I let my MB lye container sit in cool water to bring the temp down, but not until after I’m sure the lye has dissolved. I use the ED beads and haven’t had any problems. Here’s a description of exactly what I do in case it’s helpful. I mix and store my MB lye in a heavy duty jug from Mrs. Meyers laundry detergent. After pouring the NaOH beads slowly into the water in the jug through a funnel, I very loosely cap the jug and then gently swirl the water and lye around in the jug to make sure that everything is at least mixed. I swirl every minute or so for the first five minutes until I’m sure the beads are fully dissolved. I use a dish towel around the jug handle so I’m insulated from the heat and keep all of this swirling activity within the confines of a large dish pan in my kitchen sink. When I‘m done swirling, I let the very loosely capped jug cool down for maybe 15 minutes more before I add cool water to the dishpan. In the past I would add an ice pack to the water to cool things down even faster, but I don’t bother with that now. If I need lye quickly, I measure out what I need from the hot/warm MB into a small container, cover that and set it in a bath of cold water to cool it down to room temp. I can’t recall having any issues or the NaOH beads not dissolving with this method. Mixing in the jug is nice because I never have any fumes. I turn the cap just enough to keep it on the jug, but not enough to seal the jug or build up any pressure. I don’t tighten the cap until the lye has cooled down. I have two jugs that are both a year or more old and it’s probably time to get new ones, but both still look fine on close inspection. The jugs are probably 2L, but I never make more than 1400 g of MB and usually I make 1200 g, which fills the container up about halfway.
Lesson learned!
