What is causing yellow/brown wax after burning?

[NickS]

This discoloration has happened with most wicks I've tried after burning. At first I thought it was because I was reusing wax for testing over and over again, but this is fresh wax. 

 

This is a (too small) wood wick, but I've seen the same thing with LX, HTP, and CD wicks.  I've also seen it in naked wax and wax with FO added.

 

The wax is IGI4627. This particular candle is 6% CS Mac Apple and has gone through two 4-hour burns.

 

[Trappeur]

Wow is that a real pretty nice burn you have going......Never used that wax....only thing I can think of is the wick doing it?  But then you said it does will all sorts of wicks?   Beats me!   I'm sure others will come here and make suggestions.

 

Trappeur

[LRcandles]

Maybe the  wooden wick is dyed  and that is what is bleeding out into your wax.

[NickS]

26 minutes ago, LRcandles said:

Maybe the  wooden wick is dyed  and that is what is bleeding out into your wax.

Except it has happened with other wicks also.

[Jcandleattic]

Are these candles scented? I know when I burn certain scents, after I blow out the candle and the wax hardens it will be discolored. 

[LRcandles]

Are you using any additives?

 

[TallTayl]

Happens to mine in palm, soy and parasoy when the melt pool is very, very hot. Wood wicks are notorious for this. 

[NickS]

1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said:

Are these candles scented? I know when I burn certain scents, after I blow out the candle and the wax hardens it will be discolored. 

 

It happens both with and without FO.

 

1 hour ago, LRcandles said:

Are you using any additives?

 

 

No.

 

44 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

Happens to mine in palm, soy and parasoy when the melt pool is very, very hot. Wood wicks are notorious for this. 

 

Ugh. So the MP is getting too hot, but I still don't get an FMP.  Now I have no idea which direction to go with my wicks.

[Jcandleattic]

Well, it doesn't always indicate a too hot or very hot melt pool, but as TT said it could. 

When this happens with mine, it's generally a cool melt pool (or at least no hotter than any other that doesn't discolor) Mostly for me, it happens when I use heavy fragrance oils. 

[LRcandles]

Nick, have you tried the zinc wicks yet?

 

[debratant]

That almost looks like gold mica to me....the sheen of it.

[NickS]

6 hours ago, LRcandles said:

Nick, have you tried the zinc wicks yet?

 

 

Not yet.

 

49 minutes ago, debratant said:

That almost looks like gold mica to me....the sheen of it.

 

I have had quite a few people ask me if it's mica. This wax is nice and glossy.

[NickS]

Fingers crossed. I have one with a wider but thinner wick burning now. 2 1/2 hours and no discoloration yet.

 

The only problem with the wider wick is they are harder to trim. It is wider than my wick trimmer.

Edited August 22, 2017 by NickS

[Jcandleattic]

 

Quote

 

20 hours ago, LRcandles said:

Nick, have you tried the zinc wicks yet?

 

Not yet.

 

I get it with zinc wicks also, but like I said, usually only with certain fragrances that I have to wick up with. So maybe the pool is a little warmer than usual, but it's not hot by any means. 

[NickS]

1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said:

 

I get it with zinc wicks also, but like I said, usually only with certain fragrances that I have to wick up with. So maybe the pool is a little warmer than usual, but it's not hot by any means. 

 

Right now I'm looking more into the heat possibility because it's happening in unscented wax also, so to me scorching wax is most plausible to my situation.

[Flicker]

You have an incomplete melt pool. The wick is struggling...thus not burning optimally/efficiently. this will create soot, even if the wick is too small. The discoloration in my experience is likely soot. If the wick was hotter, it would burn more complete and cleaner. There is a fine line between too small and just right, the same with just right and too large and until you find that, your will likely see some of these problems.

[wthomas57]

Its from the wicks. Happens often. Your wick is too hot for your application. Wick down or change wick types.

Zincs rarely ever do it (burn cooler), give them a shot. 

[Flicker]

1 hour ago, wthomas57 said:

Its from the wicks. Happens often. Your wick is too hot for your application. Wick down or change wick types.

Zincs rarely ever do it (burn cooler), give them a shot. 

I disagree with it being too hot, the melt pool isn't near complete. If the wick had burned to the edges and in inch or so deep, then yes, but there is a lot of hang up here.

[wthomas57]

Id have to disagree again. You can have a really hot wick that is still undersized leading to an incomplete melt pool. I wasn't referring to the amount of heat its putting out because of the size. I was referring to the wick type (for example eco burns hotter than zinc). But that doesn't mean its going to get a full melt pool if its undersized. It may just burn the hell out of the wax it is able to reach. I've had this happen a lot with the following (eco, premier, and wood wicks).  They all can be so hot that they might actually scorch or discolor some of the wax (or the FO in it) but still be too small to get a full melt pool. Big difference between how hot a wick burns vs proper sizing.

 

Another example of this is with lx wicks. They burn hot too.. but they are also a very tight flame and can still tunnel or lack full MP even though the flame is plenty hot. The problem there is sizing... not the temp of the flame.

[wthomas57]

23 hours ago, Flicker said:

There is a fine line between too small and just right, the same with just right and too large...

100% agree with this. Its amazing sometimes how soot can virtually disappear by wicking UP rather than down.

[wthomas57]

Nick, 4627 does discolor pretty easily though. You will notice it much less if they are dyed. That being said, cooler burning wicks with that wax seem to be much better (zinc for example). Have you tried any others though like cd, premier, rrd, htp? None of those burn as cool as zinc but may work better for you.

[NickS]

1 hour ago, wthomas57 said:

Nick, 4627 does discolor pretty easily though. You will notice it much less if they are dyed. That being said, cooler burning wicks with that wax seem to be much better (zinc for example). Have you tried any others though like cd, premier, rrd, htp? None of those burn as cool as zinc but may work better for you.

 

I have tried CD, HTP, and Premier. My wife and I really like wood wicks so we decided to focus on them.

 

I will likely get a sample pack of zincs, though. Would you explain the sizes, please?

[wthomas57]

I totally understand. I, too, really like wood wicks. Unfortunately, I haven't found any available to us "little guys" that have the same quality and results as the proprietry kinds used by the big guys. I have tested many and.... mostly.... find that they smoke too much, or soot too much, discolor wax too much, or other issues. Ive had better results with them in parasoy and soy though than parrafin for sure. Didn't like them at all when I tried them in 4627 (but that's me).

 

If considering zinc as an option, they are really straight forward. As the number increases, the size increases. Here is a list that pretty much covers the most common ones

44-24-18

44-28-18

44-32-18

51-32-18

60-44-18

62-52-18

 

There are also some smaller than 44-24 mostly used in votives and pillars at that point. (I cant image using them in pillars but thats besides the point.)

The trick with zincs (like some other wicks) is finding one supplier that carries all sizes. I have to use a few some times

[TallTayl]

@wthomas57 the most consistent wood type wicks I have used successfully in soy and palm and to some extent beeswax are the  engineered "ultimate wood wicks" from bcn.

 

The problem I have is with the long stock outs, and discontinuation of a key size.

[Jbruza]

On 8/21/2017 at 2:35 PM, TallTayl said:

Happens to mine in palm, soy and parasoy when the melt pool is very, very hot. Wood wicks are notorious for this. 

I'm having the same issue with my woodwicks. The burn pool is great and it's burning appropriately but it does have that brown yellow tint after burning where the melt pool was originally. Will my customers be accepting of this? I personally don't mind it so long as it burns evenly all the way down...and think that with a nice label, others/ customers would not be bothered by it either. Thoughts?