Reheat Lye?

[LolaFalana]

So my mom spent the weekend at my house. Last night I had to take her home but being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't decide that I wanted to soap until about 9 PM. My thought was that I would prep my oils and lye before taking the 30 minute drive down to Boca. When I got home I completely forgot my project and just got ready for work in the morning. :banghead:

Can I salvage this lye water by reheating it? If I fill my sink with steaming hot water and let it sit will that work? Or just I just waste lye and the last of my distilled water?

 

[Seawolfe]

Why reheat it? Lots of people pre-dissolve their lye and batch it, and lots of people soap with oils and lye at room temperature.

 

[TVivian]

You can use lye at room temperature just fine. You can also heat it in a Bain Marie if you'd like but make sure it's in a heat safe container. I've had lye crystallize before from sitting and gentle heating restored it to a clear state.

 

[Jackson]

I think your lye is still good. It needed to cool down after mixing anyway and if you reheat it to the temperature you want for soap it should do well.

 

[new12soap]

You don't need to reheat it, just make sure the mixture is clear.

 

[Kyra]

Lye water is perfectly fine at room temp. I cold process ONLY at room temp: both oils and lye are prepped the night before and I get started on my bars in the morning. If I have harder oils in my recipe (cocoa batter, Shea butter) that become sort of opaque after sitting so many hours, I slightly heat those oils and mix well until my oils are clear again. Then I add my room temp. lye water and proceed to make my soap. Never had any issues, it is actually easier to work with in my case, and definitely my preferred method, unless I am in a hurry to make a batch and have to work with warm oils/lye water.

Kyra

 

[LolaFalana]

Omg thank you guys. I thought my lye had to by at 110 degrees of so. This is saving me a lot of anguish. THANK YOU!!

 

[Jaccart789]

I purposely soap at lower temps to be able to achieve more time consuming designs due to acceleration of trace when too hot. I will leave for work sometimes 8-10 hours at a time.

 

[btz]

I also no longer use my thermometer when soaping, I just make sure that the lye and oil are around room temperature. It works fine

 

[IrishLass]

I warm my lye solution up all the time. I use a master-batch 50% solution and like to soap on the warm side, so I warm it up in a hot water bath. I basically just fill up a rectangular Rubbermaid storage container with piping hot water and set my cup of lye solution in it to warm up while my hard fats are melting.


IrishLass

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Of course, if you normally use the lye to melt your solid oils, you'll have to do that on the stove instead. I usually use room temp lye myself.

 

[LolaFalana]

Question: does the about of lye and water used based on the amount of oils used? Or... is it specific to the types of oils used? Because masterbatching will save me ALOT of grief.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

The ratio of water to lye is always your choice. It might be based on the task at hand (fast tracing oils might need more water, for example) but with masterbatching you make a low ratio batch so you know that x grams of the mixture contains y grams of lye. So if 100 grams of the mixture contains 50 grams of lye (a 1:1 ratio) and my recipe needs 150 grams of lye then I need 300 grams of mixture. I then have 150 grams of lye and 150 grams of water.

If what I am doing requires more water - I want to swirl and so on so need more time, or I am doing HP and want it wetter in general, then I can add more water in on top of the 150 grams of water from my lye mixture to get to the water amount that I want. I add this water to the recipe, not my masterbatched mixture!

 

[dixiedragon]

I also no longer use my thermometer when soaping, I just make sure that the lye and oil are around room temperature. It works fine

Even after 10 years, I have to use my thermometer. Otherwise I get too impatient and end up mixing with things are still too hot!

 

[shunt2011]

I'm a room temperature soaper and always make my lye in the morning before work or the day before and then when I get home from work I make soap. I also masterbatch my oils and butters in advance. I haven't used a thermometer since my first few batches.

 

[IrishLass]

Question: does the about of lye and water used based on the amount of oils used? Or... is it specific to the types of oils used? Because masterbatching will save me ALOT of grief.

For me, the beauty of working from a 50% master-batch lye solution (besides the reduced hassle of having to make a fresh batch of lye solution every time I want to soap) is that with a simple, 2-part mathematical equation, I can use it soap at any lye solution % I desire.

Basically, all I need to do is this; I first plug in my normal recipe on SoapCalc using whatever lye solution % I want- be it 33% or 28% or whatever- then I do this simple 2-part math equation to make sure to add back the proper water amount:

1) Recipe amount of Lye for my batch according to SoapCalc X 2 = how much of the 50% master-batched solution to weigh out.

2) Recipe amount of water for my batch according to SoapCalc minus the recipe amount of lye according to SoapCalc = how much water to add back.


IrishLass

 

[LolaFalana]

For me, the beauty of working from a 50% master-batch lye solution (besides the reduced hassle of having to make a fresh batch of lye solution every time I want to soap) is that with a simple, 2-part mathematical equation, I can use it soap at any lye solution % I desire.

Basically, all I need to do is this; I first plug in my normal recipe on SoapCalc using whatever lye solution % I want- be it 33% or 28% or whatever- then I do this simple 2-part math equation to make sure to add back the proper water amount:

1) Recipe amount of Lye for my batch according to SoapCalc X 2 = how much of the 50% master-batched solution to weigh out.

2) Recipe amount of water for my batch according to SoapCalc minus the recipe amount of lye according to SoapCalc = how much water to add back.


IrishLass

Whay do you mean by add back? I'm going to have to read up on this subject. I'm thoroughly confused.

 

[IrishLass]

Whay do you mean by add back? I'm going to have to read up on this subject. I'm thoroughly confused.

Terribly sorry about that LolaFalana- I didn't mean to cause confusion. When you mentioned master-batching I assumed you were inquiring about master-batching your lye solution. Were you inquiring about master-batching your oils instead?


IrishLass

 

[LolaFalana]

No your information is answering my question. It just confused me even more. I asked a question blindly.

 

[Lindy]

Soapmaker 3 has a spot in the lye calculator part that gives you the option of using masterbatched lye and then it tell you how much extra water you need.

I use mine totally at room temp. If I want it a little warmer all I have to do is stir it and it heats up.