HELP! Soapmaking Calculator

[Admin]

I'm going to develop a soapmaking calculator. Either hosted here or on another domain but heavily linked here.

Take SoapCalc for instance, what is it missing? What more can I add to the calculator that would help you?

 

[dibbles]

The ability to calculate NaOH/KOH batches comes to mind first. Soapee calculator does that, but I can't seem to get the recipes to print on one page, so I stick with Soap Calc.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

SoapCalc is about as good as it gets! Soapee too! And Summer Bee Meadow has dual lye formulations, although it only does ounces, not grams.

A separate calc for liquid soap only would be helpful if it always showed the water amount at 3 X KOH to make the lye solution and provided the dilution water amount at 2-3 times the weight of oils used. Back in the day, we had "RJ's Calc" that did that and it always worked well for me.

What we really need, JMHO, is a Lotion Calc like the one designed by Joseph Henry Skin Esscentuals, sadly, now defunct, but archived at Save on Scents. Go to the link below; scroll down to "Lotion/Creams", click on that then scroll down to the very bottom of that page to see the calculator (no longer working). How to Use the Calc is described in the paragraph above it.

https://www.saveonscents.com/skinesscentuals.php

Please, please, please.

 

[artemis]

I use soapee and I like just about everything, from layout and design to features. I will say that there is a flaw that I actually like. When you choose ounces as your measure, then your recipe will be displayed with both ounces a d grams side by side. I suspect it's a flaw, because when you choose grams, all you get is grams. I don't know why I like that, but I do.

What's missing from soapee? An easy way to keep track of batches. The Bramble Berry app does this and I used the feature quite often, back when I had the app. It would even alert you when the batch was cured (you could specify how long the cure should be).

 

[Admin]

So there needs to be a login system? So you can login and save your batches?

So the calculator needs everything SoapCalc does PLUS the ability to save a batch PLUS the ability to calculate NaOH/KOH batches? All that correct?

What else?

Then outside a Soap Calc, re-inventing the Lotion Calc.

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

How about adding an “another liquid” calculation. So lets say I want to make a soap with 30% cream (or whatever other liquid/puree). So you would select liquid 1-water and 2nd liquid 30% . So it would make the calculation of “you need to use 100g of water and 30% other liquid”. Is this dumb? Hahaha i literally just thought about since when I split the liquid i just use a random number depending on how much water i need to use in the first place.

 

[DeeAnna]

I much prefer the Soapee interface compared to Soapcalc and SMB. Soapee is much cleaner and more intuitive to my mind.

My "pie in the sky calc" would allow the user to enter the alkali purity for NaOH and for KOH. Soapee lets you enter the KOH purity, but like all the other calcs, it assumes the NaOH purity is 100%. Ugh.

I'd like to see the default method for calculating the water weight be anything other than "water as % of oils." The default should be lye concentration or water:lye ratio, IMO.

People often want to add an acid to a soap recipe -- citric acid, vinegar, etc. -- but don't have the math skills to calculate the added NaOH or KOH needed to neutralize the acid. It would be nice if there was a way for a person to enter the weight (or % ppo) of citric acid powder or 5% vinegar or other acid and then the calc would calculate the NaOH or KOH needed to react with the acid. The calc should then add that extra alkali weight to the weight of alkali needed for saponification.

It would be lovely if a calc provided a way for people to enter the % ppo of tetrasodium EDTA or sodium citrate powder to be used in a recipe. The calc would determine the weight of the ingredient. This same idea could be used for calculating the weight of salt, sugar, or other minor additives that are often included in soap recipes.

I realize I'm poking at a sacred cow, but I really cringe at the Soapcalc names for the combined fatty acid percentages. The "cleansing" and "conditioning" names are particularly confusing and unhelpful. I'd hate for yet another soap recipe calc to perpetuate stereotypes that can be misleading and unhelpful.

I also question whether some of the combined % of fatty acids really explain what they are supposed to explain. For example, "bubbly" and "creamy" both include ricinoleic acid %. That gives new soapers the impression that the more castor oil one uses, the better, which is really misleading. And the "conditioning" number, which is supposedly a measure of mildness, includes the % of oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids, but doesn't include the % of stearic and palmitic acids.

 

[Admin]

So we can do everything. I just really need help as I'm not experienced like you all in explaining everything that needs to occur.

@dibbles said "The ability to calculate NaOH/KOH batches" .... @DeeAnna Is that the same as yours?

 

[Chris_S]

At first I used the sage lye calc which I thought was ok until I found the bramble berry one the thing I like most about the bramble berry one is that you can tell it what % super fat you want which as a beginner is much easier to understand than the way the other one iv used displays it. my knowledge and use is limited so not got much other input but as said previous by someone I think living in england and most recipes being in ounces when we generally use grams having the 2 displayed besides each other would be a handy addition that way it could be seen that any conversions done have been correct.
The total overall batch size in both grams and ounces would be handy for comparison too.
I'm not fully researched into this yet but maybe something that would help newcomers figure out how much clay to add to benifit from a natural colour or splitting a recipe to add stuff like goats milk and mixing advice would be a useful addition even if it's just as a little explanation on the page and not part of the calculator itself

 

[DeeAnna]

@Admin -- Not really. Dibbles wants to be able to make a "dual lye" recipe using both NaOH and KOH. This is what Soapee calls a "hybrid" recipe.

I want to be able to enter the purity of the alkali no matter if I'm using only NaOH, only KOH, or both in my recipe. Soapee lets you enter the KOH purity, but doesn't allow you to enter the NaOH purity.

I edited my previous post by the way with another thought about the soapcalc "numbers"

 

[Admin]

@DeeAnna The calculations you want to see, do you already know the formulas and you do yourself now?

 

[Arimara]

Everyone put it some great idea so far. I second the lotion calculator but it needs to take into consideration the type of preservatives being used and well as if someone is using more than one preservative at a time.

 

[Admin]

So the lotion calculator would be a separate calculator right? Soap and lotion are two separate sets of calculations? Is there any overlap?

 

[dibbles]

These are all good suggestions. @DeeAnna I understand your desire to have the ability to enter the NaOH/KOH purity, but without frequent testing, what would you suggest as a standard % of purity. If we are using calcs that are assuming 100% purity and already know that isn't accurate, is there an alkali purity percentage that would work better? I hope I'm phrasing this right.

@artemis I like seeing weights in both grams and ounces too. I think that I'm better able to see how much I'm going to be using in a recipe in ounce measurements (especially if I'm getting low on an oil or using one that is more expensive) but I weigh everything in grams.

And who knew there was ever such a thing as a lotion calculator. That could be handy

 

[OldHippie]

So there needs to be a login system? So you can login and save your batches?

Soapcalc uses cookies to save your batches. No logon necessary.

 

[artemis]

Soapcalc uses cookies to save your batches. No logon necessary.

I use multiple devices (phone, tablet, PC). Without the login, I don't think I can access my recipes unless I'm always on the same device, right? For me, that would be a problem, since I use soapee with all three devices for different reasons/purposes.

 

[SaltedFig]

I really like SoapCalc for the brevity of the first few lines, and how it can handle changing from percentages to weights and back (it makes it very easy to resize in SoapCalc - something that Soapee is not great at).

Mixed liquid ingredients:
I would like to see an adjustment to the water amount for mixed liquids, that contain either fat or acids in liquids, so that the water content is also taken into account as well as the the required hydroxide needed.
This feature would be very useful for a number of liquids (like vinegar, goat's milk, cream, coconut milk etc.).
Having default percentages (of fat or acid), but being able to manually adjust the percentage on these ingredients would be useful.
For example, some people have 5% vinegar as their usual strength, but other people buy 6% vinegar strength.
Another example is milk - it could be a default skim milk 3%, with the ability to enter 6% for the fat content instead.

Master Batch Lye:
With the increase in split lye (for milk soaps) and masterbatching, I think it would be an excellent selling point to have a lye calculator that can handle master batch liquids (currently all lye calculators require people who master batch (or use the split method) to manually calculate the adjustments to both lye and water (which increases the chance of error).
This could be achieved by adding something like a tickbox for masterbatch/split, and an entry box for the lye concentration percentage (with a default to 50%).
The output would be the weight of the masterbatch solution and the weight of the addition liquid required (to bring it up to the desired lye concentration/ratio).

Unit of measurement:
If possible, I would like to be able to print out my recipe only with my chosen unit of measurement (to reduce the chance of error due to reading from the wrong column).

Dual lye:
I'm another one who would like to see dual lye on a SoapCalc style calculator, with a percentage of each hydroxide being manually entered.

Hydroxide purity:
I would also like to be able to enter the purity percentage for sodium hydroxide as well as potassium hydroxide.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Then outside a Soap Calc, re-inventing the Lotion Calc.

 

[Admin]

Is there a current lotion calculator working you all use currently?

 

[Arimara]

I had to fashion a crude one with excel and optimized it Optiphen Plus. To answer your previous question: I think the calculations for lotion vs soap might be a bit more work, especially if the re w are so few lotion calculators out there.