Take Care of Your Scale

If you’re a soapmaker, you know there’s no soap making happening if you don’t have a good scale! Mixing oil & sodium hydroxide together is a careful science, and too much caustic lye can make a batch unusable. But even though we all know how important our scales are, how many of us mistreat them? Did you know that not taking care of your scale properly could render it inaccurate?

Get the full scoop at the original article, but these are a few of the tips that I find it easiest to forget:

Excessive Exposure to Water: When you’re weighing liquid ingredients, it is inevitable that they will eventually end up on your scale – no matter how careful you are! If you do accidentally set your scale in a puddle or spill oil on the delicate electronic portion, be sure to dry your mess completely & carefully. You could even let the scale dry, while turned off, for a period of time – just like you would do if you dunked your cell phone in the pool!

Over Loading: Every scale has a limit to how much it can weigh. While it’s not a big deal to accidentally go over the limit once or twice, doing so constantly can be harmful to the system. If you’re afraid a load is too much for the scale, weight it in portions to check before loading it as a whole onto the scale.

Uneven Surface: While weighing your soap ingredients on an uneven surface won’t ruin the scale, it will cause the scale to give an inaccurate reading. Especially be aware if your scale is straddling the gap between tables – if the scale bottom hits the edge of the table before the opposite legs do, your reading will be completely off! An even surface is important for other parts of the soapmaking process, too: only slant your soap mold if it’s for a design element!

Anyone have other tips for keeping your scale in tip-top shape? Post below!