Discounting Water

[CBE]

I've always been afraid to discount my water for CP ( I don't know why... I guess it's the natural paranoia in me). I finally did a water discount today... and my oh my!! I'm never going back to soaping with full water. I soaped around 10am this morning... and they are already out the mold and cut. I've NEVER gotten a clean cut like this before! And the crisp edges!!

And this is all due to water discounting????????

Good Gawd... why was I so scared to do this?

I wonder.... does this cut down the curing time too?

[friendlyMOM]

I recently also just started discounting the water! I love it, I have read it cuts down shrinking and the cure time! I will never go back, its so much faster to get them cut and on the curing shelf!

My soaps can be cut within 6 to 7 hours! I am in love with it, my soaps barely shrink at all! *super banana* If you do a search for discounting water on here you can find a ton of great information on it!

[soycrazy]

Isn't it nice? I just love it & I have noticed faster curing w/mine.

[eugenia]

Good Gawd... why was I so scared to do this?

I wonder.... does this cut down the curing time too?

LOL, took me years too! The cure time is for the lye to fully dissipate from the soap, so discounting makes your bars harder, faster, but you still need to wait 4-6 weeks to sell it.

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[CareBear]

and if you are trying a new recipe or especially a new FO or if you want to do some super duper swirls you might go back to full water till you know what you are dealing with! discounting much can speed things up.

this said I made soap 2 weeks before a swap with a 45% lye sol'n - the darned thing was hard as a rock coming out of the mold!

[soycrazy]

Esp with florals, I learned that the hard way seize lol.

[jaybyrd]

I seldom exceed 34% H2O to oils, and usually it's less. One thing I do notice is that with less water, when I soap RT as the lye solution cools it does leave a lot of evaporation deposits along the sides of the pyrex, but it dissolves back in again fairly easily.

[crazycacti]

learning curve here

so my soap maker program tells me to give so many ounces water for whatever combination of oils i enter into it

to discount it i just use less than that and this is what happens?

magic??

like instead of 32 oz use 25? or more substantial a discount-or less?

TIA

[eugenia]

learning curve here

so my soap maker program tells me to give so many ounces water for whatever combination of oils i enter into it

to discount it i just use less than that and this is what happens?

magic??

like instead of 32 oz use 25? or more substantial a discount-or less?

TIA

To better understand it, you need to think about lye concentration, rather than water discounts. A stronger lye solution is made with less water. You have two options, if your soapcalc allows you to, you can set the lye concentration. Mine is typically 33%.

The other option is to get the lye amount from the calc, then go here:

http://rivercitysoaps.com/dwcp/watercalc.php

Plug in the lye amount and the desired solution concentration and the return value will be the water needed.

[mystical_angel1219]

Discounting the water has it's pros and cons, IMO.

If it is a fast moving FO, I would suggest doing a small discount. If you are big on swirlies, the same applies. I think the highest discount I took was 40% on my basic recipe with a slow moving FO. I recommend not exceeding 40% or less than a 2 lb batch unless you have a gram scale that is dead on accurate. Soap can become lye heavy very easily in small batches.