Hi!
I have had this problem a few times now. I mix my water and lye and let it reach room temp but sometimes some of it seems to have solidified at the bottom of my jug???
It creates an opaque white solid layer which you can smash but it doesnt disolve.
I dont use any washing up liquid or chemicals to wash my jugs or spoons so I am wondering if maybe its some soap/oil residue from my washcloth mixing with the lye water?
I then have to throw the water away and start again as any soap i have made when this happens is very soft due to their being less lye in it.
Any suggestions?
I also get white floaters in my lye water too, what is this?!
Thanks in advance!
Twaburds, if that kept happening to me, I think I would try a new and different lye mixing container and see if the problem resolved itself.
Do you use the same container for lye and use it only for lye solution? If so, is it a stable material? And what kind of stirrer do you use and do you use it only for mixing the lye solution and is it a stable material? Perhaps changing the stirring tool might be another thing to try to see if it has any effect on your outcome.
Just a couple of thoughts on where I would look first, if it were happening to me.
I have had a problem in the past with a container I used to use for mixing lye deteriorate at the bottom. I suspect that tiny bits of that container probably did end up in my soap (molecular sized bits, I would expect, not particulate sized bits), but that only occurred to me after the fact. Luckily I have always only mixed my lye in a container that sits inside my kitchen sink, so when that one did break through the bottom, it went down the drain. It was after that that I realized I needed to take a bit more care about which containers to use for mixing my lye solution. Now when I shop for lye solution containers (at the Goodwill/thrift store) I choose only something I can be absolutely sure is safe for that purpose. I have 4 such containers, of varying sizes for use dependant on the amount of lye solution I need to make. (Two I have not yet used, as they are back-ups for the most used ones.) My stir stick for my lye solution is an actual stick, well a wooden chop stick really and they do deteriorate, so I toss it after using it a few times and use a new one.
I never use the same material for lye solution preparation for any other purpose, thereby avoiding introducing other contaminants into the lye solution. And, like you, I do not use any cleaning solutions. I merely rinse them very well with water and let them air dry. But I do not use a washing up cloth on them, either, so that might be something that is introducing a contaminant to your lye solution; some residual thing on the washing up cloth itself that leaves a residue you cannot see.
