Collinite shelf life

[Setec Astronomy]

I would interested in contacting Collinite and other manufacturers to see what they say regarding shelf life. It's just not worth it to me to gamble it.

Most manufacturers will tell you their product has a short shelf life, there is no upside for them to do otherwise. At the best, they lose an opportunity for you to throw you bottle away and buy a new one, at worst there IS something wrong with it and you are unhappy and never buy anything from them again.

Kind of like my mentality on oil changes. You can go 10,000 miles on an oil change, I just choose not to wait that long. It's cheap insurance.

That's not even apples to oranges, that's apples to toasters. With your engine you risk thousands of dollars in repairs, and perhaps more thousands in diminished value to the vehicle from having the engine replaced, not to mention possibly being stranded by the side of the road and without a vehicle for weeks. What would happen with a bad bottle of wax? Perhaps you as a pro could lose a customer if the wax didn't "work", but the OP has already said this is for his own use, so if he tries it and it doesn't work as expected...not much downside IMO.

Throw them away. 3-5 years for shelf life on products generally.

If I threw out everything I had that was over 5 years old, I'd lose 95% of my detailing products, including ones I used last week.

[Seeker]

As long as you don't eat it, its fine. A minor oxidation of the product is expected, so do a test spot if it's fine then you are good to go.

[Whitewater25]

Yep. I'm gonna do one side of the boat and see how it does. If not up to par,next stop is trash can.

[Cliffnopus]

I just did my hood and two front fenders with a seven year old sample bottle of Collinite 845. Worked like a charm, I had forgotten how easy this was to use. Car looks great.

We'll see how it holds up. The sample bottle smelled OK, the texture felt OK, it spread like it was butter and, once it glazed over, came off easily.

[oldmodman]

I have some Collinite that is at least 15 years old. maybe as old as 20+
It has sat on shelf in my house all that time. Still looks, smells, and works the same as a new bottle.
And that goes for 845, 476s, and Marque D' Elegance. They were all sitting on the same shelf. Summer high temps are in the mid 90's. Winter lows down to 38.

[runrun411]

If I threw out everything I had that was over 5 years old, I'd lose 95% of my detailing products, including ones I used last week.

I'm definitely with you on that. LOL

[Desertnate]

While not 15 years old, my bottle of Collinite is 3~4 years old and still works great. I've not noticed any difference in the behavior of the product at all.

I don't think many of these products age as quickly as some think. I did have a bottle of Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo start to go bad after about five years, but I've also got bottles of the Klasse twins which are at least 10 years old and they still work great.

[Setec Astronomy]

I don't think many of these products age as quickly as some think. I did have a bottle of Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo start to go bad after about five years, but I've also got bottles of the Klasse twins which are at least 10 years old and they still work great.

I think this is just a general perception with everything having expiration or "best by" dates on it, from food to drugs, etc. As I mentioned earlier there is no upside for product suppliers to put long shelf lives on things. I mean, they used to put canned food in fallout shelters, and that was before they coated the inside of the can. Now you buy a (coated) can of soup and it says it's only good for 2 years.

[PaulMys]

I'm old school. Collinite smells like a chemical factory, so I know it works. Lol

But really, I work with many, many chemicals, epoxies, solvents, resins, well, you get the idea. All these things last a very long time if not exposed to their two arch-enemies:

Air

Extreme temperature/changes.

[Whitewater25]

Did the hull of the boat and a black truck with it. Came off easy, didn't seem any different than a new bottle except the color of the old bottle. I guess time will tell if the durability was compromised by the age of it.