Specific gel temp?

[froggybean37]

Hi, All!

I've been using a silicone loaf mold for my CP, and I love it for the ease of it, but am having a tricky time with overheating. My soaps get little bubbles on the edges where they touch the silicone as well as teensy ones on the surface of the soap. They turn into little pocks when i unmold. If I prevent gel they don't happen, it's when I want to gel my soap and insulate it or put it on a heating pad this happens.

My question is this - is there a certain temperature or period time AT a certain temperature it takes for it to gel so I know when to stop it before it overheats and gets its little bubbles?

Thanks, guys!

 

[navigator9]

This issue came up in another thread, and I'm really confused. I use a variety of silicone molds, I always gel, and I've never had bubbles. The sides of my soaps that touch the mold are always smooth as glass. As far as when gel happens, it depends on what temp you soap at, and can also depend on the ingredients you use, the size of your mold, etc. So if you want to avoid gel altogether, I'd just stick the whole thing in the freezer as soon as you pour it into the mold. But I'm no expert at this since I'm always trying to promote gel. I like to know that I can unmold and cut the soap the next day. The few times when I've tried to avoid gel, I ended up pulling the mold out of the freezer every couple of hours to zap test because I just couldn't wait for it to be done. I think non gelling is for people with lots of patience.....not me! And I hope someone can figure out why some of us get bubbles in silicone and others don't.

 

[pamielynn]

Are you insulating too aggressively? I've been soaping for a lot of years and i've never seen bubbles like you describe. Are you getting a lot of air bubbles when you are mixing your batter - that are now rising to the top?

 

[froggybean37]

I don't believe so? I put the mold on top of one towel, cover the mold with a small box and then another towel over top. It's BB's 10" silicone mold - I'm not sure if that's more prone to the bubbles/pocking?

I really like to gel as well, so I'd love to find a solution so I can gel without having to plane the sides like crazy after!

 

[pamielynn]

Hmm.. that's definitely not too much for silicone.

I would check the air bubbles in the batter. If your blender decides it wants to "froth", you can end up with a lot of bubbles. They might be sticking around and coming to the top during gel. That's all I can think of...

 

[Sunaelurus]

I use that same mold and was having a hard time getting a full gel, so I put my mold in a glass baking dish and set on top of a heating pad set on low overnight with a towel over the whole thing. No problems with bubbles or overheating. Are you soaping at 110* or less? Are you banging your mold on counter to release air bubbles?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I've read before of people having these bubbling issues with silicone. I think it's just something that you will get if the soap gels in silicone - not always, as we see from other comments here, but just that some people find that silicone moulds will cause bubbles where the soap touches the mould particularly.

It's nothing about banging it before hand or anything like that, more to do with the nature of some silicone moulds. It might also be partly to do with the other factors such as recipe, exact ingredients (brand A verses brand B oils, for example) as well as temperature when poured, temperature of the mould at pouring and so on.

How deep in to the soap do they go?

 

[shunt2011]

I only use silicone molds and always gel my soaps (except single designs) and I have never had what you describe either. I RTCP so don't know if that plays a part. Sometimes it can take 2-3 hours for my soaps to start heating up but I get full gel and no bubbles. Hope you can find what's causing it.