{"id":2720,"date":"2010-01-08T16:03:37","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T22:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatcakessoapworks.com\/handmade-soap-blog\/?p=2720"},"modified":"2010-01-08T16:03:37","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T22:03:37","slug":"leaking-lye-big-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatcakessoapworks.com\/handmade-soap-blog\/index.php\/leaking-lye-big-mess\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaking Lye = Big Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Potassium hydroxide leak - halfway thru clean-up<\/figcaption><\/figure>I’ve known for about a month – maybe more – that something had spilled or was leaking in my soap supply storage cabinet. There was a white, crystallized substance creeping along one of the shelves, but I wasn’t sure what it was, and I didn’t have time to clean it up. <\/p>\n

Well, as I was taking care of inventory today, I decided to put on my rubber gloves and started pulling out containers and cleaning them off until I reached the source of the problem. Sure enough, it was a bag of potassium hydroxide – the kind of lye used to make liquid soap. I had bought it from another soapmaker about five years ago. It came double bagged in two gallon-size freezer bags, and I never bothered to put it in something else – like HDPE plastic. I hadn’t used this lye for probably two years! I’m surprised it held up as long as it did! I ended up tossing out some other supply items that had been stored in ziplock bags because they were covered in the white crystals, but most of it was salvageable since it was stored in HDPE plastic or amber glass.<\/p>\n

The good news is that I was smart and had my rubber gloves on! Unfortunately, the paint on my cabinet has been eaten away. I really should have taken care of the problem when I first noticed it. <\/p>\n

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Paint stripped from the shelf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All this cleaning out and counting has also created a pretty good size stash of supplies that I am quite willing to part with. I’m planning to create a list of garage sale items for my soapmaking readers. You might find some real treasure! It’s all good quality stuff! (I threw away the old, expired stuff.) It will probably be another week before I can get that done, so be patient! I still have soap to make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve known for about a month – maybe more – that something had spilled or was leaking in my soap supply storage cabinet. There was a white, crystallized substance creeping along one of the shelves, but I wasn’t sure what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[318],"tags":[320,319],"class_list":["post-2720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soap-safety","tag-potassium-hydroxide-safety","tag-potassium-hydroxide-storage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t