Issues with paint by my friend/painter

[Conquistador]

Had an issue raised with my friend who paints my lower priority stuff.
If this is deem to be more a workbench issue (NIMO because I am not demonstrating a project or technique) by moderators please move appropriately.

I use craft paints (being eased out) and a well known miniature makers brand ($$ but which I happen to like) but recently he complained about the brand name paints clogging in the dispensing tip of the bottle. He substituted similar colors from his favorite brand ($$$) and suggested I should change brands. Up until late last year I had no such problems.

Some possible factors:

1) I have been storing my miniatures and paint in the basement which has been exceptionally cold this year.

2) This last year I have bought many bottles from a local distributor on "sale" at a significantly reduced rate. I am thinking these have been on the shelf for a while else why reduce the price? 

3) Some of my paint bottles are approaching three years old and the Kraft paints are much older. 

So, in your collective minds do you think moving the paint storage to the library and tracking which brand name paints I buy from the miniature manufacturer versus the bargain bin paint buys will show an improvement in the performance of the paints I buy directly from the manufacturer?

He implied he expected the Kraft paints to be an issue so they may have been thick/clogging and he just did not deem to mention that.

Thanks in advance for your experiences.

[Vermis]

Why so coy about the brand name? If it's Vallejo, I can well understand the complaints about clogging.

[rebelyell2006]

I've stored my paints in high heat, near-freezing, high humidity, low humidity, and while anecdotal evidence, I haven't had issues based on the environment of storage.  Nor has age been a problem; my Tamiya and Testors paints are still good despite being around 20 years old.  The clogging could be from improperly cleaning the nozzles after use.

[Cubs]

I love Vallejo paints, but hate the dropper bottle. This is one of the reasons I mix my own shades and decant them into empty plastic pots bought from eBay. Because I tend to buy in bulk, it's still cheaper for the paint and pot, than most other brands and I like their paints, although I do buy others, too.

[Peithetairos]

I always have a needle handy when working with Vallejo. This way you can easily open up and clogging in the dropper tip.

[Elbows]

Same...paper clip on hand for puncturing small clogs in the Vallejo bottles.

[Daeothar]

Odd. I've never had any issues with clogging Vallejo or (Reaper?) dropper bottles. At all. If I've ever had any problems with paint pots/bottles, it has always been with the octangular GW screw cap pots; those were horrible.

I store my paints in a drawer under my painting desk, all bottles standing straight up. So; dark, at room temperature. I still have Citadel paints in the soft octangular bottles with white flip lid that are now close to 25 years old and are still as good as back then.

The only issue I have with Vallejo paints (if that is indeed the brand you were referring to; I have no personal experience with Reaper paints) is that the lighter colours such as yellows (very much), oranges and bright reds tend to clog all their pigments inside the bottle (so not the nozzle), making it one big rattling clump, swimming in what little medium remians fluid. Only the colours I mentioned; blacks, greys, greens etc etc are all still ok, and I have some pretty old (close to 10 years?) Vallejo bottles in there.

What I do though, and I'm sort of anal about this, is after squeezing out the paint I need on my palette, I immediately screw the cap back on, to minimize the time the open bottle (and paint) is exposed to the open air. I don't know if that could be related to your problems, but it works for me. With each paint drop on the palette, from opening to closing, the bottles are usually open for a maximum of 5 seconds , give or take.

As an aside; I do the same thing with my favourite plastic glue; Revell Contacta, with applicator needle. I always heard complaints about the needle drying out, but I (almost) never have that issue, because after applying the glue, I always immediately close up the bottle again, before pressing the to-glue-parts together. This actually helps, as the glue will have a bit of time to start melting the plastic, making the actual fitting/glueing part a bit easier...

[Conquistador]

Not being coy as much as making sure it was not a shortcoming of my practices before perhaps tarnishing the brand by my statement.