Using Expired Detergent

Q. Why does Liquinox have an expiration date? What are we losing by using expired soap?

A. Liquinox® Critical Cleaning Liquid Detergent, is used to clean critical substrates such as implantable medical devices, pharmaceutical process equipment, aerospace and precision manufacturing components and sensitive laboratory analytical equipment. It is critical to be confident in the performance of the detergent when used for critical cleaning applications.  Also keep in mind that soaps are different from detergents.  Soaps are sodium or potassium hydroxide with fats, while detergents are a synergistic blend of some of all of the following: surfactants, dispersants, chelating and sequestering agents, etc.

Liquinox detergent contains ingredients that can slowly air oxidize and water hydrolyze, resulting in a slow drift from specification that eventually will go out of specification.  Because of the critical applications and the known slow drift from specification, we use statistical techniques to derive a shelf life for Liquinox detergent. We mark Liquinox packages with a 24 month expiration from month of manufacture shelf life.  On request, a shelf life extension could be issued, depending on specifics, which we would be happy to discuss.

It is not recommended to use Liquinox detergent for any critical application after the shelf life is expired as there is risk that it may be out of specification.  This is not to say that after expiration, all functional detergency in Liquinox detergent disappears.  It most certainly does not.

Liquinox cleaner is a robust detergent that would still have some residual detergency for a period of time after expiration even if it has drifted out of specification.  If you have a non critical cleaning application and you observe that the Liquinox is still working adequately,  its continued use can be considered.

This concept, in principle, can be generally applied to our other high quality detergents we offer at Alconox Inc.

To request this or any Alconox Inc. detergents for free, please complete the questionnaire at Get Sample.  For more information about any one of our Alconox Inc. detergents, consult the technical bulletin for each product. Or click here to access each of our detergent’s  Safety Data Sheets.

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