How do you get rid of the rubber smell?

[FlockVillemaire]

I got my chickens one of those very popular black rubber livestock bowls as a waterer...


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NOOOOOOoooooooo! Surprisingly terrible choice! They leach PFAS intensely! But we are such creatures of bad habits.

 

[paintedChix]

I have used the rubber round feed tubs since 1995 for feeding horses & ponies. Had horses off & on from 1970 - 1995 but can't remember what we used to feed them in.

I started w/ chicks in 2011. I think ive used just about every type of waterer since, including the black rubber tubs. I haven't had ponies since 2023. Still have all my tubs - both from chickens & ponies. Currently using 5 "old" tubs for watering chickens & dogs. Have a bunch of chicks that will be going into growout pens, w/ rubber tubs & a couple pens that will have other waterers changed to tubs when our weather drops below freezing.

I don't remember having any "rubber" smell...

2 weeks ago I was in TSC. I went down an aisle that had 2 shelves, the full length of the row, with various black rubber tubs. The smell was terrible & I got an instant headache. Ive been down these aisles before, but had not purchased any rubber tubs from this particular TSC. I don't remember EVER noticing a smell in these tubs before & never when I have been in an agricultural, farm or garden supply store... I didn't look to see what brand(s) they were.

I know that the original rubber tubs & colored plastic buckets we used were made by Fortiflex or Fortex (?). I dont like the plastic buckets made by Little Giant - the plastic in both thier short side colored tubs, 8 qt buckets & the big buckets all turn brittle and crack really quick. I honestly dont know if ive gotten black rubber tubs from Little Giant.

I think I started noticing "smells" in various plastics used for human food storage & storage containers as far back as 30 years ago, while in stores...

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to remove the scent. Sounds like you've done everything I would have suggested.

 

[Apis mellifera]

NOOOOOOoooooooo! Surprisingly terrible choice! They leach PFAS intensely! But we are such creatures of bad habits.

NOOOOOOooooooo! They don't.

Fortex rubber bowls are made from 100% rubber and do not contain PFAS. They are designed to be durable and safe for use with pets and small animals.

 

[Friendly Feathers]

I got my chickens one of those very popular black rubber livestock bowls as a waterer. As I've read, it did come with a very (VERY!!!) strong rubber smell. I looked up how to get rid of it, and have been trying to get rid of it, but it just won't go away! I left the bowl outside to air out for a few weeks. I scrubbed it with dish soap. I soaked it in a 50% vinegar solution for 24 hours. I left it outside again. Nothing helps, and it still smells, except now it smells like rubber AND vinegar Has anybody found an effective way to get rid of the stubborn smell? How long does it take for the smell to go away?


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[Mother of Chaos]

I have to warn everyone about those awesome black rubber bowls! They contain lead. There are families who have gotten so sick and didn't know what was wrong. Finally, they figured out that they were consuming the lead from the eggs. I was sooooo bummed out (after having spent A LOT on these bowls. I just threw them out!

Welcome to BYC!

I hope that you: (1) confirmed the story with other sources and (2) made sure that yours were the same brand name.

I’m not convinced that this is true of all rubber bowls.

 

[K0k0shka]

I have to warn everyone about those awesome black rubber bowls! They contain lead. There are families who have gotten so sick and didn't know what was wrong. Finally, they figured out that they were consuming the lead from the eggs. I was sooooo bummed out (after having spent A LOT on these bowls. I just threw them out!

Lead oxide was commonly used in the vulcanization of tire rubber specifically, so rubber products that contain lead are made from rubber recycled from old tires. Lead isn’t used in the production of rubber in general, or in rubber products, and it’s been phased out in tire vulcanization, so for a rubber product to contain lead today, it must have been made from recycled very old tires, from the days when lead was still used. I highly doubt that a brand new livestock pan made today was made from recycled tires. The old rubber pans from decades ago… who knows… but new ones today - unlikely.

There is, however, residual lead still found in the soil today, especially around old homes and where old lead pipes used to be. Or near roads (runoff from leaded fuel). So there are still plenty of ways a chicken can end up with lead poisoning, or producing eggs with a high lead level, enough for people to suffer consequences from, even without using rubber pans. If you or your chickens/eggs test high for lead, I’d look at the soil first and have it tested, before I blame a brand new pan. I’ve done that, by the way - I had my backyard soil tested and it turned out incredibly high in lead. Without a single rubber pan in sight at the time. We had several tractor trailers’ worth of clean soil laid on top of the yard and reseeded, to cap the contaminated original soil and protect our chickens, children, and ourselves.