Published on June 19, 2026
What we love
Worth knowing
Our verdict
Buy Red Gorilla if you run an equine yard, a building site or a serious garden and need flexible tubs and tools that survive years of abuse. The Gorilla Tub® and 1.2kg Shovel™ are standouts. Casual users wanting a single cheap bucket can skip it — the value shows when you buy for real work.
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Most flexible tubs split at the handle within a season of mucking out or mixing plaster. Red Gorilla solved that problem before anyone else even named it — they invented the flexible, two-handled tub in 1995. Four decades on, the Gorilla Tub® is still the one yard managers, builders and gardeners reach for when a cheaper tub has already failed them once.
Red Gorilla International started in 1981 with a single idea: bring durable Tyre Rubber™ products to the equine world. Stable owners needed gear that could take being dropped, kicked, frozen and dragged across concrete without cracking, and the early rubber range delivered exactly that.
The breakthrough came in 1995. After the initial range proved itself, the company built something nobody had made before — a flexible, two-handled tub. It was light enough to carry full, tough enough to flex instead of shatter, and shaped so two hands could lift a heavy load without the contents spilling.
That product became the Tubtrug™, later refined and rebranded as Gorilla Tubs®. The name changed; the engineering discipline didn't. What started as a fix for horse yards spread into agriculture, construction, gardening and the home. The throughline across all of it is the same stubborn refusal to make something that breaks early — a philosophy you can feel the moment you flex one of their tubs and it springs back instead of creasing.
The genius of the Gorilla Tub® is counterintuitive: it's strong because it flexes. Rigid buckets transfer impact straight into the wall, so a winter drop on frozen ground cracks them. The flexible plastic absorbs and disperses that energy, then returns to shape. We've watched these tubs survive abuse that would shatter a standard builder's bucket.
That flexibility doesn't come at the cost of carrying capacity. The two-handle design is the quiet hero here. A single bail handle forces the load to swing and pinch your fingers; two side handles spread the weight, keep the tub level, and let you tip with control. Anyone who has carried 75 litres of feed or rubble understands the difference immediately.
The innovation didn't stop at tubs. The Gorilla Broom® adds an integrated scraper edge and an anti-clog channel, so wet muck and leaves clear instead of balling up in the bristles. The Gorilla Shovel™ uses a unibody design — no bolted joint to work loose — and weighs just 1.2kg, light enough to use all day without wrist fatigue.
In 2020 they introduced Gorilla Plas®, a material that's stronger, lighter and fully non-absorbent. That last property matters more than it sounds: non-absorbent plastic doesn't soak up water, smells or stains, so it rinses clean and won't harbour bacteria across an equine yard.
Red Gorilla's range reads like a tour of every job that involves carrying, sweeping or shifting. The core is Tubs & Buckets, backed by Bins & Multi Tubs for larger storage and mixing tasks. Then come the tools: Brooms & Brushes, plus Shovels, Scoops & Forks built on the same durability standard.
From there the catalogue branches by sector. Equine Accessories serve the stable trade the company was born in. Building Products target construction and DIY. Agricultural Products and Gardening Products cover the land-based markets, while Homeware Products bring the same toughness indoors for storage, laundry and cleaning.
What ties it together is that each line shares the engineering DNA of the original tub. You're not buying a generic broom with a logo stuck on — you're buying a tool designed by people who started with rubber for horse yards and never stopped asking how to make it last longer. For trade buyers, that consistency means you can kit out an entire operation from one supplier and trust every piece.
The Gorilla Tub® Extra Large at 75 litres is the workhorse worth singling out. This is the one that handles a full muck-out, a load of garden waste, soaked feed, or mixed mortar — and it does each job without complaint. Alongside it, the 38-litre Large model covers everyday carrying where 75 litres would be unwieldy.
What stood out to us is how the flexibility helps at the dumping end of the job, not just the carrying end. A rigid tub holds its shape, so material sticks in the corners. Flex the Gorilla Tub®'s walls and the load releases cleanly — a small thing that saves real time when you're emptying it twenty times a day.
The 10-colour range isn't just decoration either. On a busy yard, colour-coding tubs by use — one colour for feed, another for water, another for muck — is a genuine hygiene and organisation system. Most rivals offer two or three drab colours; Red Gorilla gives you a proper palette to build a system around. After heavy use, the non-porous surface rinses back to clean rather than holding stains, which is exactly what you want from a tub that touches feed and waste in the same week.
Red Gorilla offers free shipping on all UK orders over £150. For trade buyers and yard managers ordering tubs by the half-dozen plus a broom and shovel, that threshold is easy to clear and the saving is real.
For a single buyer who just wants one 38-litre tub, it's less generous — you'll pay delivery on a sub-£150 order. Our advice: if you're already replacing worn-out yard kit, batch the order. Add the Gorilla Broom® or a couple of extra colours and you'll cross the line while stocking up on gear you'd buy eventually anyway. Buying through a stockist may also bundle delivery differently, so it's worth comparing if you only need one item. For anyone equipping a yard, site or allotment in one go, the threshold rarely gets in the way.
This is gear for people who use it hard. Equine professionals get tubs that rinse clean and tools that survive daily mucking out. Builders and DIYers get buckets that flex instead of cracking on site and a 1.2kg shovel that won't wear out your wrist. Gardeners and allotment holders get carry-everything tubs in colours that double as an organising system.
It's also the right call for trade buyers wanting one supplier across multiple jobs. Who should skip it? Anyone who needs one cheap bucket for the garage once a year — a supermarket tub will do, and you won't put Red Gorilla's durability to the test enough to justify the spend.
Red Gorilla sits in the mid-range — pricier than supermarket tubs, well below premium novelty pricing. That positioning is honest. You're paying for flexible plastic that doesn't crack, UK-manufactured rubber goods, and design touches like the anti-clog broom channel and unibody shovel that cheaper rivals skip.
The value math works on lifespan. A budget tub that splits each season costs you more across five years than one Gorilla Tub® that survives the same period. For occasional light use, the premium is harder to justify — that's the one scenario where a cheaper option makes sense. But for anyone carrying, mixing or mucking out regularly, the cost-per-year drops below the cheap alternatives. Clear the £150 threshold and free UK shipping sharpens the deal further.
Red Gorilla International invented the flexible two-handled tub and has spent four decades refusing to let anyone outbuild it. The Gorilla Tub® range, the 1.2kg Shovel™ and the non-absorbent Gorilla Plas® material are the kind of upgrades you notice every single day on a working yard or site.
If you run an equine business, work a building site, or garden seriously enough to wear out cheap kit, buy it — ideally batching your order past £150 for free shipping. If you need one disposable bucket, look elsewhere. For everyone who actually puts their tools through it, this is the durable, well-designed choice that pays for itself.