Essential Depot Drying Tray Stackable - Holds Up to 40 Lbs (Approx 100 Bars), NSF Food Grade Review (2026)

Who this tray is built for

This tray targets makers who cure more than a handful of bars at a time, from serious hobbyists to small soap businesses filling a curing room shelf by shelf. Each tray is rated to hold up to 40 pounds of product, which the maker states works out to roughly 100 bars of soap, so one or two trays can absorb a full cold process batch without spreading bars across every flat surface in the house. Because trays stack directly on top of each other, they replace the wire racks and shelving that curing setups often need, which matters if your workspace is a spare room or a corner of a garage rather than a dedicated studio. Buyers who only cure a few bars a month will not need this kind of capacity, but anyone scaling up batch size will appreciate having somewhere for all of it to sit.

What the tray is made from

The tray is molded from a food grade plastic that is NSF listed and rated to withstand a 180 degree Fahrenheit sanitizing rinse, which is a meaningfully higher bar than a generic plastic bin. The maker describes the material as non porous, so it resists absorbing stains, oils, or scent from whatever is drying on it, and the plastic has reportedly been reformulated to flex under pressure rather than crack, which matters once several loaded trays are stacked on top of each other. The surface uses a slotted, ventilated design rather than a solid sheet, letting air move under the bars instead of trapping moisture against the plastic. Each tray weighs a little over 5 pounds empty, light enough to carry loaded but sturdy enough not to flex alarmingly under a full load of bars.

Setting it up and living with it

Setup is just unboxing and stacking, there is no assembly, and the tray is designed to sit flush on the one below it so a tower of loaded trays stays reasonably stable on a level surface. Day to day, you lay bars out with gaps between them so air can reach all sides, and because the deck is slotted rather than solid on every model in this line, most owners still rotate or flip bars partway through curing so both faces get even airflow. Cleaning is straightforward given the food grade rating and the 180 degree rinse tolerance, so a hot soapy wash or a dedicated sanitizing rinse is fine between batches, and the non porous surface means odors and oils from one batch should not carry into the next.

Where it wins and where it does not

Against a bamboo shower caddy style rack like the AmazerBath dish, or a foldable two tier metal stand, this tray wins on sheer capacity and on being purpose built for curing rather than repurposed from bathroom storage. A metal or bamboo rack looks better sitting out and takes up a smaller footprint for a small batch, but neither is rated to hold 40 pounds per shelf or to survive a hot sanitizing rinse the way this food grade plastic tray is. The trade off is aesthetics and portability, this is a workshop tool, not a display piece, and a tall stack of loaded trays needs a genuinely flat, sturdy surface underneath it or the stack can lean.

Bottom line

If you are curing soap by the batch rather than by the bar, this tray solves the real problem of where everything goes while it dries, and the food grade, high heat tolerant plastic means it doubles as general drying or sanitizing tray storage outside of soap season. Makers with only a few bars at a time, or those who want a rack that looks presentable on an open shelf, may prefer a smaller bamboo or wire option instead. For anyone running batches in the dozens of bars, this is built for exactly that job and should outlast lighter weight alternatives.

Frequently asked questions