Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
How Much Does A Gallon Of Water Weigh?
October 7, 2008
Andy Duprey, Scoutmaster

How much does one gallon of water weigh?

A gallon of fresh water weighs 8.34 pounds

A gallon of water weighs approximately 8 pounds. If you want to verify this you can simply fill up a gallon jug and place it on your bathroom scale.

There is an old cooking phrase which addresses the weight of water and other similar liquids (and in some cases, solids) used in the preparation of foods: "A pint's a pound the whole world 'round".

Actually, a pint of water weighs 1.04375 pounds.

So, although this phrase does not provide the EXACT weight of each liquid, it does provide a very simple rule for determing approximately how much liquids weigh.

In the case of water, there are eight (8) pints of water in a gallon. Using this rule, a gallon (eight pints) would weigh approximately eight (8) pounds, which is very, very close to a gallon of water's exact weight of 8.35 pounds which is found in the more detailed and scientifically correct answers to this question.

Although pints of milk, gravies and sauces are denser and actually weigh more than a pint of water, the cook can generally use his/her own judgment as to how much other liquids actually weigh. If you have an accurate weight scale, you can quite easily verify these figures.

So, if you're not building a rocket ship, making chemical compounds or medicines or any other things which would require EXACT measurements, remember the simply ditty:

"A pint's a pound the whole world 'round."