cwarren said:
What types of containers do you use for this premade lye ? and you do 50/50 hum ?
This is taken from my notes:
"Best container for storing lye solutions is made of polypropylene (#5), since it's resistant to alkali and can withstand boiling water, plus it goes into dishwasher without problems. Next best one is HDPE (#2), though it can only be used at 190 F. After that, you have LDPE (#4) (150F) and PVC (#3) (140F). Try to stay away from PETE (#1), or Polystyrene (PS, #6), which are not heat or alkali resistant.
The numbers in parenthesis are the recycling codes usually found on plastic items."
I personally store my 50% masterbatced lye solution in an HDPE #2 container- an emptied out and clean All Detergent bottle with a spill-proof spout, to be exact.
A 50% solution is great in that it can be easily converted for use in any batch of soap no matter what lye solution you'll be soaping with, be it 33% or whatever. To use my 50% masterbatched lye solution, I first go to an online
lye calculator such as SoapCalc, and I type in my recipe as normal, including the superfat and whatever % lye solution I want to use for that particular batch. After it gives me the print-out amounts to use for everything in my recipe, I then employ this simple equation to the lye and water amounts that SoapCalc gave me for my batch:
- LYE: Total recipe amount of lye multiplied by 2 = how much of the 50% lye solution to weigh out for your batch.
-WATER: Total recipe amount of liquid minus half of the 50% lye solution you just weighed out = how much more liquid to add to your batch.
I love masterbatching my lye. Like Deda said, it's so much easier than having to mix up a solution every single time I want to soap. It's such a hassle getting all my protective gear on and clearing out the vicinity and whatnot day after day or however many days in a row I want to make soap. Making up a large enough batch so that I'll only need to go through the hassle once a month is a beautiful thing.
HTH!
IrishLass