Teach Soap

Well that's rather weird and annoying. I get my lye in 2lb containers from Lowes, always same brand 100% sodium hydroxide. Last time I went a few months ago I picked up their last two on the shelf and I remember one felt oddly heavier than the other because it was filled to the top (didn't shake when I moved it). Fast forward to tonight, I spend a few hours cleaning the kitchen and prepping to make soap - can't get that lye container to open and John has to pry it open, weird. So I measure 3 containers and mix with 3 buckets of measured water, stir, stir. Usually within seconds it fumes up and jumps to nearly 200 degrees. This one didn't - the room temp water actually dropped from 72 to 70 and the lye didn't dissolve even after a few minutes. I don't know if something is wrong with it or someone filled it with sugar or something that looks just like it and tried to return it - but it's too late to go to the store so no soap making

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~*~ Jennifer ~*~

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~*~ Jennifer ~*~

If the lye sat for a long time at a warehouse somewhere, it's possible that it's now old so doesn't react with water.
Tap water can give you the "floaties" in your lye water, but that doesn't affect the final soap.

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

I always get the food grade lye for ED, but the last few bottles have had dead flies in them! I called about the first one and they replaced it, but the other 3 from that batch also have flies! Not sure if I will still use them or not now. Food grade flies? Ewww

Back on topic: I've had older lye not react with water too, its super annoying! Especially if its new to you! Glad you have more lye on the way though!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Was the container tightly closed? Air breaks down lye. Air reacts with the lye to form water that then attracts carbon dioxide (lightly acidic) which neutralizes the lye over time. If you don't tightly close the lid, lye gets clumpy - it's from water that forms. If you have clumpy lye, it's a good indication that the shelf life is going to be limited.

A similar reaction with carbon dioxide is what causes the floaties in lye water - making sodium carbonate (washing soda).

Keep your lye containers air tight to maximize the storage life/potency.

I have an old bottle of KaOH for making liquid soap that I need to open and test with the pH meter to check if it's still good. You can do the same with your lye using a pH meter or litmus paper/pH strips to see if it's still good. pH of lye is 13.