CPOP - Stinky Oven?

[cheri_j]

Happy New Year Soapers!

Since reading about CPOP here, I have become a HUGE fan. I love this method. BUT.... My husband says that it stinks up HIS oven. He does all the cooking, so I guess it's his oven. I told him I couldn't smell anything, even though there was a slight odor.

Is this normal? Is it really my soap that is causing this chemical smell?

I preheat the oven at 170 F (the lowest it will go) and then turn off the oven when I place my soap in it. Then I leave the soap in for 24 hours. I can't smell anything when the soap is in the oven. It's only when my husband uses the oven and sets it above 350 F that there is an odor.

What is your opinion? Can I tell my husband it's not my soap?

Thank you!!

 

[toxikon]

Hmm! I've only CPOP'd a few times, and I follow the same process as you, except I only leave the soap in for a few hours. Gel only takes place during the first couple hours, so there's no need to leave it in for so long. Maybe a shorter time will help whatever smell your husband is detecting. You could also leave the oven open a crack afterwards to air out.

 

[MorpheusPA]

I CPOP almost every time and never detect a scent. Although, like Toxikon, I remove mine as soon as it reaches full gel phase, or after a few hours if I'm not paying attention.

Your husband might just have an incredibly sensitive nose.

Irish Lass also pointed out that she preheats her oven to 110 or so, which in my case means cutting off the heating when the hanging thermometer says I'm near there. That works just as well but doesn't mark up the soap. Maybe try that instead?

It's also possible that the oven just needs cleaning. Try that, and see if the problem re-occurs after your next soaping adventure. If it does, you can always use a heating pad, electric blanket, or the like to force gel phase instead.

 

[earlene]

Perhaps you can find an alternative to the oven in order to keep peace with the cook.

Instead of using the oven (and I think 170 is just a tad too high, btw), you can use a heating pad as Missouri River Soap does in this video:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbWNTxRR5K0[/ame]

Another member here once mentioned using a bread proofer, which is something used in bakeries and not that accessible to most folks. Another member here uses a large insulated box (often called a cooler in the US) which holds heat when the gelling soap is inside. Even a food warming tray (if you have one on hand) can work. In all cases you would need to evaluate how warm your heat source gets & adjust your method and set-up accordingly. An infra-red thermometer is very useful for this purpose.

Depending on your recipe, sometimes added heat isn't even necessary. I made a slab of soap while in a hotel room a few months ago and wanted it to gel, but the temperatures were dropping due to the weather change. So I insulated it well in towels and placed it on a tray inside a dresser drawer. That soap heated up nicely and was still toasty warm the next day in its cozy little nest.

 

[shunt2011]

When I do it I too set my oven at 170 and turn it off when I put my soap in. Never noticed a smell at all. I too only leave it in there for a few hours then remove it.

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't know if you use fragrances or if you use other additives that can create odors (examples -- milk, beer, egg, neem oil), but all can create a slight odor in the air. And in an oven with the door shut so low air circulation, these odors could linger.

The other people's suggestions sound good to me -- less time, lower temp, leave the door open to air out, etc. Don't preheat to full temp if your oven can't control below 170 F -- shut it off sooner so it's not as hot when you put the soap in.

Another thing is to make sure the oven is scrupulously clean when you're done. Even a small smear or drop of soap on the bottom of the oven or on a rack can be smelly when the oven is heated to 350 F.

 

[cmzaha]

My Dragon's Blood leave a detectable odor in my oven for awhile. My main method is to use low shallow plastic storage containers, put my filled molds in the container, put the lid on, with a heating pad underneath, I then wrap a couple of blankets around the container. Nice thing with this method if your soap happens to behave badly and separate the container will hold everything. Depending on my recipe I may also put a lap heating blanket on top

 

[IrishLass]

I agree that 170F is way too way for CPOP. When I CPOP I only pre-heat my oven to 110F - 120F (depends on my formula) before shutting it off.

For what it's worth- like most of y'all, my oven doesn't have any pre-heat settings that actually go that low. The absolute lowest pre-set temp that I can set it to is 145F on its "Keep Warm" option- but even though I can't preset it any lower than 145F, my oven thankfully has an internal thermostat that shows me on its digital readout display window how hot my oven is getting as it heats up to whatever preset I've set it to.

Anyway, I found that it takes only a mere 3 minutes from the moment I turn my oven on to the time that my digital readout display reads 110F. (and about 4 minutes to reach 120F) If you want, you can always just try preheating your oven for only 3 or 4 minutes before turning it off, and see how that works out for you.

Re: any lingering smells. My nose has never detected any lingering soap or FO smells in my oven, and neither has my hubby's nose- which is really saying something because he has what I jokingly refer to as a 'bionic' nose. I swear- he could hire himself out as a bloodhound his nose is so dang sensitive, lol. I sometimes jokingly ask him if he is sure he is not pregnant, because his sense of smell rivals the ultra, super-sonic, laser-sharp sense of smell I had back when I was pregnant.

If it helps, before I put my soap into the oven, my mold is covered with its wooden cover, plus I drape a few cotton diapers over the top of the cover for good measure......oh, and I leave my mold in the oven anywhere from 12 to 24 hours (I normally soap before I go to bed, so I just pop it in the oven and forget about it until sometime the next day).


IrishLass

 

[penelopejane]

When I used the oven (which I can’t now because my new molds are too big) I put my mold in a cardboard box and wrapped the in a small piece of woollen blanket. I only heated the oven to 100*F and used a laser thermometer to check this. I turned it off as soon as I put the soap in and did not open the oven for 12 hours. This is a no fuss method for milk, honey and every other type of soap summer or winter without pock marks or weird smelling soap or oven.

You are not cooking the soap.
You are gently keeping it in an environment where the soaps own heaths contained enough to allow it to gel.

 

[cheri_j]

Wow! All great suggestions. I'm glad to hear about how hot my oven was. There is nothing special about my soaps. Nothing but oils, butter, FO, and lye water.

What I've been doing since being banned from the oven has been putting my soap outside on the front porch since the temps are below zero or in the single digits for an hour or so. then I bring the soap in and wrap in a towel and let it sit for 24 hours. Well, sometimes it is a couple hours less than 24, because I get excited about cutting the soap. This method has been working really well, but I still like the look of gelled soap.

I'm going to do the CPOP method at 110 F next time my husband is out at a band gig and then I will leave the door open to the stove. But first thing, I will clean the oven first.

If that doesn't work, then I will get a heating pad.

Thank YOU so very much!!!

 

[navigator9]

I CPOP every batch, preheating to 170, turning off, and leaving over night. I've never noticed any odor.

 

[penelopejane]

Wow!

I'm going to do the CPOP method at 110 F next time my husband is out at a band gig and then I will leave the door open to the stove. But first thing, I will clean the oven first.

If that doesn't work, then I will get a heating pad. !

Don’t leave the door of the oven open.
When you get the oven to 110*F turn the oven off, put the wrapped soap in and leave for 12-24 hours without opening the door.

A heat mat has its own set of problems. I have to use one now. It is much easier to get consistent results with the oven.

 

[DeeAnna]

Oh, I hope what I said didn't confuse you -- I can see my sentence structure wasn't very clear.

I didn't mean that you should leave the oven door open while your soap is in the oven to saponify. What I meant was this -- after your soap is all done and out of the oven, leave the door open in the now-empty, cold oven so the oven can air out for a bit.

Hope this clarifies any confusion!

 

[earlene]

Or you could put some spent coffee grounds into the oven to absorb the odors. I use unused decaf coffee grounds for that (actually to deodorize mold smell in some hotel rooms) because my husband won't drink decaf & small packets are always included in hotel stays. But I believe the spent (wet, used) coffee grounds will do that same thing if left in a warm oven for an hour or so.