Jump to content

Has anyone used the Heat Transfer Method?


Recommended Posts

Basically you measure out all your hard butters/fats/solid oils and melt them with your hot lye water, then mix in your liquid oils and bam good to go. 

 

My recipe is like 3/4 hard butters: Shea, Palm, and coconut oil (I live in Maine so my coconut is almost always solid). And then Olive is my only liquid oil and it's only about 1/4 of my total. I'm wondering if it's too much for the lye to actually melt. 

 

Has anyone had success with this method? It seems really convenient! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used that method for years with success. It takes a bit of practice, especially during weather changes.   The only big catch is making sure your stearic components melt completely otherwise you end up with spots of stearic.

 

You can also end up with soap batter that is too cool to sap properly in the molds. If you find the temps too low you can heat your liquid oils before adding them and heat your molds. Sit the mold on a heating pad to keep the sap going. 

  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always wanted to try that too, but I use a high tallow recipe with some cocoa butter too, and I worry about the stearic not melting. This would be a good time to try it, I live in MD and we've been in the 90s! 😅

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My formula uses cocoa butter, Shea and palm (with others like coconut) and only 25% liquid oils and it worked in Illinois winters. 

 

Add your oil with the highest melt point first then others one at a time. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is so fascinating.  I have never heard about this!  I am totally trying this out on a small batch!

2 hours ago, TallTayl said:

My formula uses cocoa butter, Shea and palm (with others like coconut) and only 25% liquid oils and it worked in Illinois winters. 

 

Add your oil with the highest melt point first then others one at a time. 

 Ugh, Illinois has been a bit of a roller coaster ride lately.   Two weeks ago we wore sweatshirts at my son's baseball game, now we are worried about heatstroke.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, ruralers said:

This is so fascinating.  I have never heard about this!  I am totally trying this out on a small batch!

 Ugh, Illinois has been a bit of a roller coaster ride lately.   Two weeks ago we wore sweatshirts at my son's baseball game, now we are worried about heatstroke.  

Illinois temps were great until maybe a week ago. Now it’s swampy humid. My least favorite. Though sweating off 3-5 lbs doing morning chores is a perk. 🤣

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm probably going to try a little batch like this today. I will try to post results. 

 

The weather is bad here in Maine too. Disgustingly humid. I've been trying to get stuff done in the morning or at night because basically all afternoon I'm just laying around sweating lol. 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like TT I have been doing this method for years. I use it for my lard soaps because lard melts so easily using this method. My recipe has only OO, CO, lard, and castor so I put the lard and CO in the bowl with the lye solution and in a couple minutes they are melted out completely and that's when I add my liquid oils. My recipe also takes time to trace so I have plenty of time to play with it before molding.

 

I think every soaper should try the heat transfer method just to see how it works. Plus having experienced it as a soaping technique they can use again if they want.

 

Its a really good method to have under your belt if you want to teach basic soapmaking on the road. I would do soap making demos at my markets and since I could not heat the hard oils I used the thermal transfer method to show how to make soap without using a heat source other than the lye. It really helps them grasp how the lye can heat up so saponification can take place.

 

 

Edited by Candybee
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...