Got a question from a student I couldn't answer....

[Tegan]

Its amazing the things I sometimes take for granted. I got a question from a student last night that I couldn't answer. I was explaining that you should use distilled water or if you had good tap water that would be ok to use too (I know I know, some people think ONLY distilled....but seriously...we have great tap water, I don't see the point.) Anyway, her question was, "What if you have soft water? (Water softener) Can you use that?"

I tried doing a search here and of course pretty much every thread has "water" in it somewhere...so I couldn't find an answer. Does anyone know the answer?

 

[IrishLass]

I did a search over on another soaping forum that I frequent and found out that soft water for making soap is fine. Several different soapers reported that they had water softeners in their house and that they regularly used the tap water from it with which to make their soap without any adverse effects.


IrishLass

 

[Jezzy]

We have very very hard water and do have a softener. I use only our tap water (It does have a very good quality) and have never ever had a problem with my soap.

 

[carebear]

The issue is the metals that could be in the water. If certain ones are present they can promote oxidation and thus rancidity/DOS. Tap water varies on this, of course.

I think Dr Dunn addresses it briefly in his discussion of DOS.

 

[soap25]

Hard water

The reason is, that the Calcium and Magnesium in hard water also react with the fatty acids during the saponification.

Its soap too, but they have other properties than the soaps we use, made with Sodium (NaOH) or Potassium (KOH) hydroxide.

Thats the reason why dead sea salt (MgCl) doesn`t work in salt bars.

 

[Tegan]

Got it thanks!

 

[MissMori]

Also remember that most soft water is softened using salt and therefore contains a small amount of salt. Not a bad thing for soap, but something to keep in mind.

 

[JackiK]

As an aside to this topic, I recently learned that castor oil is almost an absolute if you're giving/selling the soap to someone who has really hard water. Without it, there is almost no lather.

I send some to my friend in Ruidoso and it was the first thing she noticed.

 

[MissMori]

...I recently learned that castor oil is almost an absolute if you're giving/selling the soap to someone who has really hard water. Without it, there is almost no lather.

I don't think this is necessarily true. My water is extremely hard and I get great lather without using castor. However, I do use a high % of coconut and pko.

 

[Guest]

I use RO/DI water - we have a reverse osmosis unit that removes all metals from the water (down to less than 1 ppm) for our saltwater fish tank, so I use the RO/DI water for soaping also and it seems to be fine. As long as you remove the minerals nothing to worry about. I would filter the water in some way though, not just use straight tap, even if its soft.

 

[carebear]

I never do squat to my tap water. If it is fine then it is fine

 

[Sunny]

I just wanted to add that I stopped using distilled water a while ago in my soap and only use our tap water (which is very hard and not softened) and have never had DOS before. The water will be different wherever you live, of course. Just my experience.

 

[Guywithsoap?]

If you use have soft water would it still be beneficial to run it though a brita filter or is this step unnecessary.

 

[carebear]

it could be helpful depending on what metals you have it your water. soft is not as pure as distilled.