I'd say keep them in the foil, it only takes a few seconds to unwrap one.

I have some that I've left in my garage here for a couple of summers and I tried one recently and it doesn't seem as though the heat here (I'm sure if it's 115 outside it's 120 in my garage) has affected them. I DID keep them in the original foil, however. I don't really see how removing the foil would have an adverse effect unless they were exposed to light.




I DID stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

Watch the temp too!  I stored some in freezing weather last year and they lost 50% of the brightness when i used them this summer.

Take the batteries out first.  

Put them in the carriers then wrap foil around 'em.

I've gotten rid of my Cyalumes from my BOB - they have a limited shelf life (2 years is what they are rated for - if you get more count yourself lucky).

Now I use Green Krill Lights.  The Green Extream version is just about as bright as a Cylume - but it lasts 50 hours (4x that of a Cylume stick) and with Lithium AA batteries from Energizer they have a 10 year shelf life.  Plus you can pop in a new set of batteries and keep going.

Very easy to use my 3year old daughter can turn hers on & off no problem - they also have the lanyhard hole like Cylume sticks.

White ones are OK - but the Green seem to be the brightest (others have complained about the red & orange versions).

Krill Lights