Test your candles!!!!!!

If you stockpile candles, make sure to test a representative lot to make sure they will burn correctly. The last thing you will want to do is stockpile a bunch then find out they are unusable after the fact.

This post is prompted by a bad batch of votive candles I have ran across that is being sold at local stores. The wicks seam to choke after a few minutes of burning. If you dump out the melted wax, the flame comes back to life for a few more minutes then it dwindles again. I think there is something in the wax that is clogging the wick because when I put the wick in good wax it shows no problem. So they made them with dirty wax, or some coloring agent that isn’t friendly to the wick.

Over the years, I have found pillar candles that drown their own wicks, taper candles that don’t curl their wicks and smoke….. exec exec……..

That also goes for anything you stockpile. Test a representative sample to make sure the stuff you are stockpiling is any good in the first place.

Hmmmm it must be a conspiracy.

I've been getting alot of candles like that too lately.

But honestly, it does seem like less and less stuff actually works the way it is supposed to anymore.
Cutting corners too tightly to save $. Everything done by some multi-national operating on the other side of the globe. Its not like you can just go to the guy who made it and say - "hey!"

It all falls back to an age old problem. Poor quality control.

Example.

Wang fang candle co is created. The creator looks around for local suppliers that he can obtain wax, scent, and dye to produce his candles. He takes samples from the prospective suppliers and creates trial runs of candles to test for burn quality, smell and appearance.

Lets say he picks Ping city chemicals for his dye supplier. He picks their product Y352 yellow dye for his vanilla candles.

Here is the problem.
Ping city chemicals doesn’t produce any dyes specifically designed for candles. And thusly, their product Y352 isn’t specifically designed for candles. It just happens to work good on candles when Wang fang tested it.

Lets say ping city was producing a naphthol based dye, but the bas for that dye was starting to get expensive in the local market place, so they switched to an alizarine based dye.

The nap based dye breaks down and burns cleanly. But the aliz dye is salt based and breaks down forming a hard crust in the wick clogging it.

Ping city doesn’t advertise their dyes for candle use, so they don’t think to test how the change affect candles, and they don’t alert any of their buyers to the change.

Wang fang has started to rest on it’s laurels after the first year of good reviews and big new production contracts. So they have been slipping on quality testing of every new batch, or they have just quit any form of QC testing. So when the new batch of yellow dye comes in, they don’t even notice and production continues as normal. Pretty soon the store shelves are filled with an unusable product and no one can explain why.

A simple solution would be to buy your own wax and wicking and make your own. They're very simple and easy to do.

Originally posted by SeenMyShare
A simple solution would be to buy your own wax and wicking and make your own. They're very simple and easy to do.

For small amounts, it isn’t that simple. You have molds, wax heating equipment, wax, and wicking you have to get.

You have to get a feeling of what wick size works for different mold sizes, and wax types. Depending on a given mold, you may have to shift the wick size up or down depending on the wax melting temp to keep it usable. Do you use curling wick, paper cored wick, wire cored wick, wax coated wick. Do you use flat wick, square wick, round wick,…. On and on……. It all affects how the candle burns and how much light/smoke it produces.

The wax melting is also a problem. You have to have a temp controlled melter, or a double boiler if you are melting it on an uncontrolled heat source.

Molds are not free.

And finally, a good local source of good wax. Shipping for out of state can cost as much as the wax does. And a lot of online shops have less than high quality wax. The ones that do, usually charge out the wazu for it. We use to have a store around here that had Shell oil brand wax in 11 pound slabs in a selection of melt points straight from the refinery. It was good clean stuff. But the stuff that I can find locally now is a bit lacking in the quality department and they only have one temp grade available which isn’t even denoted on the box. After melting the wax, you have to strain the debris out of the bottom of the pan. And being limited to one melt point means you will only be able to make one or two types of candles that best suit the melt point you have available. I know where can get good wax, right from refinery (shell brand), but I have to buy it in one ton shipments (um. ..no).

If you are not going to make a large number of pillar or taper candles it is just easier to buy a couple 144 count economy boxes of tapers online, after testing some from a smaller sample order, and be done with it. You can barely get the wax need to make them at the prices available. And it is a lot less messy.

If I didn’t already mess with candle making stuff as one of my hobbies, then I would definitely say that IT IS NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About the only thing worth it is refilling old container candles that you have used up. All you need is wax, wick, wick tab, and double boiler. That is….. if you can find the right type of wax for them. If you try to use the high melt point hard wax that is designed for taper candles (what is normally available locally), you will be disappointed with the results. If you have to buy it online and you have to pay over a couple dollars a pound, then no….. not so much…….. you can probably get container candles on sale locally for less than $2 a pound.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


Here's a link for the distributor of Candle-lite candles: www.candledistribution.com...

They're American-made, they're inexpensive, and they're the most reliable candles I've ever used. Votives, tapers, tealights, jar candles, emergency candles, whatever you want. Used to be sold at Wal-Mart, before W-M started selling a Chinese-made alternative (which are not even cheaper, btw.)

I have no link to this company; I just highly recommend them.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


actually, making small batches of candles is simple. ye can use molds, or ye can dip them. wicks are not difficult either. wax or paraffin has been the biggest expense. i sure wish i could get some northern bayberry to grow here so i could grow the wax.

12 inch tapers… $146.88…… not including shipping…..(167.35 with S+H for me) per case ….. (coughs.)
umm…….no……..

if you pay more than $100 per case after shipping, you are getting ripped. 10/12 inch tapers usually run $0.50 or under per unit at your normal retail outlets. That comes out to $72 for 144 units.

Here is a link to a company that has been around for a while.

www.candledistributor.com...

$70, and that includes shipping.

Their wholesale site has them a bit cheaper.

www.acandleco.com...

$46 a case of 144. But you have a $250 minimum order.

Food services has them for $94.35

www.foodservicedirect.com...

D light has them for 78.32

www.dlightonline.com...

That is 28 pounds of wax for $46 to $94
1.6 to 3.3 dollars per pound of wax.
At $70 that is $2.50 a pound delivered.
That is as low a price as you can get bulk wax at. (Around $25 a 10/11 pound slab)

When I could get good wax at $7 to $10 for a 11 pound slab, it made sense to make them myself, but not at $25 a slab.

I wonder.... What of learning to make candles yourself? Would it be all that hard? Would the materials needed be easy to find? Would it even be worth it?

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
I wonder.... What of learning to make candles yourself? Would it be all that hard? Would the materials needed be easy to find? Would it even be worth it?

Some materials can be had locally, depending on the stores in your area. The selection (wicks, wax, molds)is usually limited though. Often they won’t have the right selection of products to produce good candles with what they have on the shelves. (ie) hard high temp wax, but they don’t have any taper molds that it is normal used in.) Other stuff can be had mail order or online, but usually you have to buy such large quantities (to get a good price)that you will never use the stuff in your lifetime.

On making them.
It takes trial and error to get a general idea of what you have to use with what. You can listen to this person or that person all day long, but you don’t really know until you do it yourself.

You will get lucky once or twice at first but most likely, your tapers will drip down the side, dripping more wax than they burn. Your wicks in your container and pillar candles will drown in wax. Or your pillars will leak rivers of wax out the side. They will burn with such a small light as to not be useful, or they will be like a mini inferno with a massive flam and smoke everywhere.

In the worst case scenario, with gel candles, it will literally burst into a full fledged inferno that you will have to use a fire extinguisher on. That is why I don’t suggest people mess with making gel candles on their own until they get a better idea of things.

After a while, you will get the hang of it. But it takes dedication and living with the failures and trying again.


If a person was a bee keeper, then they would have a good source of wax and it would make a lot of sense to mess with it. But for the rest of us, the only homemade wax I can think of is tallow. And I can guaranty that you will not be pleased with a tallow candle. They work if that is the only thing you got, but god, help me if I have to use one.

Making your own candles is easy, I use an old coffee can and heat my wax on the woodstove( you have to watch so it doesnt overheat though), You can use any type of cotton/linen/wool(though wool works best) thread , or natural fa fabric torn in thin strips as a wick, heat the wax, pour it out into a small can- food cans cut in half work great/ or a tuna can(washed out of course).

As for wax in an emergency you can harvest your own from bees, but I collect all of the burnt down candles from second hand stores, you can often get a three wick pillar for 25 cents if the wicks have been burnt down too low, to use it any longer. Theres nearly a pound of wax in one of those big puppys. That pound of wax produces 5-9 tin candles, depending on the size of the tin, and the depth your pour the wax.

Another hint, if you are burning a pillar candle-do it in a bowl, the bowl will collect the wax runoff, and you can reuse whats left- another hint if you dont want your candles to drip all over the place- pop them in the freezer for 24 hours. Pull them out let them warm back to room temp, and then light -they will not drip at all after this proceedure.

Sometimes they won't burn right because the wick is too short. I never trim the wicks and leave them at least 1/2 inch long.

I just got back from town.
I had a nice surprise.
Once in a while things will straighten themselves out.

The poor quality wax I mentioned earlier. A little history may make things clearer. The place I get wax from use to be a small family store that had a loose association with a larger store chain. When they was in the small store, they used some of the store branded merchandise, in addition to acquiring other parts of the product lineup themselves. The other part was the wax in question.

When they moved into a full size store, the brought in the full chain store line of products. That included the store brand wax slabs. Of course the wax was of inferior quality to what they had been stocking earlier, before they moved.

Yes, I had complained about it, but evidently, a lot of other people have been complaining about it too. So, they finally switched suppliers.

Lucky me……. When I walked into the candle section, I noticed a familiar square pile of wax slabs on the bottom shelf. Ones I have not seen in over five years.

Talked to the manager and my suspicions were confirmed. When the head people of the company had commented about complaints of candle wax quality, they ask for opinions on alternative suppliers for their wax. The manager of our local store recommended shell oil co where he use to get wax. And that it seemed to be of better quality than the store brand.

So I now have access to good quality shell wax again. At $1.50 a pound!!!!!!!!
(Does a happy dance)

All though, they haven’t updated the label they put on it yet. It still says 10 pounds (weight of old slabs), but it is actually a 11 pound slab.