Digital oil heating devices

[DextrousM]

Does anyone use or know of any cheap oil heating devices? Like a quick to temp crock pot? Thanks in advance!
-DM

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Saucepans are not expensive and most are compatible with all normal kitchen hobs!

If speed is an issue, have you thought of using the heat transfer method? Make your lye fresh and pour it over your solid oils while it is still very hot and the heat will melt down the oils - as long as they aren't too cold.

 

[DextrousM]

I do use a saucepan currently... I thinking more set-and-forget so I could be off fussing with my lye(outside, I don't have an out venting stove fan) and dye and EOs and others to be most efficient. Also, I could use it for hot process crock pot liquid soap making and without fussing with a double boiler and standing over it monitoring the temp... I was hoping someone has already may have figured this thing out...

 

[shunt2011]

I do use a saucepan currently... I thinking more set-and-forget so I could be off fussing with my lye(outside, I don't have an out venting stove fan) and dye and EOs and others to be most efficient. Also, I could use it for hot process crock pot liquid soap making and without fussing with a double boiler and standing over it monitoring the temp... I was hoping someone has already may have figured this thing out...

You can master batch your oils and then they are ready when you want to use them. I just mix my masterbatch well and dispense what I need into my soaping bowl/pot and if it does need a bit of warming I pot that into my microwave. Generally I can just make soap.

 

[Seawolfe]

I use a plastic bucket in my microwave. If you set it in a bowl of hot water the water will carry the heat on after the timer dings. But now that I have a sense of how long it takes to just melt a volume of hard oils I just set the timer and walk away.

Check out at a thrift shop for a temp controlled cooker if you want to try it. It could also work as a crockpot, but I would think would be a bit slow for melting oils.

 

[songwind]

The quickest oil heating method I know of would be the microwave.

A crock pot would work, too, but it would have lots of residual heat so there could be some logistical issues if you want to do cold process. Mostly from having to pour from/scrape out a heavy, burning-hot crock.

 

[IrishLass]

I do use a saucepan currently... I thinking more set-and-forget so I could be off fussing with my lye(outside, I don't have an out venting stove fan) and dye and EOs and others to be most efficient.

Another alternative is to master-batch your lye solution. You only need to fuss with making it once every so often by making up a large enough amount that will last you through several batches. That's what I do. There are several threads on the forum that tell you how to do it. I like to soap on the warm side, so I place however much master-batched solution I need into a container and then place the container into a bowl of hot water to warm the solution up while my fats are melting on the stovetop. It probably takes all of 20 minutes by the time they're each ready to be mixed together/soaped.

Also, I could use it for hot process crock pot liquid soap making and without fussing with a double boiler and standing over it monitoring the temp... I was hoping someone has already may have figured this thing out...

You can actually make liquid soap without the need of a crockpot or a fussy double-boiler or a thermometer....nor do you even need to cook it...... at least to the paste stage anyway. All you need is a soaping pot and a whisk to saponify to the paste stage. That's the way I do it all the time: I melt my oils/fats on the stovetop in my regular soaping pot, then I take the pot off the heat and hand-whisk my freshly made/hot KOH solution into the melted oils/fats, and I continue hand-whisking off the heat to the emulsification stage, which takes all of about 10 minutes or so. Then I cover my soaping pot and leave it alone on my counter to let time (instead of added heat) do its job of turning the emulsified batter into paste. It normally comes to the paste stage all on its own within 4 to 6 hours, although oftentimes if I'm busy with other things, I'll just leave it to sit and do its thing overnight. It's a wonderfully lazy, stress-free way of making liquid soap.

The only time I heat it is during dilution. No double-boiler, thermometer or crockpot need for this part either....although I do use a large stainless soup/stew pot (with a round cake-cooling rack placed on the bottom) that's filled with water and brought to the boil on my stovetop..... and a large covered canning jar. Basically, I place my paste and dilution water into the large covered canning jar, which is then placed into my soup pot of boiling water. It takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour of sitting in the pot of boiling water for the paste/dilution water to become soft enough to stick-blend to a smooth consistency. No need to monitor temps at all during this process- I just make sure to keep the pot of water on the boil is all. You can read all about it here in posts 8 and 9: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=46114



IrishLass