I need to vent. Lost 5.5kg of oils today

[wetshavingproducts]

A supplier, who shall go unnamed for the time being (depending on how they resolve this), sent me NAOH instead of KOH. And of course, the only real difference in the labeling is that is says NAOH instead of KOH (abbreviated). So, I'm making the soap and after I put the lye in the oils, I realize something's wrong.

It's not coming out the same, and I start to wonder... why did this batch just volcano..... Something's not right. So I pull a container out of the trash and lo and behold, NAOH instead of KOH.

Insert expletive.

Now I'm all out of oils too. I'm extremely angry, tired, and confounded.

 

[KatieShephard]

Oh no! I'm so sorry this happened to you! *insert matching explicative here* I hope the company in question makes this right.

 

[CanaDawn]

Is it salvageable, since you know what you put in, weight-wise?

 

[Susie]

I hate to say that I like your post, but it is my weird attempt to sympathize. I am sorry that happened! And they should make it right.

 

[cmzaha]

I guess I am totally brain dead tonight. Was this KOH in a NaOH labeled bottle? Just being curious since I really could not figure from the post if you were wanting Sodium or Potassium Hydroxide. Where I am confused is why you would not have noticed the difference. KOH and NaOH, at least any I buy, do not look the same and certainly do not act the same when added to water. NaOH just dissolves while KOH hisses when it hits the water. Any KOH I have purchased is flaked while Caustic Soda Beads, NaOH, are tiny beads. Just wondering..

 

[lionprincess00]

I get NAOH from bb, and it's in flake form, not beads. OP didn't mention where it was purchased, but I thought I'd throw that out there. I had no idea KOH hissed, but I've never used it before. Good to know!
Sorry op...I'd be less than happy. Let us know how it resolves.

 

[Tizzy]

The exact same thing happened to me. My supplier sent me NaOH in a KOH labelled container. I wonder if it's the same supplier.

 

[gaerwen]

Oh wow, that sucks. I wouldn't know at all what to do with it!!

 

[cmzaha]

I get NAOH from bb, and it's in flake form, not beads. OP didn't mention where it was purchased, but I thought I'd throw that out there. I had no idea KOH hissed, but I've never used it before. Good to know!
Sorry op...I'd be less than happy. Let us know how it resolves.

Now that you mention it I do remember reading, probably a few years back, that B&B had changed their NaOH to a flaked. The telling difference is the hissing of KOH. It does suck and hopefully the supplier makes a good adjustment. I would be very surprised if they credit back for the loss of oils, hopefully they will

 

[wetshavingproducts]

Is it salvageable, since you know what you put in, weight-wise?

No, it's the completely wrong lye and I ran out of oils anyway.

 

[wetshavingproducts]

I guess I am totally brain dead tonight. Was this KOH in a NaOH labeled bottle? Just being curious since I really could not figure from the post if you were wanting Sodium or Potassium Hydroxide. Where I am confused is why you would not have noticed the difference. KOH and NaOH, at least any I buy, do not look the same and certainly do not act the same when added to water. NaOH just dissolves while KOH hisses when it hits the water. Any KOH I have purchased is flaked while Caustic Soda Beads, NaOH, are tiny beads. Just wondering..

Both were in flake form. Literally the only difference was that the NAOH had dust in the cap (which I thought was from possibly shipping on it's side) and it says sodium instead of potassium. Not exactly something I thought to check (too much trust in the packer/shipper).

Also, for some reason I had this idea in my mind that NAOH didn't come in flake form, but I knew better. Mostly I trusted the supplier to send the right item seeing as this issue is exactly what would happen if they sent the wrong lye.

 

[CanaDawn]

No, it's the completely wrong lye and I ran out of oils anyway.

I understand about the lye, just wondered if you could reformulate on the fly. Bummer

 

[wetshavingproducts]

I understand about the lye, just wondered if you could reformulate on the fly. Bummer

With the amount of stearic acid I use, I had lye heavy soap on a stick. The hardness of the soap was what finally clued me in. The slight volcano I had I thought was due to poor technique on my part.

Ended up sealing it in a bucket and throwing it away. Waste of a good bucket....

 

[CanaDawn]

well that's really disheartening. I hope the company is sympathetic or responsive.

 

[BerbersBlends]

That is super crappy! (((HUGS))). I Hope we can all take this as a learning lesson to double check labels when receiving shipments since errors do occur. Also hope you get refunded!!!

 

[CanaDawn]

At least it's sorta understandable how both shipper and buyer might not have noticed the difference in the labels (if a bin were mis-filled in the warehouse, for instance).....we once got a large number of earplugs when we'd ordered a chemical reagent....I guess earplugs were in that bin...so earplugs it was....sorry, did you say something?

 

[marilynmac]

WSP shipped me mis-labeled FO recently. It was labeled as what I ordered, but the stuff inside was NOT what I ordered. Unlike NaOH/KOH, the difference was immediately noticeable when I opened the bottle.

They denied it 100%. They will tell you it couldn't have possibly have happened because it's in a totally different part of the warehouse. Right...?

their NaOh is big flakes.

 

[Lindy]

Lee it's too bad you threw it out as you could have turned it into liquid soap. I'm really sorry this happened to you though.

 

[wetshavingproducts]

Lee it's too bad you threw it out as you could have turned it into liquid soap. I'm really sorry this happened to you though.

You can turn soap made with NAOH into liquid soap? I thought it was soap made with KOH?

If it was the other way around, I'd just have a heavily lye discounted soap that was gooey. But NAOH has more sap per weight (unsure of terminology here), so it was extremely lye heavy.

Maybe I could have turned it into laundry soap, but my girlfriend would never let me actually use it. Probably wouldn't have worked as dish soap either since it was basically really hot soap on a stick that was sort of pliable.

 

[Lindy]

Argh - sorry I had it the other way around. I thought you had used KOH instead of NaOH. If you had more of the same oils could you not calculate how much you would need in order to make it a nice soap and then add those oils in?

Just trying to think of ways for you to save this batch.