CPOP How long to OP?

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

I believe I've read an hour is more than enough time, but I was just wondering what you all typically do.

I've been OP my CP soap at 170 F (the lowest my oven will go) for a half dozen batches or so now and typically just leave it in there for an indeterminate amount of time - and once had it re-OP when The Wife started heating the oven back up for dinner. I noticed it pretty quick though and the soap seems fine.

 

[BattleGnome]

I turn my oven on (170F) when I start assembling everything and turn it off when I put the soap in the oven then usually go to bed. It ends up being 12ish hours for me and doesn’t always fully preheat before the soap goes in. Of course you’re recipe will change things a bit. My husband also yells at me if I don’t have a note over the oven dials to avoid cooking soap with dinner.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Yep. I do the same as Battle Gnome. To make sure no one (especially me LOL) uses the oven or opens the oven door overnight, I put a big X on the handle with black electrician's tape.

 

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

Ended up having to take my soap out after about an hour (I turn the oven off as soon as the soap goes in), cause, you know, the fams got to eat! It looks like it's gelled already, though I'm no expert. It's about 90 in the house now anyway, so it'll probably be alright.

 

[AliOop]

I believe @Todd Ziegler avoids the whole oven issue by using heating pads instead. I haven't been excited about my oven CPOP results so am planning to try the heating pads next.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I believe @Todd Ziegler avoids the whole oven issue by using heating pads instead. I haven't been excited about my CPOP results so am planning to try the heating pads next.

Absolutely true. It generally takes 1.5 - 2 hours for my soap to gel from one end to the other.

I use 2 heating pads, one on the top and one on the bottom. I also add a wool blanket on top. This helps keep the heat in.

Depending on which of the 3 standard recipes I use, I will check the soap at 1 - 1.5 hours. If the soap is at least 125°F and it has changed color from end to end. I will remove the heating pads and let it start to cool down. If it is not finished gelling, then I will cover it back up for another 30 - 60 minutes depending on the temperature.

My goal is to hit 125°F for 1 hour. I always get a smooth top on my soaps with a uniform gelling all the way through. I will post a picture of yesterday's soap. It took 1.5 hours to gell completely.

 

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

I always get a smooth top on my soaps with a uniform gelling all the way through.

I've been getting a lot of little bumps atop some of my soap, though I thought it was from accidentally sucking in air as I was stick blending the thickening soap - think this is from the OP?

I used to be able to simply throw some towels over my small loaf molds while the soap sat in our warm garage - but once I began using 40-45% lye concentrations this wasn't enough.

I think I'll stick with OP for now, as I imagine this is a bit cheaper than heating pads (gas oven just takes a few minutes to get to 170).

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I've been getting a lot of little bumps atop some of my soap, though I thought it was from accidentally sucking in air as I was stick blending the thickening soap - think this is from the OP?

I used to be able to simply throw some towels over my small loaf molds while the soap sat in our warm garage - but once I began using 40-45% lye concentrations this wasn't enough.

I think I'll stick with OP for now, as I imagine this is a bit cheaper than heating pads (gas oven just takes a few minutes to get to 170).

The heating pads that I use were $15 each but you can get a good one for less on Amazon.

I tried CPOP but like the bumbs your getting, I got waves on top. So I tried the heating pads and I never looked back. The heating pads allow for a much more steady heat environment. An oven has hot and cold spots and the hot air rises in an oven because of the size of the oven. Even if you put your soap right in the middle of the oven, the temperature can change. With heating pads on top and bottom, the heat is no more than an inch away. However to each their own. Good luck.

 

[bookreader451]

I have an extra oven in the basement for CPOP and I filled one of the aluminum hot table pans with water and covered it. I keep it on the lower rack and the heated water helps keep the oven temp even. I heat up the oven and then turn it off when I put the soap in, turn on the light and leave it. I usually take it out about 24 hours later and it is still warm.

 

[SPowers]

I always soap late morning/early afternoon so I want my oven available for cooking later in the day. I was told gel only took an hour and a half to 2 hours so I set my timer for 2 hrs. Then I put it the other room covered with a box and and blanket til the next morning.

 

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

Ended up having to take my soap out after about an hour (I turn the oven off as soon as the soap goes in), cause, you know, the fams got to eat! It looks like it's gelled already, though I'm no expert. It's about 90 in the house now anyway, so it'll probably be alright.

That hour or so wan't quite long enough for my soap as it hadn't fully gelled the last 1/4 inch or less. Plus I took the soap out a bit too early (24+ hours) and it stuck to the side a bit.

Plus I didn't get the lye to fully dissolve in my aloe so I accidentally superfatted a bit more than intended (just a bit). I had several grams of undissolved lye embedded in the bottom of my glass lye/aloe mixing jar - hadn't seen that before. Couldn't even scrape it off with my metal thermometer end. I guess my 45% lye concentration was pushing the limit of solubility too much - I should have just added a bit more aloe juice (didn't occur to me till after for some reason).

Live and learn baby!

The soap should be nice though - the red clay gave it a nice pink/red/orange-y hue and the scent seems nice (a bunch of lemon EO with a touch of wild orange, lavender, and YY).

 

[AliOop]

@AlexanderMakesSoap your EO blend sounds great, and don't forget to post pics of your soap in the Photo Gallery thread!

As an aside, most soapmakers recommend against mixing lye solution in glass containers. The lye will eventually etch the glass and cause it to shatter. Cleaning up a caustic lye spill is bad enough without broken pieces of glass in it.

Some still swear by borosilicate glass (the old Pyrex, or lab beakers). You can find older videos on Soap Queen and other sites that use big Pyrex mixing bowls. But my chemist friend says that even labs replace their beakers at regular intervals to avoid the inevitable degradation.

High quality stainless (expensive) or high-density polypropylene (cheap, shows #2 or #5 recycle number on bottom) are the best for mixing lye solution. If you don't have any of the latter lying around the house, the Dollar Store and thrift shops are great places to find these containers in all shapes and sizes.

 

[The_Phoenix]

My method for gelling my soaps is to use a styrofoam cooler with a tight-fitting lid. My soaps gel perfectly and I don't need to fire up my oven or use electric heating pads. And the best part is I don't need to lid my molds, which allows me to build up my soaps if I want to put botanicals or mounds of soap on top.

 

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

My method for gelling my soaps is to use a styrofoam cooler with a tight-fitting lid. My soaps gel perfectly and I don't need to fire up my oven or use electric heating pads. And the best part is I don't need to lid my molds, which allows me to build up my soaps if I want to put botanicals or mounds of soap on top.

Great idea! You don't find you have an increased likelihood of soda ash with them exposed? Or perhaps having them in the cooler is enough to prevent soda ash.

@AlexanderMakesSoap your EO blend sounds great, and don't forget to post pics of your soap in the Photo Gallery thread!

As an aside, most soapmakers recommend against mixing lye solution in glass containers. The lye will eventually etch the glass and cause it to shatter. Cleaning up a caustic lye spill is bad enough without broken pieces of glass in it.

Some still swear by borosilicate glass (the old Pyrex, or lab beakers). You can find older videos on Soap Queen and other sites that use big Pyrex mixing bowls. But my chemist friend says that even labs replace their beakers at regular intervals to avoid the inevitable degradation.

High quality stainless (expensive) or high-density polypropylene (cheap, shows #2 or #5 recycle number on bottom) are the best for mixing lye solution. If you don't have any of the latter lying around the house, the Dollar Store and thrift shops are great places to find these containers in all shapes and sizes.

At this point, I'm really not doing much to make my soaps look pretty - so I'm not sure how much you all need to see a pic of my single tone (mostly) boring old bars of soap!

Thanks for the tip about not using glass - I hadn't come across that before. I'll look into changing my lye mixing bowls ASAP - I'm just using mason jars at the moment, so not even the most durable glassware to begin with!

 

[AliOop]

@AlexanderMakesSoap we like pics of all soap! Plenty of single-color soaps all over this forum if you look.

 

[The_Phoenix]

Great idea! You don't find you have an increased likelihood of soda ash with them exposed? Or perhaps having them in the cooler is enough to prevent soda ash.

That's a great question. I never have soda ash. The lid on the cooler keeps the interior air-tight. I soap with beer, coconut milk, fruit purees, honey, etc. and to prevent over-heating I out an ice pack in the cooler wrapped in a towel to slightly lower the temperature. It has worked quite well for me. Give it a try.

I'm making a much larger "soap baking box" using styrofoam sheets that I bought at Home Depot. I have a large cardboard box that I've measured the interior and will cut the pieces of styrofoam to fit. I'll be making a tight-fitting lid to keep it as air-tight as possible.p

 

[TheGecko]

I CPOP’d this past winter and got mixed results. No oven light. Older oven. Sometimes I got soda ash, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I got gel, sometimes I didn’t. Got some serious silicone ‘rash’ when I neglected to turn off the oven for a few hours...but no soda ash and a full gel.

I want to get a cooler.

 

[The_Phoenix]

Here is my setup (I made this soap last night). The little bit of soap off to the side will be used in a future project as soap dough.

I CPOP’d this past winter and got mixed results. No oven light. Older oven. Sometimes I got soda ash, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I got gel, sometimes I didn’t. Got some serious silicone ‘rash’ when I neglected to turn off the oven for a few hours...but no soda ash and a full gel.

I want to get a cooler.

I cook and bake pretty much every day, so using my oven would never be convenient. To give you an idea how effective the cooler works, I just checked on the soap I put in the cooler last night around 5:00 and it’s now 12 hours later and the interior of the cooler is still warm and the soap is fully gelled and NO soda ash.

Thanks for the tip about not using glass - I hadn't come across that before. I'll look into changing my lye mixing bowls ASAP - I'm just using mason jars at the moment, so not even the most durable glassware to begin with!

As someone mentioned above, a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid is perfectly safe, inexpensive, and durable. I get mine from the Dollar Tree store (they sell two sizes—I have one of each: the larger one for masterbatching lye water and the other if I’m using a recipe with wine, beer, coffee, etc). I get most of my supplies from the Dollar Tree store: measuring spoons, whisks, mixing bowls, etc. You might even find a styrofoam cooler there. Good luck!

 

[TheGecko]

Thanks for the tip about not using glass - I hadn't come across that before. I'll look into changing my lye mixing bowls ASAP - I'm just using mason jars at the moment, so not even the most durable glassware to begin with!

First time I made soap, I used a "Mason" jar for mixing my lye solution in. As someone who grew up canning, I knew how durable a good canning jar is given the amount of heat and pressure they go through year after year after year, but they can fail...which is why you take safety precautions.

The bowls and cups that I use for soap making are meant to be used for cooking and baking and are made of durable #2 or #5 plastic. Most I bought from the local Dollar Tree, but some I got out of the baking aisle at my local store when having a sale. And like anything plastic that I use in the kitchen, I check regularly for cracks, scratches and general wear.

I Master Batch...which means to premix a large quantity of your lye solution and your oils/butters. I made sure to purchase food grade buckets and gallon jugs for this purpose. I premix 640 oz of oils in four batches; I pour all my soft oils first, and then I heat my hard oils on low on the stove. The goal is to heat them until about 3/4s melted and then let the residual heat finish the job. I then pour into a 5-gallon bucket, start the next batch heating and stir the bucket. It takes about an hour. In the meantime, I've got four of my large mixing bowls of distilled water in the garage to which I add my lye too. It takes a few hours for the lye solution to cool down to where I can safely pour it into two gallon jugs. These jugs have warnings written all over them in bright colored Sharpies so there is no mistaking that the contents are dangerous. Two batches of lye solution fill each jug about 2/3s full which is just perfect for pouring from.

 

[AliOop]

@The_Phoenix what are your temps and water:lye ratios when you soap?

I’ve occasionally insulated mine but haven’t paid attention to whether it helped with ash. And now that I’m using MB lye and soaping a lot cooler, I’m seeing way more of it, even with pretty low water. I don’t like how it looks after spraying with alcohol, which doesn’t seem to help anyway. And CPOP isn’t for me, either.

All that to say, I may need to make some experimental batches to see if more intentional insulating will help. Thanks!