Garden Hose Adapter for IBC Tote

I was in need of adding a water hose to my IBC totes / containers (1000 liters or 275 gallons). These IBC totes / containers are very useful, on Internet you can find many ingenious applications (storing rain water, septic tanks etc).

An IBC tote is basically a "cube" of plastic ("cube" because not all sizes are equal) inside of a metallic cage. Down, on one side, there is a valve (see the first image of an IBC tote, source is Wikipedia).

My IBC cubes have a 2" buttress valve. My garden hose is definitely smaller in diameter, so I was looking for an adapter between the 2" buttress valve and the garden hose.

On a simple search, the on-line commerce sites have a lots of offers. 2" buttress valve to small garden hose,

2" buttress valve to bigger garden hose, 2" buttress valve to metallic faucet and so on. I considered that the price is somehow too high. After analyzing all these offers, I realized that there is something common to all these objects: the part you have to fasten to the 2" buttress valve. So a simple 2" cap should do it, I started to look for 2" dust cap for IBC tote. Those were a little bit cheaper.

After looking at many 2" caps, I realized that these are objects I saw before, even I knew that I had them on my hands.

Following steps will show you what I am talking about and how I made that useful IBC tote 2" valve adapter for the garden hose - see the the second image.

The 2" cap I knew I had it once on my hands was actually a cap used for plastic containers (20 liters) for lubricants or diesel fuel. If you are around heavy machinery like tractors, excavators, bulldozers etc, they should have such small plastic containers as waste.

Pick one cap, wash it well (remove oil, grease), maybe the smell will stay there, but if you don't have to drink that water, I think it is ok to use respective 2" cap, if not, you need a cleaner / brand new 2" cap. Also make sure that the gasket is there to avoid leakage.

I found the 3/4 to hose adapter and the 3/4 female to 3/4 female fitting for cheap. Since there was no need to use the whole 3/4 female to 3/4 female fitting, I cut it in half, so I had enough parts for 2 adapters.

Also I considered that this 3/4 female to 3/4 female fitting is too long and may hit the 2" buttress valve inside (you have to check this prior to assembly).

This is very simple step: you need to drill a hole on the center of the 2" cap.

The hole should be tight enough, I basically fasten the 3/4 to hose fitting in the 2" cap.

The hole was drilled using a wood drill bits for big diameter hole (spade bit or Forstner bits). Drill a test hole in a scrap plastic / wood scrap to make sure you chose the correct drill bit.

Take half of the 3/4 female to 3/4 female fitting, fasten on the cap to the 3/4 male to hose fitting.

In order to avoid water leakage, I simply used some silicone sealant (use a silicone gun).

Let it cure for 24 hours.

After the silicone is cured, connect the hose using a clamp, fasten the 2" cap to the IBC tote valve and use it :)

You can turn on / off the water valve, but that may create some wear and may be good to have a faucet on the other end of the hose.

In the same way you can attach even a garden hose adapter, that type with spring connector (see the orange plastic adapter). Or other hose diameter with brass adapter.