Soap Pot Dimensions (Is This One The Right Size?)

[welder]

Hi everyone.

My wife has donated one of her older stainless steel cooking pots to my soaping project.

It's a relatively large pot though, so I'm not sure if it's too large or not.

It's 10 inches across the base and 6 inches tall.

Is this too big or will it be okay?

 

[Deda]

How much soap are you going to make at one time? Batch size.

If your making more than 1 lb that might be a tad small. Check out the thrift stores for a dutch oven around 8 quarts, or ask a restaurant or painter for a small plastic bucket.

 

[carebear]

Volume is your key here. You need a 2-quart bowl for a 2# batch of soap assuming CP. If you are HPing I haven't the foggiest.

 

[welder]

No problem, Deda.

I actually tested the pot using Carebears' 1 quart per 1 Lb. formula and the big pot actually took 6 quarts of water to fill it to an inch from the top.

As a margin of safety, if I use this pot for hot processing, I'll limit batch size to no more than about 3 or 4 Lbs.

I think I could probably safely brew up about 5 Lbs. of cold process soap in this thing.

Do my numbers sound reasonable? Should I decrease my limits more?