Sorry to hear of your bad experience. I believe the name on the containers is "Desert Patrol"? Those are widely known to have problems. Even though they're from the same manufacturer of the Aquatainers, I have never heard a single good review of the Desert Patrol containers.

Try the Blitz 6 gallon containers, they're almost identical. I only have one so far, but from comparing the two, the Blitz containers seem to be better quality.