New tip: to extend the shelf life of your unused sugru, keep it in the fridge
As lots of you know, we're working hard in the labs to extend the shelf life of sugru, and the good news is that we're making progress. In the meantime, we now have a tip that may be useful. We always guarantee that your sugru will have a minimum of 6 month shelf life after purchase, and most of you use it up well within this time. However for those of you who don't, we now have data to show that if sugru is kept at low temperatures, it can help to extend the shelf life considerably. If you keep your sugru in the fridge, it can extend the shelf life by up to a further 6 months. (And if you live in a hot climate, above the recommended storage temperature of 21°C/70°F, this is a tip that will help you too.)
Other peoples' comments
Hi, I got this response from LifeHacker Asustralia, to a remark I left about Sugru's lifespan. If you're good for your word, I'll definitely buy some more, as it is very useful! However, I bought it knowing it would be used on small projects over time. So you can imagine how disappointed I was when I found it had gone off in the sealed packet. I will definitely keep it in the fridge. Or will it last longer in the freezer? Anyway thanks' John Coleman 11 Louisa St Toowoomba, Qld Australia, 4350
Projectsugru January 19, 2012 at 8:15 PM Hi Timmah! sorry to hear about your sugru curing early – if you contact our customer service – shop[at]sugru.com – we can arrange for you to receive replacements :) We did some research and found that sugru keeps up to twice as long when stored in the fridge rather than room temperature: http://sugru.com/blog/new-tip-to-extend-the-shelf-life-of-your-unused-sugru-keep-it-in-the-fridge/
I've just put mine in the freezer. Hopefully the 11 packs remaining will keep a bit longer than 6 months now...
I've been keeping mine in my beer fridge for at least a year, and it's still going strong -- fixed a pot lid just last week!
Glad to know my hunch about keeping it cool has paid off... :-)
In reply to Marie, I had the same sentiment, until I bought some. Then I started to make a little list of stuff to fix or improve, and that list grew quite quickly. Once you've used your first pack you'll rapidly see other uses around the house, car, garden, office. I'm going to try the freezer trick in a mini ziplock bag. Surely if all the air is squeezed out of the bag then it can't cure, right?
This is a great tip, and it led to something else I discovered. Normally if you need just a little Sugru, the rest of the pack goes to waste because it dries up, even if you reclose the pack tightly. However, if you put the remainder of the pack in the fridge in a resealable bag, it stays soft enough to use the rest if you do it within a day or so.
Great to know,I liked the idea of your product but when I saw the minimum quantity to buy,I thought well,half of it will go to waste then because I don't have a whole lot of stuff to fix .Reading the comments below of people who've seen their product spoil makes me wonder if you couldn't just offer the option to buy smaller quantities, at least until you make your product last longer on its own?Still if keeping it in the fridge makes it last longer ,it does seem worth buying,I'll surely think of a use for it given a year.
This is a useful tip but a bit late for me - I'm just about to throw away 7 packs of Sugru because they have self-cured and are useless.
I do hope that work to extend the shelf life of Sugru is almost complete as I'm reluctant to buy more until I can rely on it to last longer.
Very good to know. I was sad to discover for myself that sugru does indeed become unusable when I tried to open some ten-month-old packets. I had six sachet-shaped chunks of hardened sugru - if only I could have thought of a use for them. I'll try to use it more quickly next time...
Hi Matteo, you can keep sugru in the freezer, it won't harm it, however it won't freeze it and we don't have concrete data yet on whether the extra few degrees will help further. No harm though!
Thanks for the tip. Question: can sugru be frozen, and how would that affect its lifespan/performance?