Lye Issue

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hud

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I bought 32lb of lye from Essential Depot in in May of 2019 because it was on sale, hoping that I can keep it for a long time. I stored them in an old water cooler in my storage room, I barely used 1/4 of the first bottle.
Today I figured out that they are having clumps, and the expiration date on them is 04-01-2021. My storage room gets to around 90-iesh F during the hot summer. I only purchased their lye twice and never paid attention to the expiration date. Should I go ahead and keep using them? I have a friend who wants me to make some soap for him, he wants to pay me. Is it good idea to use the lye? Do you have an advice to give me?
Thank you
 
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I know DeeAnna has a way of storing her bottles of lye in buckets with desiccant, I believe and I am sure she will pop in and tell you otherwise I am sure you can do a search. A few clumps will not hurt, but if a bottle becomes very heavy with clumps I would not use it because it means it has absorbed too much moisture. I purchase lye in 50 lb bags and store my lye in 5 gallon buckets. I will get a few lumps but it has never hurt my lye, or if it has weakened it. Lye will actually last for many years.
 
Yeah, the "expiration date" for sodium hydroxide is kind of a joke. Stored properly, NaOH will be good for decades.

If you're getting a few smallish clumps that break apart fairly easily, that's not too concerning. But if the lumps are hard and/or large, that's another story.

The problem here is not the temperature; it's the humidity levels. You need to figure out how to store your containers of NaOH in an environment that has lower humidity and less turnover of fresh air. Containers aren't 100% perfect at preventing gas from permeating through, and this is especially true when dealing with NaOH, since it is a hugely powerful desiccant (moisture absorber).

The solution could be as simple as storing the NaOH bottles in a tightly covered 5 gallon bucket. This will reduce the amount of fresh, humid air around the NaOH containers.

You can go a step further yet and make a "dry bucket" by adding a desiccant canister. You can also use it to store other ingredients that need to be kept in a low humidity environment. More: Table of contents | Soapy Stuff
 
Yeah, the "expiration date" for sodium hydroxide is kind of a joke. Stored properly, NaOH will be good for decades.

If you're getting a few smallish clumps that break apart fairly easily, that's not too concerning. But if the lumps are hard and/or large, that's another story.

The problem here is not the temperature; it's the humidity levels. You need to figure out how to store your containers of NaOH in an environment that has lower humidity and less turnover of fresh air. Containers aren't 100% perfect at preventing gas from permeating through, and this is especially true when dealing with NaOH, since it is a hugely powerful desiccant (moisture absorber).

The solution could be as simple as storing the NaOH bottles in a tightly covered 5 gallon bucket. This will reduce the amount of fresh, humid air around the NaOH containers.

You can go a step further yet and make a "dry bucket" by adding a desiccant canister. You can also use it to store other ingredients that need to be kept in a low humidity environment. More: Table of contents | Soapy Stuff

Thank you DeeAnna. I got a few bottles fully clumped, when I shook them they were ok. The rest are having some lumps not much.
It looks like that the water cooler was not a good option to prevent humidity from getting to the bottles even though it was closed tightly for a long time. I'll buy 5 gallons bucket, what do you think about those desiccant beads?
 

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And if you did have a lot of lye go "bad", there are methods for working out how "bad" it is so that you know how much to use.

I put bad in the speech marks as it's still something you can use, it's just that the lye is less pure than it was and so you'd have to use more of it. But it sounds like yours is usable still as is, and I think it really only makes sense when it's a large amount of lye that has been affected
 
And if you did have a lot of lye go "bad", there are methods for working out how "bad" it is so that you know how much to use.

I put bad in the speech marks as it's still something you can use, it's just that the lye is less pure than it was and so you'd have to use more of it. But it sounds like yours is usable still as is, and I think it really only makes sense when it's a large amount of lye that has been affected
Thank you for your reply. How do I know how much to use when the lye is less pure? I have a previous lye purchase that I thought it has gone "bad" , it might be still usable with some adjustments. I have a lot that I don't know what to do with it.
 
Thank you for your reply. How do I know how much to use when the lye is less pure? I have a previous lye purchase that I thought it has gone "bad" , it might be still usable with some adjustments. I have a lot that I don't know what to do with it.
I'm afraid that's a question others are better suited to answer. And by 'others' I mean @DeeAnna 🤣

I think a search for "testing lye purity" would also bring up a lot of the information. Not saying that to be obtuse, but it's not a process which I know enough about to be able to instruct someone else in how to do it
 
I bought 32lb of lye from Essential Depot in in May of 2019 because it was on sale, hoping that I can keep it for a long time. I stored them in an old water cooler in my storage room, I barely used 1/4 of the first bottle.
Today I figured out that they are having clumps, and the expiration date on them is 04-01-2021. My storage room gets to around 90-iesh F during the hot summer. I only purchased their lye twice and never paid attention to the expiration date. Should I go ahead and keep using them? I have a friend who wants me to make some soap for him, he wants to pay me. Is it good idea to use the lye? Do you have an advice to give me?
Thank you
I have a "test" for lye (sort of) - I make up a 50/50 water/lye solution. If it heats up to over 180 - I consider it good to go.
 
Good idea, @linne1gi -- this sounds like a good rule of thumb to me!

Extrapolating a bit from the chem info I have for NaOH -- When solid NaOH (100% purity) is dissolved in 80F water to make a 50% NaOH solution, the temperature of the freshly made solution should be 200-220 F / 95-105 C. This is when the test is done under ideal conditions in a chem lab.

In a real-world soap kitchen, I'd look for temps of 180-200 F / 80-95 C right after commercial NaOH is dissolved in room temperature water to make a 50% NaOH solution. If it's less than 180 F, as you mention, it's a good sign that something is not quite right.

This test isn't going to give you accurate purity info, but I think it's a good way to learn if your NaOH is utter cr*p or reasonably okay.
 
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Yes, I usually see temperatures higher than 180, but for me getting to at least 180 means the lye is still potent. I see the goofiest expiration dates on things. At work, our newly sterilized equipment now has an expiration date - it used to be, the item was sterile unless the package was breached, in that case it would have to be re-sterilized.
 

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