I have tried and tried and tried to get my soap to cook in under an hour. Actually just an hour would even be nice at this point.
When I first started making HP soap, the temps were generally around 150 to 170 during cook. However, I kept seeing posts about fluid hp, cooking in 30 minutes or less etc. So, of course I wanted to save a little time and get mine to cook a bit faster.
I upped the temp a bit and kept the soap around 170. Still over an hour.
Tried between 180 and 200 ... again ... over an hour.
Thought maybe I was over cooking ... zap test after zap test failed. So, I concluded that I was not over cooking.
The last 3 batches, I've gone over 200 and keep it there ... still over an hour.
I cannot for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Thought maybe it was the lye. The first lye I bought came from Amazon. I bought some from WHS and now last night I started using lye from Essential Depot. Same result. So it isn't the lye.
Thought maybe the crockpot. The temps remain consistent whether on low or high, so I've ruled that out as well.
Oils? Have tried with various combinations. Lard/tallow/OO/RBO etc.
I always use a calculator and have even compared between soapcalc and soapmakerfriend. The lye can vary a tiny tiny bit, but not enough to make this much difference in the cook.
Water maybe? I have tried both filtered and distilled, with no difference.
What am I missing or doing wrong? The only other thing I can think of is (potentially) altitude. I can't imagine why that would make a difference with soap. Altitude matters for baking and making candy but as far as I know, those are the only two things.
Here are two pics from last nights batch. The first one taken at 45 min cook. The second one taken at exactly one hour. Soap temp the entire time was above 200.
When I first started making HP soap, the temps were generally around 150 to 170 during cook. However, I kept seeing posts about fluid hp, cooking in 30 minutes or less etc. So, of course I wanted to save a little time and get mine to cook a bit faster.
I upped the temp a bit and kept the soap around 170. Still over an hour.
Tried between 180 and 200 ... again ... over an hour.
Thought maybe I was over cooking ... zap test after zap test failed. So, I concluded that I was not over cooking.
The last 3 batches, I've gone over 200 and keep it there ... still over an hour.
I cannot for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Thought maybe it was the lye. The first lye I bought came from Amazon. I bought some from WHS and now last night I started using lye from Essential Depot. Same result. So it isn't the lye.
Thought maybe the crockpot. The temps remain consistent whether on low or high, so I've ruled that out as well.
Oils? Have tried with various combinations. Lard/tallow/OO/RBO etc.
I always use a calculator and have even compared between soapcalc and soapmakerfriend. The lye can vary a tiny tiny bit, but not enough to make this much difference in the cook.
Water maybe? I have tried both filtered and distilled, with no difference.
What am I missing or doing wrong? The only other thing I can think of is (potentially) altitude. I can't imagine why that would make a difference with soap. Altitude matters for baking and making candy but as far as I know, those are the only two things.
Here are two pics from last nights batch. The first one taken at 45 min cook. The second one taken at exactly one hour. Soap temp the entire time was above 200.