By now, most of us keep hand sanitizer in our cars and pretty much everywhere.

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It's a good idea to keep it in your car, but experts say if your bottle of hand sanitizer freezes, throw it away. Here's why.

It's not because cold weather ruins it. Hand sanitizers are alcohol based and actually shouldn't freeze unless it gets obscenely cold (like about 50 degrees below zero).

So if it freezes, it means there wasn't a sufficient amount of alcohol in it to begin with, so it was never going to be effective regardless. Who needs hand sanitizer that's not really sanitizing? That's the reason to throw it away. It was probably a cheap knock off that was giving you a false sense of security. Here's an article from the experts.

Here's where it gets confusing. There ARE alcohol free sanitizers out there that uses a chemical compound to kill germs. Pay attention to the label on the sanitizer. It should be clearly labeled 'alcohol free' and it contains Benzalkonium chloride as an ingredient. Read more about alcohol free sanitizers here.

We don't want you throwing away perfectly good alcohol free sanitizer, because chances are it's more expensive. Be safe out there, Quad Citians.

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