Boost for my lye tank

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DonnaM

Member
My lye tank has been pretty much asleep all winter. I've had skillets in there for 2 months with negligible action. I took a suggestion and got an aquarium heater, set it at 65, and let it go. I haven't pulled a skillet out yet but will let you know what I find when I do.
 
Don't know what your set up looks like but you may want to try a few things I use to assist with your temperature issues. I use a clear container w/lid found at most all Wal-Mart's. Being clear will allow sunlight to raise the ambient temperature in the tank considerably. Keeping the lid on will help prevent condensation loss and also keep the lye from cooling. Placement should be on the South side of your house/cleaning area you have the tank set. If you have some sort of structure that will act as a wind block also helps. Last of all make sure your mixture of lye to water ratio is correct so that you have maximum cleaning power.
 
Donna,

I am in Massachusetts and do all off my cleaning outside, depending on the Fall temps I use a 300 watt aquarium heater from Oct - Nov and shut down in December. The heater helps quite a bit keeping the temp around 80F. I usually leave a few skillets in the tank over the winter and start up again in the spring. Good luck keeping yours going.
 
Michael, we get very few spates of sun up here in the Seattle area during winter and if and when we luck out, the angle is so low up in this latitude that it hardly makes it over a neighboring rooftop! I do keep a lid on the tub--fastened to keep curious raccoons and roaming cats out of it. I started to pull out a couple of pans today so I could post a progress report, but it's raining to much, I didn't have the fortitude. (No covered structure...) Hopefully it will slack up soon--Friday, only a 20% chance of rain--yay!
 
I hear ya Donna! It's been a dark, cold and wet winter up here in the Pacific Northwest. Can't wait for Spring!

Good luck with the heater. Let us know how it works out!
 
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