Difference in lye?

[Basia]

Is there a difference between food grade lye from Amazon and a lye from a hardware store?

Basia

 

[CaliChan]

ive been wondering the same thing

 

[Basia]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EDBEZM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

This is the one I was wandering about.

 

[melstan775]

Food grade lye means the sodium hydroxide is manufactured in equipment dedicated solely to the purpose of lye making, so that it is pure and ready for human consumption (don't forget, we also make pretzels with lye!). The other kind of lye is tech grade, which means it is made for industrial applications and it may have come in contact with other materials.

 

[Trxflyer]

Food Quality Lye has a stronger, more consistent yield than it's plumbing counterpart as it has to meet more stringent purity requirements. In soapmaking the trace impurity doesn't make a real difference. However, I do happen to use the food grade lye from Essential Depot that your link points to on amazon because of price. I've also used hardware store lye and can tell no difference in the soap making or outcome. Just don't eat it ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye

 

[Trxflyer]

Melstan775 is a quicker typist than I and is correct

 

[melstan775]

Trx is more technical and is easily awesomer!

 

[lizflowers42]

Food grade lye means that it's safer to wash your mouth out with a bar of soap for when you are using dirty words.

Oh, and I'm kidding about that

 

[ThenCameJen]

Also, if your hardware store is anything like the ACE here, price is a HUGE difference. $9 for a 1lb bottle. :Kitten Love: I will be buying online as soon as I do a good price comparison with shipping.

 

[Genny]

Also, if your hardware store is anything like the ACE here, price is a HUGE difference. $9 for a 1lb bottle. :Kitten Love: I will be buying online as soon as I do a good price comparison with shipping.

Wow! I get mine at ace & it's $3.50/ lb.

 

[sagehill]

Amish general stores have the cheapest price I've found... Red Crown by Boyer, 2# bottle for $5.30 plus tax. Amish apparently use a lot of lye for general farm uses.

 

[Second Impression]

I think there is a difference at least from my experience. When I first started soaping, I used the Roebic stuff from Lowe's ($15.99 for ~2lbs, eep!) and could put my bare hands in raw soap batter without even a tingle. I may have been prone to dropping my spoon in the pot at first and always thought those tutorial writing folk were way over paranoid about the gloves :think: Then I ordered bulk lye from a soap supply site (no idea of its grade off hand) and learned quickly what the gloves were for. No burns, but I definitely notice when raw soap gets on my skin now and keep the gloves on through clean up ;-)

 

[marghewitt]

Essential Depot sells food grade lye for $1.03 a pound. Shipping is pretty high and doubles the cost per pound but at $2.04 it is still cheaper than buying it at ANY hardware store. I buy 32 pounds at a time to get that price.

 

[melstan775]

Essential Depot sells food grade lye for $1.03 a pound. Shipping is pretty high and doubles the cost per pound but at $2.04 it is still cheaper than buying it at ANY hardware store. I buy 32 pounds at a time to get that price.

Yeah why is their shipping so expensive? It's so high it's almost not worth ordering from them.

 

[lizflowers42]

Yeah why is their shipping so expensive? It's so high it's almost not worth ordering from them.

Lye has to be ground shipped...no air mail. So it's probably got a lot of miles from the distribution center to your place.

 

[lizflowers42]

Also, if your hardware store is anything like the ACE here, price is a HUGE difference. $9 for a 1lb bottle. :Kitten Love: I will be buying online as soon as I do a good price comparison with shipping.

I just found out that the Ace store a few blocks away sells it for a few bucks a bottle. Or you can have it shipped to store for free if you order online. But now that I go back to the website, they are only selling cases online?? http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2845800

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

I get the 32 lbs from Essential Depot also, even with shipping it is better than I could find in a local store, when I lived in a big city. Now that I am in a farming community - can't find it without driving a minimum of 45 miles (not even sure I can buy it there). Essential Depot is my friend. Just keep it sealed and you should be ok, if you have room to store it.

 

[ThenCameJen]

I just found out that the Ace store a few blocks away sells it for a few bucks a bottle. Or you can have it shipped to store for free if you order online. But now that I go back to the website, they are only selling cases online?? http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2845800

I think prices are high here due to our lovely meth problems in the area. As I told my fiance, meth-heads ruin everything! I'm on the coast of Mississippi, and MS was the second state in the nation (after Oregon I think?) to require a prescription for ephedrine or pseudoephedrine products. Heck, I found out the other day that an Rx for something like Claritin-D has to come to the pharmacy on a physical slip, the doc's office can't call or fax it in. Gotta love it! Since lye is also used in the meth process somehow, the ACE here keeps a small box of 1lb bottles under the counter, and they have to keep a record of who buys what and how much (license #, address, phone, etc., etc.) I figured if I was going to have to pay THAT much, I'd order it online and give someone else the same information for a cheaper price. :lolno:

I've checked out essential depot, and if I went with 8lbs food grade, it would only cost me about $3.50ish a pound after shipping.

 

[Bullets]

I pay $3.49 per lb at ACE. after tax for two bottles it costs $7.50 even. So, it's a great deal here! On their website you have to buy 12 and it comes out to $4.49 each lb. Strange.

 

[melstan775]

We can't get it in NV either. Same, drug issues. Fortunately, another local Nevadan has directed me to a closer distributor then Essential Depot, also found some great deals online through Lye Guy.