A fairly common survivalist practice – setting a lightstick on top of the doorway to a room so its always there if you need it when the power goes out. Nothing special there. But, like all things on a long enough timeline, those lightsticks have an expiration date. Based on my personal experience, I usually ignore that expiration date…as long as the lightsticks were in a cool dry place (like the inside of my house) they should be fine. But, lets test that.
Heck, only 19 years past expiration……….
I did a round up of lightsticks and pulled a few out of the pile to try out. They foil packages were dusty, but everything seemed okay on the inside.
No leaks. Nothing broken. Vials inside the plastic tubes are fine. All looks good. Other than chemical degradation over almost twenty years, there shuldn’t be any reason these shouldn’t work. But, I didnt come all this way for theory. Lets crack these in half and see what does (or does not) happen:
As I 99.99% expected – they work fine. I suppose I should revisit them in a few hours and see how much life they have left in them but for my uses these are strictly short-term illumination devices. I use them to find my way to a real flashlight or lamp, or theyre for marking something.
I ordered some newer ones of Amazon a few days ago and they got here today, so I’ll be replacing these (much) older one. But its nice to know that after sitting in situ for almost two decades they work just fine. YMMV, of course, but I’m confident that these things will last far beyond their prescribed expiration.
I also keep a couple of these in my larger first aid kits, my generator supply box, and anywhere I think I might some lighting in an emergency when nothing else is available. These things are never a first choice, but for a source of light that is explosion-proof, water-proof, wind-proof, and will work when batteries have self depleted ten years ago.good choice. Cheap insurance for about a buck and a half each.
ETA: keep in mind, not all lightsticks are made by the same people. If you buy some Made In China lightsticks versus, say, the actual Cyalume product, you may get different results.
