By expiry, if you imply when a manufacturer no longer guarantees the proper functioning and stability of the constituent ingredients in their pods, then in that case, pods do expire! However, as far as their effectiveness goes, they will retain it for a very long time!
The ingredients in laundry pods are formulated with deliberateness and impressive stability. So they can keep for almost a year and a half before they begin to look and perform a shadow of their original selves.
And come to think of it, how many of us buy pods that we keep un-used for that long period of time? Detergents are one of the products we deplete the fastest at home, so it’s going to be pretty hard to run into expired detergents unless you brought in one like that to begin with.
Most manufacturers however, would recommend you use their pods within the first six months of purchase, so your clothes can get the right kind of washing they deserve.
What about liquid and powdered detergents?
Liquid and powder detergent are formulated with the nearly the same constituent materials as pods, especially for those of the same brand.
So you’ll find that they also lose their cleaning ability and efficiency with the progression of time, especially when it’s a bottle of detergent that you have opened already. Unopened bottles will last much longer!
Typically, detergents that degrade the fastest are the liquid ones, because they turn lumpy from too high or cold temperatures that cause their constituents to seperate, and this means they won’t dissolve correctly in water and therefore clean your clothes appropriately.
If you have a liquid detergent that has turned lumpy, you want to ditch using the detergent dispenser and simply put the liquid directly into the wash water. Make sure you’re using warm and hot water so the lumped up detergent can dissolve properly and not deposit on clothes which can cause discoloration.
Powdered detergents on the other hand, last a very long time and still keep their effectiveness. But if you allow moisture to get to them, they will degrade very easily.
Powder detergent that has moisture in it will become caked, and very difficult to dissolve in water, especially cold water. Then, they may deposit residue onto your clothes during washing or even discolor them.
Help! My pods are clumped, how do i seperate them?
If you run into clumped laundry pods, there really isn’t much you can do to declump them. It’s something almost impossible to achieve because the outer casing of the pods easily dissolve with very little heat which your removal effort will supply.
When you have two to three pods stuck together, you can wait until you have a large or extra large load of laundry and then you put them in there and run a wash cycle.
What about detergents I make at home?
Homemade detergents do not last a fraction of the time that commercially manufactured detergents do.
That’s because they don’t have the stabilizers and chemicals needed to keep detergents from degrading quickly with time. You can even observe homemade detergents growing mold in them when you keep them for long time in humid environments, which is as a result of the absence of bacteria inhibitors in them.
So whenever you’re dealing with homemade detergents, ensure to use them as quickly as you can, typically between the first 2 to 3 months after you make them.
Expiry of other laundry products
Does bleach expire?
Absolutely, bleach expires. I don’t think “expires” is the right language to use, but just know that bleach will degrade in quality the longer you keep it, especially after you’ve opened up the bottle and started to use the contents.
Normally, bleach is advised to be used within the first 6 months of purchase, as that is when it’s most effective. The longer you let an opened or unopened bottle sit after this time however, the quicker the bleach will degrade in quality and effectiveness.
In fact there is a study that showed how bleach degrades in performance by as much as 20% on a per year basis.
When bleach has begun to lose its cleaning power, you can typically detect it from the faint odor you recieve when you open up the bottle. It won’t be as strong as when you open up a new bottle of bleach.
To make bleach last longer, ensure that you store it in a dark room and at room temperature.
Does laundry sanitizer expire?
Laundry sanitizers do expire. Some of them even contain bleach as the main ingredient that does the disinfection, which we already know would begin to degrade around the 6 months mark.
For laundry sanitizers that aren’t made with bleach as the primary disinfectant, they may be able to last for as long as 12 months and still deliver on performance.
Does fabric softener expire?
Fabric softeners are typically made to last long. The constituents are very stable and the coherent mixture they form can last for as long as 3 years without separating or degrading in their effectiveness by an alarming deal.
Despite how long they can last until they no longer serve their intended functionality, use them within the first 6 to 12 months especially after opening them, in order to get the maximum benefits for every penny you spent.
If you somehow happen to have a bottle of softener that has aged very well, make sure to thoroughly shake the bottle to declump any clumps especially when you plan on using the product in the fabric softener dispenser.
I’ll advise you to simply ditch the dispenser and go for the direct method of adding them instead, you know, just to make sure!
Final Thoughts
Pods like laundry detergent and other laundry products out there, do you have an expiry period— a period of time after which the manufacturer no longer guarantees the stability and effectiveness of their product!
After the expiry, do not expect pods to provide the same cleaning power as they would if they were new, and also, don’t be shocked when you run into problems like stained clothes or poorly achieved laundry objective!
