FAQ - "Do the products have a shelf life?"

[DREWBUSH]

I would like to get some confirmation on the age of a few older products as I'm trying to work out what kind of shelf-life they have.  Can some one from Adam's (or anyone else) please tell me when these products were released, when they stopped being released or roughly how old they are?

 

Just for reference, these are the current bottles with the new Adam's logo which I believe came out early this year?:

 

Adams1 by avimore, on Flickr

 

Prior to this, I believe these bottles were produced with the Adam's logo in white lettering, a red stripe and no chrome.  Doing some research I found that these bottles were available roughly from 2013-2015?:

 

Adams2 by avimore, on Flickr

 

Adams5 by avimore, on Flickr

 

The oldest products I have are these:

 

Adams3 by avimore, on Flickr

 

Adams6 by avimore, on Flickr

 

These look like the older labels that have chrome sections on them with the Adam's logo letters in chrome.  I'm not sure when these were produced but I'm guessing prior to 2012??

 

Thanks.

I have similar products as you, but even older previous versions of them. I have old red car wash soap, Old detail spray, the old VRT, the old Leather cleaner and conditioner, and Machine Super Wax which is the previous to the liquid paint sealant. All those were from 2009-2010. And they honestly still work fine, I am using them on my old truck which just sits in the driveway. I am planning to do an "old school product" detail and see how well she comes out. Just waiting for the temp to drop and the sun to stay away for half a day. 

[avimore]

I have similar products as you, but even older previous versions of them. I have old red car wash soap, Old detail spray, the old VRT, the old Leather cleaner and conditioner, and Machine Super Wax which is the previous to the liquid paint sealant. All those were from 2009-2010. And they honestly still work fine, I am using them on my old truck which just sits in the driveway. I am planning to do an "old school product" detail and see how well she comes out. Just waiting for the temp to drop and the sun to stay away for half a day. 

 

Thanks Andrew, good to know. 

 

Interested to hear the results of your 'old school product' detail.

[Dan@Adams]

Our newest Circle A logo labels came out in March of this year; however judging the other products by comparing the red stripe vs chrome stripe on the labels isn't always going to be easy to determine down to a particular time frame. For example, on some products like our Waterless Wash and Undercarriage Spray, we had an over-abundance of the chrome labels, so those were never updated to the red stripe label without the chrome, at least to my knowledge. I can't say for sure when each specific product switched over from one label to the other, sorry for the inconvenience.

 

All of those products pictured should last through a few years, so you should be fine. I've never really had a bottle of Car Shampoo go bad other than one that accidentally froze and cracked the bottle out in my uninsulated garage in the winter. APC and LIC will last a few years - the plastic bottle of the LIC and APC would probably fail before the product goes bad. Revive and LPS should last a good while too as long as they are kept in a temperature controlled environment and the caps are closed to prevent any drying out of the product inside. I've had gallons of DS that were still good after 2 years, but again they were kept temperature controlled, same with VRT.

 

I do have one bottle of Tire Shine that is about 10 months old now that is starting to break down a little and lose its original smell, but it was also left out in my very hot garage for a few weeks as a test.

 

Let us know if you have any other questions, thanks!

[TheWolf]

The new labels

 

 

These look like the older labels that have chrome sections on them with the Adam's logo letters in chrome.  I'm not sure when these were produced but I'm guessing prior to 2012??

 

Thanks.

 

The labels with chrome started to get replaced with the red stripe in May of 2015, so those products with the chrome labels may not necessarily be that old.

 

http://www.adamsforums.com/topic/28430-a-look-at-a-small-change-coming-to-our-labels/

[avimore]

^ That's really good information, thanks Dan & Dan.

[Gofast458]

Great info. Thanks

[Tony_G]

great info! I have some doubles of some stuff and was little worried theyd expire before I was able to use them.

[Charger106]

@Team Adam's can we get an update list, there have been multiple reformulation and new products released since this was written

[Eswear]

I’m in Utah and we get pretty cold here, I have my stuff stored in the garage which stays probably in the 40’s and 50’s. Do you suggest moving into a warmer room? I don’t think my wife would like me taking family pictures down to put up product hahahahaha

[tlbullet]

2 hours ago, Eswear said:

I’m in Utah and we get pretty cold here, I have my stuff stored in the garage which stays probably in the 40’s and 50’s. Do you suggest moving into a warmer room? I don’t think my wife would like me taking family pictures down to put up product hahahahaha

Im gonna go out on a limb and say you wouldn’t be the first person on thus forum to do that!!!  Id be worried when the temps got closer to 40 though.  

[falcaineer]

4 hours ago, Eswear said:

I’m in Utah and we get pretty cold here, I have my stuff stored in the garage which stays probably in the 40’s and 50’s. Do you suggest moving into a warmer room? I don’t think my wife would like me taking family pictures down to put up product hahahahaha

 

I would, yes, but it's your wife and I refuse to make you decide between her and the bottles 🤨😂

[Rb1274]

I learned about shelf life this week... I have had a bottle of Correcting Polish for about four years, I used it to buff out light scratches by hand.

This week I crossed over into the world of machine polishing... so excited!  Grabbed my bottle of 4 year old correcting polish.. and went right to the hood of my wife’s new black Outback... first of all it only had light swirls from washing no need for the orange pad I choose and CP...dumb ***!

OMG!!! Something didn’t seem right... it wasn’t working long and getting hard after the first pass??? Gave the bottle a shake and tried again, OMG ITS RUINING MY PAINT! I used some Brilliant Glaze to get it off cuz it was like a rock

I searched every where for info on bad polish or old polish.. no luck

 

THANK God Adams opened up the new store near my house.. I drove over on Sunday! Talked to the guy at the counter showed him the bottle and he said yes the color was all wrong in the bottle. He also said my car didn’t need CP and just start with Finishing Polish. 
 

since last Sunday I have polished two cars and Csc them... I am totally hooked and wonder why I waited so long to get into polishing...

 

long story short... yes product goes bad!

[Eswear]

On 9/22/2019 at 7:53 AM, falcaineer said:

 

I would, yes, but it's your wife and I refuse to make you decide between her and the bottles 🤨😂

Apparently my garage is insulated and stays about high 40's during the winter. I'm thinking about having a heating vent from the house plumbed into the garage lol

[quebert]

I don't know how old it is, but I have a bottle of H20 Guard & Gloss which I just found and it's a weird brown color.  Don't remember when I bought it, but it has the latest label. Which is uh like 3 years old now? Anywho, anyone else here have theirs change color? I plan to break it out Sunday and use it. Worst scenario it's dead and won't give me any protection.  It's been in my adam's bag or in my dark detailing cabinet since I bought it. Gets hot in the garage (So Cal) and had some cold winter nights (mid 30's) 

Edited February 1, 2020 by quebert

[Nickfire20]

If temperature controlled (50-80), products can last a few years,  if its the latest version that says “HYBRID TECHNOLOGY”  on the front, it is only about 12-14 months old.  I would test in a small area before going all in with it.