We are fully aware that glow stick fans love their glow stick products so much, they want them to last as long as possible. We completely understand not wanting the fun to end! Plus, it saves money and time if you can use the same product more than once, especially if you run a kids club or sports club that uses glow sticks all the time.
When it comes to using glow sticks, one of the most common questions asked is “can you recharge a glow stick?”, to which the standard answer is no. But don’t despair just yet!
Why you can’t recharge a glow stick
Glow sticks are designed and made to be used as a single use item, to be immediately disposed of after they have stopped glowing. They get their glow from a chemical reaction called chemiluminescence. When you crack a glow stick two chemicals are mixed together to produce light. There’s no way to reverse the chemical reaction, so you can’t recharge the glow in your glow stick.
However….
Whatever you use glow sticks for, whether it is for weekend festivals, clubbing, kids clubs or fashion statements, the fun doesn’t have to end after one single use.
Yes, glow sticks are single use items, but you can extend that single use with a few tricks. They can’t exactly be recharged, but their use can be prolonged, here’s how;
How to make your glow stick last longer
Using glow sticks as they are, they will last from a few hours to a few days. Heat speeds-up the chemical reaction that produces the glow. So the more heat they are exposed to, the brighter they will glow but the faster they will fade and ‘go out’.
To keep your glow stick going for longer, the trick is to keep putting them in the freezer. When you freeze a glow stick, the chemical reaction that keeps them glowing is slowed right down, and although there hasn’t been a study done, the sticks seem to be recharged to a point after they have been frozen.
To make your glow stick last longer you need to freeze the stick after activating it and whilst it still glows. If the glow stick has completely gone out, freezing it will not recharge it at all.
When you want to enjoy the stick again, just get it out of the freezer, let it thaw a little, then shake it to help it glow again. This is a process you can repeat over and over again but the glow stick will keep fading, eventually losing its glow completely.
So, can you recharge a glow stick?
Glow sticks are made to be used and then disposed of, but you can prolong the fun using your trusty freezer. The process is more like prolonging than recharging, but it is pretty awesome that you can get more than one use out of your glow stick, right? In terms of survival situations or camping with glow sticks, clearly this method isn’t appropriate and it is a good idea to have back-up glow sticks with you.
With kids parties and kids clubs this is a great process to try out, for the sake of saving money and the convenience of reusing the same products over and over again. That being said, glow sticks aren’t expensive. So if you need to buy a truck-load of glow sticks for a big event, checkout our wholesale glow stick pricing to save a few pounds.
Happy glowing, and freezing, and glowing, and freezing, and glowing, and freezing….
Does an unused glow stick have an expiration date?
Depending on how they are packaged the shelf life is 1 to 4 years. Glow products kept in foil packaging will last for up to 4 years and items with no foil packaging have usually just over a 1 year shelf life.
I was worried that i wasnt going to have a glow stick because I like lighting them up in my room sometimes and just fall asleep because it gives the room a colorful glow to it and so this was a very helpful hack,thank you
Super helpful, THANK you very much
No, just freeze it and use it later, as it works on heat energy, it will slow down the reaction of chemical I’m the glow stick, so you can use it later, hope it helps
It helped so much,thx