I have a bottle of clinical grade hand disinfectant (Sterillium) in my home for use when I come in from outside. I also carry a smaller bottle of the same product with me, which has quite a handy size. When that bottle is empty, can I simply unscrew the caps of the two bottles and fill disinfectant from the larger into the smaller one? My guess it that this should be fine, but I’m wondering if it affects the effectiveness in any way.
AFAIK it doesn’t.
It’s still mostly alcohol, right?
I’ve actually been using isopropyl alcohol as my “walking around” disinfectant, and i am using a little bottle I’ve had for decades, originally sold for making contact lens solution, i think, and just refilling it as needed.
I can’t see how it wouldn’t be OK. But then I’m not any kind of scientist.
I always have hand sanitizer with me. Nothing clinical, just GermX or Purell. I have a bottle in a pocket of every coat/jacket that I regularly wear, so I don’t have to remember to take sanitizer with me. I have a really small bottle that fits in a jeans pocket if I’m not wearing anything
I top them off from giant quart bottles of GermX, which have been easily available in this region for ages now.
I can’t see why transferring the stuff from one bottle to another would render it less effective.
But you have access to the internet, so your opinion is as good as anyone else’s!
That’s kind of uncalled for.
I’m a reasonably intelligent person. I don’t see how hand sanitizer, which is not marketed as especially sterile, is not advertised as “sterile until opened,” like Band-Aids, and comes in large bottles quite specifically designed for refilling smaller bottles, would be affected by being transferred from one bottle to another.
Do I need a graduate degree in chemistry or pharmacology to say that?
My apologies, this was not directed specifically at you or intended as a comment on you or post. It was just a random generalized joke about your disclaimer, that most people on the internet don’t bother with such a cautionary caveat or indeed pay much attention to the sources for the stuff they read.
If I’d thought it could have been read as insulting I would have reworded it for clarity.
I certainly hope so.
I have a bunch of pump disinfectant bottles scattered throughout the shop in strategic locations.
When they get low, I refill them from big bottles that I buy, much cheaper than replacing the pump dispenser.
I can’t think of any reason why this would have a negative effect.
It’s like soap, it’s self-cleaning.
Once, long ago, a nurse told me to NOT do this because the old sanitizer could have a layer of resistant bacteria on the surface which could become trapped by a new layer, then spread on your hands and on surfaces. Sanitizer bottles should never be topped off and shouldn’t be refilled, but can if they are emptied completely and allowed to dry before being refilled.
I am over 60 years old and have only been told this once, so there it is.
Just because I hear advice, doesn’t mean I follow it, btw.
Should be fine.
For what it’s worth the CDC site does mention not topping off soap dispensers, but that disinfectant hasn’t been studied.
ETA: I should clarify that it does mention it, it just says that it hasn’t been studied.
So if you’re not wearing anything, do you just sling the jeans over your shoulder?
I can see this as being an issue for sanitizers that have antibiotics in them, but it’s hard for a pathogen to gain resistance to 70% alcohol.
If this is taken literally, it means that anyone who buys liquid soap in large refill containers is inviting pathogenic bacterial outbreaks – and that’s probably just about everyone who regularly uses liquid soap. This may have some applicability to hospitals and other health care settings as they say, where both ordinary and antibiotic resistant bacteria are abundant, but I’m going to ignore it for home use. I’m certainly not going to be buying the small pump bottles all the time and considering them to be one-time use only. I’ve been refilling liquid soap bottles for decades, and I’ve never caused a plague AFAIK.
As for hand sanitizer, the only issue I’ve found is that some of them are fairly thick and may have to be pumped in or forced in to small bottles with a squeeze bottle nozzle. Purell is only medium-thick and can be transferred from a regular pump bottle to a pocket-sized Purell bottle with a bit of care, using the pump nozzle. I’ve done this several times now.
Do you still run that bat & pangolin sanctuary in your back yard?
Well, I do have my exotic hobbies, so perhaps I should be more specific: I don’t think my liquid soap practices have ever caused a plague. 
Yeah, I don’t think it applies at home. Even the guidance they reference is for “Healthcare Settings”. I was just trying to dig up the information that was mentioned up-thread about how refilling soap containers has been found to be problematic in the past.
Either way, I agree with the consensus here that refilling your personal disinfectant containers is perfectly fine.
Well, we don’t know exactly where COVID came from yet, so… stares suspiciously at @wolfpup
I would think adding refilling with the same product would generally be fine. Mixing different products could have issues since their base ingredients may be different and could cause strange interactions. For example, maybe the base gels are fine alone, but when mixed they congeal and become thick and sticky.
To be safest, I would think it would be best to wash the bottle out and let it dry completely before adding new sanitizer. That would prevent any old sanitizer being left behind or any issue with the old sanitizer not mixing with new sanitizer.