Sanitizer in Spray Bottle

If I wanted to add some sanitizing mixture (water+Iodophor) into a spray bottle and leave it there, how long would it be effective? I'm a newbie and I'm wondering if I could just have this around for times I need to sanitizing a thief or other piece of equipment.

Iodophor looses it's effectiveness as the iodine dissipates in a few hours. I keep a spray bottle of Starsan for that purpose, it keeps for months.

Yep...spray bottle of starsan.

I use a "Professional" Sprayer bottle from Lowe's (replaced my crap dollar store sprayer). I take a gallon of distilled and use a children's medicine dropper from CVS ($2.99). I suck up 6ml of starsan and shoot it into the gallon. My dropper goes from 1ml to 10ml in 1ml increments and it fits perfectly in the dispensing side of the starsan bottle. I use that gal jug to fill up my sprayer bottle.

Thanks All.

I use a spray bottle with starsan also and absolutely love it! I usually throw it out after about a month or so but realistically, how long can I actually keep it in the bottle for without it going bad?

Actually if it's in a sealed spray bottle and you use RO/distilled water, you can get a couple weeks with iodophor before it turns clear and loses it's effectiveness. I've kept both starsan and iodophor on hand that way, and in a sealed container a small amount of iodophor will last longer than most of the previous posters have conjectured.

Yep the key to keeping Starsan effective in a spray bottle is to make sure to use DI water. With that you can get a few months out of a bottle.

Thanks for the help. One last questions:

1) How do you ensure you get the entire surface of the item covered? Do you just spray it on or do you sanitize your hands and rub the solution along the item?

ImNewToBrew said:

Thanks for the help. One last questions:

1) How do you ensure you get the entire surface of the item covered? Do you just spray it on or do you sanitize your hands and rub the solution along the item?

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Spray and let it drip.....

Thanks for the quick reply.

I thought it would be useful to come up with a mix ratio for Iodophor for temporary use in a spray bottle. Using the instructions on the bottle for home brewers, the ratio is 1 tsp Iodophor to 1.5 gallons water. I work this out to be a ratio of 1 part Iodophor to 1135.6 parts water. So, since 1 drop of Iodophor is about .05 ml, it will create 56.78 ml sanitizing solution.

So, to create 500 ml of sanitizing solution you would need about 9 drops of iodophor from an eyedropper. Hope this is useful to brewers with Iodophor on hand but not Star San, which seems to be the (logically) preferred choice. Also if my math is off please post a correction.

Just found this, very helpful!

Is there a down side to using to much Starsan in a spray bottle? I usually just pour a little in. Maybe a tsp. give or take.

jtbrill632 said:

Is there a down side to using to much Starsan in a spray bottle? I usually just pour a little in. Maybe a tsp. give or take.

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If you use too much, it is no longer considered a no rinse sanitizer, and you are supposed to rinse. It probably isn't something that will hurt you, but it is also a waste to use more than is necessary.

Edit: a teaspoon is just shy of 5mL, and 6mL is what others in this thread report using for a full gallon. I wouldn't worry about going a hair over, but if you're using a 1qt spray bottle, you're using almost 4x as much as you need to.

IMO, Starsan is way more forgiving that Iodophor if you add to much of it.

I just filled a spray bottle when I mixed a batch to sanitize for a brew, that way the mixture is set correct. If I figure to do a brew a month, then each month I have a fresh supply of SS to use in a pinch.

Going along with the starsan. I recently switched from Bbright to bleach to starsan. Liked the no rinse. On brew night I mixed the 5 gal of water to 1oz of starsan to sanitize my primary and all the equipment. I also filled up my spray bottle which I kept. I like being able to spray anything in the kitchen that may come in contact. I am going to be bottling in a couple nights. Can I just spray down the inside of the bottling bucket and maybe pour a little in the racking cane, tube and filling wand? Bottles I was going to give it a try in the dishwasher. Right now I was just trying to streamline everything