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Heating Jars


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I made my first batch of candles in jars and clearly I need to do something differently. I made six candles and all of them had serious craters. I have read on this board about heating the jars before pouring, but how hot should they be?  

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It's a finicky pouring wax for me.  The only way I've found to prevent the craters every time results in jump lines.  Since I'd rather have jump lines, I pour at about 160.  Then I cool them under boxes. Have to keep the candles grouped together to hold in the heat, but not touching or they can develop craters where the jars touch.   Heating the jars may prevent the jump lines if you can keep them warm enough while pouring.  If I'm doing just a few candles at the time, I'll jump through all those hoops.  Otherwise, no.  That's one of the reasons I stopped using 6006 for my main production wax.  I was never able to figure out how to keep everything at the right temps long enough to do a bunch at one time so they'd all come out perfect.

 

It's amazing how it's a perfect pour in wider containers, but those narrow ones can be such a pain.

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4 minutes ago, bfroberts said:

It's amazing how it's a perfect pour in wider containers, but those narrow ones can be such a pain.

It probably didn't help that my house was at 65 degrees. I'll warm the jars, pour at 160, and find a way to slow the cooling.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The reason I heat jars is to keep my sanity and make less work in the end. When warming jars, wax can be poured quite cool and save precious time.

 

The cooler the wax is when going into the container:

the less it shrinks

less potential for cracks

wicks tend to remain centered 

It adheres much better (minimizes wet spots)

eliminates cavities

Results in a level, satiny finish to the top that usually does not require any repairs (heat gun).  

Wax coating on wicks does not melt, helping them retain stability in melt pool (less leaning or slumping)

the ambient temps and humidity don’t really matter any more during cool down. Change of seasons has little bearing on a consistent candle. 

 

All that is important, since time is money.

 

I don’t heat tins since jump lines are not a concern. The rest of the reasons, though, are valid with the cool pour. There’s nothing worse, to me, than air cavities in a candle. 

 

I use the same techniques with soy, coconut, beeswax and blends of all. Has also worked well with parasoy and paraffin in several tests. 

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Ok,  1st let me say that I have absolutely NO experience with the wax you are using.  That said, I live in southern AZ where the daily temps are high enough to make one sweat............but when it comes to pouring my container candles (paraffin) I have found that the ambient temp of the room can cause some problems.  When I first started pouring containers, I went thru the process of heating the jars in the oven....blah, blah, blah and so discovered that it really didn't make a difference when actually pouring the wax so I started covering my containers immediately after pouring....never used a box but did wrap and/or cover/wrap the containers with a towel and made sure that they were not in a '''draft'''.  No matter what the temp of the said jar was when I actually poured, the end result was really based on the next few hours....aka,  the cooling process.  Yeah, I have ended up with some major craters around the wicks, etc.......but ya know....that is why God created heat guns. 

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