How Much Does A 55 Gallon Drum Of Water Weigh

How Much Does A 55 Gallon Drum Of Water Weigh

 

How Much Does A 55 Gallon Drum Of Water Weigh?: It’s not the easiest question to answer, and the answer you’ll find on many websites will vary slightly depending on whether or not you want to know the weight of freshwater or saltwater and whether you are measuring in pounds or kilograms.

Regardless, it’s easy to figure out how much 55 gallons of water weighs – simply multiply the weight by 55, and your answer will be in pounds. If you need an answer in kilograms, divide your answer by 2.20462262 (pounds) / 0.903637344 (kilograms).

The Basics

The most common plastic container for water is an eight-gallon (or 7.6-liter) pail, also known as a drum. If you were to fill such a drum with tap water from your kitchen sink, how much would it weigh? The answer depends on two key factors: whether or not you live in Florida and whether or not you’re using clean, fresh water from your kitchen faucet.

The Math

It takes eight gallons of water to weigh one gallon. In other words, eight pounds of water weighs one pound. That said, it’s fairly uncommon for anyone to have an empty 55-gallon drum laying around for comparison—let alone one filled with water. If you have an empty drum and happen to know its volume (which you can measure by filling it with water), then you can use these equations to figure out how much it weighs: density = mass ÷ volume; mass = density × volume; or simply divide 66 lbs/gal by 0.375 gal/lb, which comes out to 167 lbs per drum.

The Real Answer to How Much Does A 55 Gallon Drum Of Water Weigh?

A full 55-gallon drum of water weighs around 220 pounds. However, depending on where you live and how much dust, debris or particulates are in your local water supply, that number could be slightly different.

Some regional agencies do require more thorough filtration than others to ensure water quality.

If your local community has stricter standards for what makes it into your tap water — for instance, if there is chlorine added as a means to disinfect drinking water — then that can also add some weight to what’s inside those barrels.

Do you Really Need to Know How Much Does A 55 Gallon Drum Of Water Weigh?

When it comes to most things, it’s not really necessary to know every specific detail. What you do need to know is how those details work together and how they fit into your life.

Knowing how many calories are in an eight-gallon drum of water doesn’t matter unless you’re measuring out water for consumption or storage.

If you’re asking because you want to weigh a 55-gallon drum on a scale (you are doing that by yourself, right?), then your question is based on practicality – and that means knowing exactly what you’re dealing with will ensure your success when handling heavy items.

Helpful Conversions

A 55-gallon barrel holds between 360 and 378 quarts, or 34 to 35 gallons. A gallon contains 231 cubic inches, which means that if you filled a 55-gallon drum with water (which weighs 8 pounds per gallon), it would weigh about 3,200 pounds or 1.5 tons.

Note that these calculations are based on plain tap water; if you used saltwater for example, your weight would increase significantly more due to density.

What is the Density of Water?

The density of water varies depending on its temperature and pressure, but for our purposes we’ll say that one cubic foot of water has a mass of 62.4 pounds and an average density is 1 g/cm3.

That makes it just slightly less dense than pure gold, at 19.3 grams per cubic centimeter.

Let’s break down your 55 gallon drum into more manageable measurements: 40 gallons (80% capacity) weighs 362 pounds and 14 gallons (20% capacity) weighs 89 pounds.

Now you have an idea how much heavy that 55 gallon drum really is!

More Examples for 55 gallon drum weight

How much does 8 gallons (US) of water weigh? 1 gallon = approx. 3.8 liters, so an equivalent volume measurement in gallons would be 2.6 gallons; 1 liter = 0.264 gallons.