do cleaning solvents go bad with age?

[moooose102]

i cleaned a couple of guns this past week, and after i finished the second i had an idea, just for the heck of it i ran a patch with "gun scrubber" down the barrel. boy, was i supprised! it came out quite dark, especially since i had just pulled out 2 in a row clean dry patches. i have used hoppe's no.9 forever. i always thought it cleaned the guns fine. i have 2 bottles one is regular, and the other is the bench rest type. both are at least 15 years old. are they not doing there job because their age? or is the gun scrubber that much better?

 

[XDKingslayer]

They can go bad with age. Some of the cleaning agents can evaporate.

 

[Tommygunn]

I know I'm going bad with age, so I must assume cleaning liquids can, too!

 

[bogie]

different chemistry does different things.

Personally, I don't use stuff like Hoppes, or for that matter, CLP. I want something that will actually get some penetrating action with a decent copper solvent.

If you had the stuff in a plastic bottle, some of the solvents can actually evaporate through plastic.

 

[rust collector]

They sometimes can be contaminated as well, when brushes or used patches are dipped into the solution or there is other contact with brass and copper.

I have used Hoppes for many years, buying a quart at a time, but they change the formula now and then, and there are a number of more aggressive cleaners out there. If it's not doing the job, dispose of it properly and compound some Ed's Red or get some Sweet's 7.62 or other potion that will do what you want.

 

[Henry Bowman]

It's not so much "age" as it is evaporation of one or more of the chemical components or deterioration from exposure to light and/or contaminates.

 

[bogie]

Ed's Red won't work on copper. It's excellent, however, for shotgunners, since it's really ugly on plastic and carbon.

Sweet's is a little too aggressive.

My favorite solvent is Butch's Bore Shine.

 

[Superlite27]

Hoppe's No.9 is chemically designed to break down the nitrates and contaminates left in the firearm after firing.

When you repeatedly dip your bore brush INTO the bottle of Hoppe's, you are adding contaminates to the bottle. The solvents then go to work, and break down those contaminates. Enough of this, and the Hoppe's is deteriorated.

Always pour Hoppe's into a secondary container, then dispose of the unused stuff instead of putting it back into the bottle. This will keep it working as it was designed.

 

[obxned]

Everything goes bad with age. Trust me - I am old.

 

[Grizfire]

These solvents contain mostly kerosene I believe and therefore contains a large number of different hydrocarbons, but the remaining composition is proprietary and without knowing whats in there for sure, I can't tell you much about its stability. However, theres a reason why the chemist's at Hoppes have the company put the solvent in a brown container...this absorbs light which otherwise can facilitate photodecomposition. Metals can also catalyze decomposition of many organic molecules, so contamination is a concern, albeit, this may be negligible.

I would not be concerned about a solution sitting for a year or two. A few decades and I might just get some more.

Although this stuff is quite volatile, evaporation will not be a problem if you keep the container closed as much as possible.

The plastic container should not have any affect.

 

[moooose102]

well, first off, thanks to everyone for thier 2 cents worth! i know this is an old post, but i wanted to follow up on it as now i have a difinitive answer. YES they DO go bad with age! i am in the middle of cleaning my second rifle that was "CLEAN" with the old stuff. i spent 3 days and over 50 patches getting all the copper out of my 300 win mag with the new hoppes no. 9 bench rest solvent. soaking / scrubbing with a bronze brush / and wet patches until the green finally quit, what a pain! i will now buy a new bottle every year! i hope i havent ruined my 300 mag, God only knows how long the copper has been building up in there! i will find out once warm weather gets here.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Every time you take the cap off the jar, some of the volatile agents evaporate. As the contents of the jar deplete, the air space under the cap also causes deterioration. Unless you keep the brush rinsed off, the crud that you just scrubbed out of your bore and sticks to the brush progressively contaminates the cleaner every time you dip the brush into it. I've had old jars of bore cleaner turn thick and gooey, with a noticeable change in the odor.

 

[1 old 0311]

I bought two 32 oz bottles of Hoppe's #9 12-15 years ago. Still going strong!

 

[moooose102]

well, thats what i thought also, until i tried a new bottle. and discovered a HORRIBLE truth. whaen i thought i was doing a good job cleaning my guns, i wagetting the majority of the bore clean, but leaving copper behind. accumulating for a period of YEARS! my advice to you, would be for you to buy a bottle of sweets 7.62 solvent, saturate the bore with it, let it sit overnight and see if the patch comes out green or not. green = copper. my 300 mag was LOADED with it.