Snyder Industries 250 Gallon Plastic Open Top Batch Storage Tank in White

An open top batch tank instead of a closed one

Set this against its own family and the argument is clear. The sheet lists SII-57200VOT45 at 200 gallons in the identical 36 by 36 inch plan, 53 inches tall, and named on the sheet as an open top tank with a loose cover and protective wrap; and SII-1550300N30 at 290 gallons in a 42 by 42 inch plan, 47 inches tall and 100 pounds, named as an open top containment tank for sulfuric acid storage. This one is the tall member of the group: the same 36 inch square as the 200, carried up to 68 inches, which is where the extra 50 gallons comes from. Height instead of width is what makes it a batch vessel rather than a floor-standing tub. It takes a small square of floor, so several of them line up along a wall in a mixing room or a shop bay where a wider tank would take the aisle; it puts the liquid surface at a height a hand or a wand can reach from a step rather than from a platform; and it gives a deeper column, which is what you want when something has to settle or when a pump is drawing from the bottom of a batch. The open top is what you buy it for: you can see the level without a gauge, drop an agitator or an immersion device straight in, tip in a bag or a pail without a funnel, and clean the whole vessel with a wand rather than through an 18 inch hole. What you give up is the top itself. There is nothing over the liquid unless you put it there: no seal against evaporation, no barrier to dust, rain, insects or a dropped tool, and no vapour control at all. That is a deliberate trade and it decides whether this is the right tank before anything else does. Size the batch against the turnover in the tank sizing calculator and take the freeboard and surge allowance from the tank sizing guide; an open vessel with an agitator in it needs more freeboard than a closed one, not less.

The 200, the 250 and the 290 open tops

Two things in that table are worth stopping on. The first is that the 200 gallon tank is listed heavier than this 250 at 85 pounds against 79, even though it is fifteen inches shorter on the same plan. The sheet gives both weights and explains neither, so we print them and let you weigh the handling against the volume rather than assume the bigger tank is the heavier one. The second is that only the 200 gallon part carries a cover in its own name on the sheet, listed with a loose cover and protective wrap. This part does not, and that is the single most important line on this page: if you need something over the liquid, either specify the tank that is named with a cover or plan a cover as part of the installation. The 290 gallon SII-1550300N30 is a different proposition again, named on the sheet as an open top containment tank for sulfuric acid storage; it is the widest and lowest of the three at 42 by 42 by 47 inches and 100 pounds. We name it as the sheet names it, and nothing about its duty transfers to this tank. Choose between them on floor plan and reach: 36 inches square and tall if the floor is tight and the batch is deep, 42 inches square and low if the reach over the rim matters more than the footprint.

Other makers in the running? 866-418-1777 will compare them honestly; Norwesco, Snyder, Chem-Tainer, Enduraplas and Bushman are all here, or price freight on this one.

What an open top gives you, and what the sheet leaves out

• The open top itself: the sheet gives 39.8 inches in its lid and manway field, which is the opening across the top of the vessel. There is no vent to keep clear and no seal to fail, because there is nothing closing it. That is the advantage and it is also the whole of the hazard: an open vessel at 68 inches is an opening at chest height that a person, a hose or a tool can go into, so it belongs where it is guarded, against a wall, or fitted with a cover you have specified yourself.
• Evaporation, dust and weather: nothing over the liquid means the liquid is exposed. Indoors that means dust and evaporation; outdoors it means rain adding to the batch and freezing in it. This tank is an indoor or under-cover vessel unless the installation puts a cover on it.
• Filling: over the rim, or through a line brought to the top. With the surface in plain sight there is no excuse for an overfill, but there is also no overflow fitting on the sheet, so the fill has to be attended or controlled.
• Outlet and drain: the sheet publishes no outlet, no inlet and no bulkhead. No size is claimed here. A straight-sided vessel drains to its flat bottom, so a bottom outlet leaves a heel unless the floor is sloped or the last of the batch is pumped or scooped out; plan for that rather than discovering it on the first changeover.
• Ratings: a specific gravity of 1.9 on the wall, 2,085 pounds of water at 250 gallons, 3,962 pounds of max contents, and a service limit of 120 F / 48 C. There is no warranty term and no stand, bracket or mounting detail on the sheet.

Set it on a flat, continuous, level surface that carries the whole base: a finished floor, a poured pad or a purpose-built deck, never on rails or timbers with the middle unsupported. A tall vessel on a small square plan is easier to knock over than a wide one, and 2,085 pounds of liquid does not forgive a soft corner. The concrete pad sizing guide sets out how the slab under an above-ground polyethylene tank is worked out and where the boundary between the two design frameworks actually lies.

Batch make-up, reuse water and reservoir duty

An open top at this size does batch make-up and blending in plating, printing, brewing, food and coatings shops; parts washing, rinse and quench duty; mixing tanks for cleaning and treatment chemistry; grow and hydroponic reservoirs; live haul, hatchery and aquaculture holding; and buffer volume anywhere an operator needs to see and reach the liquid. It also does plain water storage. Where the water is rainwater, grey water or condensate being aggregated and reused, the industrial water reuse topology guide shows how the quality-banded storage train is sequenced so the wrong water never reaches the wrong stage. Where the stored water is a fire reserve on a rural or remote site, the fire-water reservoir design guide is the one to read, including its freeze-protection engineering, because an open vessel and a cold climate need the conversation before the order.

Shipped 36 by 36 by 68 out of Marked Tree

This tank is molded at Marked Tree, Arkansas and shipments at 36 by 36 by 68 inches, standing up. The sheet gives the freight class as LTL, a mode rather than a numeric class, under NMFC 156600-02. Price the lane to your ZIP with the freight cost estimator, and note that the listed price is before freight. Seventy-nine pounds is a light tank for its size, which is exactly why it needs handling with the height in mind rather than the weight: two people, lifted by the body from opposite sides, never by the rim alone, and not walked across a yard in a wind. Measure the doorway and the ceiling on the route in before the truck is booked, because 68 inches on a pallet is taller again. Set it on the finished, level floor where it will live, then fill it with clean water and hold it while you read the base and the wall at the seam line, and check that the floor under it is dry after an hour. Drain it and put the batch in. An open top tank is the easiest tank on the site to inspect, so make a habit of it: look in every time you walk past. Put the tank's part number on the maintenance log the day it lands; five years on, nobody remembers which shell it is.