Steel Saber
Does shaking pepper spray hurt it? Is pepper spray easily damaged? Is pepper spray reliable?
Is pepper spray easily damaged? Or is it extremely reliable? Are the cans usually good when they arrive, or should you test it to make sure it works? And which pepper spray brand do you think is best? Fox Labs? Sabre/Sabre Red? Inferno? (from Cold Steel). Pepper shot? Police Magnum? Spitfire? your opinions please.. 
No, pepper spray usually has a solid lifetime of 2-3 years. However, the reason there is that expiration date is the propellant used to discharge the pepper will slowly leak away. Usually some sprays are good after 5 years but it is safe to stick with 2-3 years. The best spray in my opinion is Fox Labs. It is the purest spray available. It comes in 5.3 million SHU sprays. It is used very frequently by law enforcement. The Sabre is my second choice but I seriously would go with Fox Labs. It is THE choice. I carry it on a daily basis. The cans by Fox Labs comes with a manufacture date so its an added plus. They cans are good on arrival. They suggest you spray it once every few months just to make sure its still going but I never did that and it wasn’t a problem for me as I replaced it every 3 years. Shaking it wont do a thing really. Police run and jog and basically have a really active patrol lifestyle and I’m sure the spray gets shaken up quite a bit. If it works for them, it should work for you. So if I were you, I would get Fox Labs. The 5.3 mill SHU beats the competition by 2-3 times. It comes in cone or stream spray so get whatever you feel comfortable with. Pepper spray is generally very reliable. With Fox Labs its easily a 90% + rate of stoppage. Obviously no weapon available to consumers is 100% foolproof. Even the .357 magnum only has a 96% stoppage rate so there is always that small percentage. But even with that, it will at least reduce attackers’ ability to attack you.
Cold Steel 1830 Napoleon Saber