wthomas57

Good morning everyone!

Does anyone use large tumblers? I currently use 11.5oz tumblers that hold roughly 8-9oz wax.

I gets lots of requests for larger sizes tumblers. Having a hard time finding them. I find ones that appear to be them or look similar but because different places

call them by different names its hard to be sure.

Thanks

I'm not a big fan of pumpkin souffle..... but perhaps its because i dont like souffle all that much... or pumpkin.

Just now, justajesuschick said:

I just called them and the storage unit here in Kansas City is NOT climate controlled. 

Thats kinda insane... right? Lol

Thanks for the update... Ill pass for sure

1 hour ago, justajesuschick said:

I bought from Morris in Kansas City once a couple of years ago. I never bought again. I drove up to a trailer and showed my receipt. Guess I was expecting "warehouse". I followed (in my car) a very nice guy back to a NON-climate controlled storage unit. He rolled up the garage style door and put the cases of wax in my car for me which was very nice. Once home I could see that one of my cases was off color and the texture was odd. I threw away most of it. I presume it was not a popular wax and well, stored a super hot storage unit. 

Scented-Is the set up different now? I'd love to not pay $200 in shipping fees on cases of wax if your experience was different!

 this sounds bad... lol. Ill pass

Awesome, thank you. Ill check it out!

The two items I wish I could get locally the most is wax and jars/lids.

Those are the worst when it comes to shipping

Thanks Candy,

I actually checked them out once and the issue is they are limited on availability and products. I am trying to find a supplier or suppliers that are relatively close that carry a lot or most of the materials I use. But Ill keep them on my radar. Thank you!

exactly my point. People looking for reasons to sue these days. I also use warning on wax melts.

but there is only so much we can do.

I just wonder where the burden of proof lies

Hey everyone, 

I can fortunately, so far, say that Ive never had to deal with this but I am planning for the worse someday just in case.

You hear all the time of customers not trimming wicks, power burning, etc. And Ive heard of customers who had candles shatter from getting too hot, etc.

My question is about liability for chandeliers. We put labales on our containers for burn safety. But what if customers dont follow them... they rarely do.

How do we prove the didn't follow the instructions? How would they prove that they did, etc? Where does the burden lie. What can we do other than just make sure we wick properly and warn.

But you cant guarantee a jar doesnt' crack or shatter... regardless of what we do.

So, then what?

If you cant get the results you are after using premiers and even double wicking... then, you probably wont unfortauntely.(regardign wick sizing anyway) Premiers have by far the most incremental sizes so they give you the best hope. With that being said, I do find sometimes that I either get the melt pool I am after but with mushrooming, or the opposite.

frustrating it is

I also recommend Rustic Escentuals for your zinc wicks.... mainly because they have the largest size no one else carries as well. (62-52-18)

Those have been a life savor for me in larger containers.

I have had zero problems with CandleScience. I like their FOs (nearly all I tried except for Chocolate Fudge)

Blue Spruce and Red Hot Cinnamon are darn near perfect! Plus many others.

Only beef I have with CS, is their wick assortment. Don't carry any of my preferred wicks.

Also, I find their wick sizing and recommendation chart not to be very good (just my experience).

I also wish shipping was cheaper or they had a location near me, but it is what is is.

I would prefer to make CS my main supplier...but lack of having all or most of my supplies is the only inhibiting factor.

Yah I am a bit torn on this still

Solving shipping issues in summer and heat is the critic issue with candles. Anyone have any tips to enable successful summer shipping rather just not shipping during the summer?

How does this wick compare to 6006 in regards to scent throw and soft and viscous it is?

I actually do not know a single other candle maker... (home based, small business, etc) that doesn't get mushrooms with their candles. However, Yankee and a few others have obviously spent millions in development with their waxes and/or wicks to fight that. We do not have that luxury. So like you, I am trying to get as close as I can get. Unfortunately most candle makers I know have just learned to deal with and accept the mushrooms. I really struggle with that myself and keep trying to tweak and fix to stop them. So far no luck. If I get rid of the mushroom... then I end up with no good melt pool, soot, too small a wick, etc.

any issues wicking this wax?

Ive heard of wicking problems weith 3022.

I have a slab myself to do some testing, but haven't gotten around to it yet

Ive tried every wick I know of in parrafin, soy, and parasoy (mostly use parasoy). Ive never been able to find a wick that get little if any mushrooming and can go through multiple burns without needing trimmed. Again, I know this isn't recommended but most people I know who burn candles dont trim before every burn and they burn for more than 5 hours at a time.  Compare to a Yankee candle for a moment (ugh) and those suckers can burn for 10 hours, little to no mushroom, wick seems to almost disintegrate awayas it never gets too large, and they can relight multiple times without trimming. I cant tell if they use specific wicks that we are unaware of or if its more to do with their wax blend (which is parrafin base and even more mind boggling).

So since we cant replicate the magic Yankee does with their burns somehow, I am trying my best to find the acceptable range of mushrooming for customers to be ok with for their average burn times.

Good morning,

I've been conducting several burn test with several different wicks... (other variables not really important for sake of this discussion).

I was curious based off of your own experiences, customer feedback, general beliefs, etc. of what you would consider acceptable mushroom sizes for your wicks either for yourselves or for customers. For my tests, I've been using a Parasoy blend as sort of a balance between the two main wax bases. I've also been using a tumblers with FO loads anywhere from 6oz to 9oz.

I am curious what you think is acceptable for the following time intervals.

3-4 hours: Minimal mushroom, small formations of the mushroom heads starting on one or two sides of the wick

6 hours: mushroom size of a corn kernal, flame getting a bit fatter/rounded but still burning well

8 hours: mushroom size of a pea or a tad bigger, flame definitely more rounded and fatter now at the bottom

10+ hours: mushroom starting to look like an actual mushroom (lol) with diameter of a dime. Pretty large and ugly but still burning great.

I know these are are pretty vague and depends a lot on wax, wick choice, FO and FO load, etc.

But most of the time, the above is pretty accurate for my testing with some wicks mushrooming more than others, but have their own benefits as well.

Would you say most of you experience something similar, or better, or worse? 

And, I know customers shouldn't burn more than a handful of hours at a time but we all know they do. So I am trying to get a feel of what is acceptable to a customer regarding mushrooming and possibly soot as well when they burn more than recommended hours.

Thanks everyone!

damn, thanks man. ill let them know

Hey everyone. Wanted to update you all on this topic. I worked with Peak to troubleshoot this concern. They issues a call tag and I sent about 20 lids back to them to check out.

They were able to notice the same smell on the lids I sent them. Then, they checked out their stock and found the same issue throughout. They said its the manufacturing process causing the smell which makes sense. They tend to think its only the black lids which is strange because to me it smelled like the silicon seal was the issue. Maybe not.

Here is their latest response:

<<<Thank you for your patience! We have had a chance to review the lids you sent in. We did notice that there is a smell, but that it appears to be a result of the manufacturing process of the black lids in particular. We also noticed that the smell is stronger on some of the lids than others, both in the samples you sent, and in our current stock of lids. Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that there will be no smell on future batches of lids. >>>

I dont really want to go to the silver lids, but may have to.

Anyone else use the black lids from another supplier that does not have any of these issues?

Thanks for the info.

I actually do have my own fed ex account but never use it. I haven't had the same experience with them being cheaper or quicker. They were always more expensive for me. Plus I always had such a hard time getting help and support with how to use them.

USPS pretty straight forward. But don't use UPS.

Made 16 in 4th of july themed metal pales (which is a not a lot, but wanted to see how they'd do).

Sold out in 12 hours after posting them And the majority of those hours were middle of the night when everyone sleeping so really it was like 4 hours./

not bad

what wicks did you all use for your citronella candles?

Ive had a hard time with them blowing out with some wind (even though they are only half filled metal buckets.

Most citronella candles stand up real well outside even in wind... so trying to figure this out.

thanks

I looked into the freezer packs and on expense large orders Id consider it....

but all the materials to keep items cool are really expensive. Have you see the insulated shipping boxes? Wow, expensive!

17 minutes ago, OldGlory said:

I put newspapers down on my washer & dryer and pour my candles (and melts) there, all the jars/tins laid out on a cookie sheet covered with newspapers. I only need to do a few loads of laundry a week so that space is perfect for me.

Once they are poured and the wax surface is solid, I move them to a metal wire shelf unit. They are about 5' tall and very sturdy, but not very expensive. You can find them at Home Depot or Lowes.

My orders are usually 400-500 candles/melts at a time, so I had to streamline my operation. One spot for pouring, one spot for cooling completely, one small table for labelling, and then directly into the box with the packing list and delivery label stacked near the front door.

yep this is similar to me.. minus the washer and dryer.