Consumer Product Safety Commission and Candles

[Hope]

I once thought it might work that way. I even saw a company selling pillars claiming that they included a tab as a safety feature. Actually they do it because it's easier and cheaper to make them that way. I did many tests and found that this design burns to the bitter end. It might stop when it hits the tab neck if you're careful to seal the bottom with silicone. Otherwise the melted wax feeds up through the hole in the tab.

Now that you've explained it, that definately does make more sense. Doesn't a pillar warning sticker say something to the effect of stop burning when 1" of wax is left at the bottom? I haven't burned near as many pillars as containers and, I haven't seriously ventured into the pillar realm yet. But, I usually ended the candle's burning life b/c it can be such a PITA to get off of the pillar holder (if left to burn too close to bottom of pillar).

Realize the great amount of consumer ignorance & carelessness that wouldn't think to extinguish the candle before it burns to the very end. So, kudos for your thoughtfulness of the non-burning 'cushion' of wax.

I have burned container candle testers w/o some securing adhesive (just wick & tab) to see how much wax would be consumed, and temp'd the MP to see what happens. They can wipe their plates pretty clean! Some had a couple of grams left over, some had one gram, some had zero grams. It is interesting how very little molten is needed to keep a flame going. But, I suppose the same can be said or done with votives.

[Beth-VT]

With the bottom of the tab unsealed, the wick can keep burning until there's nothing left but a film of wax under it.

Top is exactly right and I think it's something a lot of people don't realize. It doesn't matter how tall your wick tab is, if you don't attach the wick tab to the container in such a way that it seals off capillary action to the wick, the liquid wax will continue to feed a flame basically until the container is bone dry. I've done it in a few tests and it's downright scary how hot the bottom of the container gets...the heat is transfered to the wick tab and down to the container. It can certainly cause a thin glass bottomed container to fracture.

Wick stickums prevent the capillary action from feeding the wick and the burn is stopped when the wick reaches the top of the wick tab. I imagine those who use silicone to attach their tabs would have the same results provided that the silicone seals up the hole to the wick.