Every morning when I enter our horse barn, I’m presented with multiple pairs of muck buckets that my wife could not separate. My Method: I hook the top bucket with my fingers and push the bottom bucket with my thumbs, but sometimes it takes multiple tries and everything I have!
Do any of you have a better method?
Turn them over and give the bottom a good wallop. Then try to pry them loose.
Wiggle them back and forth while you push?
I only had that problem once, then learned not to stick them inside each other.
Find a place to store them singly, or at least on their side, so they don’t get jammed into the other.
Do they need to be watertight? A small hole drilled in the bottom would help. The vacuum holds them together.
Don’t let them get stuck n the first place:)
I accomplish that by putting a stone between each pair of buckets. It should be just big enough to keep the buckets from “sealing” against each other. As long as you use a stone big enough to keep them separated but small enough it doesn’t add much weight, you can stack to the rooftop:)
I can try it this weekend. This is happening with my Miller tubs (Farm and Fleet) which are also cracking around the handles so they’ll be in the junk soon anyway. The Fortiflex I buy now don’t seem to stick.
We probably have 35 so that might take up a lot of space!
As someone else suggested, get some small rocks or pieces of wood and use them as spacers?
Will be quite the pile of those too, with so many buckets.
Not bad, but then I have to keep some poopy rocks (or wood) around and transfer to my emptying area. Still a solution to consider.
You should be wearing gloves anyway, to handle manure buckets:). 
if if rocks are plentiful, you could pitch the poopy ones and replace with "clean ones.
I have been using that trick for many years, it has become a saving grace now that I have arthritis I my hands:)
If you have an air compressor. Direct a blast of air between the buckets. It works wonderfully well. Even stuck 5 gallon buckets separate easily. If you don’t have an air compressor, try a strong stream from a water hose. Expect to get wet.
Kicking and cursing? Sorry, not helpful, but couldn’t resist
I, too, no longer stack for this reason. Throwing them violently on the ground sometimes works. Waiting it out and trying when I’m not so annoyed has helped. I’ve used them stuck together before to be honest. Also, flipping them over, standing on the rim and yanking the other toward the sky worked once. I do not stack them anymore. Not worth the struggle. But 35 muck buckets?! I have no answers.
So I have a new trick… I took a pair I could not separate with my fingers (my first), hung onto the top bucket and gave the rim of the bottom bucket a light few taps with a steel hammer. It took about 8 taps but it was easy to do. I bought a plastic hammer for the barn and gave instructions to the wife. I’ll report back about the wife acceptance factor in a few weeks.
The type of buckets might make a difference too. Our Miller Little Giants (which aren’t holding up well) are slowly being replaced by Fortiflex tubs (TSC). The Fortiflex don’t seem to stick as tightly.
Follow-up report: The $6 plastic hammer I bought at Harbor Freight has done the trick. No longer do I walk into the barn and find a bunch of buckets to separate.
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