Teach Soap

I saw a photo blog where someone was making cold process soap. The pictures showed the woman mixing the lye water in what appeared to be a regular plastic beverage pitcher like you keep lemonade or Kool Aid in. I wouldn't think lye water could be mixed in a plastic container, could it? Since lye is caustic, wouldn't it eat through plastic?

I've been mixing my lye water in plastic for years, never a problem. I have heard of glass pitchers cracking and breaking, but I've never had a problem with my plastic. It's a Rubbermaid, if that helps you at all.

Brandy

I've seen lots of people use plastic too, but I personally use stainless steel.

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I use a heavy duty plastic pitcher. Just don't use glass for mixing or measuring your lye.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

When I started researching how to make CP soap a few months ago (August, to be exact), I was a little hesitant to use plastic as well. I've only made 7 small batches so far, but my Rubbermaid pitcher from Wal-mart has worked just fine for making my lye water! Since I'm in the learning process, I usually make 2-lb batches, and the large pitcher is nice...not likely I'm gonna splash lye water around with so much extra room, and it cools off pretty quickly!

The plastic marked 5 pp is safe to use with lye water. On the bottom of plastic containers there is a recycle code in a triangle mark. If the code is 5 and beneath the triangle 5 are the letters pp then the container is ok to use for lye mixtures, it won't melt! HTH's

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I use a plastic container to make my lye solution. I bought a stainless steel bowl but I got scared to use it because it's too big and I thought the lye solution would splash all over.
Since I am making small 1 lb batches of soap my little plastic jar with lid is working great for me. I figured out that since it's dishwasher safe, it can withstand high temperatures.
I didn't know what the numbers meant. I just checked my container and it has a 5 inside the triangle so now I'm really sure it's ok to use with lye. thanks mella for the info.

Why shouldn't glass be used to mix or measure lye?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

So does that mean that plastic is actually better to use than glass? (assuming it's the right kind of plastic)

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I would never have guess this. Why doesn't the plastic get etched over time? Or does it?