Yep. Grubbermint for da win!
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I don’t have that exact gas can, but I do have one similar. I take the whole spout off the can and use a funnel to get the gas into the mower. That works pretty well.
At our local hardware you can actually get conversion kits for your gas cans. The conversion kit includes a flexible spout and a vent with a cap. You simply switch the spout, drill a hole in the back for the vent, and pop the vent cap in the hole. That’s what I did to our gas cans and works great. With every bad design there is an opportunity for a retro kit!
I think I got one of those “universal” kits, had three different threaded nuts, none fit any of the cans I have. Hey, it’s America where our landfills are full of safe products that either don’t work or fail. I’m a bit curious how much of our “carbon footprint” or whatever metric you use, is as a result of frivolous lawsuits. While the ones marching to save the earth are probably the first ones to file a lawsuit when they hurt themselves.
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Those were designed to stop spills. If the can is knocked over supposedly the gas doesn’t come out. However as you noted, now you end up spilling it when you’re trying to get it where it’s supposed to be 
These “Work” on the exact right type of gas tank, the ones with a thin threaded side. Try to put gas into anything else and you may as well pour half it on the floor or unscrew the top and get a funnel.
I just ran across this article on someone else’s frustration with those things
https://feedly.com/i/entry/1CGdPGnQy3iR9lJU8cllnVHz98faEvL13SfM07RBdZA=_17b72e1b254:14fe8e2:e324efd
Government regulation indeed. California to blame, as usual.
It’s too difficult to find one of the new cans that works without spilling gas everywhere. Because of hurricanes I have several gas cans and the only ones that I don’t spill gas everywhere are the ones I converted over to the old spouts.
This is one of those cases where the solution causes more harm than good…after they made that decision Dassault snapped up and made them part of the Platform team, I’m sure.
Personally, I had a ~20yr old 5 gal w/spout which leaked every where… origin was made in USA… from Idaho Illinois.
Bought a new 5 gal container w/flow control and shut-off from China… works GREAT!
Blaming CA? (yeah,.. so, it’s CA’s fault.. wow, that was easy)
Maybe user error, change… or education in how to fill/pour petrol,.. any better ideas (capitalism)?)
Consumer driven products, ideas and choice no?.. or did someone force you to buy it or nudge your elbow (someone from CA)?
Amazing… lately,.. we the people… blaming seems to be common theme lately or maybe part of the problem?
“It’s a truism in the auto industry that good design doesn’t cost more than bad design; it just requires more thought.” I think this is the stunning part to so many REALLY bad design today. You have to ask two questions, “How much thought actually went into this” and “How in the world did this get designed, produced, tested and released and no one noticed that this product sucks”
This is not a case where a product was designed, tested and released and over the long term a whole bunch of flaws in the design cropped up. That to some degree, even a large degree, is forgivable. This is a case where something is designed, tested, released and never really worked and that fact is obvious but no one did anything about it.
To make matters worse I’d be we could sit down and come up with a half a dozen competing ideas that are probably better right off the top of our heads and my guess would be that some of them would actually be cheaper than these ridiculous designs.
Every time I see things like this I end up asking myself “Wow, am I SUPER GENIOUS, said in my best Wiley Coyote voice”…more realistically however is that for the most part most people just don’t give a crap and companies know that enough people will buy whatever crap they sell no matter how shitty it is. It’s the “Throw it over the wall” mentality.
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I don’t really care what you say…but the truth is: CA regulations is what drives that stuff.
If you want to use those cans because “it makes you feel better”…you’re welcome. Please don’t make me use it if I don’t live in CA.
Then you have this in Oregon:
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That’s thing though. If I had heard one or two people claim “Wow these things suck” and everyone else was “Yeah no biggy, they work fine” I’d say user error. It’s kind of like the other forum. If a couple crotchy individuals where complaining about it and everyone else was “Wow, really love the upgrade, works great!”, then we have a couple people that don’t like it. That’s not the case with that forum and not the case with these gas cans.
Yes, even as the article states, there’s actually a couple of these that work fairly well. However the vast majority in the last several years don’t work well at all. Furthermore they are far more like the other forum where almost everyone I know has had problems with them and few people have gotten one where they said “Wow, love the upgrade, works great”…in fact until you I’ve never heard that.
As far as leaking. I’ve been using regular gas cans since I was a kid…so let’s say a few years. The only time they leak is when the lids not on tight, a seal is bad or if you have an extendable spout version you end up jamming the spout back in because you hit the lip. Other than the latter problem the new versions are susceptible to all these.
On top of that however as mentioned in the article there are MANY additional ways to spill all over the place with many of the new versions and due to the bad design of many of these spills are essentially inevitable.
To make matters worse prior to these cans most cans came with lids for the spout and the vent…which prevented the issue with vapors, effectively, efficiently and inexpensively.
Now to the issue of capitalism. No doubt I could come up with a better design than most of these. Guess what though, it wouldn’t matter because most people don’t realize the issue until they bought a crappy one. How many people do you know go out, buy a can they use once a week for a couple minutes and then just throw it away and go buy a different one because they don’t like it? They don’t. They stick with the crappy one they bought because they don’t want to toss the $20 into the toilet. They’d rather spill gas all over the driveway.
Yeah, caring is sharing… because I don’t “feel or smell or see” gas all over the area I’m pouring … sure and no problem or you’re welcome.
FYI if you do live in Oregon (one of the oldest mfg of military gas cans) or Idaho, I’m pretty sure you have to have a certified container (and has NOTHING to do with CA)
And yet…the CA-approved gas cans are the leakiest ever made by mankind.
Like I said, feel free to use them. I don’t live in CA or OR on purpose.
I actually find the new cans almost completely unnecessary and if I had to guess they are the result of some level of crony capitalism.
I have some older cans that aren’t the really old ones. They have a cap on the spout and a cap on the vent. If you leave them in the sun they actually build up pressure. There is no vapor leak with these. I suppose that if they fell over and the lid got knocked hard enough they may come off and spill. They don’t have the retractable spout so that is a non issue.
So we have the contraptions that for the most part are not good to prevent a very few “Fall spills” and to save the environment from the few morons that decide to not put the lids back on.
How are these big enough issues that we forced a complete redesign of the gas can as we know it if there was not someone playing fast and loose with the profits to be made?
Simple answer, in case you missed it: government.
I can’t see how making a joke of a gas can could possibly be more profitable. Most people avoid them soooo…??? 
Now we need to stop discussing causes so we can get back to whining about bad designs. 
Why do we need your permission?
I think CA only said after 2001 you can not sell a “new” portable fuel vessel (<5 gal) out of metal? If you have a old metal jerrycan,.. you can use it.. if you come over the boarder with a new metal can,.. you can use it… so.. what’s the problem?
Maybe, if you want to blame someone and it makes you “feel” better,… just go back to the original sources of what you seem to be blaming… probably RotoMolding/RotoMoulding (origin UK and started here in Chicago)) and how it changed the industry… including… wait for this… the whole Agricultural and Food Process Industry.
Oh,.. here’s a recent event you can blame…
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/new-law-requires-portable-gas-containers-add-devices-protect-against-n1252595
Fix your gas can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDa1Kxn1k8k
Sheesh. How did bitching about gas cans turn into politics? Forget I brought it up.
So now you’re trying to burry the truth!