Soaping in a heatwave

[JuliaNegusuk]

Hi

I live in England and, unusually for the time of year, we are routinely seeing temperatures around 30 degrees C. I need to make some soap in time for a charity Open Day in the Middle of September. I was going to start now and make over the next two weeks, but the weather is not expected to break for sometime. I could wait till first two weeks in August, the weather shouldn't hopefully get much hotter, and may be back to normal by then. This would give me a bare month's cure time, but just enough.

Does anyone have any hints and tips about making soap in hotter weather. I have been experiencing soda ash recently and was planning to soap a bit hotter than usual (around 120 degrees c) and not refrigerate ( I normally soap cool - I don't like gelled soap and hate partial gel). However, now I'm not so sure.

Any advice gratefully received.

 

[soapmaker]

Is it also very humid? Do you have air conditioning in the house? As far as soda ash, what fixed my problem was using less water in my recipe. Using a 34% lye solution fixed my problem. I don't like gelling either.
Edited to ask, wouldn't it be better to soap cooler if you don't want gel? I never soap at 120. I know others do but since I don't gel I soap at 100 to 105.

 

[dixiedragon]

Place a fan so it is blowing on the soap. If your counter is something like wood (which will serve as insulation), put your mold on something, such as can at each corner, to raise it off of the counter. If your counter is something like tile or stone, which will draw heat away, you could place it on the counter but move it around to a new, cool spot.

If you want to go hard-core, put some ziplock bags of ice into a cooler (or a box lined with towels, if you don't have a cooler), put your mold in there, then put a bag of ice on top.

I know some people put their soap in the fridge or freezer, but a) I rarely have room for my large 4-log mold in the fridge and it's too wide for the freezer. (Though I can usually find/make space for a 1-log mold) and b) I'm worried about spilling raw soap in the fridge.

Just occurred to me - if you are in the UK, you may not have an ice maker in your freezer. If so, try this - mix 1 part alcohol and 3 parts water. Put into 2 ziplock freezer bags - you want a double thickness of ziplock. Put in your freezer. This will make a nice, smooshy ice pack that will stay cold longer than a bag of ice. Though it will also take more time to GET as cold as possible. I'd say try to put it in your freezer at least 12 hrs in advance. You can re-use these icepacks for every batch, vs buying ice.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

Hi - thanks for your replies. Yes the humidity is quite high. I usually soap cooler, about 100/110. But previous threads seem to have suggested that soaping a bit bit warmer might help with soda ash.

 

[penelopejane]

Hi - thanks for your replies. Yes the humidity is quite high. I usually soap cooler, about 100/110. But previous threads seem to have suggested that soaping a bit bit warmer might help with soda ash.

Soaping warmer and lye concentration of 33% and covering your should prevent ash. I also spray with isopropyl alcohol.

But I don’t try to cool it. I have the mold in a timber box with a lid and wrap it in towels and cover it with one Doona in summer and two Doona’s in winter. I don’t use heat pads anymore but if it’s 10*c I will put a heated wheat bag next to. The wrapped mold.

Funny in summer we regularly get to 40*c (and we don’t have A/ C) so your heatwave of 30*c reminded me of my son who lived there for a while and loved the “heatwaves” so he could at last not wear a jumper!

 

[IrishLass]

I can only wish it were as balmy as 30C here! I live in an arid, desert region of the US, and our normal summer temps range anywhere from the low to high 40's C, so I'm quite used to soaping in hot weather, although our indoor temp is thankfully not as hot as that- we have central AC, and our thermostat is set at 25.5C/78F all summer long. My garage, however, is not air conditioned and makes for a great place to gel my soaps in the summer (in case you are wondering, I don't cure them out there, but rather inside where it's air conditioned).

I have been experiencing soda ash recently and was planning to soap a bit hotter than usual (around 120 degrees c) and not refrigerate

I'm pretty sure you meant to write 120F as opposed to 120C, unless you are going to attempt a radical new form of CP I haven't heard about, that is! lol Ash is a rarity for me. Once in a couple of blue moons I'll get an ashy batch, but thankfully it's just a light sprinkling on a few bars that easily rinses off in a jiffy. My normal soaping temps are between 110F to 120F, I use a 33% lye concentration, and I encourage my batches to gel by either placing my insulated wood mold out in my hot garage in the summer, or in a warm oven preheated to 110F in the cooler months (which I turn off once my soap is inside). My insulation consists of my mold's accompanying wooden lid, which I drape over with 3 cotton diapers (or nappies as I believe they are called in your neck of the woods). I get full gel and no ash 98-99% of the time when I soap this way.


IrishLass

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

Ha - yes I did mean 120 degrees f! I am without a/c or an ice maker -we are a primitive people in the old country. I appreciate my heatwave is some peoples cold snap. I hadn't really thought about that . Perhaps I am overworrying.

I already soap with a 2 to 1 water/lye ratio, which if my maths is correct is 33%?

Perhaps i just need to get on with it and not overthink it. I am going to go back to using tap water this time though. My ashy batches seem to coincide with using deionised water - to reduce dos risk - don't see why there would be a link but its worth a try. But as dos only seems to occur on one of my soaps I'm just not going to make that one this time.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[penelopejane]

Are you using individual Cavity molds or a loaf mold?

I’d seriously rethink using tap water to make soap. Especially if you sell.

 

[shunt2011]

I too don’t recommend using tap water. Too many unknowns in the water. Could be asking for trouble. I only use distilled water.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

I use cavity moulds. I usually use tap water. I only recently started using deionised water because of a couple of dos experiences. Before this I never got soda ash. There may not be a connection but I think I must at least try. As I only seem to get dos on one particular soap variety I am less worried by this than soda ash. Though of course the high temperatures and humidity now throw another variable into the mix.

I never used to get either dos or soda ash in 4 or 5 years of soap making until I started to sell! But mostly I used to use goat milk. I don't use this in my soap for sale unfortunately for various reasons. But the whole time I was experimenting with recipes prior to certification for sale I used tap water and never had a single problem.

 

[LilyJo]

Ive used tap water and de-ionised water and Ive had more soda ash using the de-ionised water than I ever had using tap water.

Ive gone back to tap water too - safety assessment doesnt specify where the water has to come from so as far as I am aware there are no issues with using it. Not sure if UK water quality is different to US etc or how much it differs in different parts of the county and how that affects soap.

To be honest that would be a great test - same recipe made with tap water from the South (hard, chalky) against tap water from say, the East which is bery soft. Be interesting to see what the difference was in soap quality and propensity to soda ash.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Ash is less of an issue for me than soap scum. Using my tap water is adding in the very things that my chelator is there to combat. While I can't use it when I am washing with my soap, I can at least use deionised water when making it

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

That's Interesting LilyJo. I live just North of London (Epping, Essex) and our water tends to be hard though not as hard as London where I used to live. I'll probably start making in the next week so, so I'll post again if my deionised water free soap is any less prone to soda ash. It has to be something I've done differently since I've never had it before and it only suddenly dawned on me that the water was one thing that had changed. I did actually post about soda ash a couple of months ago (I thought it might be something to do with the cocoa butter at first) but at the time it didn't occur to me it might be that. It's just water after all.

I'm quite excited now. I was gutted when I started getting soda ash, and will be even more so now if this experiment doesn't work. I'll be back on the forum for some counselling.

I better not get DOS either!

 

[IrishLass]

Do you folks in the UK have access to steam distilled water? I ask because I was just reading up on the difference between distilled vs. de-ionized water, and I've so far found a handful of different articles stating that the deionization process leaves intact certain impurities that the process of steam distillation normally removes. I had always thought of them as being the same as the other, but apparently there are some differences between them.

For what it's worth, I always have used steam distilled water when making soap, and ash and/or DOS have never been a problem for me. Not even in my BTD days (i.e., Before Tetrasodium Dioxide)

Don't mind the following, I'm just pondering hypothetical scenarios out loud, but it makes me wonder what left-over impurities might be present in your de-ionized water in appreciable ash-producing amounts that don't seem to be present in your tap water (in appreciable amounts).....


IrishLass

 

[soapmaker]

I have to throw another wrench in the works. Everyone is saying cover, insulate, etc. I soap cool as said above, use 34% lye solution and just sit it on the counter uncovered, unsprayed, just plain in the air soap and very rarely get any ash.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

Irish Lass

I'm not sure we can easily get steam distilled water over here. It's not readily available in supermarkets like deionised water is except for use in irons when they perfume it!

soapmaker - oh yes I remember when I used to do exactly the same thing only about a year ago and NEVER got ash. The trick is working what has changed - something must have - to explain why I am having problems now. Cutting out the deionised water might be the thing as that is one very definite thing I am doing differently.

 

[IrishLass]

Irish Lass

I'm not sure we can easily get steam distilled water over here. It's not readily available in supermarkets like deionised water is except for use in irons when they perfume it!

It's interesting to see which things are readily available in different places. Steam distilled water is readily available everywhere in my neck of the woods, from grocery stores, to health-food stores to Walmart, etc.... Can't say the same for de-ionized water, though. I don't believe I've never seen it in any of the stores I shop at. At least not down the water aisles where distilled is found.


IrishLass

 

[DeeAnna]

...the deionization process leaves intact certain impurities that the process of steam distillation normally removes...

The purity of deionized water can vary depending on the quality of the deionizing process and how the DI system is operated and maintained. DI water can be as good or better than distilled or it can be considerably less pure. A lot of analytical chemistry labs use DI water because it can be created as needed and for a relatively low cost compared to distilling water.

For us mere mortals, distilled water from the grocery is going to be a reliable choice for soap and lotion making, if you have a choice. If not, I'd choose DI water over water that's only been treated by reverse osmosis. And I'd choose RO water over tap water for any kind of chemistry, soapy or otherwise.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

Deionised water is used for something car related - topping up batteries or radiators I think. It's usually for sale alongside the little perfumed tree shaped air fresheners!

 

[LilyJo]

Does anyone know how the purity levels (or otherwise) of UK tap water compare to that of parts of the US or indeed Australia?

Know there will be different laws and safe limits for both and different parts of the UK have different hardness levels due to the geology but I was wondering if there is marked difference over what is allowed and now. Just idle curiosity I guess