I can tell you that typical 5 gallon buckets won't burst when water freezes in them. We've used one of the orange HD ones as a water hydrant "catch bucket" in our horse barn for many years. It spends most of the winter with frozen water in it. We dump it out on warm days when we can. Freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw ... and it keeps going strong. When it gets bad we'll haul it inside to thaw out a bit so we can dump it. Tough as nails.

Not sure how easy it would be to pour with the lid on, since they usually don't have a vent hole. It seems that they'd "glug" when pouring.

When I need to haul water I'll use the Reliance blue jugs. I find a 5 gallon jug is really tough for even a fairly strong adult to carry very far - really tough for a young Scout to carry. Its surprising how far we'll have to go for water at many campgrounds. I much prefer the 2.5 gallon versions. They're also less apt to get slammed down hard on the ground or on picnic tables ... due to their lighter weight. I assume that would help them last longer.

I don't have experience with them freezing up though. When winter camping we don't leave water jugs for very long since a frozen jug of water will really mess things up. Another reason I prefer the smaller jugs - one meal's worth if you are careful.

Ken K.