Soapers be aware of issues with pyrex

[clownking99]

does it have anything to do with the amount of lye you put in the pyrex?
the 3 times ive made soap i only use a little bit of lye

 

[snappyllama]

Basically, you might be fine forever... Or the next time you use your Pyrex, it might shatter. It's just not worth the risk.

 

[newbie]

I'm surprised any soap company would sell glass for making cp or hp soap. They really should take those out of their listing.

 

[cmzaha]

That's B&B for you, something to sell...sorry B&B lovers

 

[shunt2011]

It's all about making money for BB. They have some great products but then you have something that shouldn't be sold due to safety issues.

That's the reason to do lots of research before doing anything. Especially when using chemicals that could cause serious injury.

 

[not_ally]

Newb, what were you melting in the mw when the cup started to melt? That was kind of alarming. I have been using Pyrex/glass to melt individual hard oils prior to mixing - not at any point after lye is added - but I didn't think that would be an issue b/c the oils would not get hot enough for long enough. The max I try to melt is about 40 oz (of lard, of course!) so sometimes it can take a couple/three ms though (I have a tiny/lower power mw).

May have to rethink this one, although I would hate it (find plastic much harder to clean oils off of plastic.)

 

[BlueberryHill]

I was using a plastic bowl for mixing lye water before, but for some reason I thought the Pyrex glass one would be safer, and I bought it last week. I made one batch of soap using it and it was fine. So this was only the second time it had been used for lye. I bought it at the outlet store and maybe it already had a flaw in the glass. But lesson learned, I have gone back to my reliable (and safer) plastic bowl. I wish I had read these posts before I tried the Pyrex!

 

[shunt2011]

I was melting some lip balm in the microwave in a small pyrex bowl and the bottom blew out. I don't use any glass if I can help it except for my FO/EO. Stainless or the appropriate plastic only.

 

[SunWolf]

I think it depends entirely on how they are used. While I am aware of other folks having issues with them breaking, I do use a 2 quart glass mixing bowl to melt my hard oils in the microwave. For me, this is an educated decision based on my particular circumstances.

I soap very cool...nearly room temp. So, I only mw my hard oils, and I only heat just to the point of being "mostly liquid-ish". Also, I only run the mw in 30-second bursts, with a couple minutes in between as I scamper around the kitchen gathering all my supplies and ingredients. The bowl never gets hot, so I'm not overly concerned with having it explode.

Once my hard oils are semi-liquid, I add them to my liquid oils in a nice, sturdy paint bucket. My lye solution is then added to the oils in the bucket. The lye never comes in contact with my glass measuring bowl, so I'm not concerned the lye will cause surface etching, which would then lead to breaking.

So my advice is to think it through for your particular situation...like everything else in life, YMMV.