Q:  My Clorox® Regular-Bleach has lost its odor, what is the shelf life of bleach?

A:  It’s important to keep track of how old your bleach is because yes, bleach doesn’t last forever!  When Clorox® Regular-Bleach is stored between 50°F and 70F° and away from sunlight, it will maintain label strength of the sodium hypochlorite active for up to 6 months (at this point hospitals should replace it).  After 6 months it starts breaking down into salt and water, but will still perform well for home consumer cleaning needs for up to a year.  Since it’s always diluted before use, you can just use a little more.  Beyond a year, it should be replaced because the rate of decomposition into salt and water really speeds up, a big part of why it’s so environmentally friendly.

The best way to identify the age of a bottle (people don’t always remember when they bought it!) is to use the production code stamped on the neck of the bottle, which typically looks like this:

A8116010

5813-CA3

The information on when the bleach was made is in the top line, which would be A8-1-160-10 if you added dashes.  You only need the first 6 digits and you read it from left to right as follows:

Plant Number—Last digit of year made—Day of the year made

         A8                              1                                   160

The bleach in this example was made in 2011 on June 9th, the 160th day of the year.

Readers – have you checked the date of your bleach recently?