14mins on a bucket… very impressive

The most important difference between the two is that the Lowes bucket has a bigger diameter bottom than the Home Depot one. Why is this a big deal, you ask? When I am painting with a roller, I do not like using a roller pan instead I prefer to roll out of a 5 gallon bucket. When I do this, I hang one of those roller screens in the bucket and put one gallon of paint at a time in it. This is less messy and I can cover quite a bit of wall space before having to replenish my supply. The problem with the Home Depot bucket is that the roller screen is forced at the bottom to be more in the middle instead of out along the side. This is because the Home Depot bucket is smaller at the bottom. The buckets sold at Walmart also suffer this same problem. The reason this is a problem is that this restriction blocks the roller from reaching the bottom of the bucket to where most of the paint is. The Lowes bucket is wide enough so that the paint roller will reach all the way to the bottom of the bucket which is obviously important as one gallon only fills it up about 3" worth. Using a Home Depot Bucket means that you can only access the top quarts worth of paint or so. As an aside the buckets sold by my local "Do It Best" hardware store are the same size as the Lowes and iare also suitable for painting as well.

I used both brands for gardening for many years and can tell you the lowes ones last longer. They take way longer to get brittle in the sun. The home Depot ones go to crap after 1-2 years. Lowes ones last around 5.

If you see a used 5 gallon bucket on a job site with a lid on it don’t open it. Trust me.

I'm a High School teacher and my students walked in during my prep period watching this. They made jokes but a few wanted to watch it so we watched it as a class. By the end, they all were into it! They started looking up buckets from other brands, like harbor freight and ace hardware. They said comparing buckets should be a series you do haha

For me there is a more important comparison that must be made. Years ago the only way you could get 5 gallon buckets was by using a 5 gallon container of paint or drywall mud so I so I think they saw people reusing them for various tasks so they decided to have their own buckets made and put their own names on them. I have been using buckets from Lowe's for over 5 years and what I have found is that these buckets are thinner and cheaper than a 5 gal bucket from paint or drywall mud. I have used 30 or so buckets from Lowe's to haul gravel back-and-forth to cover areas of my property and crawl space and the Lowe's buckets especially ones left outside in the elements fall apart and crack because the plastic is really cheap this does not happen with left over 5 gallon maintenance paint buckets or drywall mud buckets so that's my complaint is that they've made these buckets so cheap maybe they're fine for people who are only going to wash their car (lol), but as far as being able to haul gravel they are cheap compared to paint buckets.

Underneath the safety warnings under the word "Leaktite" are the words "MADE IN THE USA".

I found a Home Depot one is a porta potey

I have neither of these buckets, but the ones I bought as a "bucket only" purchase came from our local farm supply store. L&M Fleet & Supply. They were only $2.99 (pre-tax) but everything you could fit inside was 10% off. They are similar in design to your Lowe's bucket. They are made by Encore plastic, in the U.S.A. They have two U.S.manufacturing locati ons on them with an 800 number of the company. I want to add more to my story, but my wife wants me to stop typing.

I am from MA and can confirm that Home Depot buckets are made in Leominster. The company employees about 100 people. They make some stuff for Ace and Sherwin Williams.

Well that's 14 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Just couldn't look away . . .

I have found that when using a mixing paddle in each bucket that the HD bucket bottom is very thin and wears out very quickly and the Lowe’s bucket will shatter/ crack from the paddle hitting the sides…..so ultimately neither will last if/when using a drill type mixer (edit) so FYI for anyone mixing mortar or anything that requires a power tool/mixer, go with a paint or joint compound bucket….also noteworthy both HD and Lowe’s carry heavier duty whit 5 gallon buckets in the paint section

Recently, I used 4 buckets (2 HD / 2 L) outside to store a pickup truck cover above the ground. They collected water from rain. When the temperatures turned below freezing, both Home Depot buckets burst but the Lowes buckets did not burst - interesting!

The Home Depot bucket has double rings close to the top. These are added to stiffen the bucket opening. The Lowes bucket uses the handle support ring bracing for the same purpose. The pigments will influence the brittleness of the container. Each bucket is injection molded from the bottom. The center sprue (filling point) is trimmed off after the bucket is made. The molds are obviously different. The buckets are made for limited use and as Dominic M pointed out do not hold up to impact blows as well as a metal bucket.

I use home Depot buckets outside, mostly to store charcoal and smoking pellets. I use Lowe's buckets inside, mostly to soak laundry, and similar inside jobs where I don't want to bring charcoal dust into the process. The orange versus blue allows me to keep things straight. I only came to this video to try and learn whether I can use a Lowe's lid on a home Depot bucket. Apparently, I can.

My experience is the Home Depot bucket handles ultraviolet light outside much better than the Lowes buckets. I get 2-3 years out of the HD buckets when left outside in the weather. Barely a year out of the Lowes buckets for some reason. They crack within the first year and then are useless.

I just purchased 4 Lowe's five gallon buckets. Got home and found one bucket had crack almost full length in bottom. I didn't notice it in store because i picked up two stacked at once. Not a lot of money but when i go that way tomorrow, i am going to exchange it.

Leaktite buckets are made in Massachusetts he read that off the bottom of the HD bucket. I am pretty certain that MA. is in the USA, so Leaktite buckets are made in the USA. It also says on their website.

We need more BUCKET stories :)

BTW plastic buckets left in the sun continuously will get brittle primarily from UV exposure. If you find a bucket outside tap the rim at the bottom (and or top) with a tool. If it cracks you just saved yourself from a potentially messy bucket failure in you own home or worse, a customer's.