Newbie with a wax & wick question during burn test

[CMR66]

Hello! Long-time lurker, first-time poster.

 

My husband and I just started making candles earlier this year and have run into my first challenge with the wax, wick and containers we're currently using, while working on a new fragrance. We are using an 8oz. tin, GW 464, ECO 12 6" wick. FO Very Vanilla (CS) & Firewood (LSC). We  melted 1 lb of wax and mixed in .5 oz of each FO to make 3 candles. While running a burn test the wax created a pool within 30 minutes of burning and ALL of the wax in the tin wax completely liquefied in under 2 hours. The wick mushroomed. After doing some research I'm leaning toward purchasing a small quantity of GW 444 and also going up a wick size to ECO 14. I'm reasoning that the two FO's I'm using are thicker and the wick is not able to keep up. Also, the wax is burning way too hot.

 

I plan on doing 3 more tests using the following combinations; 8 oz. tin, .5 oz of each fragrance, 1 lb wax.

 

1) ECO 12 wick and GW444

 

2) ECO 14 wick and GW 464

 

3) ECO 14 wick and GW 444

 

For the seasoned candle makers out there, do these sound like reasonable testing steps? Do I need to consider backing off the FO's as well? I noticed on LSC's description of Firewood they do not provide the Max percentage usable for candles.
 

Thanks! ~ Christine

[TallTayl]

Before switching waxes, I would try a different wick in your tin. 

 

All soy waxes have changed. You will face the same issues with most other retail available soys with your wicks and tins. Plus, each soy wax blend has its own issues that you will discover as you work with it. 

 

tins. Tins burn very differently from other containers. You need to really wick those down. I use 8oz tins with soy and an eco 12 is way, way, way too much wick. My hardest to burn fragrance uses at most an eco 10 in a tin. If you get a full melt pool on the first burn on a tin you really need to either harden the wax (raise the melt point using an additive or add some harder wax) or wick down. 

 

Tins get extremely hot by the middle. they have no chimney effect until at least 1/3 of the wax burns away. 

 

Wicks. In soy, I urge you give RRD or cd wicks a try. Both of those wick series do the job in my soy tins very well. For 464 I would try a cd12 to start in your tin, moving up to a cd16 if the melt pool does not reach the edges by the third burn. For RRD start with a 40. 

 

Edited to add, if you need to stick with eco wicks, try wicking down to an eco 6 or at most an eco 8 and try buring it again. Eco 10 pushes the soy limits in tins with the new soy waxes, unless the fragrance is very thick or contains hard to burn aromachemical s such as spices and some musk or Amber component (among others).