uses such as watering. The rainwater guide adds the screening and overflow steps, and the rain catchment page covers placement.

What to ask a seller

• What did the tote hold, and who supplied it?
• Was anything other than food ever in it?
• What are the dates on the plate?
• Is the valve sound and the cap sealed?

A seller who cannot answer the first two has told you the grade already.

Why the buyer side asks for paperwork

A farm is entitled to ask what a tote held. The answer must be a document, not a claim: a supplier name, a product, dates. If you are selling, the list on the food-grade history page tells you what a buyer will want to see. If you are buying, the same list tells you what to ask for.

Sizes for water jobs

A 275 gallon tote measures 48 by 40 by 46 inches, and a 330 gallon tote is 53 inches tall on the same base. For rain catchment, the extra gallons of a 330 come with seven more inches of height, which matters under a low eave. For stock water, the number to work from is the herd’s daily need: Texas A&M AgriLife puts a 1,000-pound heifer at about 20 gallons a day in hot weather, so one 275 gallon tote is a little under two weeks of water for a single animal.

Rainwater, stock water and paperwork

Three kinds of buyer write in. Growers want irrigation storage and care about the last contents. Livestock owners want drinking water for animals and care about it even more. Gardeners catching roof runoff want a barrel. The same tote can serve all three if its history is food, and none of them if it is not.

Ask the seller for the supplier’s name, the product and the date range in which the tote was in service. A seller who can answer in a sentence usually has the record to back it up.

Declining a sale

We would rather tell a buyer that a tote is the wrong one than send it. A tote with a chemical history will not be matched to a water job, even if the buyer offers to rinse it. A tote with no record at all is treated the same way. A buyer can ask us why a match was declined and the answer will name the missing fact, whether it is the last contents, the plate date or the condition of the valve.

What a reply looks like

A reply names the grade that fits the job, says what is missing if nothing does, and asks any question that remains. It does not quote a price or a date. A buyer who wants a firm figure should know that none has been set and that a reply is a statement of fit, not an offer.

Buyers who need several totes for one site, such as a farm with a row of tanks, should say how they will be placed, since the base and the level ground matter more than the count.

Delivery and placement

Because no delivery date has been set, plan the site before the tote arrives: a level pad, a base that bears the full weight of a filled tote, and a clear path for the lift. A filled 275 gallon tote is heavy enough to sink into soft soil, and a tote left half full in winter can crack once the water freezes.

Questions before you buy

How much water do you need to store, and over what period? Will it be drawn by hand, by gravity or by pump? Does the water touch animals, food or plants? Answering these before you write lets a reply name a grade and a size in one pass.

In this section

• Food-grade historyTotes with a documented food-only history, for stock water, irrigation and food use. What the paperwork shows and what it does not.
• Reconditioned and rebottledReconditioned and rebottled totes for repeat fills: what was cleaned, tested and replaced, and how to read the retest date.
• Rain catchmentTotes for catching rain in Montgomery, Loudoun and Frederick gardens and farms: which grade, screening and where the overflow goes.