Do Car Shampoos Go Bad?

[Nick McKees37]

I have a gallon of DP xtreme foam soap that I bought second hand from a local detail buddy cuz he said it didn't foam good outta his foam cannon.... so I bought it from him becuase I've used a sample of the soap before In my foam gun and it worked great....welllll low and behold I used it the other day and I had a totally different experience then the last time.

I used 2oz in my quart foam gun, just like the last time, and even on setting 0 it barely produced soapy water....very disappointed in it, idk if it's a bad batch or something but it's a very different soap then the last time I used it

A couple years ago we had a few quarts and gallons that were defective ship out. Sounds like your buddy received one of them.

 

[SeanChav]

A couple years ago we had a few quarts and gallons that were defective ship out. Sounds like your buddy received one of them.

yea I really believe this is one of them.... after trying it again and adding in 3oz it produced the same dull soapy water mixture that just ran off the car.... I'll prolly just end up dumping it and going back to gold class

 

[PiPUK]

You should not really have any problems with something like a shampoo, if stored correctly. UV should not be a big deal, most surfactants will take a whole lot of UV before there is a problem. Colours fading... That is definitely plausible and I'd expect colour changes before you had other physical degradation.

Separating products after a few days or weeks - hmmmm. Bad practice. With shampoo there is very little excuse and it will generally boil down to a formulation which is lacking (or simply that they won't pay the money to do it right!).

Stuff 'growing'... Shouldn't happen. Your products should have suitable preservatives to stop this.

I have experienced thinning shampoo (actually it was a dawn type product, but same thing really) which was a time dependent thing but it again boils down to adequately protecting the formulation. If buying a niche brand, you can see it happening because testing is necessarily not to the level of proctor and gamble, but a megs size brand (chemical guys...) is simply showing shoddy workmanship if it happens.

 

[Marc08EX]

Thanks for the replies guys!!!

I store all my compounds, polishes, and LSPs inside the house because I know these products deteriorate in extreme temperatures. But I didn't know shampoo would do the same. I recently brought in all my car shampoos because I was simply running out of room. But if I still had room in the garage, I wouldn't have brought them in.

I have about 6 gallons of Gold Class shampoo from 2013 and about 5 gallons of Gold Class from 2014. I stocked up when they were on sale thinking that they're shampoo - how can they go bad right? I guess I was wrong. I'm currently using my stock from 2013. I need to check my stock from 2014. Hope my gallon DP extreme foam formula isn't doing the same thing...

-Cleaning supplies, including those designated for
automotive use, can degrade over time and lose
their effectiveness.

-Even the plastic containers they’re stored in
may also affect their formulas over time.

•This phenomenon can be blamed on entropy:
"The inevitable and steady deterioration of a system..."
And it affects everything under the Sun!


Note:
The usual recommendations, from ASTM testing
for car shampoos, are:
~18 months, once opened; ~36 months unopened.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule.


Bob

Thanks for the response Bob! I didn't know there was a standards body that tests car soaps and shampoos.

I noticed the CG soaps separate quickly but the Meg's Hyper Wash seems fine.

I have a very old gallon jug of CG citrus wash and gloss (probably from 2008). Yes it separates but I think it's normal for this product. And when you shake it back up, it goes back to its original thick and viscous consistency. And it suds up pretty well. In short, my CG citrus wash and gloss didn't go bad despite it being super old.

The OP should get a foam gun. That should provide a better wash experience and get rid of the problem of soaps hanging around.

I do have a foam gun.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I have about 6 gallons of Gold Class shampoo from 2013 and about 5 gallons of Gold Class from 2014. I stocked up when they were on sale thinking that they're shampoo - how can they go bad right? I guess I was wrong. I'm currently using my stock from 2013. I need to check my stock from 2014. Hope my gallon DP extreme foam formula isn't doing the same thing...

You weren't wrong, I have shampoo that's far older than that and it's fine. I have several bottles that are ~10 yrs old. The only one I had problems with, as PiPUK noted before, was a "niche brand" (house brand of another online detail store) that started to grow some muck in it, but that was also probably 5 or 6 years old by the time it was really doing that.

 

[Legumes]

I have experienced the same thing Meg's gold class specifcally. It turned very watery and doesn't produce suds nearly as well as a fresh bottle. I assume temperature swings in my garage might have caused the change in the product.

 

[tedj101]

I noticed the CG soaps separate quickly but the Meg's Hyper Wash seems fine.

Interesting that you say that. For reasons that are primarily historic, I use CG soaps almost exclusively. I have only had one separate and it was the Citrus Wash N Gloss. I ultimately threw what I had left away and did not reorder that product - though I really liked it. I have several other CG car wash soaps of which I have had small open quantities for years and none of them seem to have deteriorated at all.

<TED>