Teach Soap

Help! I've recently been getting "floaties" in my lye water and not sure why. I haven't changed anything and I don't get them every batch. But it happened twice this weekend.
I mix my lye into my water in a heavy-duty plastic pitcher. Lye is from Essential Depot, where I always purchase it. I stir thoroughly when I pour in the lye and make sure there are no "loose" lye particles. The lovely "floaties" don't show up until the temp of the lye water drops below 130-ish. Then....they appear . It's happened when I've cooled the lye water in an ice bath and it's also happened when I allowed the lye water to cool on it's own.
I'm not rinsing my pitcher out with soap, just a good cleansing with warm water. And this is not happening every batch....just randomly.
Suggestions?

Also...what is the best way to safely dispose of the lye water if I don't use it? The two times this weekend it happened, I got rid of the water and started over. My husband took the pitcher and dumped it outside, in a patch of dirt behind some steps. Is that okay?

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

The only time I got the floaties was if I put my pitcher in the dishwasher, washed it in the sink with soapy water, or if any skin's oils got onto the inside of the pitcher from my hands. Do not pour your lye water in some dirt! An animal could try to drink it and that would be a terrible way to die. Dump any lye water down the drain.

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

I dump it down the drain also, lye is sold/used as drain cleaner.

I had that problem too a few times. I finally figured out that I should rinse my lye pitcher out with cold water before I do any other dishes. I rinse it, let it drain and put it away by itself. It never comes into contact with anything else and never ever goes into the sink. Before I was washing it and I think oil residue got into it. As soon as I started separating it from everything else, it never happened again. Hope this helps.

DO NOT dump lye water in the dirt. Down the sink is fine. Better yet, just strain it and use it. The floaties won't kill your soap and straining them out will make you feel better!

Thank you, soapbuddy and Mae. I don't use any soap in the pitcher....just rinse thoroughly and turn it upside down to dry on a towel.....BUT just realized that a few times, after they were dry, I had stored my soaping gloves in the pitcher. That might have been the cause of the problem!

About the water outside....lye water can eat through the glue joints on PVC pipe.

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Lye has been used as drain cleaner since shortly after the invent of the drain! It shouldn't eat through the adhesives used in PVC or PVA (the 2 most common drain materials). Lye is the active component in things like draino! Lye will also not damage your septic system if you are only rinsing some down the drain every so often, I wouldn't recommend seeing if 10lbs of lye would do any damage!

If you're worried about dumping the lye down your drain just do so with the tap running.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I've never needed to pour out any lye water, but if I did I would pour it down the sink. I would be afraid to pour it outside. What if a little animal got into it?