CPOP alternative

[penelopejane]

I usually CPOP at 104* F (40*C) and turn the oven off as soon as the soap goes in and leave it unopened for 12 hrs or so. This works perfectly for me to get gel.

I have new molds (thick silicone liner and timber boxes with a lid) and can't fit them in the oven!
I've just made my first mix in the new mold and wrapped it in an electric blanket that I can get to 104*F (40* C) but it won't be in a closed environment and currently our night time temps are 35*F (2*C) and our day time temps sometimes get to 65* F (19*C) but generally less so I am worried the temp will drop too quickly.

Does anyone use this method?
I was wondering how long should I keep the heat on the blanket or should I turn it off as soon as I wrap the soap in it?

PJ

 

[IrishLass]

I know of some folks that use a box or a cooler to hold the heat in.


IrishLass

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hot summer or cold winter, soap will saponify whether you use heat or not. I would just wrap it with towels or a blanket to insulate and leave it overnight. You should be able to cut the next day with a balanced formula.

 

[dibbles]

I put my mold on a heating pad, set on the highest setting. I usually check it after an hour, which is when it automatically shuts off. Then I turn the heating pad on again, usually on a lower setting. I have one of those thick faux fur blankets that I lay on the floor, put the heating pad on top of that, lay a towel over the heating pad, set my mold on that, then wrap everything up. In the winter I add another towel, doubled over the top of the mold before wrapping since we keep our heat low at night. This usually works to get gel.

You might try heating your blanket on for awhile, wrapped around your mold and have several layers around the blanket and mold to help hold the heat. A cooler is a good idea.

 

[dibbles]

Hot summer or cold winter, soap will saponify whether you use heat or not. I would just wrap it with towels or a blanket to insulate and leave it overnight. You should be able to cut the next day with a balanced formula.

It will saponify, but it won't necessarily gel.

 

[Nao]

I'm thinking, just wrap it up in the electric blanket and take a look at it now and then to see how it's going and turn it off when it looks like the soap is done. And just leave it in the blanket to cool. At 40C chances of overheating is pretty small, no?

 

[penelopejane]

Hot summer or cold winter, soap will saponify whether you use heat or not. I would just wrap it with towels or a blanket to insulate and leave it overnight. You should be able to cut the next day with a balanced formula.

It won't gel.

 

[penelopejane]

I'm thinking, just wrap it up in the electric blanket and take a look at it now and then to see how it's going and turn it off when it looks like the soap is done. And just leave it in the blanket to cool. At 40C chances of overheating is pretty small, no?

My CPOP method requires no peaking or opening the oven door cos I use such a low temp but this means I don't get other problems. So checking isn't a good idea!

 

[penelopejane]

I put my mold on a heating pad, set on the highest setting. I usually check it after an hour, which is when it automatically shuts off. Then I turn the heating pad on again, usually on a lower setting. I have one of those thick faux fur blankets that I lay on the floor, put the heating pad on top of that, lay a towel over the heating pad, set my mold on that, then wrap everything up. In the winter I add another towel, doubled over the top of the mold before wrapping since we keep our heat low at night. This usually works to get gel.

You might try heating your blanket on for awhile, wrapped around your mold and have several layers around the blanket and mold to help hold the heat. A cooler is a good idea.

Thank you so much for your help dibbles.
These molds won't fit in our cooler. ��
I've got it on top of a wooden box with a towel and another sheet of timber on top (to protect the toy box and keep it off the cold floor).
Then I've got the electric blanket then a towel to protect the electric blanket and then the mold. Then I wrapped it all up in the elec blanket. Over the top of it all I have a doona (thanks for the fur rug suggestion).
It's as snug as a bug. A bit too snug cos it got to 50*C so I turned the blanket down to Lo (there are ten settings so that should be pretty low).

It's freezing cold here (about 8*C) but the extra doona over the top seems to be keeping it warm. I'll check every hour and keep a chart but I don't really have an idea of how warm my oven stayed for how long. As long as I can keep it at 20* C for 12 hrs I am pretty sure it will gel. Thank goodness for laser thermometers.

It would be nice if DH let me have it in the lounge room where it is toasty warm but I've been banished to the third bedroom which is unheated unless we have visitors.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

You could try it, see if it gels fully. But I think that heating up a cool-box and then putting the freshly poured soap in there might be a better idea considering the ambient temperature

 

[Soapprentice]

Keeping the freshly moulded soap in a cardboard box and insulating the box works too... I think... It works here in winter , I'm not sure about it in such a cold weather though.

 

[dibbles]

Thank you so much for your help dibbles.
These molds won't fit in our cooler. ��
I've got it on top of a wooden box with a towel and another sheet of timber on top (to protect the toy box and keep it off the cold floor).
Then I've got the electric blanket then a towel to protect the electric blanket and then the mold. Then I wrapped it all up in the elec blanket. Over the top of it all I have a doona (thanks for the fur rug suggestion).
It's as snug as a bug. A bit too snug cos it got to 50*C so I turned the blanket down to Lo (there are ten settings so that should be pretty low).

It's freezing cold here (about 8*C) but the extra doona over the top seems to be keeping it warm. I'll check every hour and keep a chart but I don't really have an idea of how warm my oven stayed for how long. As long as I can keep it at 20* C for 12 hrs I am pretty sure it will gel. Thank goodness for laser thermometers.


It would be nice if DH let me have it in the lounge room where it is toasty warm but I've been banished to the third bedroom which is unheated unless we have visitors.

I hope it works for you. I can't use the oven because when the oven is shut off, there is a fan that runs to blow the warm air out so it cools off faster. It might be a nice feature, for someone that doesn't want to use it for a soap nursery. Good luck!

 

[penelopejane]

I hope it works for you. I can't use the oven because when the oven is shut off, there is a fan that runs to blow the warm air out so it cools off faster. It might be a nice feature, for someone that doesn't want to use it for a soap nursery. Good luck!

DH asked why I was running around (like, he said "a demented chicken") and when I explained he gave me his very good (and very $$$) blizzard cooler (which is big enough as it turns out but I hadn't bothered measuring it earlier as I thought it would be off limits) on the strict proviso that it is not considered "soaping equipment" (of course not!) and it doesn't get one spot of soap batter on it or get melted.

I wrapped the soap in it's timber mold to carefully protect the cooler and turned on the electric blanket until it got to 40*C (104* F) and turned it off (mostly because the cord doesn't allow me to shut the lid properly which is apparently vital) and I won't open it for 12 hours.

I will report back later.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

It won't gel.

Oh dear, then you do have a problem. I use the laundry room which is 65°F/18°C at night (winter temp) and I don't have a problem with it gelling -- I use an acrylic lap blanket tightly wrapped around a wooden mold with top and set it on the dryer overnight. No worries. Ready to unmold the next day.

 

[earlene]

DH asked why I was running around (like, he said "a demented chicken") and when I explained he gave me his very good (and very $$$) blizzard cooler (which is big enough as it turns out but I hadn't bothered measuring it earlier as I thought it would be off limits) on the strict proviso that it is not considered "soaping equipment" (of course not!) and it doesn't get one spot of soap batter on it or get melted.

I wrapped the soap in it's timber mold to carefully protect the cooler and turned on the electric blanket until it got to 40*C (104* F) and turned it off (mostly because the cord doesn't allow me to shut the lid properly which is apparently vital) and I won't open it for 12 hours.

I will report back later.

This sounds like a perfect solution. I have used a heating pad, insulation and a cardboard box to hold in the heat and covered all that with a wool blanket and that worked quite well until I started using my oven few months ago.

You can also get one of those thin thermal survival blankets that mountain climbers and hikers use. They are very thin and light weight, reflect the heat back toward the heat source, and can be relatively inexpensive. Here is an example available from Amazon, but any sporting goods store should have them.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

How did you go?

I'm in Melbourne and I don't usually have troubles with gelling my soaps, even in wintertime.
The other day, individual soaps gelled on their own, unwrapped, in a cold hallway.
You shouldn't really have much trouble. Wood is a very good insulator and those molds should do a good job on their own. I never had issues with my wooden molds.
But, to be safe, I was about to suggest more wood, maybe underneath, on sides and maybe on top like you did put some extra. Wrap everything in some sort of acrylic blanket that holds heat well.
Gelling also depends on FO used, recipe etc... some soaps might take a while to get going.

 

[navigator9]

I like to gel all of my soaps, and I've used many methods to do this. One thing that has a big effect on gelling is the mass of your soap. If it's a fairly large mold, (and loaves work better than slabs, where the batter is spread out ), it's easier to gel, actually it's often difficult to prevent gelling in a large mold. I frequently use individual silicone molds, and Crystal Lite containers as molds, and with these smaller ones, I've had good luck with a small, styrofoam container. To give things a nudge, I usually add one of those neck warmer things that you heat up in the microwave, inside the cooler, to provide a little heat. The styrofoam container has a lid that fits snugly, and by the following morning, the soaps have gelled. If you have your soap in a cooler, you shouldn't have to add any outside heat to it. The cooler insulates, so I doubt that the heat from outside would have any effect.

In my early days of soaping, I also used a heating pad under my mold, and then wrapped it all in a towel. This works too, I've just had better luck and more consistent results with preheating my mold and liner in the oven, and then CPOPing in the oven. But each soaper has a different mold and uses a different recipe, so we all have to find what works best for us. Trial and error. And I think the whole idea of never ever peeking at the soap to see if it's gelling is a myth. Once soap has started to gel, a quick peek is not going to stop it. Good luck with yours!!!

 

[gloopygloop]

This is a good time to have a go at HP'ing, get it in the oven at 50c for an hour in a suitable pot, zap testing when done scent, colour and swirl and then into mould, nothing like something new to do:roll:

 

[Soapmaker145]

What Navigator said. My large loaf mold holds about 6 Kg and I just wrap it with towels and a wool blanket and leave it alone. It warms up on its own even when soaping cool. The saponification reaction generates enough heat to reach gel without external heat. The concentration of the lye, the extent of trace when poured and the type of FO will affect how quickly and easily it reaches gel stage. I leave it alone and it takes about 36 hours for the temperature to drop back to room temperature even when I put it in an unheated room in the middle of a cold winter (sub 0oC temps). I even put some 2.2lb molds near it and wrapped them together and the small molds gel too. I peek many times and take temp readings with a laser thermometer. It doesn't make any difference.

I love the texture of the soap made in the large mold much better than the small molds.

 

[penelopejane]

Hi Everyone,
Thank you all for your responses.
My aim is to come up with a consistent, reproducible result.
I have tried leaving soap on the bench wrapped and unwrapped and it gets partial gel or ash.
CPOP at 40* and leaving in the oven without opening (this was vital at this low temp) was perfect. Even though my oven expels the warm air for 10 mins after it shuts down this still worked as I wrapped my soap in a blanket.

So the new molds have created this problem because they are too big to go in the oven.

So I wrapped the new timber mold (with lid) in a towel and electric blanket, turned to 40* then turned off and then put it in a huge cooler (with a few false starts). It worked perfectly, inside the cooler this morning is 18* C (65* F) outside temp is 10*C (50* F) the soap itself is still 30* C (86*F) so this system is fantastic and I can obviously be a lot less vigilant about it once it goes in. It is too warm to cut yet so I've wrapped it up again.

I would never have got to use the "good" cooler without the panic so I am very grateful for all your help.
it never ceases to amaze me that for soap what works for someone, be it a recipe or a technique, doesn't work for someone else but there is always a way around that eventually suits each person and their situation.