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Could anyone weight in on this for me?


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Hello it's me again! Lol so after an amazing suggestion I went ahead and did a double wick in my 8oz country colonial apothecary jar. I ran a test of one jar double lx 14, one jar double lx 16, and one jar double lx 18. They all burned through with almost no trace of wax left I moved them around in my house with a systematic rotation each time I relit for a test and think I got the best Hot Throw from the lx 16 even though the flames are dancing quite a bit and to keep the size of the flame down and no sooting I had to trim to more like 1/8 inch instead of the standard 1/4 inch. But it seemed to work. So being the ocd person I am I wanted to cure the dancing flame issue ... And it's not sooting or anything or looking like it did when I had too small or too big of a wick ... I was just hoping to get more of a smooth calm flame. . . so again after reading a post on here about someone mixing 4786 with the 4627 in a 40/60 ratio to eliminate dancing flames. I already had 4627 but no 4786 so I tried the 4625 I have for my tart blend. Mixed up two jars both with .5 oz lovespell from peak ... one double wicked with lx 16 and the 60% 4627 and 40% 4625 then the other jar was double wicked lx16 and 70%4627 and 30% 4625... Still dancing flame and still too big of a flame if I don't trim to 1/8 inch and my hot throw seems to be lower with the 70/30 mix for some reason. Would you go ahead and order the 4786 to try to eliminate the dancing flame or leave it alone? And I'm a little concerned that if the consumer doesn't trim the wick short enough then they will get big flame with sooting... Ugh sorry for the novel here just wanted to give all info! TIA

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I know that I personally trim my wicks shorter than 1/4 th ( any candle brand) and I think its for the reason you stated to reduce the amount the flame dances. 

I don't have any specific suggestions for your candle though, maybe do the two wicks in the wax that has the best throw since you don't seem to be noticing a difference?

I know I have bought many candles that the flames move more than I would like.

Maybe someone else has other suggestions for you.

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What was wrong with the LX 14? If it burned all the way, was it just not enough ht? I'm thinking you may want to power burn the lx14 before you decide on LX 16's and see just to be sure...better to always be on the safe side as we have some customers that don't trim their wicks and power burn all day!

Just a suggestion:)

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I don't think you can get a true representation of how the candle will operate with a customer, unless you burn it like a customer. Don't trim the wick and burn it for hours on end unattended and you have duplicated the common way a candle gets used. Remember that customers are only interested in two things: 1. Does it fragrance the whole house and cover up the odors from cooking and pets 2. Does it last for a long time and burn up every ounce of wax. How many times have you come into someone's house and said, "What smells so good?" and they say, "It's a new candle I bought at that little shop on the corner".  Everybody knows the rest of the conversation but you won't say, "Does it have wet spots and the flame dances too much"?  LX and CD wicks are self-trimming and they burn unevenly. Two wicks should at least help with that problem, as long as they aren't both leaning in the same direction as they trim themselves. You could look at other wicks in the mean time. If you have a successful system and the candle meets all your other standards, go with that one. Continue to hunt for the perfect combination and who knows?

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I have never found a liquid or solid dye that made any difference in the efficiency of a candle. Vanillin is the worst culprit for causing wicking problems (soot or clogging) in the wicking system; so I stay away from fos with high vanillin percentages. I think the heavier fragrance oils in large percentages are an invitation for the wicking to fail. I don't think three drops of anything will affect the candle's outcome. IMHO

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  • 3 weeks later...
On Wednesday, March 02, 2016 at 2:28 PM, hapathy said:

HTP's! HTP's! HTP's! If you are using 4627 then your only hope is HTP's! IMO anyways... I can burn them for 8 hours at a time and never have to trim them. Don't go above HTP 83 though.

Im so sorry i didnt catch that you had responded too hapathy ...I did try htps, I used the 83 104 105 and 1212 and still had dancing flames ... although now that I think about it I only tried one wick per candle so I COULD try double wicking but it doesn't seem like it would cure the dancing flames issue... I'm so frustrated!

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Hello there!

 

I've been an avid user of 4786 for a couple years now; I LOVE it for its opacity, smoothness and fragrance load. I as well do blending, sometimes with 4625 or 4627.

 

Anyway, tall flames are the bane of my candle making existence; I've tried so many different wicks in search for the perfect flame.

 

Wick perfection unfortunately doesn't exist, but I will give you my two cents on what works for me:

 

I find that cure time makes an inordinate difference for the height of the flame; I've tried a 24 hour cure vs a week vs a month and the flame size drastically improves for me. I use either Peak's Cotton Cores or Zincs. Cotton cores burn beautifully without mushrooming but the cure time for flame height is essential. Zincs I have found to be the most consistent and contained flames, I can light a candle the same day I made it or a month later and it's pretty much the same.

 

Chuck_35550 is right; sometimes as chandlers we obsess over things like flame-height when the customer only cares if it smells great and throws well!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On March 30, 2016 at 9:33 PM, ThisLittleLightOfMine said:
On March 2, 2016 at 3:28 PM, hapathy said:

Ty jfear... after so many testing I feel so defeated so it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who obsessed! Lol

I thought this might make you feel a little better about flame size! 

 

 

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Is it just me, but i never did understand what the purpose was when people do these type of Youtube videos. can someone fill me in lol ! it just seems over 

over the top - teetering on ocd idk . maybe its a generational thing lol ! 

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