• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Lye not heating up

Migrated topic.
RayTracer

RayTracer

Rising Star
Hey guys,

I tried googling this but didn't come up with any definitive answers. My lye isn't heating up. I bought Red-Devil lye back in Sept. After uaing some that month I stored it in my garage. Today I added 100g to 1500 ml of distilled water and it didn't heat up at all. I also noticed that it clumped up in the container. I'm assuming its not any good??

Thanks
 
Hasn't been very cold in these parts. It only clumped once in the water. Speaking of cold, when it clumped it looked just like ice cubes. I'm assuming its no good. It usually gets so hot I'm afraid it's gonna eat through the container. Strange indeed!
 
Storing containers of lye in areas where theres moisture can cause it to clump up inside the container if the lid isn't tight. Did you stir it considerably while/after adding to the water? I've found that mine has 'clumped' up before and i had to stir for awhile until it fully dissolved. Warm water helps as well imo.
 
RayTracer said:
Hasn't been very cold in these parts. It only clumped once in the water. Speaking of cold, when it clumped it looked just like ice cubes. I'm assuming its no good. It usually gets so hot I'm afraid it's gonna eat through the container. Strange indeed!
Click to expand...
Your lye is OK. As a matter of fact, there are not many ways of lye going bad. By time, and in the presence of moisture and air lye will superficially turn to sodium carbonate (still a useable base), but you'll have hard time convincing me that all of your lye turned to sodium carbonate.

As you have clumps of it, it dissolves slower and it is no surprise that it doesn't heat up. Try breaking up the clumps (carefully with a wooden stick maybe?) and you'll see the the water heating up.
 
Just saw the above post, thank you. I ended up ordering more lye...and after one 100g extraction it did the same thing! It warmed up a little, but didn't get hot. Will it still break the plant material down if it doesn't heat up? I wish I knew what was causing this. I've had plenty of successful extractions, but as of late I'm having issues with lye. I'm afraid to add plant material to inactive base because I don't want to waste it.

Merry Christmas btw!😁
 
YA, Hey I noticed my Lye doing the same thing. The water not warming up like it did on my first extraction. It all turned out great in the end though :d
 
RayTracer said:
Hasn't been very cold in these parts. It only clumped once in the water. Speaking of cold, when it clumped it looked just like ice cubes. I'm assuming its no good. It usually gets so hot I'm afraid it's gonna eat through the container. Strange indeed!
Click to expand...

As Infund said, make sure to break up the clumps! The heat comes from the NaOH dissolving. Also, careful with clumps of undissolved lye touching the glass, this will erode it quicker than a solution and your jar could break much easier.
 
Back
Top Bottom