Coffee Cans As Cache Containers

[Geoman007]

Are coffee cans any good at being cache containers? Will they keep out the water? Should I use them in my NJ cache race? I have never used them before and would like to know before I do use one and possibly ruin a cache.

Edited March 16, 2004 by Geoman007

[+rusty_tlc]

Probably not a good long term choice in your neck of the woods. They might be okay for a temporary cache like part of an event cache game.

 

I have one cache in a coffee can. But I live in the desert, and the cache is totaly protected from the elements, actualy it's under water. But completly dry at all times.

[+JandM]

Another concern with coffee cans is that they smell like coffee, which may attract critters. During last year's race the cache at Ringwood looked like it was formerly a food containter (like a large take out soup from a Chinese restaurant). By the time we found it, it also looked like it had been mauled by some kind of critter or another.

 

Just a thought.

 

JandM

[+bob393]

I never used one but the odor will attract critters and I don't think the top would be water proof, not to mention critter proof.

 

Ammo cans rule.

[+rusty_tlc]

The only critter problem I've had was the two legged kind.

Once the landscape crew, they never bothered the cache after I retrived it from the trash trailer.

Once it got muggled, but a kindly out of state cacher fixed it before I found out.

 

I just washed it out with bleach before I used it.

 

Ammo cans are the best, but this is a "high risk" location. Lots of wildlife but practically in the parking lot of Target. Nobody would take the time to pick up a coffee can, an ammo box would disappear in days.

[+Mopar]

There is a cacher in South Jersey who used them for a bunch of hides. Most were problems by the time the first person found them, and the went downhill from there.

They rust.

They smell attractive to critters.

Most important, they don't seal well. What seems to happen is if it gets hot, they pop the top off. If it gets cold, it sucks in until the seal gives, letting air (and moisture) into the cache. They may work OK in the desert, but I've never seen one in NJ that wasn't a problem.

[+briansnat]

They are OK in the short run. But the ones I've found rusted and the lids split easily, so if you expect them to last more than a few months, I'd avoid them. Check the post in this forum on Lock -n Locks at Pathmark if you want inexpensive containers that will last for a season or two. That, or decon boxes. I can mail you a bunch if you like. I need to make some room in my basement. Send me your addr and I'll send you a box full.

Edited March 17, 2004 by briansnat

[+Polgara]

The big red plastic folgers containers may not be so bad. I could be wrong, but I heard from somewhere, or I read it somewhere that the scent of coffee actually repels critters.

[+briansnat]

The big red plastic folgers containers may not be so bad. I could be wrong, but I heard from somewhere, or I read it somewhere that the scent of coffee actually repels critters.

 

They don't seal very well though.

[+Mopar]

a previous discussion

or two

[avroair]

Their long term durability is dubious at best. I would stay away from them. Animals can get in them quickly (as I found out in my back yard) and they dent, and rust quickly.

[dutchmaster]

I'd like to read more first hand info instead of speculation. Seems to me that the coffee cans are FREE!! and therefore replacement isn't an issue. As for the critters, they don't seem attracted to the chewable empty paper cups that litter every roadside. The coffee cans in my garage have been there for decades, so take a coffee can and put a pale over it. Como the upside down pale, bucket whatever and put the coffee can under it, out of the elements. Sprinkle with pepper for the rodents. Enjoy

[+briansnat]

I'd like to read more first hand info instead of speculation. Seems to me that the coffee cans are FREE!! and therefore replacement isn't an issue. As for the critters, they don't seem attracted to the chewable empty paper cups that litter every roadside. The coffee cans in my garage have been there for decades, so take a coffee can and put a pale over it. Como the upside down pale, bucket whatever and put the coffee can under it, out of the elements. Sprinkle with pepper for the rodents. Enjoy

 

I think it would be simpler just to use a quality container. I speak from experience. Coffee cans do not make good cache containers. They rust after a short period of time and the lids tend to split. Now if people cared enough to continually replace the container, it wouldn't be an issue, but people generally don't.

[+Planet]

DON'T DO IT!

[+Mopar]

I'd like to read more first hand info instead of speculation. Seems to me that the coffee cans are FREE!! and therefore replacement isn't an issue. As for the critters, they don't seem attracted to the chewable empty paper cups that litter every roadside. The coffee cans in my garage have been there for decades, so take a coffee can and put a pale over it. Como the upside down pale, bucket whatever and put the coffee can under it, out of the elements. Sprinkle with pepper for the rodents. Enjoy

 

I think it would be simpler just to use a quality container. I speak from experience. Coffee cans do not make good cache containers. They rust after a short period of time and the lids tend to split. Now if people cared enough to continually replace the container, it wouldn't be an issue, but people generally don't.

Having found at least a dozen, I don't think I am speculating when I say they suck.

Sure, they are esentually free. Sure, if you wanted to you could replace them every few weeks. But why? In between replacements, the logbook got wet and ruined, the cute stuffed animal TB that's traveled all over the world is now soggy and moldy, and all the trade items are ruined or rusty. If you can't afford to spend a few bucks for a decent container, maybe you should stick to finding them until you get a better-paying job.

[dutchmaster]

I'm hoping the double layer of protection would cancel out the problems of cheapy coffee cans covers, which I wouldn't expose to even a summer shower.

 

I'm looking at going with a camoflaged all weather outer shell that requires a bit extra work and has zero muggle value but will greatly prolong the life of a (in this case) coffee can because the protected environment it's now stored in/under.

 

The shielded coffee can is a sacrafical approach for muggle friendly areas. I have ammo cans for the way out hardcore caches that serious cachers will only ever visit.

[+rusty_tlc]

I'd like to read more first hand info instead of speculation. Seems to me that the coffee cans are FREE!! and therefore replacement isn't an issue. As for the critters, they don't seem attracted to the chewable empty paper cups that litter every roadside. The coffee cans in my garage have been there for decades, so take a coffee can and put a pale over it. Como the upside down pale, bucket whatever and put the coffee can under it, out of the elements. Sprinkle with pepper for the rodents. Enjoy

I replace the lid every couple of months since they get brittle. I wouldn't use a coffe can except in a very sheltered location, with easy access for maintainence. The good thing is they are free and work well in a location that is likely to be muggled, who wants to leave a $5 or $6 ammo can in a high risk location? My cache has been out for almost a year and is fine. Then again they found a pair of rabbit skin slippers that were 500 years old in a cave around here.

 

Use common sense. NJ aint the place for a coffee can cache.

[dutchmaster]

. I wouldn't use a coffe can except in a very sheltered location, with easy access for maintainence......................rabbit skin slippers that were 500 years old in a cave around here.

That's what I'm trying to create by using an extra upside down container that would also be easier to camoflage and the space underneath wouldn't restrict (as much) what I could use for the final cache container. I also have to consider everything getting frozen shut during the winter, as with threaded PVC pipe type cache containers.

 

Wonder what an archeaologist would think uncovering an archived cache 500 years from now.

[+briansnat]

That's what I'm trying to create by using an extra upside down container that would also be easier to camoflage and the space underneath wouldn't restrict (as much) what I could use for the final cache container

 

Wouldn't just using a quality container in the first place be a lot easier?

 

If you rely on another container to cover your cheap container, what's to keep the wind, animals, falling branches, etc... from knocking it off?

[dutchmaster]

Wouldn't just using a quality container in the first place be a lot easier?

 

If you rely on another container to cover your cheap container, what's to keep the wind, animals, falling branches, etc... from knocking it off?

Think of it as layers, like an onion, where a split log or flat rock will offer initail protection for a camoflaged shell with the cache container inside along with the ziplock baggies. Kinda like a storm door protects from bad weather but doesn't have the other attributes of the nicer inside door that protect from the cold.

 

My warped ideas include modifing objects that wouldn't appear to normally have an inside cavity to them. I really like the idea of having 2, capped at one end tubes, one that (loosely) slides inside the other and large enough to hold the final cache container as a way of elimanating most if not all that mother nature can throw at it.

 

I've never consider this to be a stand alone approach and would have to identify and evaluate each location accordingly.

 

It's like winter clothing, you can have waterproof or windproof but no material can do both.

[+briansnat]

Think of it as layers, like an onion, where a split log or flat rock will offer initail protection for a camoflaged shell with the cache container inside along with the ziplock baggies. Kinda like a storm door protects from bad weather but doesn't have the other attributes of the nicer inside door that protect from the cold.

 

 

Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through to place a cache. Why not just use an ammo box, or other quality container and be done with it?

[+PeachyPA]

I don't live in or near NJ, so I probably won't be looking for your caches. I do have an opinion, though. I am not a coffee drinker, and the thought of picking through swag in a coffee can, even though it would be well cleaned, does not appeal to me. I agree with others' suggestions to select a sturdier container to begin with. I have purchased perfectly good used ammo cans with good seals at an army/navy store for $3-5.

 

Oh yeah, Briansnat, I like your current avatar. My daughter is in Dublin this year.

 

PeachyPA

Punxsutawney, PA

Edited March 18, 2004 by PeachyPA

[+Team Shibby]

I found my share of coffee cans I vote NO to them. They do not seal well and they rust, plain and simple. Coffee cans are fine to use in your garage to store old nuts and bolts, but they do not fair well outdoors as cache containers. Anything that was designed to be "disposed of" when empty will not stand a snowballs chance in hell here in the Northeast

 

Kar of TS!!

[dutchmaster]

Coffee can is not bible, it's just shows the size of containers that can be used. In some instances I'm confident that I could use a coffee can WITHOUT a lid and really have an aired out fresher cache without the moist sweat socks appeal. The open can is just the holder of all the condomized swag and the outer layers are the protection from the weather.

 

I've already seen well meaning cachers add an extra container with a lid that failed, when just overturning the container with no lid would have worked much better, on this part of the planet.

 

The winters in the northeast aren't plastic friendly, so with the extra layer of protection in the form of a camo-ed weather proof shield I'm approaching the "don't care" scenario. (if it's dry it can't freeze shut). I've already got various plastic containers lined up along with a couple of coffee cans and two ammo boxes. No peanut butter jars!!

 

Extra effort? Just a little extra TLC for fellow cachers in the hope of making the final minutes of the hunt a wowwee experience, instead of a science experiment.

[+briansnat]

Coffee can is not bible, it's just shows the size of containers that can be used. In some instances I'm confident that I could use a coffee can WITHOUT a lid and really have an aired out fresher cache without the moist sweat socks appeal. The open can is just the holder of all the condomized swag and the outer layers are the protection from the weather.

 

I've already seen well meaning cachers add an extra container with a lid that failed, when just overturning the container with no lid would have worked much better, on this part of the planet.

 

The winters in the northeast aren't plastic friendly, so with the extra layer of protection in the form of a camo-ed weather proof shield I'm approaching the "don't care" scenario. (if it's dry it can't freeze shut). I've already got various plastic containers lined up along with a couple of coffee cans and two ammo boxes. No peanut butter jars!!

 

Extra effort? Just a little extra TLC for fellow cachers in the hope of making the final minutes of the hunt a wowwee experience, instead of a science experiment

 

Not to sound like a broken record, but what's the point?