Does Chlorine/Bleach become weaker over time?

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PressureWashingStarkeFL

Member
I have read about this subject on this and many other boards to find out that people mostly say yes. well, it is my observation that "How can they know if they are blowing through so many roofs their SH does not even have time to coat the sides of their tanks?"

I say this because I actually sold a roof wash that was into the time of the year that snow was starting to fall and ice was forming on the roofs. This homeowner had to have it done, so I gave it a trie to no avail. What was I going to do, but reschedule and I did. I was left with the dilemma of what to do with the Bleach(Yes bleach) and I was not going to just throw it away, so I stored it. In the back of my work van. (Yeah...in the van)

After 4 months of cold winds and a aging process it came time to use up the mix. My first job was cleaning a nasty vinyl siding home. I used it along with some of my detergent (Yes, the old bleach from the van) and it worked like a charm. No re touching the siding up. One pass of the Radical Revolution(TM) and the thing was a gleeming. The guy who hired me was a "Paint " contractor who used to own a power washing company and worked for Sparkle Wash somewhere around here. Seems kind of funny how amazed he was with how easy I cleaned up the house if he was working for sparkle Wash before? You would think...right?

Anyhow, my experience with using old bleach, not even chlorine was that the sitting around did not really phase it. I actually used it on a roof and had the same effect. I used it straight with some Dawn and poof be gone mold!!!

Just my own story and experience...
 
Was it the store bought in the gallon jugs?

Some guys have had luck with the store bought for house washing but I never had any luck, maybe because my machine has a little more gpm's.

There are a lot of reasons why your mix and bleach was still good but if you are down south, I would not store it, I have had stuff go bad in 1 month, that was 10% that after 1 month was not good enough for roof cleaning.

There are so many variables, hard to say without asking like 30 questions but most people don't store it because it goes bad. The guys in florida never have to, they can get to a location within 10 miles in just about any direction and their chemicals are a lot stronger than what we get here.
 
Christopher said:
Was it the store bought in the gallon jugs?

Some guys have had luck with the store bought for house washing but I never had any luck, maybe because my machine has a little more gpm's.

There are a lot of reasons why your mix and bleach was still good but if you are down south, I would not store it, I have had stuff go bad in 1 month, that was 10% that after 1 month was not good enough for roof cleaning.

There are so many variables, hard to say without asking like 30 questions but most people don't store it because it goes bad. The guys in florida never have to, they can get to a location within 10 miles in just about any direction and their chemicals are a lot stronger than what we get here.
Click to expand...

I came from Florida a couple years ago to PA, but was only in the reading stage back then. All my stuff was re-paints, so paint tends to hold up in a can longer :>) I did have a neighbor who was a power washer and he was always busy, but he did not know how to clean roofs cause he saw my wife and I cleaning ours with a down streamed PW lol. He came over and showed us his technique...WITH THE POWER WASHING WAND!!! :moil:

The bleach I used believe it or not was dollar General. We were so far out and planned on getting 12.5% near the job so we did not have to transport and nada!!! The lady at the counter was frazzled that we bought out her shelf. She acted like we were doing something wrong and was reluctant to sell it...Well my Wife does have that exotic look (Sorry babe)
 
My experience has been that after a couple of months and sometimes weeks, it just don't have the punch to it like it did from new. I don't keep much on hand.
 
Heat and light are what break down bleach, not really just time. If the bleach was stored in a cold, dark van then it could have been good after those months. Getting those conditions right is what is difficult for most guys, as Chris pointed out for all of us in the south.
 
The Dollar General stuff had already pretty much stabilized at 5 or 6%. It will last a long time at that strength.
Hot stuff degrades pretty quickly.
 
Right on Thad!!
 
Store bought bleach actually has a little sodium hydroxide added to it to help extend it's shelf life. When you up the ph level of sodium hypochlorite, it will keep longer. If they didn't add the hydroxide to the store bought stuff, it wouldn't keep on the shelves.

Here is a link that Beth and Rod had posted on their site about the degridation of SH. It is a good read if you have never seen it.

Brian
 
Thanks for the link. I will read on it. The container I had the bleach stored in was one of those dark blue containers. My Father in law actually installed a ball valve at the bottom of it and we attached a band tightening type of lid on top. You can see the crystallization on the top of the lid and around the edges of the barrel.

He actually did a good job with the bleach tank. He is a mech, so he knows how to build things.
 
WPB roof cleaning

your detergent probably cleaned the siding, bleach won't work in the snow, under 55 degrees it really is worth leaving the office.
 
With my xjet setup I'm barely able to clean a roof.
I just can't get a super strong solution through to the roof.
If my sodium hypochlorite has been in my bulk tank for more than 3 or 4 weeks I'm probably not going to get a roof clean.
I need very fresh stuff to clean a roof.

It degrades for me in a sealed, approved, container.
 
For roof cleaning or house washing, I need to have fresh SH otherwise it will take a lot longer to do the job or sometimes it will not work at all.

Since I use a 5.6gpm machine, the ratio that it will pull with the amount of hose I use will be a lot different from a 4gpm machine, even with the same amount of hose. The 4gpm machine will pull a stronger ratio so you can actually use weaker SH and achieve good results where using the weaker mix and a 5.6gpm machine will thin out the mix more and you might get results, might not, it is a gamble with weak chemicals.

I have tried the X-Jet on a couple roofs years ago, too much hassle with the extra hose, worrying about shingles getting damaged with both hoses up there getting snagged on them, etc....

I thought about taping or tying both hoses together but the time it takes to do that then undo that mess to roll up the hoses on the hose reels was just a waste of time, I chose to go with the Bandit Roller Pump and it served me good.
 
Groovy to the Max!
 
Was at conference for specialty cleaners a few months ago and this guy was guest speaker, here is what he has to say on the matter. Straight from a chemical engineers mouth..."As soon as that lid is removed from the bottle bleach will start to lose most of its effectiveness, most bottles within 24 hours, if its commercial grade (high concentrations of Cl) you might have a week."
 
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