DianaMoon
Well-Known Member
Or why to use distilled water rather than soapbydezine's water.
The important thing is: the kind of water you have matters. It so happens my tap water works fine, but someone else's might not.
water
- Thread starter soapzbydezine
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Or why to use distilled water rather than soapbydezine's water.
The important thing is: the kind of water you have matters. It so happens my tap water works fine, but someone else's might not.
Except that isn't always. DW may be cheap in the US and available even in corner convenience stores, but in other countries it can be expensive and/or difficult to find. I can buy DW on Amazon for $1.29 a gallon. On Amazon UK, 2-5 liter jugs (2.64 gallons) is £17.49 ($21.58 USD).
DianaMoon
Well-Known Member
Except that large swathes of England have incredibly hard water. I've admittedly not tried soaping with my tap water, but when you can literally see the minerals coming out of it, collecting as snow drifts of white-ish flakes in your kettle and as a hard hazy sheet on your taps, shower, basin, crockery etc, it's pretty obvious that it's likely to have a reaction of some sort... Maybe I should give it a go anyway, just to find out?
Most of the hobbyists that I know of in the UK, use either cheap-ish deionised water from the supermarket (which as I understand it, is pretty much the same as distilled water for practical purposes, but the minerals are removed using a different method) or alternative liquids like milks etc. I'm also aware of folks who make a lot of soap using a water distiller machine. It's not a cheap purchase, but at around £100 or so for a reasonable looking version, it's not really that much to invest if you make a fair bit of soap.
Actually, that might be an interesting group experiment, if anyone wanted to set it up - a simple, sample sized recipe, made by a number of participants around the world using their tap water and compared with the same recipe using their usual soaping liquid. Obviously unscented and uncoloured.
The comparison photos along with the participants general locations and description of their water could be really fascinating!
That is extremely expensive!
Except that large swathes of England have incredibly hard water. I've admittedly not tried soaping with my tap water, but when you can literally see the minerals coming out of it, collecting as snow drifts of white-ish flakes in your kettle and as a hard hazy sheet on your taps, shower, basin, crockery etc, it's pretty obvious that it's likely to have a reaction of some sort... Maybe I should give it a go anyway, just to find out?
Most of the hobbyists that I know of in the UK, use either cheap-ish deionised water from the supermarket (which as I understand it, is pretty much the same as distilled water for practical purposes, but the minerals are removed using a different method) or alternative liquids like milks etc. I'm also aware of folks who make a lot of soap using a water distiller machine. It's not a cheap purchase, but at around £100 or so for a reasonable looking version, it's not really that much to invest if you make a fair bit of soap.
Even my filtered water, which tastes very good & has most of the hard water stuff removed) leaves behind those 'snowflakes' in my whistling tea kettle. It needs a good cleaning periodically because of it.
In any case, we are often surprised when something that is inexpensive where we live, is extremely expensive elsewhere. It happens all the time in my travels and we hear about it here on SMF frequently as well.
Deionized water is available in the US, but it is very expensive here and I would not want to spend what it costs for soap making. Type 2 deionized water costs about the same price here as distilled water does in the UK. That's from chemical companies. I've not seen it in stores, but online the cheapest I found was about $16 USD per gallon, a far cry from less than $1 USD per gallon of Distilled that I am used to paying.
DianaMoon
Well-Known Member
LOL, learn a new thing every day. I never heard of deionized water before.
About the experiment, I'm wondering whether soaping with mineral-heavy tap water isn't the same thing in effect as Zany's sea water. Sea water, of course, contains minerals.
DianaMoon
Well-Known Member
True. I've been told that in some countries baking soda is quite expensive - a specialty product. I use it routinely as a cleaner, and an oil sopper-upper.
Except that Zany's recipe is for faux sea water.
DianaMoon
Well-Known Member
I know, which is why I put "in effect" meaning that it creates the same result just in a different way.
Dooleykins
Well-Known Member
This could be really fun! I would definitely participate.
I could even do two batches - one with my well water, and one with the city tap water from my mom's house. She likes my water so much better that when she visits, she brings empty gallon jugs to fill up for her drinking water.
I was wondering this too, and have seriously been considering using my well water in Zany's sea water mix. Theoretically, the additional minerals should make it even closer to sea water.
My water is fairly high in Calcium. I'm not sure what effect that might have?
"never used anything but distilled water, as we all do."
I have a whole house water filter, about 99.9% of all those nasties are filtered out of my drinking water. This means I can use it for my soaps. I only use DW when making liquid HP soap.
My Boro has testing available for metals in things made with their water. I sent off a swab of LS and CP soap to them for evaluation. I paid $150.00 for this service, both came out sans the nasties. My drinking water is both standard filters and reverse osmosis treated.
I have a whole house water filter, about 99.9% of all those nasties are filtered out of my drinking water. This means I can use it for my soaps. I only use DW when making liquid HP soap.
My Boro has testing available for metals in things made with their water. I sent off a swab of LS and CP soap to them for evaluation. I paid $150.00 for this service, both came out sans the nasties. My drinking water is both standard filters and reverse osmosis treated.
We have a Pur Water Filter on the sink...hubby uses it more than I do. I use it for the cats' water and anything that uses steam (iron, hand steamer and steam mop). I'd use filtered water before I would use tap water. Our tap water is fairly decent here, but I still have to clean out my coffee maker and tea kettle a couple of times a year.
I'm confused. If the water is good enough for bar soap, why isn't it good enough for liquid soap?
Of course it did. Not saying that there is anything wrong with the test, but I would look into an independent evaluation.
I don't know what a "Boro" is...I Googled it and got a bunch of nothing. But I did check into 'whole house water filtration systems' home systems in general and of course, everyone claims their system is the best. But the gist was that not all systems are equal and no system removes 100% and that the ranges stated are usually with the lower end being stated being the actual high end.
It's actually FAUX sea water (warm distilled water, sea salt and baking soda).
But yeah...I think it would be interesting to see how tap water affects soap. I'll set up a thread with parameters.
DianaMoon
Well-Known Member
@soapbydezine I appreciated your starting this thread. Please don't be offended by a stray remark but I do understand how easy it is to get annoyed and give up.
Hope you stay and continue to contribute.
