My new air-cooled curing rack

ngian · Mar 28, 2016

Lately in my basement I installed an air-cooled system with PC-fans in order to work every 1 hour with the help of a time-based switch. I guess this will prevent the soaps from sweating.

I have already ordered two more 12cm pc fans as I will install a few metal racks on top of the existing ones.

carlyjones · Mar 28, 2016

i love seeing how other people operate

cmzaha · Mar 28, 2016

Very nice. I use a fan type dehydrator on on of my racks that we used in our boat. Circulating air definitely helps

lisajudy2009 · Mar 29, 2016

Oh what a good idea!

SuzieOz · Mar 30, 2016

Ahhhh ... the lengths to which we will go ... ;-)

songwind · Mar 30, 2016

Why the on/off cycle?

I mean, PC fans neither take a ton of power nor are they prone to failure due to sustained spinning. (I have some that have been spinning non-stop for going on 4 years.) Is there a reason the soap needs to not have the air circulating part of the time?

BrewerGeorge · Mar 30, 2016

songwind said:
Why the on/off cycle?

I mean, PC fans neither take a ton of power nor are they prone to failure due to sustained spinning. (I have some that have been spinning non-stop for going on 4 years.) Is there a reason the soap needs to not have the air circulating part of the time?

I would be afraid that it would warp the soap if the side constantly getting air blown onto it dried faster, thus contracting faster/more.

ngian · Mar 31, 2016

songwind said:
Why the on/off cycle?

I mean, PC fans neither take a ton of power nor are they prone to failure due to sustained spinning. (I have some that have been spinning non-stop for going on 4 years.) Is there a reason the soap needs to not have the air circulating part of the time?

Well I had this time based switch available in my basement, and then I thought about global warming, and then I thought that the soaps wouldn't want to have constant air flow around them... didn't had to analyze it more, I just executed my first thought on how to make this installment work.

I will also make an experiment in the near future, in which I will test how the different lye concentrations (eg. 30% vs 40%) affect the curing time of the soap by weighting its weight every week (is only the ending of the loss of moisture a sign that the soap has cured?), and also how the air blowing affects the speed at which the moisture is evaporated by having one bar on the above installment and one somewhere without pc fans.

The Efficacious Gentleman · Mar 31, 2016

Weight loss does not really mean the end of curing. Taking Castile as the extreme example, it will stop losing weight at a reasonable time, but still need a long time for the structure to settle and for it to really cure

songwind · Mar 31, 2016

Well I had this time based switch available in my basement...

Seems like a perfectly reasonable motivation to me.

TwystedPryncess · Mar 31, 2016

Have you had enough time lapse to see what this is going to do, if anything, to the electric bill? (Or anybody.) Looks interesting. My curing room is probably really only lacking some good ventilation. That is, until we sell the house and I have to start the search and set up all over again...

lenarenee · Mar 31, 2016

BrewerGeorge said:
I would be afraid that it would warp the soap if the side constantly getting air blown onto it dried faster, thus contracting faster/more.

I would have never thought of that!

ngian · Apr 1, 2016

The Efficacious Gentleman said:
Weight loss does not really mean the end of curing. Taking Castile as the extreme example, it will stop losing weight at a reasonable time, but still need a long time for the structure to settle and for it to really cure

Well yes I have read about the sodium oleate's properties from DeeAnna before and if I remember correct she stated something about it being able to slowly absorb water/moisture (while dilluting a liquid castile soap or while bathing with a castile soap bar) and also being able to release water/moisture slowly eg. while curing a castile soap bar.

But that is an extreme example for sure and it is not the same with a "normal" recipe. But then I guess that every soap is like wine, they get better with age.

TwystedPryncess said:
Have you had enough time lapse to see what this is going to do, if anything, to the electric bill? (Or anybody.)

I cannot answer this question as this installment is in an electric line which others are using it too.

topofmurrayhill · Apr 1, 2016

TwystedPryncess said:
Have you had enough time lapse to see what this is going to do, if anything, to the electric bill? (Or anybody.) Looks interesting. My curing room is probably really only lacking some good ventilation. That is, until we sell the house and I have to start the search and set up all over again...

I'm not an electrical engineer, but this should give an idea of it, in broad strokes.

I see two fans and the specs are visible for one of them, so let's assume they're both the same. Drawing .15A at 12V is 1.8W * 2 would require 3.6 watts power when the system is on. Assuming the 12V power supply is 72% efficient, that would make it 5 watts when the system is on.

(I estimated the efficiency of the power supply as 70-75%. Choosing 72% gave me a nice round number.)

I don't know how the timer is set, but let's say the system were to operate for 5 minutes every hour for a total of 2 hours a day, which would be 10 watt hours.

That would be equivalent to turning on a 60 watt light bulb for 10 minutes per day.

ngian · Apr 1, 2016

Well the timer now is set to work for one hour every one hour (one hour on, one hour off, 12 hours total per day) and I plan to add two more fans (0,15A /12V each) while I might set them to work a little less than 12 hours per day...

topofmurrayhill · Apr 1, 2016

ngian said:
Well the timer now is set to work for one hour every one hour (one hour on, one hour off, 12 hours total per day) and I plan to add two more fans (0,15A /12V each) while I might set them to work a little less than 12 hours per day...

A 60 watt bulb for 1 hour per day.

ngian · Apr 27, 2016

A little update on the air-cooled curing rack.

I installed one more floor with soaps while 4 pc fans of 12cm diameter are blowing all of them 8 hours per day. There are also 2 switches that control the two upper and the two lower fans.

I can feel the breeze while I'm inside the basement!

dosco · Apr 27, 2016

The Efficacious Gentleman said:
... but still need a long time for the structure to settle and for it to really cure

Can the curing process (for Castile) be accelerated with elevated temperature?

-Dave

My new air-cooled curing rack

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