Question about how much the wax should burn

Hello Helen,
I have always been told and have adhered to a complete melt pool. In order to have a GREAT scent throw, you want a melt pool that is completely side to side. If you are leaving wax build-up on the sides of the container, you are leaving fragrance oil there as well. So, that is partly why you want a complete melt pool.

The wick can completely pull up the 'fuel,' if you will. Thus a better burn and scent throw. If you have hard wax on the sides, it keeps your wick from pulling up the 'fuel' completely and then you will not have a good burn combustion. You want a flame that is at least 1.5 to 2 " high. You want to see that there is a blue combustion chamber within the flame. If the wax is hard on the sides, it keeps the heat down, thus a short flame and a very weak combustion chamber. When you test, measure your flame height and the combustion height. Measure your melt pool and make sure that you are writing down everything in a production log. I know that this is time consuming, but it will prove to be worth it's weight in gold as you get further in your business. You will return to it time and time again. Make sure that you are writing down the size of wicks that you are using with each entry of testing. You will get so good at this that you will instantly be able to look at a candle and be able to tell what kind, size and make of wick to use. I hope that this helps.
Take Care,
Carol

Carol & Dan
The Fort Village Chandler's
beth's soy candle co. LLC
bethssoy@ticon.net
Fort Atkinson, WI
920.568.9770

I apologize.....
I meant we have no wax on the sides of our containers. We do have a little left in the bottom. We also use tabbed wicks.

Sorry for the confusion,
Gwen

Helen,

We personally don't have anything left in our candle containers after burning. It took lot's of testing to get them that way and we are very critical about how they burn. We do our test burns for 4 hours and by that time the edge of the container should be clean. If not, we continue to test until it's clean. That's the beauty of Mike's wax. When everything is right, the candle burns beautifully.
Hope this helps!
Gwen

Helen,

It is my belief that it is dangerous to let the candle burn all the way down. I feel the resulting heat could crack or otherwise cause the glass container to break (depending on the glass). The wicks I use have a 6mm neck which means you're going to get about a 1/4 inch or more of wax left in the bottom of the container.

Chandlers.. correct me if I'm wrong.

Jerry Painter
Cedar Creek Crafts