Dehydrator

[crey15]

Ok so I saw a post on a Facebook forum where someone bought a dehydrator to speed up curing time, making the bars "ready " in a few days rather than 6 weeks!

My question is , does the same changes in the soap occur if its cured this way ie mild ....?

 

[coffeetime]

Short answer - no. Curing is not just about water evaporation. Try it with your own bars. After 4 weeks, not a whole lot more water weight is lost, but the difference between a 4 week old bar and an eight or 12 week old bar can be astonishing.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It seems to be one of those magical, unexplainable things with soaping - what actually happens in the cure? As CT said, it's not just water leaving, but something happens in there over time that really is worth while. Maybe the soap molecules have a lot of meetings, put together an action plan and decide how best to make lather and feel good on the skin!

I think it rather poor planning if one HAS to have a soap "ready" in that time.

 

[hismrsfinnegan]

I am so glad you asked this question. While I never thought of pulling out my dehydrator, I have been thinking of keeping my soaps in the basement where I have a dehumidifier. However, since I have several cats, I have decided to stick to a large rack in my new garage shop when it is finally set up. For now, I have soap curing all over my living room in cardboard boxes~getting my shop finished is a huge priority but an even larger undertaking. I am the kind of person that if I am going to do something, I am going to do it right. That can get EXPENSIVE!

 

[crey15]

I thought it was probably too good to be true. But I still would like to do an experiment where I cure half the soap for 6 wks and dehydrate the other

 

[Obsidian]

Would be a really good experiment.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I actually thought about this almost as soon as I woke up today. At first glance, I think it would be "cheating" in some way. But did other soapers think the same of the first people to use a stick blender?

I would be really interested to see if there IS a way to fully cure the soap in less time - as long as it has a same or nearly same effect as the longer cure. After all, progress should not be prevented because the idea of something might not sit well. It might well be that in years to come that a dehydrator is part of the basic soaping equipment like a stick blender is today.............................

.....................but only if it works

 

[grayceworks]

OK, I am one of those curious soapers who always says, 'I wonder what this will do?' (Just ask anyone here lol)

So, I HAVE used my dehydrator on the lowest heat setting on a batch of each recipe I make, to see what differences, if any, it made in dry and cure time.

Soooo... It did help with drying them out quicker, but you have to make sure to put them farthest away from the heater, even on the low-heat setting, and keep an eye on them once or twice a day, no more than 2 days, or they will either warp from the heat, warp and maybe even crack from too-fast water-loss, and they'll even 'cook' and get crusty dark edges if they're smaller bars too close to the heat or if left in there too long. And if the heat is too high, you'll gel -- or re-gel -- your soaps turning them into a runny liquid mess!

Any higher than 95 degrees F and they'll get gooey or they'll overcook depending on your soap recipe. Think soap-jerky lol. Perfectly usable but ugly. Was an interesting experiment in trying it out though.

My conclusion was -- it dries them out quicker if used with great care, which might allow you to store them sooner while they complete their cure. Because drying out is only part of the cure, just like with HP, they still didn't reach their full potential with mildness and lather until they'd cured for 4-8wks. And you can usually help the soaps dry just fine with a normal fan to help circulate the air.

I do still use it with my HP carrot soap which has a high water content, to help keep good dry warm air circulation, because otherwise it takes months to dry and get hard. Just the nature of the recipe, and I like the end result too much to change it lol.

Ummm... don't ever put cut 'bars' of songwind's shave soap recipe --the full KOH version-- in a dehydrator. It will not dehydrate, it will soften and spread out like cookie dough in the oven. LOL

 

[shunt2011]

I have seen soo many discussions regarding this and the results are across the board. Personally, nothing beats a good cure on it's own. I've heard that some have gotten warped soap from using the dehydrator. So, it's probably a personal thing.

 

[Arthur Dent]

Very interesting discussion. I had been toying with the dehydrator idea myself for some of my longer curing soaps. The warping of the bars makes total sense. Oh well.

 

[MarisaJensen]

What about a dehumidifier?