Can I use a kitchen scale for measuring both soap and food?

[LavenderPoppi]

I'm wanting to start making soap. However, I have a kitchen scale that I use to measure food and was wondering whether I can also use it to measure soap stuff.

They would be measured in their separate bowls. I understand that soap equipment should not be used for food related stuff cause of the lye, but the scale would not touch the lye, so would it matter?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It would be fine. And lye is the lesser issue when it comes to mixing equipment - my soaping gear has a faint smell of eos! Lye is used in cooking.......

Just make sure that it is digital and is not battery operated. If it is, make sure that the batteries are good. And if you can, use grams to be extra accurate

 

[LavenderPoppi]

It would be fine. And lye is the lesser issue when it comes to mixing equipment - my soaping gear has a faint smell of eos! Lye is used in cooking.......

Just make sure that it is digital and is not battery operated. If it is, make sure that the batteries are good. And if you can, use grams to be extra accurate

Thank you for your advise! My scale is digital, though the batteries I use are well known here, so should be high quality.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Thank you for your advise! My scale is digital, though the batteries I use are well known here, so should be high quality.

With the batteries, I meant good as in not low on power, freshly charged, that sort of thing. Low power can cause wrong results

 

[Babyshoes]

I use the same scale for both. I wipe it over with vinegar after soaping, just to be on the stage side.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Battery-operated scales often have a time-out: they go off after some time, to save charge. No fun if they suddenly turn off amidst measuring your EO blend or NaOH (or brioche dough ingredients), and you lose your tare.

I'm using my scale for both foodstuff and soap. A reasonable bit of paranoia when handling lye (you not only want it to never touch the scale, you absolutely don't want to let anything of it it go anywhere it doesn't belong to) is adequate anyway. For this part I actually have more concerns about foodstuff contaminating soap.

 

[DMack]

I use the same scale for both. I wipe it over with vinegar after soaping, just to be on the stage side.

I use kitchen scales too, I cover with a sheet of kitchen paper to catch any loose lye crystals. This doesn’t affect the accuracy of the scale and makes sure there’s no cross contamination. I do also clean the scales after use

 

[lianasouza]

My scale uses battery, so I use a separate container for each ingredient in case it stops while I am weighing.

 

[Quilter99755]

My scale uses battery, so I use a separate container for each ingredient in case it stops while I am weighing.

That's me, too! These days I line up my ingredients on my counter, measure each one and sit it in front of the container. When they are all measured and sitting pretty in a row, then I know for sure I haven't forgotten any of them...it only takes once to forget and wonder if I really measured the oil and forgot to mark it off or if I didn't measure the oil and still need to do that! Age related degeneration is what I call it.

I also use my scale for both kitchen and soaping. I keep telling myself that I should buy an electric scale for soaping but never seem to gt around to it. I rarely soap during the summer and always put a new battery in the scales each fall when I start to soap again.

 

[Zing]

I'll share a hack I learned here after the untimely and ugly death of my scale due to a spilled essential oil. Now I place my scale inside of a plastic bag which makes clean-up a breeze.

So have you started soaping already??!! We want all the deets and pics. Welcome and good luck,

 

[TheGecko]

I'm wanting to start making soap. However, I have a kitchen scale that I use to measure food and was wondering whether I can also use it to measure soap stuff.

They would be measured in their separate bowls. I understand that soap equipment should not be used for food related stuff cause of the lye, but the scale would not touch the lye, so would it matter?

As long as the scale is digital (for more accurate reading), there would be no issue.

Technically a scale is a scale is a scale. Some are just better at some things than another. As an example...if I'm making 25lb plus batches of soap, I could use a 'bathroom' scale. If you need really precise measurements for small amounts...100g/3.5oz or less, one of those 'pocket/drug' scales would work well. I have two scales...one is from when I used to sell on eBay and was great for calculating postage, not so great when I need to weigh less than an ounce. So I bought an inexpensive 'kitchen scale' from Amazon and it has worked well for the last couple of years. But it does have its limitations...I can't weigh more than 11.24lbs/5100g and the bottom of my container can't be larger that the surface of the scale or I can't see the readout. Eventually I will have to (pardon the pun) scale up my scale and drop a couple of hundred on a more professional scale.

As for as keep soaping and food equipment separate...it depends. Originally I bought dedicated bowls and measuring cups because I was worried about cross-contamination and being poisoned by the lye, but now, it's simply about no one touching my stuff. Before, I'd reach in the drawer for a spatula or a whisk or measuring spoons and they would be gone. Sometimes I would get lucky and they'd be in the dishwasher all nice and clean, but sometimes they would still be dirty. So I bought all new ones for the 'house' and they leave the old ones alone for fear they will be poisoned by soap batter or sodium lactate. Of course, my daughter caught me using a teaspoon out of the drawer. It told her it was okay because it was stainless steel and non-reactive. And since my husband got tired of my using the cookies sheets for curing my soap, he bought me a few professional sized 'trays'.

A lot of it is just common sense and good manufacturing practice if you are going to make soap to sell.

 

[Amy78130]

I do it all the time!! Mine has a glass to so it cleans well.

 

[Michelle0803]

I personally do not. I keep my tools totally separate. But, that is just me.