Sanitiser life expectancy

I've tried searching for this without any luck so far.

I'm thinking of mixing up a 10 litre batch of sanitiser, and keeping it in a jerry can style container.
Will it remain effective for days, weeks, months, longer?
Do some types of sanitiser keep better than others?
Will the colour/transparency of the container affect it?

Ta,
Ian

Hi Ian,

I use Starsan in a 20L pail with a lid (16mL in 10L). I used RO water as water hardness where I live reduces its acidity/effectiveness (it turns cloudy). I'm using it about once a week/fortnight and over the space of a couple of months I've only had to add more Starsan once to bump the pH back to <= 3.0

Only once I had to decant the solution back and forth between a couple of pails to get rid of the solids hanging around in the bottom.

As for light degradation, all my brewing equipment lives in the basement out of direct light anyway so I can't vouch for that.

-Shane

Greetings Ian - I also use a pail with my starsan solution.  That product is quite expensive!  Anyway, I use my regular softened tap water (about a gallon and a half) with the recommended amount of starsan. I change out the solution about every 6 brews or so (3-4 months).  However, I don't use it for cleaning, only sanitizing.

I tried doing the same with PBW and found the solution gets very cloudy very quickly.  Then I got nervous that it wouldn't do the job so I stopped that process.

I do pretty much a similar practice to KellerBrauer.  I have a 5-gal pail next to my laundry room sink where I do most of my prep and cleaning.  I usually keep mine for 4 to 6 weeks before replacing it.

For PBW, I have a system where I will use PBW to clean a carboy.  From there it goes into a clean 5-gal pail for cleaning of brew day tools and items.  Once I've cleaned another carboy an have a new batch of PBW ready, I move the 5-gal pail downstairs to my 'fermenting room' and use it to soak and clean bottles.  I almost always have two 5-gal buckets of PBW mix on hand during the winter months when I do the majority of my brewing.

The important thing for long term use of either is to keep the buckets separate, rinse well after soaking in PBW and keep the buckets covered when not in use.