How much water is lost during curing---ANSWERED

[IanT]

Alright, so I have an experiment I have been conducting since 3/23 (yes thats right almost one year!!!)

The recipe is with a 6% superfat, and was a 1lb recipe... so ... for a bar that started out at 114.8grams, it now weighs 97.7 grams, meaning it has lost just about 15% worth of water weight over the course of the year/curing time...


Just thought you all would find that interesting

 

[SudsyKat]

That IS interesting. Thank you so much for conducting that experiment and for sharing your results.

 

[Deda]

what was your initial ratio?

 

[MissMori]

The amount of evaporation is going to depend on how much water you used to begin with. I've noticed that my shrinkage/weight loss/evaporation decreased in proportion to the amount of water I used.

 

[IanT]

what was your initial ratio?

which one?? how much water I used???

I used it at a rate of 20% of the recipe (that is with a 15% water discount and 6% lye discount) so the lye solution strength was 32.4% overall.




Overall batch weight:

660.59 g

water used:

132.23 g

lye used:

63.43g 9.6% of total batch weight

80% of the total batch weight

660.59 were oils

1.7% was EO




that answer your ?'s ???

 

[Deda]

I think. Do you measure water as a percentage of the oil? Or do you use lye weight?

I just wanted to know what your water to lye ratio was. Looks like roughly 2:1.

I wondered because my normal soap only looses around 5 or 6%, but I usually use high olive and as little as 1:1 to 1.5:1

 

[IanT]

I think. Do you measure water as a percentage of the oil? Or do you use lye weight?

I just wanted to know what your water to lye ratio was. Looks like roughly 2:1.

I wondered because my normal soap only looses around 5 or 6%, but I usually use high olive and as little as 1:1 to 1.5:1

I mostly just use soapmaker3 so it does all that for me

"easy button" ??? lol...

but yes its about 2:1 H20:NaOH ratio


now as far as weights, how long after pouring are you basing your % loss off of? Keep in mind this bar is a little under a year old

 

[Deda]

now as far as weights, how long after pouring are you basing your % loss off of? Keep in mind this bar is a little under a year old

1 day, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months and 2 years. loss is negligible and nearly unmeasurable after 3 months.

But I use much less water from the start.

 

[IanT]

yeah that may be it all depends on how much you start out with