Presto Pot and bad wax

[kdmorgan]

I was just wondering how long you can leave your wax on in the presto pot before it affects the wax or if it ever affects it at all.

[Brat]

Depends what temp you keep it at. If it's too hot for a long time, I'm sure it will ruin the wax. If you keep it at just a little above the melt point, it should be fine.

[Accents]

Don't leave it on. The temp seems to fluctuate in the Presto, and since it melts your wax pretty quickly, there's no need to leave it on anyway. If you're just going to do something else for a couple of hours, it should be okay on the warm setting, but I wouldn't leave it overnight or more than a couple hours.

[TeddyB]

I not sure if this what your asking but here goes. I believe I read in an earlier post that keeping the wax at a pouring temperature for a long time is a bad thing. Can't really remember why though. I often let that last little bit left in the bottom just below the faucet hole and let it cool . I've left it with the lid for over 2 months and remelted and the wax was good. HTH

[topofmurrayhill]

I believe I read in an earlier post that keeping the wax at a pouring temperature for a long time is a bad thing. Can't really remember why though.

The reason is that hot wax will gradually oxidize and discolor. The higher the temperature the faster it happens. It's worse if you happen to have stearic acid in it. Like Brat says, if you need to keep it warm for an extended time you can keep it just above the melt point.

[Tess]

Leaving your wax in your presto for too long will definately break down the properties. So I heard. It supposedly affect the burning properties.

On a personal and exerienced note, I am a bad girl and sometimes forget to turn off my presto when not needed (like overnight-yes I know Bad Girl), I have never noticed a difference in batches I poured right away as to wax I left on overnight. I tend to do this quite often too. I would contact your wax supplier (ex. IGI) and get their take on it. Being that there are so many different waxes, you are going to get many different answers. Go to the source on this one. HTH

[Georgia]

Back in the old days...I remember this thread.

http://www.candletech.com/cgi-local/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Discussions;action=display;num=1093632735;start=0#0

[RobinInOR]

Ahha, another person that saves Alan's pearls of wisdom

[topofmurrayhill]

Notice the difference between the petroleum and vegetable waxes. The problem with stearic acid is it falls into the vegetable wax category. The only time I've personally gotten visible oxidation (slight discoloring) was leaving pillar wax melted for a day or so with stearic in it. Maybe best not to add it directly to the melter if you leave it on for longer stretches.

If you use Presto pots with brass valves, that doesn't help any. When they test wax oxidation in the lab they often put a length of copper wire in the mixture because it catalyzes the process. The copper content in brass does the trick too.

I don't know if it's true that wax manufacturers use BHT. I'd be a little surprised if there's antioxidant in the wax without it being mentioned in any of the product info. However, the candle industry has used it for decades and you can buy it from Genwax last I looked. Now that we use tons of fragrance oil in the candle mixture I think the value of it probably extends beyond just protecting the wax from oxidation.