SCREAM !!!! ZAPPING CURSE KEEPS ON GOING

[PippiL]

It happened again, this time using my slab mold.It went through a full gel.I used full water amount, since I wanted to do a column swirl, but of course my batch accelerated somewhat.When I peeked, I could see water droplets on my soap and I new, I would have a top zap issue again.WHY?
I have made lots of soap, always gel, never happened before.
WHY NOW! It is aways the most exciting moment to unmold your soap, now I'm just nervous.What can I do, to not have sweating on my tops? I gelled in a towel no oven.
The top of my goats milk was zapping, too..but I had the soap in the cold garage all night...I accept some zapping for a while....
Here is my recipe, I have two, just change the number sometimes to get a slight harder bar.


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[Hazel]

Are you sure your scale is accurate?

 

[PippiL]

yes, my husband and I checked it.
The rest of the soap is fine,just the tops are zapping.
I had a thought, that the oil supplier mixed up my oils, but than the whole soap would be ruined.

 

[IrishLass]

Is your lye from a new supplier or anything like that?

IrishLass

 

[kbuska]

hmm I use almost the same recipe and don't have this issue. I also put in your recipe into SoapMaker and the numbers look fine so its not SoapCalc.

could it be a mixing issue and the lye water is separating? its just a thought.

-Ken

 

[PippiL]

I swear I want to cry right now :cry:
No separating, everything is mixed.A while ago, I had a batch seize on me.It had oozing lye pockets when I umolded the soap.But I expected that.I rebatched.
I drive myself crazy.I just checked my scale again, measures 100%.
When I make soap, I talk out loud and triple check everything.
I need the Dr. House of the soap world to come by.
I feel like giving up, but to much invested already,plus I LOVE SOAP MAKING.

 

[kbuska]

How did you verify your scale?

 

[PippiL]

I wish I could find my known weight, but....
I was weighing a small glass on my jewlery scale, which my husband just calibrated.Than weighed the glass on my soap scale, which has new batteries.The difference was off by o.o2.
Question ? Let's say a supplier would have switched accidentally an oil around, could the soap be lye heavy, even when SF ?Or is it only, when you have more lye than oil in your batch?

 

[Fragola]

I thought we established in the previous thread that the soap isn't lye heavy and sweating is the only problem ...

Could there be some additive that's causing sweating ? I had some color which used to do that. People were talking about honey in the same context.

Also I am wondering whether humidity in the air could play a role.

Maybe you should try to document some small test batches, and try to change various steps of the recipe, in an organized manner.

For example, try anti-ash measures - during the first few days, spray with alcohol and apply a plastic foil on the soap surface.

Or introduce a water discount. If there's water trying to escape your soap, maybe it feels there's too much water inside.

Somebody was saying that harder oils produce more ash. So you could increase the olive oil and decrease the palm. Find another way to increase hardness (for example using 1 tsp sodium lactate or salt).

 

[aussie girl]

I really hope that you can figure out what is happening to your soap

 

[PippiL]

thank you for all your replies.
I use the same recipe for almost a year.I just changed a tiny number to get the soap harder,but it also happened with my regular recipe.
I did cover the log mold with plastic, sprayed it with alcohol,you name it.It's Winter and the humidity in my house is like a dessert.The only additive I used with 2 of my soaps was kaolin clay and TD.
Thanks again, everybody

 

[judymoody]

Could it be your FO? You mentioned that there had been some acceleration. Maybe it heated a little too much up after pour?

 

[PippiL]

I gel my soaps outside in the Summer in the sun,never had a sweating and zapping top problem.I'm afraid to make another batch , I will rip my hair out.

 

[jarvan]

Are you stirring, whisking or stick-blending? Just wondering if something isn't getting fully incorporated.

 

[IrishLass]

I've been roaming about on the internet and also here to see if I could find some kind of a definitive answer that would help keep you tearing any more of your hair out :wink: , and one thing's for sure- you are not alone in your dilemma. Here are some past threads I ran into here:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... t=sweating

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... t=sweating

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... g&start=15

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... t=sweating

A couple of the culprits that seem to stand out to me from my search are overheating and/or high humidity conditions (do you have a dehumidifier?). You said your humidity is quite high right now, correct?

Judymoody brings up a good point about FOs, too. On another forum, someone mentioned that certain FOs can cause sweating if they were not formulated to be used in CP, or if they were used over their recommended level. That's another possibility.

Right now, I'm kinda leaning towards the high humidity as being a good contender for the cause of your woes.

IrishLass

 

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

I use a recipe similar but with goat milk at 36% (full max fluid).

I did notice your using 4.5oz of FO for a 72oz batch of soap. Do you always use that high of a %?

 

[PippiL]

I did use more FO on my last, I could see this to be the sweating problem for the last batch.I only use FO made for CP soap. The humidity in my house is super low.
I will make soap next week or this weekend and will pay super close attention.Thanks again for all your help

 

[PippiL]

yes, I always use that much FO, never had a problem. I love my soap strong.But I will simmer down I guess a little.

 

[newbie]

This has happened occasionally to me too with sweating. I think the water discount is worth a try and decreasing you FO is worth a try too. It seems the most frequent rec's of usage for FO's is 5% of oils, which is 3.6 ounces for your 72 ounce batch. Trying that amount would be a good experiment. Have you gotten FO's from a new supplier lately? Thankfully your soap is not lye heavy and is usable once you've wiped off the top (at least I understand that to be the case).

One other thought I had was weighing something heavier on your jewelry scale and then comparing it with your soaping scale. If you weighed something light, that o.o2- grams/ounces difference could end up making a difference with heavier items.

 

[PippiL]

I will definitely tone down the FO.I never had a problem before with my FO, but I will safe some money ,too.I have one FO from WSP, you can use at 9% I thought, that is a lot.