Rocol RTD shelf life

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

I've just bought a 350ml bottle of Rocol RTD Cleancut liquid on ebay. It was discounted from the usual price. On arrival I was a little surprised to find that it's "shelf-life expiry" date was 5 months ago. No mention was made in the listing that the product was past its expiry date.

Is the fact that it's 5 months past its expiry date critical? I suspect not, but is there a time when it does become critical?

Just out of interest, can anyone tell me what sort of consistency, colour, and smell (e.g. detergenty/oily/solventy) a fresh bottle should have.

Many thanks for any help.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

[JohnFParticipant @johnf59703]

Bill, I have a tin bought xxx? years ago never even new it had a sell by date ? Its absolutely fine and I have never noticed any lack of performance. I would not worry about the date at all.

My guess is its another edict from Brussels, an old pal who processes honey had to apply a best by date to that — honey is I believe the only foodstuff that does not "go off" it may crystallise but remained edible, no bugs ever grow on honey either.

John

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Posted by Bill Phinn on 29/09/2018 19:49:59:

I've just bought a 350ml bottle of Rocol RTD Cleancut liquid on ebay. It was discounted from the usual price. On arrival I was a little surprised to find that it's "shelf-life expiry" date was 5 months ago. No mention was made in the listing that the product was past its expiry date.

Is the fact that it's 5 months past its expiry date critical?

Many thanks for any help.

Didn't you query it with the seller?

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by JohnF on 29/09/2018 20:01:12:

My guess is its another edict from Brussels, an old pal who processes honey had to apply a best by date to that — honey is I believe the only foodstuff that does not "go off" it may crystallise but remained edible, no bugs ever grow on honey either.

John

So, rather than making a silly dig at unelected burocrats etc (yawn), why didn't he simply apply his supposed common sense by applying a sell by date that reflects the fact it never goes off? Like 20 years hence? Just a thought, even if it would devalue the anecdote….

Murray

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

I bought a gallon tin direct from Rocol when I worked in Leeds pre 1993 it is still OK

Roy

[Alan Waddington 2Participant @alanwaddington2]

Iv’e got some RTD that i ‘liberated’ from work 25- 30 yrs ago…….still works, and still smells like sh*te.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

JohnF, Honey will ferment, it has happened to me a couple of times when I stored it in a warm place.

I read somewhere that they found honey in an Egyptian tomb that was still sealed but black.

Clive

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Alan Waddington 2 on 29/09/2018 22:24:25:

Iv’e got some RTD that i ‘liberated’ from work 25- 30 yrs ago…….still works, and still smells like sh*te.

.

Ah ! … You fell for the old bog-cleaner's trick

[ tell him it's RTD and he'll take it home ]

[Alan Waddington 2Participant @alanwaddington2]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 29/09/2018 22:35:48:

Ah ! … You fell for the old bog-cleaner's trick

[ tell him it's RTD and he'll take it home ]

Damn…….thought it was a funny colour

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 29/09/2018 22:29:50:

I read somewhere that they found honey in an Egyptian tomb that was still sealed but black.

"Guess what I've put in this honey jar?"

"That will confuse someone in 4,000 years time!"

N.

[Alan Waddington 2Participant @alanwaddington2]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 29/09/2018 23:22:37

"Guess what I've put in this honey jar?"

"That will confuse someone in 4,000 years time!"

N.

Bet it was an Ancient Egyptian bog cleaner

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

 

Posted by JohnF on 29/09/2018 20:01:12:

Bill, I have a tin bought xxx? years ago never even new it had a sell by date ? Its absolutely fine and I have never noticed any lack of performance. I would not worry about the date at all.

 

John

Thanks, John. That's good to know.

Posted by John Rudd on 29/09/2018 20:38:05

Didn't you query it with the seller?

I haven't yet, John. I only received it yesterday, and I was waiting for replies from ME forum members on the matter before deciding whether to contact the seller. Would you, under the circumstances?

Posted by Bill Phinn on 29/09/2018 19:49:59:

was a little surprised to find that it's "shelf-life expiry" date was…"

 

He meant "its".

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 30/09/2018 00:37:04

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Bill, contacting the seller would always be my first course of action….

[thaiguzziParticipant @thaiguzzi]

Concur.

The paste & the thick liquid does not go off.

My paste is still late 20th century…

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

I've just read the data sheet for it…

That said, RTD liquid is the best I've found for stainless threading. I do now use an extractor fan though, as the fumes are bit bad…..

Jim

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

I'm always surprised to find practical men making heavy weather of Best Before, Use By, and Expiry Dates etc. They're broad hints rather than time-bombs. Unlikely that the shelf-life of cutting fluid is critical.

With food and drugs suppliers are required by law to think carefully about how long their product is safe and how long it is effective. (You don't want to take drugs that have decomposed, or eat rotten food. 'Best Before' typically indicates that food is still edible, but may not taste nice, or has an unpleasant texture.)

Quite a few chemicals 'go off' to some degree or other. Leave petrol in a can for a few years and you will likely find light fractions have escaped past the seal leaving fuel that an engine will find hard to start. That's annoying, but leaving Dynamite in a warm hut for 20 years could be fatal.

Many chemical products like Rocol Cleancut are carefully formulated mixtures that can and do age. Also, I notice a number of chaps mention owning 'Rocol' for many years without specifying which of several Rocol cutting agents they have. Without that information all bets are off! RTD Cleancut is not the same as RTD Compound. Is the difference significant? We don't know.

Some customers demand consistent high-performance from products like cutting fluids. What's acceptable in a jobbing workshop might be an expensive mistake on a busy machine centre. Others, like the military, insist on almost everything being fully documented and this often includes a shelf-life assuming worst case storage conditions. It's not worth compromising military operations by penny-pinching.

My advice is use your loaf. Don't drink sour milk even within the best before date. Cutting fluid will likely produce reasonable results long after it's expired on paper. Try it and see.

Bit of a minefield for which it's all too easy to blame Brussels. I'm expecting fireworks next year when those looking forward to fixing pet Euro peeves like this discover leaving Europe makes no difference to them whatever. May be wrong – this time next year, we'll know for sure.

Dave

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

By having a use by date the manufacturer can sell much more product, in the past many things stayed on the shelf for many years, now come stock taking time out it goes, expired or not. Time for single use packaging.

Ian S C

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

SO LONG ago, can't remember when I bought my tins of RTD. Still works OK.

Who really expects what is basically grease to deteriorate to the point of being unuseable, especially in a tin with the lid on?

It's the same idiotic mindset that puts a "Use By" date on tins of baked beans, and the like.

Common sense is no longer that common, especially in the common market

Howard

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Ian S C on 30/09/2018 12:10:42:

By having a use by date the manufacturer can sell much more product, in the past many things stayed on the shelf for many years, now come stock taking time out it goes, expired or not. Time for single use packaging.

Ian S C

^^^ We have a winner.

Manufacturers of foodstuffs here in Oz are required by law to put on a "use by" date after which the product may have deteriorated to a point where it is unpalatable or even possibly approaching hazardous. But now many of them are also putting on, voluntarily, a "best by" date that is much sooner than the use by date. It's a purely arbitrary date designed to get consumers to throw out food before they really need to, and buy more.

A lot of the cheap Loctite etc on Fleabay is stuff that is close to or past its use by date, so shops do not want to stock it. So far all the ones I have bought work just fine. As do bottles of Loctite I've had in various toolboxes for decades.

 

 

Edited By Hopper on 30/09/2018 12:43:34

[FrankiethepillParticipant @frankiethepill]

When I was a pharmacist making up potions for a living we had a bottle of Sodium Chloride (aka common salt) on the shelf. This had a shelf life date marked on it (usually about 2 years). I mainly used it on my chips when we were closed at lunchtime.The salt in the bottle almost certainly came from underneath Cheshire, and was probably about 220 million years old. The inspectors were happy though.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Funny to see snake oil salesmen selling "organic" rock salt to the gullible. Ultimately, all of our edible salt comes from the sea, either directly (by drying the liquid) or indirectly (by mining ancient, dried up sea deposits. I suppose the mined stuff will be sightly lower in terms of pollution but when we are swimming in a sea of our own detritus it seems unlikely to be of any consequence.

Ironically, the reagents used by chemists and pharmacists may well have been made in a chemical plant but ended up purer.

Murray

[Adam PhillipsParticipant @adamphillips50363]

I wish there was an expiry date on the roads around here they are all dead

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

Again, I hope this contribution will not be too far off-topic:

When my late-wife was shopping in preparation for entertaining guests for dinner, she would attempt to arrive at the cheese counter and intercept the shop assistant when she was removing cheese from display because it was 'best-before date-expired' – she (my late wife) reckoned that was just when the cheese was ripe!

But her best story was of a visit to the food hall of an up-market department store in High Street, Kensington:

Shop assistant: 'May I help you, madam? '
Wife: 'Yes please, I want some Brie. ' (It might have been Camembert).
Shop Assistant: 'And when do you plan to eat it?'
Wife: 'Tomorrow.'
Shop Assistant: 'Lunch or dinner? '

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Howard Lewis on 30/09/2018 12:14:04:

…

It's the same idiotic mindset that puts a "Use By" date on tins of baked beans, and the like.

Common sense is no longer that common, especially in the common market

Howard

Sorry to be dim Howard but for the slow witted can you explain exactly why undated cans of baked beans are better than dated cans?

I can see advantage in food products carrying a date even if it's a guess, but I can't think of a good reason for leaving customers to guess how old the food is. As you say, common sense is unreliable: 'You cannot see, smell or taste the bacteria that cause food poisoning'. Can you take me through your logic step by step – I don't understand at all.

Dave

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