I'm gathering ingredients for my first liquid soap (thanks Susie and IrishLass!). The Lye Guy advertises KOH 96 - 100%. If I enter 96% KOH in soapee with a 3% superfat, am I cutting it too close? Or do you think the lye is less pure than advertised? Soapee recommends entering 90% purity, and most companies I've looked at claim 90 - 100% KOH, lots of wiggle room for a product that looks like it needs fairly precise measurement. Just wondering what works in your experience. Also open to other sources for KOH. Thanks!
Liquid Soap and the Lye Guy
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I use Soapee.com for my calculations. I use ED KOH, which I think is in the 95% range. I never use less than 3% SF for hand soap, and I never have cloudy soap or floating oils unless I use a certain FO.
I use NaOH and KOH from The Lye Guy. I use his 96% number with good results at 3% superfat. I don't see my LS separating due to being fat heavy, nor do I get zappy soap due to excess lye. Is there a reason why you think he might be misleading you about this?
I also take care to keep my KOH and NaOH as utterly dry in storage as possible, so it stays as pure and consistent as possible over time. Storage conditions at your supplier and in your soaping supply cabinet can greatly affect the purity of KOH and NaOH, so that's another important consideration. And that might be why you see some suppliers give a purity range of 90% to 100% for their KOH. This allows more wiggle room for purity loss during storage. Or allows room for purchasing KOH from various manufacturers that make KOH at different purity levels. Just some guesses that might explain this.
Speaking as someone who used to be an engineer in the industrial chemicals industry -- There's little economic value in making KOH at 99-100%. But you don't want to make KOH right at 96% either because any slight variation in your process might drop your product below the acceptable minimum. You want to run a chemical process to shoot for the middle or lower-middle of the purity range. That gives you a little wiggle room for slight variations in your process, while minimizing costs.
I also take care to keep my KOH and NaOH as utterly dry in storage as possible, so it stays as pure and consistent as possible over time. Storage conditions at your supplier and in your soaping supply cabinet can greatly affect the purity of KOH and NaOH, so that's another important consideration. And that might be why you see some suppliers give a purity range of 90% to 100% for their KOH. This allows more wiggle room for purity loss during storage. Or allows room for purchasing KOH from various manufacturers that make KOH at different purity levels. Just some guesses that might explain this.
Speaking as someone who used to be an engineer in the industrial chemicals industry -- There's little economic value in making KOH at 99-100%. But you don't want to make KOH right at 96% either because any slight variation in your process might drop your product below the acceptable minimum. You want to run a chemical process to shoot for the middle or lower-middle of the purity range. That gives you a little wiggle room for slight variations in your process, while minimizing costs.
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If you're within a drivable distance to them, The Lye Guy is well worth the trip. For me, He's still about 4 hrs from me so I will pay for the shipping.
