SoapEquipment.com

nebetmiw · Feb 22, 2013

Since I have been suggesting this company alot of late i thought to do a review of my experiance. I ordered their soap scale and calibration weight. Contact was fast after order to let me know they got it. Also got an email to let me know it would be a slight delay. Got scale within a week of order in great shape even though packaging was a reused box. Not a bad thing since I am all about recycling. Scale work wonderful and now I can weigh up to 22 lbs.

http://www.soapequipment.com/ :thumbup:

Hazel · Feb 22, 2013

Thanks for sharing your experience. I occasionally browse soapequipment.com and think some day...yes, some day I'll make a purchase. :lol:

ashleyrobertson · Apr 4, 2013

I've recently purchased something from soapequipment.com ( willow way ), and I'd like to share my experience too. If you don't have time to read all of this, the summery is: Bad lye tanks, leaky, burned eyes, 50% restocking fees to return an item (for me, it'd be $750 to give something back). If you have more time, feel free to read on

Ordered an 85 gallon lye take from these guys ($1,700). I asked if the tank needed a hose, etc., and was told it didn't. Lye is dangerous, and I was worried about there being a lot of pressure and the lye splashing back, or splashing out of the bucket. Again, lye is very dangerous, which is why we purchased an expensive tank to house it.

After hooking up the tank, we noticed several problems, which made the take pretty dangerous, and basically unusable. The major problem was not that the tank was faulty (because it wasn't), the problem was that it was made this way on purpose. The pressure was so strong that the lye splashed everywhere. There was an adjustment valve, but it didn't do much good. Lye everywhere.

After playing with this thing for a few hours, we called the company and tried to get some help. We assumed we were just doing something wrong. The people were very rude (Brandy and Ron). Instead of offering solutions, they were very difficult, defensive, and had no answers (other than to hang out for a few weeks and see if it start working better). The tank was only purchased a couple weeks prior, so I asked if we would be able to send it back, and get a refund. Ron (who I believe is one of the owners), said he wouldn't speak with me, and that I would have to pay money...to return a lye tank.....that would most likely have splashed lye in my eyes. I learned afterwards (from their website) that we'd have to pay a 50% restocking fee for returned items. We've only just opened this box today, and now, according to their website, we'll have to pay a $750 "re-tsocking" fee. For a tank...that is poorly made and is very dangerous.

We just want a refund.

The tank is dangerous and should not be sold for a caustic material (such as lye). It's sold as a lye tank, to be used with lye, and is described as safe, which it certainly isn't.

Hazel · Apr 4, 2013

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sorry this has happened to you and I hope they'll reconsider so you can get a refund.

SimplySheaSoap · Aug 4, 2013

I'm a new member here looking to purchase some soap making equipment as my business is growing and was hoping to get feedback from members that have experience using oil melters and lye tanks. I'd like to get a lye tank no larger than 20 gallons that has a thermostat setting allowing me to hold the lye solution around 85 to 95 degrees. I looked at soap equipments lye tanks http://soapequipment.com/lye/. The 20 Gal. Poly NaOH Tank (lye tank) looks nice and light weight however the idea of storing lye and heating it in plastic bothers me. Does anyone have any information or experience with this poly lye tank or their stainless steel 20 gallon lye tank? A 10 gallon tank would be ideal but I can't find one. Soap melters

I'm also looking at their 13 gallon oil melter. Any opinions?

Lastly has anyone purchased their loaf cutter http://soapequipment.com/soaploafcutter/ or is the tank better.

I did read on post about a member who purchased a lye tank and it was dangerous. Soapmelters.com has smaller lye tanks but they don't have adjustable thermostats. Their tank holds the lye at 100 degrees which is hotter than I soap at. The whole point of a soap melter and lye tank is so I can hold my oils and lye at my soaping temp and just crank them out.

1234soap · Sep 4, 2013

Willow Way's Pneumatic Press Bath Bomb Press

I purchased Willow Way’s pneumatic press and within an hour of receiving it, I knew something was very wrong. I called the company immediately and by the time they returned my phone call the next day, I had spent hours trying unsuccessfully to make bath bombs with the machine. In that time, I found that there were multiple design and construction flaws. The air cylinder was mounted at a skewed angle. The depth stop was drilled at an angle and attached to the machine at a skewed angle. The hood rail and cylinder mount were glued into a plastic backboard at an angle. It was clear that this machine was poorly designed and constructed. I attempted to make a batch of bath bombs using the exact recipe that they suggested in their manual and found that even the safety button that must be pushed down during the creation of each bath bomb was very difficult to use. It’s a manual button that uses your fingers pressure to push down the valve attached to the air compressor that is set at 100psi. So all that pressure must be pushed down manually with your finger. After a while, this got quite painful. I told two technicians from Willow way all of the problems that I found with the machine and they offered no solution. I also wrote a detailed description to the owner describing the problems and included several pictures at their request. The owner, Ron quickly put the blame elsewhere and accused UPS for damaging the machine in shipping but when the pictures proved that to be untrue, he blamed me. He sent long, rude and unapologetic emails trying to bully me into keeping the machine. In one of the confrontational letters from him he said that the damage “better be our fault” or else he would charge me for repairs and shipping to fix it. I told him I did not want this faulty machine and would like a refund and I returned the machine. I got an email the day they received the machine stating that they would inspect it and let me know of their findings and determine the best way to proceed. Then a couple hours later, I receive a notice from UPS with the return shipping information. I contacted them and asked what was going on and they responded saying they replaced the defective part on the press and glued a knob to the safety switch and that the press was being shipped back to me. I immediately emailed again and asked them not to ship this machine back to me and also notified them that I was disputing the charge with my credit card company.
I disputed the charge with my credit card company and only then did Willow Way refund some of the money. However Willow Way charged me $533 for the following breakdown of fees: restock fee, shipping, accounting fees, charge back dispute handling, emails regarding the problems, email explaining restock charges, , labor cleaning press and molds to sell as used, loss on the product in reselling since it as used and writing the breakdown of fees.
Fortunately, as a result of the credit card company’s dispute investigation, I also have received this $533 fee charged back to my credit card . At no point did Willow Way seem concerned to hear of my troubles or care about customer satisfaction. As a matter of fact they refused to take responsibility for the quality of their product and instead used blame and threats to scare me into keeping the faulty machine for fear of losing such a huge amount of money.
I hope that these facts help save someone else from purchasing their faulty machine and losing money and time in dealing with this company.