Why We Don't Sell Canisters

The owners of Stride Products are both chemical engineers.  We get a lot of questions about why we don't sell Stride Wipes in the canisters.  

The long-standing market share that Lysol and Clorox have held in the disinfecting wipes category has conditioned consumers to desire the canister for their disinfecting wipes purchases.  The liquid in these brands of wipes is mostly water, with low concentrations of powerful disinfecting chemicals.  While these types of products are cheap to manufacture and really good for disinfecting surfaces, prolonged exposure to skin is not recommended by the manufacturers.  The higher need for disinfecting wipes has led to a huge shortage of the popular brands, particularly in Canada, and alcohol hand sanitizing wipes are showing up everywhere as an available alternative. 

The canister is not a good fit for an alcohol-based wipe, due to safety and product quality concerns.  The specific reasons why alcohol wipes should not be provided in an unlined canister are given here:

1)  Evaporation Causes Safety Concerns.  The combination of the high vapor pressure of alcohol with a large air space in the canisters leads to a high evaporation rate of alcohol molecules into the air space of the canister.  This can lead to the creation of a flammable mixture of alcohol and air that could be ignited by a spark or a by a cigarette.  Alcohol wipe canisters should never be stored in vehicles in the warmer months.  

2)  Evaporation Losses Minimize Effectiveness.    Whenever the alcohol rich air leaves the canister, more liquid phase alcohol is given the opportunity to evaporate into the vapor space, leaving the wipes drier and with a lower alcohol concentration as the container depletes.  At warmer storage temperatures, this effect is worse.  

Lysol and Clorox wipes canisters are supplied with excess liquid that does not evaporate readily, and the wipes stay wet.  The canisters are very safe for that product.  For the safety reasons identified above, alcohol wipes that come in canisters typically do not have any free liquid in the bottom.

The packaging that Stride provides is a flexible plastic pouch with a flip top lid and resealable sticker that stays over the opening.  As the wipes get used, the packaging shrinks to fit, and very little air space exists.  This reduces the rate of evaporation, and significantly reduces the volume of the flammable air-alcohol mixture that is present.  The risks that are associated with the canister packaging of alcohol wipes are effectively eliminated with the Stride packaging.