Snyder Industries 350 Gallon 304 Stainless Steel LiquiTote Center Drain IBC Tote Tank

The duty that puts steel in the aisle instead of plastic

Buyers arrive at a stainless tote from one of four directions, and they are all duty questions. The first is cleaning: an operation that washes the vessel between products with hot water, caustic or steam, and wants a surface it can scrub, inspect and sign off. The second is the product itself, where a customer or a specification calls for stainless contact surfaces and no other answer is accepted. The third is service life: a tote that is filled, emptied, moved and washed several times a month for years, where a heavier, harder vessel is bought once instead of replaced repeatedly. The fourth is handling, where a tote lives on a forklift and a plastic body would be the part that gives. If none of those describe your operation, a stainless tote is more vessel than the duty needs and we would rather say so. If one of them does, the 575 pound tare is what pays for it, and it is a number to plan around rather than discover: it is the heaviest empty vessel in this batch by a wide margin, so the pallet jack, the forklift rating, the rack beam and the floor all get checked before the first delivery, not after. The 42 by 48 inch plan is a conventional handling footprint and the 53.75 inch height is low enough to pass under most rack beams and door heads, which is exactly why the tote is shaped that way. Set it on a flat, level, continuous surface that carries the whole base. Work out whether 350 gallons is really your turn quantity in the tank sizing calculator, and take the ullage a warming or gassing product needs from the tank sizing guide before you fill to the manway.

The LiquiTote against the Supertainers and the Ultratainer

Four of these hold 350 gallons on the same 42 by 48 inch plan, so the decision inside that group is what the vessel is made of and how it drains. This one is the LiquiTote with the center drain, and it is the tallest and heaviest of the four at 53.75 inches and 575 pounds. The three Supertainers are all listed at 47.25 inches and 469 pounds: lower and lighter, with 6984300B51308 and 6984300B51316 given as stainless under two part numbers at identical dimensions and weight, and 6984300B32224 given as carbon steel at those same figures. Where the product tolerates carbon steel, that is the cheaper metallurgy; where it does not, the stainless parts are the ones to compare, and the choice against this tote comes down to the center drain against the height you save. Step up and 6984400B32210 is the 446 gallon carbon steel Supertainer at 59.25 inches and 542 pounds, which is the one to take when the delivery quantity rather than the aisle is setting the size. The odd one out is 6840000B97202, the 330 gallon Ultratainer on a 46 inch square plan at 70 inches tall and 335 pounds: the lightest vessel on the list and the tallest, a different plan and a different handling proposition. Buy this tote when the drain has to be at the center of the floor and the contact surface has to be stainless.

Neighboring size a better fit? Every row links to its own page; freight to your ZIP is quoted on each, or call 866-418-1777.

A 2 inch 316 stainless ball valve at the center of the floor

• The discharge path is the reason to buy this part, and the sheet is specific about it for once: a 2 inch 316 stainless steel ball valve, at the center drain the name describes. A center drain means the floor falls to the middle rather than to a corner, so the vessel gives its contents back from wherever it is standing, without needing to be tipped, chocked or shimmed to find the last of a batch.
• Pump layout: put the pump below that valve with a short falling run into the suction and the first bend clear of the base, so the standing column keeps it flooded down to the last of the load. Close the ball valve before you break any hose; it is the isolation point and it is the only one the sheet gives.
• Prime and protection: a cleanable strainer ahead of the pump and a low level cut-out that stops it with liquid still above the drain. A ball valve gives full bore when it is open and nothing when it is shut, which is what you want on a dosing duty, and it is also what makes a run-dry event abrupt.
• Filling: a 2 inch access port is listed as the inlet, so the fill line lands on a coupling rather than over the top. That keeps the manway shut during transfer, which is the point of having a port at all.
• Access and breathing: the manway is listed at 22 inches and as vented. Twenty-two inches is a genuine working opening for inspection, washing and a lance. Keep the vent path clear whenever anything is drawing on the tote.
• Limits: this sheet publishes no maximum operating temperature and no specific gravity rating. We state neither. Tell us the product, its density and its service temperature when you order and we will confirm the tote against them in writing.

Where this tote feeds a metering pump, the skid it feeds is worth designing rather than assembling: frame, drip pan, leak detection and the procurement decisions behind reliable chemical metering are worked through in the pump skid design guide. Carry every line and valve downstream of the ball valve on its own support, never on the tote.

Food, process and dosing service where the tote gets cleaned

This vessel goes into service where cleaning and contact surface are part of the specification: food, beverage and flavor handling; pharmaceutical and cosmetic intermediate transport; process chemical supply on a plant floor; dosing supply to a metering skid; solvent and cleaning fluid handling in a finishing shop; and sample or batch transport between sites in a laboratory operation. Whether a tote is even the right packaging tier is a question worth settling before the metallurgy one, and container versus tank compares the tote against a drum, a cube and a fixed tank on turnover and handling rather than on unit price. Where the product is a hazardous waste rather than a raw material, the tank system rules are the ones that bite: the RCRA 40 CFR 264.193 secondary containment article sets out the containment, leak detection and inspection cadence that applies. And where the question is simply whether a material suits the product it will carry, start in our chemical compatibility reference and then tell us the product, the concentration and the temperature so we can confirm the vessel against them.

Burnet, Texas, 575 pounds, and no NMFC on the sheet

This tote ships from Burnet, Texas, and the sheet gives Texas as the shipping state. The freight class is given as LTL, and this record carries no NMFC code at all, which is unusual in this family and is printed here as a gap rather than filled in with a guess. It shipments at 42 by 48 by 54 inches. The freight cost estimator prices the lane to your ZIP and the listed price is before freight. Five hundred and seventy-five pounds empty is a forklift or pallet jack unload under the base only: no slings around the body, no lift by the manway, and no attempt to walk it on a corner, because a steel vessel that gets away from you does not bounce. Check the rating of whatever is going to lift it loaded, since the tare and the 2,919 pounds of water are both real numbers on the same day. When it lands, set it level, fill it once with clean water, and cycle the ball valve fully open and fully shut while you watch the seat, the port and the manway seal. A stainless tote will outlast several plastic ones, so start its paperwork on day one: tare weight, delivery date and the products it has held, kept with the vessel rather than in a drawer. Once it is full and holding, leave it alone for a day before the plumbing goes on; a settled tank is a quiet one.