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Why Does This Bucket have a Hole in the Handle?

A simple but clever design feature

By Rain Noe - June 16, 2015

in Organization

Japanese brand Hachiman has been making plastic products since 1965, and their mastery of the material shows in their Omnioutil bucket. The polypropylene body has been molded into a corrugated shape, adding strength; the 20-liter bucket weighs just 2.5 pounds but can support 330 pounds in weight (it's meant to double as a stool).

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You'll also notice that, curiously, there's a hole molded into the handle:

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The grommet ringing it is made from polyethylene, which is softer, more flexible and a bit grippier than polypropylene. Here's why that hole is there and why it's ringed with polyethylene:

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If you're wondering why there's no handle or hole for removing the lid, a handle would interfere with the stool functionality and a hole would render the inside susceptible to rain. Instead they've simply made the rim slightly wider than the bucket's lip, so you're meant to remove it the way one removes a record from a turntable.

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Today in the 'States, the Omnioutil is sold at The Container Store, where it gets all positive reviews. Not bad for an object that was designed in 1993; looks like this one stands the test of time, at least by modern-day standards.

Thanks to s.o.s. for the tip!

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Andreas Eiken

9 years ago

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Do Japanese garden hoses not have any hardware? What kind of nozzleless shenanigans is going on over there?

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- Austin Liu
  
  Andreas Eiken
  
  9 years ago
  
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  The garden hose is a concept that is the default hose in the US because of the home improvement market we have here. In Japan and Taiwan, where housing is much denser and private gardens are rare, the most prototypical hose is a utility hose used indoors for filling mop buckets and wash basins and things like that.
  
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Paul Lewis

9 years ago

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I came here just to say "nozzleless shenanigans" but Andreas beat me to it.

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