Anaylitical or Technical Grade of Lye

[sbence93]

Hey Soapmakers,
I was wondering whether you are using lye of analytical or technical grade. Myself have never tried the technical grade one, but I consider switching to that, as it is way cheaper. What are you experiences?

 

[DeeAnna]

There's truly no benefit to using analytical grade NaOH for making soap. The regular commercial (tech grade) NaOH is fine. The commercial NaOH I get is at 97% purity as it comes from the manufacturer.

You can compensate for the difference between the "ideal" 100% purity and the actual % purity by reducing the superfat in your recipes by the difference between 100% and your actual NaOH purity.

NaOH quickly reacts with carbon dioxide and absorbs water from the open air, so it's essential to properly store NaOH in a dessicator (air-tight low-humidity enclosure) after purchase. That's especially true for analytical-grade NaOH. If you are storing the container of analytical-grade NaOH in the open air, your NaOH will not be analytical grade for long.

 

[sbence93]

There's truly no benefit to using analytical grade NaOH for making soap. The regular commercial (tech grade) NaOH is fine. The commercial NaOH I get is at 97% purity as it comes from the manufacturer.

You can compensate for the difference between the "ideal" 100% purity and the actual % purity by reducing the superfat in your recipes by the difference between 100% and your actual NaOH purity.

NaOH quickly reacts with carbon dioxide and absorbs water from the open air, so it's essential to properly store NaOH in a dessicator (air-tight low-humidity enclosure) after purchase. That's especially true for analytical-grade NaOH. If you are storing the container of analytical-grade NaOH in the open air, your NaOH will not be analytical grade for long.

Thanks a lot for your answer, learned a lot from it