Watertight storage boxes?

Lomax

Lomax

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Spent more time searching than any sane person would, yet haven't been able to find a good option for watertight storage boxes. Strange, considering all the plastic we're surrounded by - and how much trouble flooding is causing in this country - that no-one has come up with a way to make lid and box form a tight seal. I'm not talking about Pelicases here, or some kind of military transport hardware, just simple boxes for (in my case) "underbed" storage of everyday items, which offer some level of protection in case of leaks/flooding. Anyone know of such beasts?
 
The Iris Weathertight 62.8qt (60L) looks like it could be perfect; it is exactly the right size (60x45x30cm), and they have at least attempted to create some form of seal. But is it "waterproof"? I very nearly ordered eight of these, at £25 a pop, but thankfully did some more research. It turns out they are not waterproof, probably why the "weathertight" moniker had to be invented - which basically means f-all. Close, but no cigar.

Edit: The Iris boxes are IP44, whereas I'm looking for IP67.
 
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Those supermarket food boxes with blue rubber seals and pull over clips work great for me. Totally waterproof.
For softer items I use those kayak bags with roll over necks. Again perfect seal
 
We use dry bags rather than boxes. You can get them in a variety of sizes from 1 litre upwards, roll the neck to seal and then fit them into the spaces under the seats. Being soft, they fit into the odd spaces and shapes better than boxes. If you feel the need to compartmentalise the spaces using boxes, simply fill the boxes with dry bags.
We've found the best ones to be Exped dry bags, they're made of proofed nylon rather than heavier material and are therefore easier to handle. Reasonably priced off eBay.
As the OP has found, truly watertight boxes are expensive. We do have a couple of the Pelicase type on board but they're designed as much to provide impact protection as for waterproofing and therefore worth having.
 
Thanks everyone!

sarabande said:
Try The Really Useful Box company http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/ I have a couple of dozen various sizes on board.
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These look great, but unlike the Iris boxes don't have any seal at all - they don't even claim to be "weathertight" (whatever that means).

SAPurdie said:
How about some of those vacuum storage bags? Should work well for soft stuff.
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Too much hassle.

duncan99210 said:
We use dry bags rather than boxes. You can get them in a variety of sizes from 1 litre upwards, roll the neck to seal and then fit them into the spaces under the seats. Being soft, they fit into the odd spaces and shapes better than boxes. If you feel the need to ompartmentalise the spaces using boxes, simply fill the boxes with dry bags. We've found the best ones to be Exped dry bags, they're made of proofed nylon rather than heavier material and are therefore easier to handle. Reasonably priced off eBay. As the OP has found, truly watertight boxes are expensive.
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Again, too much hassle - I will be living aboard and want the convenience of storing things in a box.

duncan99210 said:
We do have a couple of the Pelicase type on board but they're designed as much to provide impact protection as for waterproofing and therefore worth having.
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Pelicases are great if you're doing an expedition in the jungle, or transporting A/V gear around the globe, but they're quite bulky and festooned with handles and wheels which means they take up a lot of space vs. storage capacity. They are also horrendously expensive - in similar dimensions to what I'm looking for they cost in excess of £100.

Halo said:
Those supermarket food boxes with blue rubber seals and pull over clips work great for me. Totally waterproof. For softer items I use those kayak bags with roll over necks. Again perfect seal
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Yes, I have some of these and they're great! Exactly the kind of thing I need - but where can I find a ~60x45x30cm version? I thought the Iris box would be it, but they've used a foam rubber seal, which isn't continuous, rather than the gapless solid silicone seal on the supermarket food boxes. The latter are 100% watertight, even under pressure, while the former only manage an IP44 rating (in other words: the seal has no function beyond appearance). If someone could just scale up the food container type, while adding additional clips as necessary, we'd have the perfect solution.


Blue_mischief said:
Try Lomo, good quality water sports stuff at reasonable prices. http://www.ewetsuits.com/acatalog/Dry-Boxes.html Satisfied customer etc.
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Nice, and a little cheaper than Peli, but way too small and like the Peli unecessarily bulky.
 
Just had this response to my questions re. the Iris boxes:

Thanks for your enquiry, these boxes are tested to perform very well against water ingress. The foam seal is compressed by the clips to form a very good Airtight seal.

Theoretically if under water long enough the foam could become saturated and this would then allow water ingress. The boxes may float to prevent this situation but this would depend on weight / related to amount of air in the box which would be hard to work out.

I am sorry but it is not possible to guarantee against water ingress for anything that is not sold as waterproof.
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Maybe they're better than I've been led to believe. Certainly the best option I've found so far. I might buy one and test it out in the bathtub (while I still have one...)
 
I did a lot of web trawling before and came across https://usprotoolboxes.com/product-category/waterproof-hard-plastic-tool-box-carry-cases/ and bought one - knowing that they offered no IP ratings, but had a hunch etc..

This was the first one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F7CPU82/ref=pe_385721_37986871_TE_item

And it's a lot better than I really expected. So yesterday ordered this one for my camera.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361563639710

It's quite hard to get excited about storage boxes but I'd suggest that you wouldn't be disappointed.
 
KevinT1 said:
Lomax - I think you missed these in the Really useful Boxes website

http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/html/onlineshop/fullrange_locklock.php

which are the same as Halo mentioned in post 5 and I think is what Sarabande meant in his post
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Ah yes, I did miss those. This is the best design for cheap waterproof storage; one piece silicone seals, and wide clip latches which cover most of the lid circumference. I cannot see why something like this couldn't work scaled up to the size I need - sadly even the larger ones available are way too small for use as "underbed" storage. I do have some of these, though mine are Emsa brand, which I use for storing electronics and other moisture sensitive stuff.
 
bedouin said:
Peli do some https://peliproducts.co.uk/index.php/cases.html but not cheap.
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Yeah, I don't really like those for this particular application; too much space wasted on unnecessary handles and reinforcements, too military looking, not possible to inspect contents without opening. And too expensive.

bedouin said:
It must be very difficult to make something IP67 at that size because of the rigidity it requires in the lid.
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The lid doesn't need to be rigid for this - nor do the sides. All that's needed is a locking mechanism which keeps the lid in firm contact with the top of the sides, all the way around, and a soft silicone seal. The Emsa food storage boxes I have, while tough as old boots, have plenty of flex in them, but that doesn't prevent them being so tight that you'll struggle to get the lid off if you've put one in the fridge with warm food in it. If the clips on the Iris box were wider, and with less flex in them, and they had a solid silicone seal instead of a foam rubber one with gaps, I'm sure they would perform very well under a foot or two of water.
 
anoccasionalyachtsman said:
I did a lot of web trawling before and came across https://usprotoolboxes.com/product-category/waterproof-hard-plastic-tool-box-carry-cases/ and bought one - knowing that they offered no IP ratings, but had a hunch etc..
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Hmmm... not bad. Price is very good - in fact the one with most similar dimensions to the Iris 60L box costs only a few pounds more than the Iris. Model 5139 measures 57x42.5x21.5cm - length and width is perfect - but the height, arrrgh :( They also suffer from the same flaws as the Peli cases, including having a lid that is attached along one side (so you have to find space enough to open this), difficulty utilising the full depth without things falling out when opening (since the lid takes up some of the height), and inefficient use of the available space. Still, if they were 31.5cm tall instead, I'd probably go for them - they do look pretty secure.

I have ~30cm vertical space under the bunks and want to use it all. Every cubic centimetre counts ;) In fact I can still alter the layout to fit the chosen storage containers - if I found the perfect thing and it was 32cm tall I'd go for that, even if it means the bunks will be at a slightly odd height (there's a 15cm thick mattress on top). Storage is that important to me.
 
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I have several boxes with screw top lids that my flares came in
They are watertight & fairly robust.
I have seen videos of small cruisers on long trips with similar containers so they must be obtainable by means other than buying flares
 
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