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Recommended Water for cold process soap
hello,
i would like to ask if there is a requirement of water in NaOH solution preparation for cold process soap?
we currently used tap water in preparing the solution and we are thinking if process could be better if we use deionized water.
any thoughts on this? thanks. -
13 Replies
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Absolutely. Do not use tap water.
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Can you advise reason or benefits of using deionized water?
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Fewer ions.
Seriously, look up the deionizing process. Some of the materials removed from tap water are detrimental to the stability and/or performance of your soaps.
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We use reverse osmosis water supplied in 18 L containers from a drinking water company. We are only a small company with a capacity of 10,000 bars/month of cold-process soap, and we find that treated water provides us with product consistency. Would not be guaranteed with tap water.
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@mikethair what if we used sediment filtration on our tap water? we have used this type of water for so long (10years) and we would like to know the guarantee of using other types of water in production.
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Filtration does not remove the salts. Useless.
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I made soap for many years and always used distilled water. That’s just how I was taught. Don’t have any personal experience with using tap water.
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Distilled or RO/DI is best. there are too many TDS’s in tap for soap making.
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I have always used distilled and will always use distilled in cold process soap, shaving cream and shaving soap! You should see me walking out of Walmart with a basket filled with 25 gallon bottles!… I just tell people I’m REALLY THIRSTY!
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I’ll disagree here. I never saw the sense in taking out electrolytes via deionization when you plan on putting some right back in - especially one as strong as NaOH. I’ve manufactured hundreds of metric tons of alkali cream hair relaxer using cold tap - never a problem. That said, your soap formula does need help in keeping out Fe, Al and other multivalent ions. Use tap water and a fair amount of chelating agent (0.10 - 0.30% Na4 EDTA), then get on with your saponification.
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thanks @chemicalmatt … i’ll just use some EDTA on the formulation to see the effect.
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I worked at a large soapmakers for some years. They had a capacity of several thousand tonnes of soap per week. The process was an automated centrifugal system.
The water used at the plant was called “condensate” which, for a while was a mystery to me, this being my first industrial experience after laboratory based research.
Anyway the origin of condensate soon became apparent as being the condensed waste steam from the steam boilers of the manufacturing plant.
So, back to the basics, condensate is distilled water and it, or an equivalent should, in my opinion, always be used in soap making.
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I will agree with Matt about using the chelating agent - you do have a choice between that and deionized water. But…I’d still caution against using untreated/unfiltered tap water. Aside from the legal/liability concerns, you should see some of the crud that gets filtered out of the tap water we use here.
If you use unfiltered/untreated tap water, you are relying on the city water treatment facility to provide you with decent quality water - and whether or not they do this is out of your hands.
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