New to wax. Need advice.

[tlayne]

I just recently started dabbling in making my own wax melts. I started out with EcoSoya PB, and now I am mixing that with the CB XceL. 60% PB - 40% XceL.

I made the mistake today of pouring into my silicone molds that were way too cold. So, I have lots of frost and nearly all of the tarts cracked. :embarasse

I heat to ~190° add dye and FO. Then I pour at ~145°.

Can some of you give me some advice on when to pour, how to heat my molds conveniently, tips/tricks to get my tarts to pour even (because I get a bit of a dip in the middle too, not too bad but I want them to be as flat as possible) and lessen the frost issue?

Any advice would be really appreciated, thank you!

[tlayne]

After thinking about this a bit more...I am wondering if the window A/C unit in the other room was creating air flow that affected the tarts as they were cooling in the molds (the rooms are basically open to each other by a large doorway). I usually pour in my kitchen, but switched to a new room today. I never thought about turning the A/C off before I started pouring today.

[blacktieaffair]

I'm not familiar with those waxes or that combo, but I can tell you this much. When I pour melts into my clamshells, the room has to be just right or it will go all wonky on me. I kind of look at it like making candles... you learn and tweak and twist things around while you're testing, to get the "perfect" result in the room you are using. Weather, temps, humidity and such can change those results unless you keep the room a certain way all year. You may be on to something by thinking that changing rooms, and air flow / temp ect, could have messed up your results.

[SuzyK]

I use that mix but I have never had that happen to me when pouring. I don't pour into silicone molds very often though. I heat and pour about the same as you but I wonder if you poured a little cooler, if that would help.