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All my candles smell very strongly of gas fumes/exhaust


Sachi

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Hey! I'm new here so I'm not sure if this would be the correctly place to ask a question like this, but I'm at a loss.

 

My partner and I made new test candles this weekend so we could make sure everything was good before making the rest. We poured the candles and let them cure, and when we lit them everything was fine. They all smelled perfect. So we went ahead and made the rest of them. That night after the test candles had been sitting for a bit we relit one of them, and it very quickly made our entire living room smell like some kind of gas fumes or exhaust of some kind. We got in touch with Flaming Candle and they said that it could be the brand of wick we were using, but I'm just trying to understand what happened.

 

We're using ProBlend 600 wax with Premier 785 wicks. Our fragrance oils were Acqua Di Gio, Cocoa Butter Cashmere, Karma, and Butt Naked all from Flaming Candle. We melted the wax in the typical double boiler way, poured FO at 160, and poured into the containers at 150.

 

We're pretty new to this so any input is very much appreciated. Thanks!

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Fuel smells are the worst. Could definitely be a wick issue. Could be as simple as too big of a wick, or just too hot of a wick series. 

what wax and what wick series. Also, what jar type/size as that makes a difference, 

 

thank goodness you are testing before sending any out into the wild. 

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3 hours ago, TallTayl said:

Fuel smells are the worst. Could definitely be a wick issue. Could be as simple as too big of a wick, or just too hot of a wick series. 

what wax and what wick series. Also, what jar type/size as that makes a difference, 

 

thank goodness you are testing before sending any out into the wild. 

It really is. I didn't know that that was something that could happen, but I'm glad it happened when it did so we know to look out for it in the future. We have several samples of wicks so back to testing things out!

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Did it happen with each fragrance separately?   I know that smell very well but it does seem to hang around in my nose so you may want to separate them into different rooms to figure out if it's happening with one of them or all of them.

 

I managed to tame the smell in my Brandied Pear by mixing palm and soy together, but my Lemon Verbena has had that off smell in different waxes and smaller wicks, and adding vanilla to my Pumpkin Souffle hasn't had much effect (though it covers it a little bit).

 

I get the sense that it happens often with lighter scents like citrus--there's a bit of discussion on it here:

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, prs7979 said:

Did it happen with each fragrance separately?   I know that smell very well but it does seem to hang around in my nose so you may want to separate them into different rooms to figure out if it's happening with one of them or all of them.

 

I managed to tame the smell in my Brandied Pear by mixing palm and soy together, but my Lemon Verbena has had that off smell in different waxes and smaller wicks, and adding vanilla to my Pumpkin Souffle hasn't had much effect (though it covers it a little bit).

 

I get the sense that it happens often with lighter scents like citrus--there's a bit of discussion on it here:

 

 

 

Yes, it happened in all of them. We lit each one in different rooms to make sure it wasn't something that we were just smelling from the previous candles. Thanks! I'll read through it

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33 minutes ago, bfroberts said:

What container are you using?  
 

I'm using the amber straight sided tumblrs from candlescience. Link is below

https://www.candlescience.com/containers/straight-sided-tumbler-jar-amber

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Based on those jars I'm wondering if that wick is too big?   I've never had much luck with Premiers but the ones that I did used like a 735 in an 8oz jam jar with a 2.5 in opening.

 

Also, maybe others will know more about this, but the Premiers are coated with paraffin and maybe that's burning really hot and giving the off smell?   I dunno, but I would at least try to wick down or try a different wick series.

 

Sometimes certain scents can smell weird in paraffin/soy or blends but if it's happening with all of them, it would kinda have to be the wick unless it's just a bad batch of wax.    

 

Unfortunately the only way to know for sure is to test.   Which sucks---believe me, I understand.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Sachi said:

I'm using the amber straight sided tumblrs from candlescience. Link is below

https://www.candlescience.com/containers/straight-sided-tumbler-jar-amber

 

I think you are probably several sizes over-wicked.  I don't use Premiers in 6006, but I am familiar with them because I used to use them in 464.  I'd probably test 750, 755, 760, 765.....something in that area should work.  

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It sounds like you are over wicked. That blend needs smaller wicks than you think. You should have a wick that can burn 2.5 to get a full melt pool. Test container size 3/4 full and burn down to 1/2 or less. Your wick should be steady and not be a flickering mess.

 

Candles are a combination of wax wick and fragrance. Each change requires different combos.

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Alright. First off thank you for all your responses. I made a test candle with a smaller wick and one of my more citrusy FOs and it seems to have fixed the issue. I'm going to test this with my other FOs to make sure it's consistent. Again, thank you for you help and advice. I really appreciate it.

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Ahh, the dreaded FUEL smell, an unexplained scientific phenomenon resulting from citrus based fragrance oils.

 

There’s only one solution that’s ever worked for me; using wood wicks instead of paper or zinc. For some reason any type of wick other than wood creates this odd note.

 

I can’t guarantee as I use different wax, wicks and oils than what you’re working with but it’s worth a try and it may work for you too.

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