I had to use Minwax Red Chestnut stain for a customer . They just had to have that color. I bought a quart to do samples and it behaved pretty normally. Then I needed a gallon to do the job and it was the VOC compliant version. Let's just say that it was like trying to wipe carpenter's glue across the floor.

In the future, I'll definitely use more quart cans of the old formula rather than get the VOC compliant gallons. It was almost depressing.

Yea I heard anything bigger than a quart needs to be voc compliant, so everyone buys quarts.

Same with finish. You see guys dumping a case of quarts into a pail.

Ya, one of our suppliers has offered to sell us 2000 units of quart containers at a time, for not too much more than the equivalent price of the 5 gallon units. We have, however opted to switch over exclusively to water-based finishes due to the logistics of handling all these little containers.

I just refinished and stained for the first time w minwax red oak w NEW VOC gallon stain...
Yeah, I was wondering why the pint sampler was nice and thin like I expected.
Opened up the gallon size...I've never stained before but it was a bit like staining w glue, worked a good sweat...guess I'll be getting the quart size if I ever do it again.

We've been staying away from minwax gallons for a while now.
Learned that lesson a couple yrs ago.

yea and it dont dry either...