CP PH testing

[Vec]

Hello,

We have been making soap off and on for a few years now for home use.

love the boards here...so informative but we have been computerless and without net even if we did have a comp

We have been trying to do research on how to accurately test PH of our bars

we use the soap around the house but people have been asking for a bar now and then but I dont want to hand -any- our without having some sort of documentation of the bar being safe..dont want to hurt our friends :smiley2:

we do have ph strips from a local herb-type store but ive read about a liquid solution online at the library and one of my arborists friends has told me about digital ph testers and we were just wondering which would do the job the best

price and time isnt an issue..we are very slowly ramping up to selling soap on the side later on and are accumulating tools for the plunge into business

(sorry for rambling...just read back and noticed there want a solid question in there)

what is the best/most accurate PH testing system for soapers?

thank you for everything

[Stella1952]

Check out pH test strips, but understand that those have a range where they are most effective, so you want ones sensitive to the higher range. You have to wet the soap with neural water so that you don't end up testing the pH of the water.

[CareBear]

for some reasons, pH strips seem to give rather variable and inaccurate results for soap, so if you need to test the pH then I'd suggest a meter.

but the tongue test for caustic is more useful, really, and quick and I suspect more accurate. safe soap is "tongue neutral" which means you get no zap or tingle (like putting your tongue to a 9 volt battery, but milder).

another option is phenolphthalein - a solution that is clear when the pH is less than 10 - but not sure you need to be that low to be safe, so I'm not sure about that one.