But the problem is "38% water as % of oils" doesn't result in a water:lye ratio of about 3:1 for many recipes. When using this default setting in Soapcalc, the water:lye ratio will range from 2.2 to 3 (lye concentration of 25% to 31%) depending on the fats in the recipe. That's an awfully broad range of ratios to simplify to "about 3:1."
It's one thing to simplify an explanation to the essential but accurate basics when teaching a new soaper, but it's another matter to make a over-simplification that is not accurate and is very likely to lead to confusion. Better to just give the advice to new soapers to completely ignore "water as % of oils", teach them how to use water:lye ratio, and don't try to correlate the two.
It's one thing to simplify an explanation to the essential but accurate basics when teaching a new soaper, but it's another matter to make a over-simplification that is not accurate and is very likely to lead to confusion. Better to just give the advice to new soapers to completely ignore "water as % of oils", teach them how to use water:lye ratio, and don't try to correlate the two.
