Totes & parts · P-02
330 gallon
IBC totes.
Short answer
- Same 48 × 40 in GMA footprint as a 275
- 20% more payload for 0% more floor space
- Often rated 2-high filled, not 3 — check the plate
- DN80 (3 in) outlets more common than on 275s
Price 330-gallon units
Specification
Full 330-gallon numbers
| Attribute | Imperial | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal capacity | 330 US gallons | 1,250 litres |
| Brim capacity | ~345 US gallons | ~1,306 litres |
| External dimensions | 48 × 40 × 53 in | 1,200 × 1,000 × 1,346 mm |
| Tare, steel base | 148 lb | 67 kg |
| Gross, water filled | 2,902 lb | 1,316 kg |
| Gross at SG 1.4 | 4,003 lb | 1,816 kg |
| Volume occupied | 44.1 ft³ | 1.25 m³ |
| Fill opening | 6 in screw lid | 150 mm |
| Discharge | DN50 or DN80 butterfly | S60×6 or S100×8 |
| Bottle material | HDPE, ~128 lb | ~58 kg |
| Stacking, filled | 2 – 3 high (assembly-specific) | — |
The seven-inch problem
Measure five things before you buy a 330
Every 330 complaint we have ever handled traces back to one of these five measurements being assumed rather than taken.
- 01
Trailer interior height
A standard 53-ft van has 110 in of interior height. Two 330s stacked is 106 in plus pallet clearance — it fits, barely, and only if the floor is level and the units are not on wood bases that have swollen.
- 02
Rack beam spacing
Pallet racking configured for 275s on 52-in beam openings will not take a 330. Re-pinning a rack bay is not a five-minute job, and it changes the rack's rated capacity.
- 03
Door and gate clear height
Add the pallet-jack lift height to 53 in. Many roll-up doors with a drum assembly have 3 – 4 in less clear height than the frame suggests.
- 04
Forklift capacity at load centre
A nominal 5,000 lb lift is usually 5,000 lb at a 24-in load centre. A 48-in-deep tote shifts the centre out, and a dense 330 can exceed the derated capacity.
- 05
Floor rating
Three 330s of dense product in one rack bay is over 12,000 lb on four square feet of upright footprint. Suspended slabs and mezzanines frequently cannot take it.
Where the 330 wins outright
Outdoor tanks, one-way loads and anything on a slab
If the tote lives outdoors on grade — irrigation buffer, dust-control supply, admixture tank beside a batch plant — the height constraint evaporates and the 330 is simply better value. You pay roughly 10 – 18% more per unit for 20% more capacity, and you use the same amount of ground.
On one-way product shipments the freight maths is decisive. The same 18-unit weight-limited trailer carries 5,940 gallons of water-density product in 330s against 4,950 in 275s. That is one fewer truck for every five you were running.
The 330 also tends to arrive with a DN80 outlet, which halves drain time on anything viscous. If you are decanting syrup, latex or polymer, that is an hour a day of someone’s time.
Rule of thumb
Indoors and racked? Buy 275s. Outdoors, on grade, or shipping one-way? Buy 330s.
That single sentence resolves about four out of five size questions we get. The exceptions are dense products, where you should be looking at a 120-gallon half-height instead.
Questions
330-gallon questions
How tall is a 330 gallon IBC tote?
53 inches on the pallet — seven inches taller than a 275. That is the single most important number on this page, because it is what collides with trailer roofs, rack beams and two-high storage limits.
How much does a full 330 gallon tote weigh?
About 2,902 lb with water: 2,754 lb of product plus 148 lb of tare. At specific gravity 1.4 you are over 4,000 lb, which exceeds the capacity of a great many 4,000 lb forklifts once you account for load centre.
Is a 330 cheaper per gallon than a 275?
Usually 8 – 12% cheaper per gallon stored, because the extra plastic and steel cost less than the extra 55 gallons of capacity are worth. Freight favours it too: the same trailer floor space carries 20% more product.
Can I stack 330 gallon totes three high?
Sometimes, but check the plate. Many 330 assemblies are rated two high filled rather than three, and at 53 inches each, three high is 159 inches of stack before you add the load — taller than most warehouse clear heights allow.
Do 330s use the same valves as 275s?
Mostly yes — DN50 or DN80 butterfly on an S60 or S100 buttress outlet, and a 6-inch fill lid. Ex-food 330s show up with DN80 outlets more often, because viscous product drains faster through three inches.
Storage planning
Racking a 330 is a different exercise
The footprint is identical, so people assume the storage layout is too. The extra seven inches collides with beam openings, stack heights and floor ratings in ways a 275 does not.
| Planning figure | 275 gallon | 330 gallon | Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit height | 46 in | 53 in | Governs beam openings |
| Minimum rack beam opening | ~50 in | ~57 in | Racking set for 275s needs re-pinning |
| Two-high stack height | 92 in | 106 in | Both fit a 110 in trailer; 330 has 4 in spare |
| Three-high stack height | 138 in | 159 in | Neither fits a standard van |
| Clear height to handle on a pallet jack | ~52 in | ~59 in | Check mezzanine and canopy heights |
| Gross, water filled | 2,427 lb | 2,902 lb | +20% floor load per unit |
| Three-high bay load, water | 7,281 lb | 8,706 lb | Check rack and floor ratings |
| Three-high bay load, SG 1.4 | 10,722 lb | 12,009 lb | Frequently exceeds a mezzanine |
| Floor area per 1,000 gallons stored | 48.5 sq ft | 40.4 sq ft | The 330 wins decisively here |
The last row is why the 330 keeps being the right answer outdoors and on grade: it stores the same volume in 17% less ground. Every row above it is why it keeps being the wrong answer indoors.
Who buys them
Four situations where the 330 is the obvious unit
Patterns from our own order book rather than a generic use-case list.
Outdoor agricultural storage
Fertiliser, irrigation buffer and nutrient dosing on open ground. No ceiling, no racking, and 17% less ground used per gallon stored. Specify a steel base and a UV-shaded position and these run for years.
One-way product shipment
The weight-limited trailer carries 5,940 gallons in 330s against 4,950 in 275s at water density. That is one fewer truck in every five, which usually dwarfs the unit price difference.
Viscous product decanting
Ex-food 330s arrive with DN80 outlets far more often than 275s do. Three inches instead of two roughly doubles gravity flow, which is an hour a day of somebody’s time on a syrup or latex line.
Construction and batch plants
Admixture and dust-control storage beside a batch plant, handled by telehandler on uneven ground. Height is irrelevant, ground space is valuable, and the cage takes the abuse.
From the Yard Journal
Longer pieces from the people who run the wash line, the test bay and the trading desk.
24 July 2025 · 3 min
Specific gravity is the number nobody sends us
Almost every enquiry gives a volume. Almost none gives a density. It is the difference between a container that works and a load that gets turned away at a scale.
Nina Caldwell · Trading desk
Read21 November 2024 · 4 min
A short history of the 48 × 40 footprint
Every composite IBC in North America is built to a grocery-industry pallet standard from 1968. That accident governs trailer loading, rack design and half our freight arithmetic.
Marcus Vreeland · Founder
Read25 June 2024 · 4 min
A 48-inch load centre will lie to your forklift
Your 5,000 lb truck is rated at a 24-inch load centre. A filled tote puts the centre of mass twice that far out, and the derating is not subtle.
Dale Ferreira · Logistics lead
Read
Next move
Tell us your clear height and we will tell you the size.
Door height, ceiling height, rack beam opening and lift capacity. Four numbers, and we can rule the 330 in or out before you commit to a load.