Teach Soap

Little bit curious as to whats going on.

I'm a first time cold process soap maker and have run my recipe through the soapcalc.net
I know brambleberry have their own lye calculator too. So ran it through that as well, but the measurements of the lye/ water are different to the soapcalc.net results.

Unless i've done something wrong, anyone got any ideas whats happened?

This is a non superfat soap i will be making so did make sure to zero out the superfat on soapcalc.net and think i've done everything else right on both calcs, just wondered why the different measurements from each calc!!!

That SAP value of oils and butters varies slightly due to conditions grown, the type of soil, the weather etc....
For example, the SAP value for coconut oil is between 250 - 264. If you use the lower value, the calculations will be slightly different then if you use 264.

Unless you will be using this soap for laundry, you will need to superfat the soap. There is no need to add your superfating oil or butter at trace. Calculate everything right up front and add everything at the beginning. Lye is still very active at trace and it will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that any oil or butter you add at trace will end up as your superfat. There are older books out there that have you add your superfat at trace. We now know that is an old wife's tale. I normally superfat at 7% as anything less my skin finds drying.

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

Thanks for your reply.

i'm doing 16oz coconut oil and 16oz shea butter. soapcalc.net is coming up with water: 12.16oz lye: 4.974
Brambleberry is coming up with water: 10.56oz lye: 5.760oz

As most people have recommended soapcalc.net think i will be going with their calculations.

Just don't know why these results are different

I think the difference is because each calculator probably uses a slightly different SAP value. One might use the lower range, another the average, and a third the higher value. Just pick the calculator that has the features you like and use it. I used soapcalc.net until I bought the soapmaker program, so that's what I use now.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

SuzySoaping..the water amount is flexible actually the most flexible in the recipe. Water is discounted and adjusted for various reasons. The two calculators vary due to SAP values. Also the input of your lye water strength/percentage/ratio. You can use either or in between. You did not do anything wrong. I would suspect the difference is due to the lye ratios being different