Finding the right Wooden Wick for Coconut Wax?!

[scentsable]

If it's not already obvious in some way, I'm about 2 minutes new to this forum, lol - Hi everyone, I'm desperate.

 

I don't even know if I'm posting this correctly..or in the correct area.. 😪

 

I was wondering if anyone could please help me out with wicking a Coconut 83 & SP487 blend (75% & 25%) in a 3inch diameter vessel?

 

I've chosen and set myself on wooden wicks, only, and have tested the Makesy/Wooden Wick Co. Whisper-Booster Wicks. I was recommended the .02 thickness & I tried out the 1/2'', 5/8'', AND 3/4'' with no real success other than good scent throw!

 

The 1/2'' .02 was way too small, seemed to be suited for a 2'' diameter candle, and created crazy tunneling, while providing a decent amount of scent throw.

and both the 5/8'' and 3/4'' .02's provided excellent scent throw as well, but their flames grew too quickly!

 

First of all, I was never able to use the golden "Trim the wick to 1/4'' rule because the flame was gigantic off the start (2-3 inches tall) when I tried burning it at that length. It literally needed to be trimmed somewhere below 1/8'' in order to burn a calm, leveled, horizontal flame. I would honestly try to work with that, but unfortunately, after about an hour - to an hour and a half, the flame, again, grows an exaggerated length and goes a little crazy with flickering. Which I'm probably correctly assuming isn't normal..as a candle (of my size) is usually tested for at least 3 hours and also advised not to burn for more than 4 hours at a time... also advertised to be TRIMMED at the 4 hour mark. Yet mine needed to stop and be trimmed after 1.5 hours.

 

I'm honestly stumped, I'm not sure what change to make. I contacted Makesy and they said it sounded like I needed a smaller thickness, yet the boosters aren't made any smaller than .02. So they recommended I bump my fragrance load from 8% to 10% and switch to a Single-Ply wooden wick instead to see how that turns out.

 

Thing is I already tested the single-ply's initially in the past to no avail. - and yes, I had a higher scent percentage as well, probably somewhere around 11% or 10%. All I could smell was burning wood and a slight minty-smell. The single ply's never provided me with scent throw.

 

I just want to know if there's any way around this?

I had so much hope when I was able to smell the hot throw in my candles for the first time! and then this blocks my path, of course.. testing is a nightmare.

 

I know SP487 is recommended to be used at 25%, but could I made increase that percentage to harden the wax a little bit more? I saw some other forums where people were talking about how coconut wax burns a bit too hot for the wicks sometimes and maybe a harder formulated blend would help that? - Not sure, I'm definitely still a nooby btw so blending formulas and the like are still a foreign practice to me but I'm improving with time I think, and willing to learn.

 

Thank you guys so much!

[Kris10Tackles]

First, this forum is a wealth of information from incredibly thoughtful, encouraging, and seasoned professionals. I found myself down many rabbit holes reading the advice and the experiences from others. Unfortunately, I cannot help you with wooden wicks but I would suggest using the search bar to see what others are saying. 

[TallTayl]

Coconut wax can vary so much, but I do use your blend, so here goes… coco83 varies a LOT from batch to batch. Some are super thin when melted. One batch was cloudy and gooey when melted.  That changes the wick need by a size, sometimes more.  Coconut oil, the supposed base of coconut “wax” is a low viscosity fuel that travels up wicks through capillary action with ease. Compare that to soy wax, for instance, that is a higher viscosity “sludge” that takes more energy to travel through the same wick through capillary action. Coconut will end with higher flames than the thicker soy.
 

palm wax, the basis of sp487, burns incredibly easily with wood wicks. It is a “hard” wax, but thin viscosity.  low viscosity fuel easily travels through wood wick fibers.  The low viscosity  combo of palm and coconut with wood wicks is why you see the ramping up of flames as the candle burns.  Your accelerator is to the floor during burning, if you will.

 

I don’t buy into the whole add more fragrance to fix your problem argument.  Fragrances are all comprised of different combos of aromachemicals and diluents that do not act the same in any wax, let alone all waxes.  Some fragrance components will likely cause your problem to worsen. 
 

my solution to slowing wicks has been in changing the fuel to alter the capillary action. I have a collection of different botanical waxes from castor wax to sunflower wax to various beeswaxes, along with all of the different palm waxes available. IGI5801-A palm wax, for instance, will change my wick need by a size or more at low %.  My particular batch of cosmetic sunflower wax dials down my wick consumption at 1/4%-1/2%.  Every sunflower wax batch is different.  Some do not burn at all and may make your problem worse. Sometimes a little extra soy will do the trick.  I suggest it only to give you an idea of where to venture next.  
 

note please that wooden wicks also vary from batch to batch. Many of us learned valuable lessons that each wick in a pack may behave entirely different by burning several candles from the exact same pour. I gave up on them a while ago because I could not be assured that a customer would not experience a faulty one.

[Milk Machine]

I had a really difficult to wick FO that would drown out most cotton wicks in a similar blend wax. I tried a .04 booster wick at 0.5" kind of by mistake. It burned quite well with this particular FO. I decided to try a .03 and .02 just to make sure I wasn't over-wicking. Those both were fails. They had towering flames and/or soot and were just too hot. The .04 booster was the best one for that combo. It seemed counterintuitive to me but it worked. I mean to try again with .04 and a the next size smaller width. I know testing is tiresome but it might be worth it to try going up in thickness.