So the day after Halloween 2011 I purchased about 20 glow sticks at Walmart for dirt cheap (.47 each).  I figured they might come in handy for my emergency stashes.  Put some in each car, a couple in the garage, and some closets and drawers around the house.  They for sure won't replace a normal flashlight during a power outage,  but it's better than nothing, I get 12+ hours of light out of them without worrying about batteries, and the kids get a kick out of them.  Anyways I kept what I didn't distribute around the house in a closet and this week I pulled it out and opened some up to see how they did after being stored for 3 years.  I didn't expect much.  Figured I might find some leaking and/or the glow won't last very long.  
They held up perfectly fine!  Of the 3 that I opened, all were bright enough to read by and lasted well over 12 hours.  Didn't find any leaks either.  I was pleasantly surprised.   By the way, these were the big sticks, about 1/2 inch by 5 inches long.
So keep an eye out after Halloween when they are on clearance.  
Every year I will break open another stick from the 2011 stash and see how long the shelf life is on these things.

I bought a dozen green ones online--Northern brand I think and they have a 2016 expiration date on them.  They're pretty cool to have.

Chris

What brand?

Omniglow.  And since I had to look up the brand, they are actually 6" long and "premium" according to their website.Omniglow website

Don't see any expiration date on the package.

I have always kept a bundle and used the older ones this month every year. I used up what I had and was preparing for my annual resupply. I have ordered from Omniglow in the past.

Every Halloween I string glow stick across the front yard. We move a fire pit to the front yard... eat chilli (no beans!), drink beer, and hand out candy.

For the last 4 years that had also included handing out light sticks to the kids. This will be the first year we can't do that. Unfortunately I have had medical issues come up and the co-pays are more than I have and the monthly payments will be set up again.

Hey... I figure if I still owe money for medical care they will try harder to keep me alive until I pay them off!  LOL!

Open them at the register when you buy them. I used to grab a couple here and there at Lowes because they were at the checkout line. Kept finding them broke and burned out in the package.

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I have found they start to fade at around the 10 year mark.

I dug some out that I had pre-Y2K, cracked about 5, of the 5 only one did not light, the ones that did were dim and only glowed for about 2 hours. Not bright enough to read a book if I laid it on the page, but bright enough that I could use it with NVG's  marking positions.

Thanks for the reminder, time for me to restock. I've used a few and a good chunk of them are old enough to be relegated to Halloween duty.

Personally I prefer Cyalume brand but that's because I tend to wait till I can get a deal on them and only pay as much as I'd normally pay for the more economical brands. The thing I like about the "name" brands are that I've never had one leak or fail to light up properly if it was remotely close to the use by date. I've had various off brands only give dim light or have very short life spans in use. I've only had a couple leak over the years, but never a premium brand. Honestly, for a total price difference of a couple dollars it's worth it just to not have to clean up the others in that baggy.

I have no idea if it's a good deal, but if anyone is interested at noon tomorrow amazon lighting deal will have mil grad chem sticks and one of their lighting deals.  It's noon for me, if interested you'll want to check out the "today's deals" section at the top of their page and scroll through to see the time.

Anyone every try the Krill or GloTube battery versions?  I could never bring myself to try them because the little SOLEDs from County Comm seemed so much cooler and I have better lights for diving or anything serious.

I have a big box of Cyalume brand chemlites which are from 2002.  I've never had a problem (I even gave my kids one each tonight).  They still glow for approx 9-12 hrs.  The colors are good and even the IR ones I have still work well  Don't worry about the age.

Pick them up. Gently rock from one end down to the other while listening.  Any "tinkling" sound you hear is a broken tube and a spent stick.

 

I have a couple of krills
Some are better than others

Anyone banking on chemlights as a survival light source should keep in mind that they lose brightness and longevity as the temperature drops.  In the teens and below they're pretty useless for anything but a minimal marker and can't be used as a light source.

I would assume the degradation is decomposition of peroxide, it may extend life to store in refrigerator.



 

I've also had great luck with cyalume

I buy 3-4boxes every couple of years of the cyalume brand and never had issues(the oldest I have tried were 5-6yrs old..



 

Last year a walgreens near me had Cyalume brand... I bought a ton of them even 'tho I didn't need them.

Went back this year and they didn't have them.