Testing - To trim or not to trim

[pughaus]

When testing your candles, do you...

 

A.  Trim wicks between each test burn. As per good candle hygiene and the instruction label on your candle
B.   Leave the wick untrimmed and expect  your candles to perform well without any trimming. If they don't do well, it's a test failure.

C. Trim occasionally, but only if needed (ex: big mushroom, unraveling wick tip)  but otherwise let them do their thing without help. 

D. Other

[Jcandleattic]

Personally, I always trim between each test burn. However, even before I used to make candles and just burned them as a consumer I always trimmed my wick. 

[Sarah S]

I test mine the way I burn as a consumer. And I am a horrible burner, lol.

I trim if it looks like it needs it - big 'ole mushroom, wick out of control, or a crazy lean. Usually that means a re-wick for that candle anyway, since I use HTPs issues like that indicate a bad burn to me. If I'm just trimming a little at the end of the burn I might let it go, if the other aspects of the burn look good.

I also tend to do long burns, at least 4 hours, but sometimes 6 if I'm home that long. Most people I know burn that way, so I think it's important to see what my candles do under those circumstances. I might trim after a long burn, or I might not just to see what happens. I figure if the candle passes my misuse, it's a good one. 😆

[Candybee]

I've always trimmed the wick even before i started making candles so I continue to do that for testing. But I also do power burns and short and long hour burn tests too to simulate different ways customers burn their candles.

[Scented]

When testing, I burn it how it should be and then I burn another one how regular people might burn it. 

[TallTayl]

5 hours ago, Scented said:

When testing, I burn it how it should be and then I burn another one how regular people might burn it. 

Ditto. 

 

[pughaus]

Thanks all!
 

I've realized (rather late) that as I work through all my wick testing that I should do an "untrimmed" test much earlier - if not in the very beginning- of my elimination process since that seems to be the test that my top contenders are most likely to fail.   

I too have always trimmed my wicks, but as we all know, the wick trimming consumers are a minority. 

 

Next question - just so I'm assured I'm not chasing a unicorn-   you all make candles that can be re-lit without trimming and that will burn satisfactorily and consistently with no smoking or too tall flame upon relighting?  This can be done, right?

 

[kandlekrazy]

Personal candles, I trim before each burn unless self trimming wick (sometimes I do those as well).  For testing, I do them all different ways just to make sure with no trims I don't get the Olympic Torch.  We know most customers don't trim every time but probably pull off big mushrooms.

[Scented]

You know the other thing I do is test different wicks as well. Sometimes there's a size in another type of wick that out-performs my wick of choice. When that happens, I test two sizes ... what I think will be comparable and then a step up or down based on the flame's behavior ... i.e. it's too high, too low; it's creating too big of a melt pool too soon etc. 

[Crafty1_AJ]

I trim the wick before each burn.  

[Candybee]

I think more customers trim their wicks than we give them credit for. I realize when you ask a customer you may get a lot of negative answers but I don't think it always means they don't trim. I think many do pinch off the wick before burning not associating it with the meaning of 'trimming'. After all, how many do you think are gonna light that candle with too long a wick or a big sooty mushroom on it.  Anyway that is another reason why I decided to go ahead and trim the wick. I believe most customers do trim and that not trimming is more the exception.

[Jcandleattic]

2 hours ago, Candybee said:

I believe most customers do trim and that not trimming is more the exception.

I tend to agree. I know myself and most of my friends before I got into making candles were big into candles, and we would always trim our wicks. 

[xxxAlpha71xxx]

On 3/6/2018 at 9:01 PM, pughaus said:

When testing your candles, do you...

 

A.  Trim wicks between each test burn. As per good candle hygiene and the instruction label on your candle
B.   Leave the wick untrimmed and expect  your candles to perform well without any trimming. If they don't do well, it's a test failure.

C. Trim occasionally, but only if needed (ex: big mushroom, unraveling wick tip)  but otherwise let them do their thing without help. 

D. Other

I trim before every lighting.  How much depends on how much was left after the last burn.  I try to trim them to around 1/4 in.  On a side note, here's a test candle that had the wick cut but wasn't down to 1/4".  Wife didn't realize and lit it.  Here's the flame.  :). Trimmed the wick down and it's burning fine.  Told her for the umpteenth time that she had to trim the wick because I was making candles, not torches.  The fact that my wife forgets doesn't breed a lot of confidence that the customers will trim every time.  But I figure as long as I do my job to educate them what they do with that information is up to them.  You can give a person a book but you can't make them read it 

[CandleRush]

Ive been including a handout with every purchase which talks about candle safety and candle care. Hopefully everyone reads it but you never know. My tester folks get a handout as well🌸

[TallTayl]

You would think in my house where my family members have said to customers literally thousands of times to trim that they would.  Nope. Never. Not once. Ever. Grab a flame stick and light.  Every time. 

 

You would think that customers who have heard it every time, see it on the labels, and get a little hand out reminding them with every purchase would trim.  Nope. I have seen photos of my candles by trusted customers with untrimmed wicks and tall flames in reviews and recoil in horror. 

 

I have burned McCalls candles and others made by big companies and indies alike that look like that one @xxxAlpha71xxx even when trimmed level with the wax. I’ve burned candles that need to be trimmed every hour (sometimes less)  while burning to stop torching. Hard nope to have one available for my fam to burn in my house. I like my living room uncharred. 

 

Customers idea of trimming and ours are VERY different. In cases like this we have to assume most people won’t trim....... 

 

So I now am consciously wicking my candles to not need a trim to not be a torch at each lighting. I may sacrifice some HT and/or leave some wax unburied at the bottom but I can sleep at night. Of those wick combos that I still don’t choose perfectly, hopefully it still is within a safe range. 

 

Also think about drafts.  We all have A/C and ceiling fans running now.  Imagine a tall flame like that combined with a ceiling fan or AC draft. Anything flammable within range is subject to risk (like a wall). 

[Candybee]

This is a good reason for using self trimming wicks when possible. I still believe a lot of customers do trim but not all of course. You can't control that, all you can do is continue to educate. I do trim the wicks down on my candles prior to selling them so the customer has an idea how the wick should look and to keep that first burn from being a tiki torch!!

Edited June 25, 2019 by Candybee

[pughaus]

A.  Trim wicks between each test burn. As per good candle hygiene and the instruction label on your candle
B.   Leave the wick untrimmed and expect  your candles to perform well without any trimming. If they don't do well, it's a test failure.

C. Trim occasionally, but only if needed (ex: big mushroom, unraveling wick tip)  but otherwise let them do their thing without help. 

D. Other

I now do a combination of B + C,  mostly B but if I have a candle that needs up to 2 trims in it's burn life I can live with that. I typically do long burns- most of my test burns are 5-7 hrs duration in 8 oz straight jars or  3" diameters.  So, I've become a bit more chill about the whole thing since I have  a few wicker upper, rich FOs that I love but that do need some help around the 3 or 4th burn to clean up a stubborn mushroom that refuses to fall off by itself- at that point they have been burning 20+ hours w/o a trim.
If a candle needs more than 2 trims, I keep testing or abandon the FO entirely if I can't nail it down.. 
 

[TallTayl]

21 hours ago, pughaus said:

A.  Trim wicks between each test burn. As per good candle hygiene and the instruction label on your candle
B.   Leave the wick untrimmed and expect  your candles to perform well without any trimming. If they don't do well, it's a test failure.

C. Trim occasionally, but only if needed (ex: big mushroom, unraveling wick tip)  but otherwise let them do their thing without help. 

D. Other

I now do a combination of B + C,  mostly B but if I have a candle that needs up to 2 trims in it's burn life I can live with that. I typically do long burns- most of my test burns are 5-7 hrs duration in 8 oz straight jars or  3" diameters.  So, I've become a bit more chill about the whole thing since I have  a few wicker upper, rich FOs that I love but that do need some help around the 3 or 4th burn to clean up a stubborn mushroom that refuses to fall off by itself- at that point they have been burning 20+ hours w/o a trim.
If a candle needs more than 2 trims, I keep testing or abandon the FO entirely if I can't nail it down.. 
 

this is a very reasonable approach. It does not rely 100% on the customer to be perfect. 

 

And totally agree with @Candybee about self trimming wicks.

[pughaus]

On 6/25/2019 at 10:08 AM, Candybee said:

This is a good reason for using self trimming wicks when possible. I still believe a lot of customers do trim but not all of course. You can't control that, all you can do is continue to educate. I do trim the wicks down on my candles prior to selling them so the customer has an idea how the wick should look and to keep that first burn from being a tiki torch!!

totally agree and I use only wick types that are "self trimming" .   However, I do find the self trim effect to be more consistent in smaller wicks.  Some of the larger size wicks in certain FOs can take a little too long for (my) comfort to trim themselves.  I sometime give those a  little... nudge.  Often that nudge is just me placing the glass down on a table a little more forcefully than usual---  oops! did I just accidentally make that mushroom fall off? lol

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by pughaus