This has been resolved for me, but here's a safety heads-up.
A pail of food grade lye I got in February, when opened this summer, smelled funny (diesely) when I took the lid off, though the lye itself appeared normal.
A test batch made up with my normal distilled water started out looking and smelling ok but as it stopped steaming, black gunk appeared and clung to the side of the pitcher and the stirring spoon.
I called the company (Duda Diesel) as it was past Amazon's return date, and had difficulty getting a person, and when I did, it took two days of arguing via phone and emails with several people that this is not normal, and was their lye causing it, and then making another batch & documenting & sending photos of the fresh distilled water jug, my freshly washed tools, their pail and lot #, and the black flotsam as it was forming, .... three times, as they said they didn't get the pics...to get them to admit there was a problem requiring them to do something. That 2nd batch had even more black scum form than the first.
It took another week for them to replace (they would not refund) the product.
Needless to say I'll never buy lye from them again; I have a pail of hazardous waste to dispose of. This is the lot #: L309N
Recent reviews on Amazon include their lye being adulterated with tiny plastic granules that look like lye but never dissolve.
They say they're mostly making sanitizer now.. and I wouldn't buy that either.
A pail of food grade lye I got in February, when opened this summer, smelled funny (diesely) when I took the lid off, though the lye itself appeared normal.
A test batch made up with my normal distilled water started out looking and smelling ok but as it stopped steaming, black gunk appeared and clung to the side of the pitcher and the stirring spoon.
I called the company (Duda Diesel) as it was past Amazon's return date, and had difficulty getting a person, and when I did, it took two days of arguing via phone and emails with several people that this is not normal, and was their lye causing it, and then making another batch & documenting & sending photos of the fresh distilled water jug, my freshly washed tools, their pail and lot #, and the black flotsam as it was forming, .... three times, as they said they didn't get the pics...to get them to admit there was a problem requiring them to do something. That 2nd batch had even more black scum form than the first.
It took another week for them to replace (they would not refund) the product.
Needless to say I'll never buy lye from them again; I have a pail of hazardous waste to dispose of. This is the lot #: L309N
Recent reviews on Amazon include their lye being adulterated with tiny plastic granules that look like lye but never dissolve.
They say they're mostly making sanitizer now.. and I wouldn't buy that either.
