Leaving LS unattended

[Obsidian]

I had just got my LS assembled in the crock pot when my daughter called me to come help with her yard sale. Will it hurt my soap at all if I turn it off and leave it for a few hours?

Its at applesauce stage right now and I won't be leaving for at least 45 more minutes. Its 100% OO

 

[Susie]

Nope. I CP mine all the time. I get it to trace, cover, and walk away. You should have perfectly gelled/saponified soap when you get home.

 

[galaxyMLP]

For some reason I thought this was going to be one of those disaster threads with overheated volcano soap! I'm glad it wasnt.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

.....and my cats got in to it!

 

[IrishLass]

I do the same CP thing with my liquid soap as what Susie does. It'll be fine (just keep the cats out of it )


IrishLass

 

[Obsidian]

No disasters but my soap is still quite fluid and its zappy. I'm turning the heat back on to cook longer. I set my SF at 3%, should it have been more?

Olive oil 16oz
KOH 3.25 oz

H2O 5oz
glycerin 4.75 oz

 

[Obsidian]

Called the company I bought my KOH from. They have no idea what purity it is and they won't look it up for me. They seem to think I'm a idiot for having troubles when no one else does.
The last time I made LS, I just chose KOH on soapcalc and my soap ended up with a layer of floating fat on it. This time I chose 90% and it seems excessively zappy. If its still zaps after a couple more hours cooking, I'll start adding in .50 oz OO at a time until it stops.

 

[Susie]

That should be fine. I have no idea why it is fluid and zappy. I get mine to trace then walk away all the time. But then again, I have never made pure OO liquid soap, so I am not an expert on it.

 

[Obsidian]

I ended up adding a little coconut, about a tablespoon. It might be a little higher SF but at least its not zapping now. Its still quite fluid but I did use higher then normal water. I think I'm going to let it cool then store the paste until I need it.

EDIT: I was wrong, its still slightly zappy. Starting to add in extra OO now.

Edit#2: got frustrated, refigured my recipe with out checking the 90% box, added 2 more ounces of OO and now I finally have zap free paste. Now I know, my KOH isn't 90%

 

[DeeAnna]

Where did you buy it, Obsidian? I've kinda looked into this some and I might be able to advise.

 

[Obsidian]

Its from a local place called Greencastle soap supplies. They wouldn't tell me who the supplier is only that they buy it by the ton and the label doesn't have anything about the purity. The said its often from a different manufacturer. Its large, fairly thick flakes.

 

[DeeAnna]

Ugh. So I can't help. But you said:

"...The last time I made LS, I just chose KOH on soapcalc and my soap ended up with a layer of floating fat on it. This time I chose 90% and it seems excessively zappy. ..."

...and that suggests your current batch of KOH might be in the 95% range. Soapcalc assumes 100% purity if you don't check the 90% box. In that case you got too much superfat (not enough KOH). With the 90% box checked, you got zap (too much KOH). Halfway in between (95%) ... might be juuussssst right.

Summerbeemeadow and Bramble Berry calcs assume about 95% purity, so you could use those, or you can stick with Soapcalc and correct the KOH weight this way:

Actual KOH weight = (KOH weight based on calc's purity) X (Calc's KOH purity) / (Actual KOH purity)

Example: You use SBM calc which is set for 94% purity. Your actual KOH is 85%. The calc says you need 145 g of KOH at its purity. The weight of KOH that you need at your actual purity of 85% is this:

KOH you need = (145 g) X 94 / 85 = 160 g

 

[Obsidian]

I was wondering if it might be around 95% or if I was simply using too high SF(5%) the first couple batches. I'll wait to see how this batch turns out, I went with 3% SF this time. If it still has oil on top, I'll use a different calculator.

If it wasn't for the fact I have about 2 lbs of KOH to use up, I wouldn't even bother with LS.