Frosted Gas Can

I will be using an MSR Wisperlite stove to melt snow for drinking water, and for re-hydrating my freeze dried food. ALE will give me 4 gallons of Coleman fuel when I get to Antarctica. The metal cans getting bounced around on the way to the South Pole can end up leaking which would be double bad. No fuel, no water, and fuel getting into food and gear would ruin the food and gear.

Frosted gas jug

I was told I should get good quality plastic gas jugs. Some plastic gas jugs may not handle the cold or bouncing around. I looked at the gas jugs at Walmart. They seemed like they were nice, but a lot of things from Walmart break real easy, it seems that at Walmart price is more important than quality. So I also looked at the auto parts store. The auto part store jug looked cheaper than the Walmart jug. Also the Walmart jug was HDPE which is rated to -148 F, much colder than I will experience. The auto parts store jug was "other plastic" so I have no idea how cold it is designed for.

I bought a sample jug and took it over to the Smiths grocery store next to my bike store, and asked if I could put it in their freezer. Instead they put it in with the dry ice. Dry ice sublimates at -109 F so if it can stand that cold I should be good.

After about an hour packed in the dry ice freezer I went back and got the jug. It was too cold to handle with bare hands. I took the jug and banged it on the floor and tested to see if the plastic would be brittle. I am so happy to say it passed the test! So now I need to go back to Walmart and get 3 more 1 gallon jugs.