# Old condoms **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196 "2009-12-31T16:51:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/1 "2009-12-31T16:51:22Z")
Cleaning up my apartment, I just found a few dozen condoms, dating from who-knows-when?, and they seem pretty well sealed up to me, so I’m not sure if I shouldn’t throw them out or keep them: they are mostly inside of boxes (Ramses 6-packs), still sealed with tape marked “tamper resistant” across the part where you’d crack them open, and inside those sealed boxes, I assume the individual condoms are further sealed within plastic. I also found some loose condoms (all of them were inside a briefcase I haven’[t used in quite a while–not sure what I was thinking at the time), still sealed in plastic. Are the double-sealed ones any more more likely to be reliable than the loose ones? I’d feel awful stupid pitching condoms out that were perfectly good, but if I can’t date any of these, what to do? Would you pitch them: a) never, as long as they’d been sealed b) after 5 years, which is the least old they could be c) after 10 years, which is probably the oldest they could be 4) now, on general principles ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/2 "2009-12-31T16:56:23Z")
The spermicide has a shelf life, and the rubber can degrade with time. Given the risk/reward issues here, I’d pitch them immediately. Or save them for next Halloween and give them out to your neighborhood trick-or-treaters. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/3 "2009-12-31T17:02:10Z")
If there is anything not worth the risk, it’s this. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/4 "2009-12-31T17:43:04Z")
General guidelines are two years, and shorter if they are exposed to heat and light. Unless you’re posting this from a public library or something, you have enough money for a computer, so you should have enough to splurge on some new condoms. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/5 "2009-12-31T17:45:43Z")
Ramses? They don’t even make those anymore! You might want to keep them, strictly as a collector’s item, but you never want to commit the unforgivable faux pas of using outdated condoms. Fascinating [gallery of vintage condom packaging.](http://www.lifelounge.com/Vintage-Condom-Package-Gallery.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/6 "2009-12-31T17:53:56Z")
If I were around back then, I think I would have gone with [Napoleons](http://www.lifelounge.com/resources/GALLIMAGE/napoleons_condoms.jpg). I would have \*avoided \*[De-Luxe Blue-Ribbon](http://www.lifelounge.com/resources/GALLIMAGE/deluxe_condoms.jpg), which features a hideous, terrifying dog that looks like it’s from _Resident Evil._ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/7 "2009-12-31T18:00:16Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Ramses? They don’t even make those anymore! You might want to keep them, strictly as a collector’s item, but you never want to commit the unforgivable faux pas of using outdated condoms. Just ask yourself: If a condom breaks, and your partner asks you how old it was, do you want to be in the position of having to answer “I don’t know”? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/8 "2009-12-31T18:07:02Z")
I once found a bunch of old condoms during spring cleaning. I carried a few in my pocket and discretely left them in odd places. Behind a friends futon, etc. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/9 "2009-12-31T18:13:53Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I once found a bunch of old condoms during spring cleaning. I carried a few in my pocket and discretely left them in odd places. Behind a friends futon, etc. Maybe **pseudotriton ruber ruber’s** briefcase? ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/10 "2009-12-31T18:14:57Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Cleaning up my apartment, I just found a few dozen condoms, dating from who-knows-when?, and they seem pretty well sealed up to me, so I’m not sure if I shouldn’t throw them out or keep them: As an alternative to throwing them out, you could [design your own outfits](http://ahboon.net/2007/07/19/condom-fashion-show-in-china/). ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/11 "2009-12-31T18:18:14Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > If there is anything not worth the risk, it’s this. Yup. I’ll eat an expired salad, but there is a zero percent chance of that resulting in new humans. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/12 "2009-12-31T18:28:46Z")
_Surely_ I’m not the only one here wishing, with this thread, that the OP’s username had a couple of extra b’s in it, am I? 😃 Pitch them. You’re not _that_ broke, are you?😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/13 "2009-12-31T18:30:48Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > Yup. I’ll eat an expired salad, but there is a zero percent chance of that resulting in new humans. And a nearly zero percent chance of it giving you a venereal disease. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/14 "2009-12-31T18:32:49Z")
IIRC, there was a poster around here that once mentioned that old condoms could be sold in ebay and used to cover sex toys and the like. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/15 "2009-12-31T18:54:34Z")
If you don’t want to throw them away as rubbish, you could donate them to a sex-ed class to show how to put them correctly over a wooden penis. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/16 "2009-12-31T19:12:40Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Or save them for next Halloween and give them out to your neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Yep, I’ve done that. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/17 "2009-12-31T20:34:10Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I once found a bunch of old condoms during spring cleaning. I carried a few in my pocket and discretely left them in odd places. Behind a friends futon, etc. Did you open them, unroll them, put a tablespoon of custard in them, then smush them behind the futon? Cause that would be AWESOME! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/18 "2010-01-01T00:01:11Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Did you open them, unroll them, put a tablespoon of custard in them, then smush them behind the futon? Cause that would be AWESOME! I’ll admit having done this with mayonnaise as a prank on two guys I was working with on a field project who were sharing a cabin with two bunk beds. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-condoms/523196/19 "2010-01-01T00:28:42Z")
I thought that said **PseudoTRY IT ON RUBBER RUBBER**