# Where does everyone cure their soap??



## Jen74 (Jun 10, 2021)

I am just wondering where everyone here cures their soap? What part of your house? I am having an issue with curing my soap in the warmer months it seems. During the winter I have no issues. It seems like in the spring and summer more so my soaps will go rancid during the curing period. That is even with the AC on all day. The only thing I can think of is that the humidity is normally higher during the spring and summer. I cannot seem to find a suitable spot in my house. I tried testing  my bedroom closet last night. I bought a small dehumidifier and even closed the door of the closet and placed a humidity guage in there just to see. Well it was still humid, above 50% humidity in the closet with the small dehumidifier. My bedroom does have a bathroom which we shower in. Maybe that is why? I usually cure my soaps in my living room/kitchen with a small fan blowing on them and that seems to do fine all winter. It is just I have no clue  where to put them in the spring and summer. I have a basement that is finished, but again, basements are normally more humid than everywhere else in the house so not thinking that would do any good either. I am at a loss and just wondering where everyone else cures their soap in their homes??


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## TheGecko (Jun 10, 2021)

I live in the Pacific Northwest and cure in my mostly uninsulated garage.  We got a lot of rain towards the end of Fall, Winter and early Spring, so I up my Lye Solution from 33% to 35%.  I also use a small oscillating fan during those months and when the humidity gets high during the Summer.

If your basement is 'finished', then humidity shouldn't be an issue.

ETA:  Good air circulation is more important than humidity levels.  Put the soaps on a shelf in the basement and hook a small fan to blow ever them.


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## Jen74 (Jun 10, 2021)

TheGecko said:


> I live in the Pacific Northwest and cure in my mostly uninsulated garage.  We got a lot of rain towards the end of Fall, Winter and early Spring, so I up my Lye Solution from 33% to 35%.  I also use a small oscillating fan during those months and when the humidity gets high during the Summer.
> 
> If your basement is 'finished', then humidity shouldn't be an issue.
> 
> ETA:  Good air circulation is more important than humidity levels.  Put the soaps on a shelf in the basement and hook a small fan to blow ever them.




I can try that. Would you put them say in a closed room like a closet with door shut, or out in the open in a main larger room with a fan going on them? Right now I have them in my kitchen/living room with a fan constantly oscilatiing over them. Does upping the lye level help prevent racidity?


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## earlene (Jun 10, 2021)

You can get something like *this* to help identify the humidity in your curing room. It might help you devise a plan to lower humidity in your curing space. I have something similar and found it quite useful.

OOPS, I see you have one already.

My curing area is an upstairs spare room, with a fan (sometimes 2 fans) running throughout the high humid months.  A fan does a better job of drying the air than a portable de-humidifier, at least the kind that collect water and then you have to empty the water collection resevior.  The one we have in our basement fills up in less than 24 hours time, shuts itself off and does nothing until we manually empty it out, which I find frustratingly inconvenient.  A fan is noisier, but it doesn't stop running and does dry out the air in the room much more efficiently.


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## Jen74 (Jun 10, 2021)

Y


earlene said:


> You can get something like *this* to help identify the humidity in your curing room. It might help you devise a plan to lower humidity in your curing space. I have something similar and found it quite useful.
> 
> My curing area is an upstairs spare room, with a fan running throughout the high humid months.




Yes, I actually have something similar to this that checks the humidity levels in my home. It seems like I am always anywhere between 46% to 50% in the spring and summer( that is with the AC going and a small fan blowing on the soaps). In the winter the humidity is very low( in the 20's or 30's) which works much better. That seems to be my issue, I cannot get the humidity down anywhere in my home to like the 30's, not during the spring or summer at least. What level of humidity is a good level for curing soap??


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## earlene (Jun 10, 2021)

Maybe you could add some DampRid water absorption packets in the curing area.

I used something similar to *this* in a closet in the bathroom at my son's house when I stayed there for an extended period of time.  Since it was in the bathroom with a useless fan/vent, the closet was way too moist with daily baths & showers & cat bathing and whatnot.  It filled up with water pretty quickly (within a month, if I recall correctly) so it really was quite humid in there.

Some ideas about how to reduce humidity in your home:


			https://www.lowes.com/n/how-to/controlling-moisture-and-humidity-in-the-home
		


ETA: At one point, our dryer vent that leads to the outside of the house, was loose from the wall.  Besides blowing lint into the laundry room, it also blew moist air into the house whenever the dryer was running.  It took a lot of complaining and threats to stop doing laundry and some months before my husband fixed it, but before he did, just doing the laundry was increasing the humidity in our house so much, it was amazing.  I mention this because it is one of the things that the above link addresses.  Looking for all possible ways to control humidity in your home can also prevent or correct other problems as well.


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## Quanta (Jun 10, 2021)

earlene said:


> You can get something like *this* to help identify the humidity in your curing room. It might help you devise a plan to lower humidity in your curing space. I have something similar and found it quite useful.
> 
> OOPS, I see you have one already.
> 
> My curing area is an upstairs spare room, with a fan (sometimes 2 fans) running throughout the high humid months.  A fan does a better job of drying the air than a portable de-humidifier, at least the kind that collect water and then you have to empty the water collection resevior.  The one we have in our basement fills up in less than 24 hours time, shuts itself off and does nothing until we manually empty it out, which I find frustratingly inconvenient.  A fan is noisier, but it doesn't stop running and does dry out the air in the room much more efficiently.


This hasn't been my experience. If a fan was actually drying the air by itself, where would the water end up? It has to go somewhere. I live in an extremely humid area, and running multiple fans all over the house doesn't bring down the humidity at all. It stays around 70% at 78°F in the summer. I did recently buy a dehumidifier and the humidity is finally down to 55-60%. I frequently empty the reservoir but the unit I bought has a pump with a hose that can be left in a sink nearby, for those who need one that doesn't have to be emptied manually. If it's humid enough to warrant one that runs continuously, this is a handy feature to have.

A fan by itself has no mechanism for removing moisture; it just moves it around. The AC will remove moisture from the air the same way a dehumidifier does, by forcing it to condense on the coils. The difference is that the AC works by venting the hot air outside and the cold air inside, but a dehumidifier mixes the hot and cold air, now dry, back together before venting it back out of the machine.


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## Peachy Clean Soap (Jun 10, 2021)

I store my soap's in a closet,  It's dry in my location & luckily I dont half to deal w/ humidity.  I do put a fan on it just to assure it gets enough air circulation.


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## Angie Gail (Jun 10, 2021)

I keep them in the room where we store our products for sale in a sheet pan rack on wax paper. I leave the ceiling fan going all the time and I have a dehumidifier in the room that also runs constantly (I'm in Texas and it's very humid here most of the year). I keep the door closed so with the fan going it stays cool and humidity is low (around 30% - 45% range). I also keep the blinds closed so it's cool and dark.


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## maryloucb (Jun 10, 2021)

I cure mine in an extra bedroom that doesn't really get any direct sunlight, except in the early morning hours. I'm in a very dry climate (maybe 20% humidity in the summer) and I don't keep a fan going (but maybe I should?)


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## TheGecko (Jun 11, 2021)

Jen74 said:


> I can try that. Would you put them say in a closed room like a closet with door shut, or out in the open in a main larger room with a fan going on them? Right now I have them in my kitchen/living room with a fan constantly oscilatiing over them. Does upping the lye level help prevent racidity?



Air doesn’t circulate well in a small space.

I’m not increasing my Lye, I’m decreasing my water.  I do it because my first Winter it took an extra day before I could unmold my soap and then I had to wait to cut and twelve weeks for my soap to cure.  

I’ve never had an issue with DOS or rancidity, but logic says it couldn’t hurt.


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Jun 12, 2021)

Quanta said:


> This hasn't been my experience. If a fan was actually drying the air by itself, where would the water end up? It has to go somewhere. I live in an extremely humid area, and running multiple fans all over the house doesn't bring down the humidity at all. It stays around 70% at 78°F in the summer. I did recently buy a dehumidifier and the humidity is finally down to 55-60%. I frequently empty the reservoir but the unit I bought has a pump with a hose that can be left in a sink nearby, for those who need one that doesn't have to be emptied manually. If it's humid enough to warrant one that runs continuously, this is a handy feature to have.
> 
> A fan by itself has no mechanism for removing moisture; it just moves it around. The AC will remove moisture from the air the same way a dehumidifier does, by forcing it to condense on the coils. The difference is that the AC works by venting the hot air outside and the cold air inside, but a dehumidifier mixes the hot and cold air, now dry, back together before venting it back out of the machine.



As the main thrust of the idea is helping to cure the soaps, getting air flowing over the surface area helps a lot even if the air is not overly dry itself - the soap will still be giving off more moisture than is in the air in most situations. I'd rather have more airflow of slightly damper air than no airflow of drier air when curing soap. 

It's like having a normal fan blowing on you in the heat - it's not cooling the air at all, but it will often cool you down at least a little as you are able to transfer your heat to more air than if the fan wasn't going


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## KiwiMoose (Jun 12, 2021)

My already cured soap sweats like anything in humid weather.  It's cured and stored in a spare bedroom in wooden shelves. I decided against a fan for the same reasons that @Quanta states.  I thought about getting a portable dehumidifier but it looks like we will be getting a fully ducted home ventilation system ( or positive air pressure system) which are becoming quite common in New Zealand homes these days to rid homes of damp.


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## earlene (Jun 12, 2021)

Quanta said:


> This hasn't been my experience. If a fan was actually drying the air by itself, where would the water end up? It has to go somewhere. I live in an extremely humid area, and running multiple fans all over the house doesn't bring down the humidity at all. It stays around 70% at 78°F in the summer. I did recently buy a dehumidifier and the humidity is finally down to 55-60%. I frequently empty the reservoir but the unit I bought has a pump with a hose that can be left in a sink nearby, for those who need one that doesn't have to be emptied manually. If it's humid enough to warrant one that runs continuously, this is a handy feature to have.
> 
> A fan by itself has no mechanism for removing moisture; it just moves it around. The AC will remove moisture from the air the same way a dehumidifier does, by forcing it to condense on the coils. The difference is that the AC works by venting the hot air outside and the cold air inside, but a dehumidifier mixes the hot and cold air, now dry, back together before venting it back out of the machine.



Thank you for the correction.  You are correct of course; a fan doesn't have a mechanism for drying the air.  I guess I misspoke.  What happens in our basement and in my curing room as well, is this: The moist air is DISPLACED by the powerful fans that I use, moving the moisture to other spaces within the home, thus diluting the less moist air in the home, equalizing it, so to speak. Then of course, the dehumidifier built into our AC system also circulates the air thoughout the home and pulls that moisture, which subsequently drains into the floor drain in the basement.

So in reality, the additional fans are part of a two(or multi)-step process and they do work in conjunction with the other mechanisms.

My husband & I were just talking about how air circulation is so important in this process.  He even suggested that the moisture is moved to the walls, the carpet, and any other porous surface that may absorb the water from the air, if the dehumidification process fails.

My subsequent post (#5) talks about my method for an enclosed closet where there is little or no air circulation.  The amount of water that item sucked out of that fairly small enclosed space actually surprised me.  It was a good quart of water.



earlene said:


> Maybe you could add some DampRid water absorption packets in the curing area.
> 
> I used something similar to *this* in a closet in the bathroom at my son's house when I stayed there for an extended period of time.  Since it was in the bathroom with a useless fan/vent, the closet was way too moist with daily baths & showers & cat bathing and whatnot.  It filled up with water pretty quickly (within a month, if I recall correctly) so it really was quite humid in there.
> 
> ...


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## Quanta (Jun 12, 2021)

earlene said:


> Thank you for the correction.  You are correct of course; a fan doesn't have a mechanism for drying the air.  I guess I misspoke.  What happens in our basement and in my curing room as well, is this: The moist air is DISPLACED by the powerful fans that I use, moving the moisture to other spaces within the home, thus diluting the less moist air in the home, equalizing it, so to speak. Then of course, the dehumidifier built into our AC system also circulates the air thoughout the home and pulls that moisture, which subsequently drains into the floor drain in the basement.
> 
> So in reality, the additional fans are part of a two(or multi)-step process and they do work in conjunction with the other mechanisms.
> 
> ...


I guess since I have never lived in a house with a basement, having different humidity levels in the house is not something I have experience with. When I run a fan in my house, I am moving humidity from one room into another room with the same humidity level. And the little moisture absorbers will never work with the amounts of humidity I deal with, I would need cases of them. That 70% I mentioned, is at 78°F which is quite a lot more moisture than 70% at 72°F. My house is only 923 sq.ft. and if I let my dehumidifier run continuously, it will probably pull 3 gallons of water per day out of the air. That is in addition to what the AC removes, which I can't measure because it drains into the plumbing under the bathroom sink. Another reason the humidity is the same all over the house, is I have central AC everywhere except the garage. I have my thermostat set to run the central fan at least 20 minutes per hour whether the AC is running or not, so all the air gets mixed up and the temperature and humidity is the same throughout.


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## Nona'sFarm (Jun 13, 2021)

Even though I live in a humid climate I don't have trouble curing my soaps. It could be because they cure on a rack that sits on a table that is positioned over an air vent and I keep the overhead fan running. Sometimes, I do have to wait 2-3 days to un-mold and I usually cure for 8 - 12 weeks. The primary ingredients in my soaps are olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oil (labeled sustainably harvested). None have ever gone rancid.


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## Zany_in_CO (Jun 13, 2021)

I cure my batches in the Laundry Room for a couple of weeks to keep an eye on them. Then they move to the guest bedroom. It smells so good when you walk in. So says everyone who happens in there.


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## Janewoc17 (Jun 13, 2021)

TheGecko said:


> I live in the Pacific Northwest and cure in my mostly uninsulated garage.  We got a lot of rain towards the end of Fall, Winter and early Spring, so I up my Lye Solution from 33% to 35%.  I also use a small oscillating fan during those months and when the humidity gets high during the Summer.
> 
> If your basement is 'finished', then humidity shouldn't be an issue.
> 
> ETA:  Good air circulation is more important than humidity levels.  Put the soaps on a shelf in the basement and hook a small fan to blow ever them.


That’s so adorable that you say you get lots of rain just three seasons of the year and summer is just humid! Heehee! I sure do miss living in Eugene. At least I get to visit my son in Portland! I miss the PNW all the time, living in the desert.


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## VikingChick (Jun 13, 2021)

It’s HOT and HUMID in the summer where I live. I have an upstairs bedroom that I use for curing my soaps.....but I’ll admit to being generous when it comes to running the A/C. Where I am, many houses (mine included) have two units, one for upstairs and one for downstairs.

You mentioned rancidity.....please forgive me if this is an obvious question, but are you adding ROE or some other antioxidant to your oils/recipe? (Apologies if someone already mentioned this.)


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## TheGecko (Jun 13, 2021)

Janewoc17 said:


> That’s so adorable that you say you get lots of rain just three seasons of the year and summer is just humid! Heehee! I sure do miss living in Eugene. At least I get to visit my son in Portland! I miss the PNW all the time, living in the desert.



I spent 10 years in the desert and miss it.


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## Mobjack Bay (Jun 13, 2021)

I use a higher than average lye concentration to help speed up the drying (not curing) process, but soaps made in the summer still take longer to dry.  Airflow helps with the initial drying, but once the soaps are almost dry I think it’s a losing battle if the temperature and relative humidity are high. In my experience, even “dry”, well-cured soap equilibrates with the ambient humidity.  I realized this after sending soap to Arizona a couple of years ago.  All the bands fell off.  I have now sent or taken “dry” soap from Virginia to Arizona on multiple occasions.  It shrinks every time!


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## bookreader451 (Jun 20, 2021)

I cure mine on basements racks, covered in cheesecloth.  I run a dehumidifier (into a sink) to keep the humidity at 45%.  When I need room on the racks I store the cured soap in shoe boxes inside a cupboard in the basement,


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## earlene (Jun 21, 2021)

bookreader451 said:


> I cure mine on basements racks, covered in cheesecloth.  I run a dehumidifier (into a sink) to keep the humidity at 45%.  When I need room on the racks I store the cured soap in shoe boxes inside a cupboard in the basement,


I really like this idea of running the dehumidifier into a sink!  Another thing to add to a curing room!  That is unless one doe not have a floor drain.


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## bookreader451 (Jun 21, 2021)

earlene said:


> I really like this idea of running the dehumidifier into a sink!  Another thing to add to a curing room!  That is unless one doe not have a floor drain.


The floor drain was right by the bottom of the stairs and would have been a major trip hazard so I set the dehumidifier high and let it drain into the utility sink.


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## Quanta (Jun 21, 2021)

earlene said:


> I really like this idea of running the dehumidifier into a sink!  Another thing to add to a curing room!  That is unless one doe not have a floor drain.





bookreader451 said:


> The floor drain was right by the bottom of the stairs and would have been a major trip hazard so I set the dehumidifier high and let it drain into the utility sink.


If you get one with a built-in pump, you can leave the dehumidifier on the floor and put the other end of the hose in a sink somewhere. Mine is supposed to be able to pump as high as a sink on the story above the one where the dehumidifier is set up, do you don't even need a drain in the basement at all.


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## Cat&Oak (Jun 21, 2021)

I use the front living room of our home for storage. I have the wheeled trays from Essential Depot, being a lifetime member I can get them for a great price. I am in the desert which is nice for soapmaking because it is very dry.


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## KimW (Jun 21, 2021)

Shoe rack tower, with fibreboard shelves lined with mesh plastic canvas.   The shoe rack tower has a three-sided cover that does a good job of keeping off dust.


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## bookreader451 (Jun 21, 2021)

Quanta said:


> If you get one with a built-in pump, you can leave the dehumidifier on the floor and put the other end of the hose in a sink somewhere. Mine is supposed to be able to pump as high as a sink on the story above the one where the dehumidifier is set up, do you don't even need a drain in the basement at all.


Yes,  my sister has hers attached to a pump.  I just put mine on an old table.


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## earlene (Jun 22, 2021)

Quanta said:


> If you get one with a built-in pump, you can leave the dehumidifier on the floor and put the other end of the hose in a sink somewhere. Mine is supposed to be able to pump as high as a sink on the story above the one where the dehumidifier is set up, do you don't even need a drain in the basement at all.


Our basement has floor drains in 2 of the bigger rooms.  The smaller rooms don't have drains (my husband's office & a big closet off the office).  Our Central  Heat & AC unit & Dehumidifying Unit are n all-in-one type of thing; all attached to each other; maybe they came as a package; maybe they were combined as separate components; I don't know for sure, as we did not install them ourselves.  The water drain off tube snakes along the floor to the drain.  In the other room our water softener drain tube snakes toward the drain in the room.  Neither drain is near the stairs; I can see how that would be quite annoying.  But in both cases, we do tack down the tubing. In one room an anchor is bolted into the concrete to keep the drainage tubing in place.  In the other room we put a thinnish rubber mat over the tubing to prevent it from moving around when we walk in that part, as foot traffic can kick the tubing around.

The portable dehumidifier we have in my husband's office is near the entry door, so that the tubing can be directed toward the drain in the adjacent room.  But the tubing never stayed in place at the end inside the dehumidifier, so we stopped trying to get it to self-drain.  It was a loosing battle.  So the reservoir has to be emptied by hand daily when in use; otherwise it turns itself off when the reservoir is full.

The reason I like the idea of draining to a sink is that it seems like something that could be done in a room that doesn't have a drain like our basement does.  But of course, it would also mean the units tube drain could be secured and not keep falling off like the one I described.  A built-in pump sounds good, too.


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