How hot is too hot?

[Forrest]

Now that I’ve moved to the garage and I’m using presto pots and a hot plate overheating is a real possibility. So my question my question is, what is too hot for the wax and the FO? As both the wax and FO are blended compounds there is probably something in each of them that would be the first thing to break down.

[kandlekrazy]

I can answer that for soy wax.  Keeping at 200 or above for an hour will burn it using a presto or turkey fryer.  I've had to throw out a whole melter full because I got busy doing other things and forgot.

[TallTayl]

I learned a similar expensive lesson. My water jacket melter was filled with soy wax at 180 overnight. Smelled really terrible when I started making candles in the morning. Whoops. 

 

Soy wax is basically fryer oil. It oxidizes pretty quickly when exposed to heat. It’s one of the big reasons that I use pour pots and rapid cool before pouring into jars/tins. 

[Forrest]

1 hour ago, TallTayl said:

I learned a similar expensive lesson. My water jacket melter was filled with soy wax at 180 overnight. Smelled really terrible when I started making candles in the morning. Whoops. 

 

Soy wax is basically fryer oil. It oxidizes pretty quickly when exposed to heat. It’s one of the big reasons that I use pour pots and rapid cool before pouring into jars/tins. 

The oxidation I can understand, I will definitely watch that with my 6006, I disconnect the power from the Presto Pot when I pour the wax into my pour pot so it should never stay hot for an extended period. I pour from my presto pot into a pour pot, and then into a second pour pot to weigh the wax. so I'm cooling a bit. I may set my hot plate up as a double boiler to get the was temp back up before adding my FO.

[TallTayl]

I don't generally worry about the FO temp drop at this point in the process.  It seems so minimal for full-ish wax pots. (Caveat - when it's polar vortex cold in my shop and I'm making a tiny batch.)

[NightLight]

I like using the presto pot as double boiler. It works very well this way and the wax is one step away from heating element. Plus it makes easy cleanup etc. You can have multiple pouring pots etc.