Product Review – Lifetime Deck Storage Box

If you have kids, a large deck box is one of those must things to have for your deck.

A well-designed, water-resistant deck boxes can store things like seat cushions and outdoor playthings to keep everything tidy.

QUICK OVERVIEW

• PROS:
  • sturdy construction
  • gas piston assisted lid opening and closing to minimize injuring a child
  • opens greater than 90 degrees
  • molded handles (no sharp edges)
• CONS:
  • ball stud / nut assembly might become loose so it needs to be checked often

PRODUCT INFORMATION

This particular extra large deck box ships in a flat box that weighs around 60 pounds. It can hold roughly 17.4 cubic feet or 130 gallons worth of stuff so it is BIG.

When assembled, the Lifetime deck box is 26.5″ high, 24″ deep and 60″ wide. The lid has a honeycomb design + metal reinforcement bar underneath so it can act as temporary seats for 2 or 3 children.

This Lifetime deck box comes in two different models with Model #60012 having a tan/beige lid versus Model #60040 having a green lid. For all models, the sides are light beige/tan and the bottom comes in black.

Much life other deck boxes, the material used is high density polyethylene (HDPE) which is very durable and weather resistant (I live in New Jersey so it goes through hot and cold extremes).

It comes with a super-long 10 year warranty and to boot, this Lifetime box is made in USA (awesome!)

REQUIRED PARTS / TOOLS FOR THIS PROJECT

• Lifetime 60012 Extra Large Deck Box (Dark Colored Lid)
• Ratchet + Sockets
• Screwdriver Bit Extension (Will need it if you are using a drill). Don’t have one? Checkout DEWALT DW2095 Magnetic Drive Guide Set
• Henkel 01-24200 Loctite 6-ml Threadlocker 242

REVIEW / ALLTHUMBS DIY INSTRUCTIONS

We needed 2 deck boxes or storage boxes (UPDATE: We now have 3 deck boxes. Click HERE to find out why).  One to store out kids’ sand box toys and other “stuff” and another deck box to store our outdoor chair cushions.

Instead of buying two identical boxes, I decided to buy 2 different but highly rated boxes for comparison.  For Rubbermaid deck box review, click here.

After taking the parts out of the box, it took about 30 minutes to assemble the unit.  It took longer than assembling the Rubbermaid deck box but that was due to assembling metal hinges and corner brackets for the Lifetime deck box.

Much like the Rubbermaid deck box, the bottom of the unit has a raised “lip” to prevent water seeping into the storage area.

Contrary to the Rubbermaid unit, slots used by the side walls were all knocked out for easy installation, making everything easy peasy.

When it came to installing corner brackets, I thought I had to pre-drill hole before installing screws because the screw tips were blunt but as it turned out that was not necessary.

TIP # 1: If you are going to use a cordless drill like I did, make sure to set the torque setting low; you do not want to over tighten the screws and end up stripping off or breaking the plastic.

TIP # 2: each lid hinges are secured by a pair of ball stud / nut assembly.  Because this assembly did not include locking washers, some nuts might eventually come loose.  Just buy a small tube of Henkel 01-24200 Loctite 6-ml Threadlocker 242 to eliminate this potential problem.  If you have already installed these hinges and don’t want to take them apart, use Henkel Corp 233722 Loctite Green Threadlocker to lock the nuts in-place.

I do not recommend using an Loctite Red 6-ml Permanent Threadlocker 271 as it is permanent.

Wrapping Up

Bottom line? I highly recommend a Lifetime deck box vs. Rubbermaid deck boxes (you can read more about my Rubbermaid Extra Large Deck box here; You can also read about my issues with it about a year later TBD).

Well, I hope you found this article to be useful for your DIY project and sign up for my newsletter. The signup form is found on the upper right hand corner of your screen.

Thanks and good luck!