Faithfull Jerry Can Review: A Certified 20 Litre Jerry Can for Petrol and Diesel

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Most households don’t store fuel at all — and the ones that do often use the wrong container. A plastic milk bottle, an old plastic can from a petrol station, something picked up from a market. None of it is legal, none of it is safe, and in a prolonged power cut or fuel shortage, none of it will inspire much confidence. The Faithfull jerry can — the 20 Litre Metal Jerry Can — is built specifically to do this properly.

It’s UN certified, TUV/GS certified, compliant with the Petroleum Consolidation Regulations 2014, and made from carbon steel with a fuel retardant epoxy coating inside and out. It’s also made by Faithfull — a UK trade brand with over 50 years in the professional tools and equipment market. With a five-year manufacturer’s guarantee behind it, it’s not the cheapest petrol jerry can on Amazon. It is the right one.

UK Home Fuel Storage: What the Law Actually Says

Before you buy any fuel container, it’s worth knowing where the legal limits sit. Under the Petroleum (Consolidation) Regulations 2014, private households can store petrol at home within these limits:

• Up to 30 litres of petrol in total without telling anyone
• Plastic containers: no bigger than 10 litres each
• Metal containers: no bigger than 20 litres each
• 30 to 275 litres: allowed, but you must notify your local Petroleum Enforcement Authority in writing first
• Diesel: no specific legal limit for home storage, as the petrol regulations don’t cover it

The Faithfull is a 20 litre jerry can, the largest size the regulations allow for a single metal petrol container. One of these plus a 10 litre plastic can is your full 30 litre allowance. And crucially, it carries the UN certification mark and the ‘petrol’ and ‘highly flammable’ labelling required by UK HSE regulations. If you’re going to keep petrol legally, this is the size and type of container the regulations point you towards.

What You Get: Build and Features

The Faithfull 20 Litre Jerry Can is built from robust carbon steel, powder-coated and epoxy-coated inside and out. The dual coating matters — the epoxy layer is fuel retardant, protecting the steel from corrosion and degradation from contact with petrol or diesel. You’re not just getting a painted tin; you’re getting a container engineered to hold flammable liquids over the long term.

Key features:

• Lockable cap with locking pin — prevents accidental opening during transport or storage
• Gasket seal — stops leaks and prevents fuel evaporation
• Integrated breather pipe — allows air in as fuel pours out, preventing the spluttering, glug-and-splash problem common with unvented cans
• Triple handle design — two fixed handles and a swing handle, allowing single-person carrying when partly full or two-person carrying when fully loaded. Twenty litres of petrol weighs around 15kg — the triple handle makes this manageable.
• Dimensions: 35cm wide × 45.5cm tall | Weight empty: 3.86kg
• Faithfull 5-year manufacturer’s guarantee

A separate nozzle — the Faithfull FAIAUNOZZLE — is available for more controlled pouring. The can’s integrated breather pipe helps, but if you’re regularly decanting into a tank or engine, the nozzle is a useful addition.

Faithfull: A UK Brand Worth Knowing

Faithfull isn’t a brand you’ll see in supermarkets, but it’s one you’ll find on the shelves of builders’ merchants, agricultural suppliers, and professional tool stockists across the country. It’s been supplying trade and professional markets in the UK for over 50 years — hand tools, site equipment, measuring, levelling, storage. The jerry can is part of the same professional product family.

That matters for two reasons. First, the quality standards are set for professional use, not budget retail. Second, the five-year guarantee means something — Faithfull has a UK customer service infrastructure behind it, not just an Amazon returns button.

Filling, Carrying and Pouring

The lockable cap and gasket seal are designed to stop leaks and evaporation, and the locking pin stops the cap working loose in storage or in the boot. The triple handle lets one person carry a part-full can, or two people share a full one. We use a near-identical 20 litre metal jerry can from another brand, and the same rule applies to any can this size: once it’s full, it’s a lift, not a swing.

Pouring is where the breather pipe earns its keep. Traditional cans without venting create a vacuum as the fuel runs out, causing the contents to glug, surge, and splash. The Faithfull’s integrated breather pipe is there to break that vacuum, so fuel flows out smoothly instead of splashing. You’ll still want a separate nozzle if you’re pouring into a small opening, such as a car filler neck or a generator tank. Faithfull recommend their FAIAUNOZZLE for this.

Storage: keep it in a cool, ventilated outbuilding away from ignition sources. A garage or shed is fine. Do not store in a living space. Even with the gasket seal, petrol vapour permeates over time, and the legal storage limits exist partly because of this. The regulations don’t just tell you how much to store — they’re implicitly telling you where.

How Much Does a Full Jerry Can Weigh?

The Faithfull weighs 3.86kg empty. Petrol weighs roughly 0.74kg per litre, so 20 litres adds about 15kg, for a total of around 19kg. Diesel is denser, at about 0.84kg per litre, so a full diesel jerry can comes in at around 17kg of fuel, or about 21kg in total. That’s worth knowing before you buy, especially if you’ll be carrying it any distance from the car.

Any Downsides?

It’s worth being honest. At 3.86kg empty and up to ~19kg full, this is not a lightweight object. If you need to carry a full can any distance on foot, you’ll feel it. That’s not a fault of the can — it’s the nature of 20 litres of fuel — but it’s worth knowing before you buy.

The separate nozzle being a paid add-on is a minor annoyance. Many rivals include one. If you’re going to use this regularly, budget for the nozzle from the start.

Faithfull Jerry Can: Our Verdict

The Faithfull 20 Litre Jerry Can is exactly what it needs to be: a properly certified, properly built metal container for legal home fuel storage. It doesn’t try to be cheap, it doesn’t try to be clever. Carbon steel, epoxy coating, UN certification, five-year guarantee, from a UK trade brand. If you’re going to keep fuel at home — and there are plenty of good reasons to — this is how you do it correctly.

PROs and CONS

PROS:
• UN certified and TUV/GS certified — legally compliant for UK home petrol storage
• Complies with Petroleum Consolidation Regulations 2014 (PCR)
• Carbon steel with dual epoxy/powder coating inside and out — built to last
• Lockable cap, gasket seal, integrated breather pipe — no leaks, no splashing
• Triple handle design — manageable carrying for a 15–19kg load
• Faithfull 5-year manufacturer’s guarantee
• Made by an established UK trade brand

CONS:
• Nozzle sold separately (FAIAUNOZZLE) — should arguably be included at this price
• Heavy when full — 20L of petrol weighs ~15kg plus the 3.86kg can = ~19kg total
• No carrying strap — triple handle is effective but a strap would help for longer distances

What The Rest Of The Team Think

Frequently Asked Questions