New to candles, wick question

[KBelle]

Hi all.. I'm new to candle making, although I've been making CP soap and body products for a while. I make this stuff purely as a hobby for family, friends and myself. I don't sell anything, but I love it just for the fun of it!

I've done lots of reading and researching trying to find the right wick to use. But yeah, it's tough! Because it seems like what one person says doesn't necessarily work for everyone.

I'm using EcoSoya CB Advanced. I use soy just because it's so easy to heat and clean up. Perfect for a small time hobbiest!

My containers are 8oz jelly jars.

I bought the LX wick kit from candlescience. I burned a 16, 20, 21 and 22. The 16 was too small as it took about 6 hours to finally reach a full melt pool. 20 looks really good so far, good melt pool, 1/4 depth after 3 hours, but it's mushrooming quite a bit. (I don't really care about mushrooming though, since I don't sell.)

But.. 21 and 22 both snuffed themselves out! What would cause the 20 to burn so well and the two larger sizes snuff out? I cut them all the same length. Although the 20 is doing well, the performance of the 21 and 22 make me leery of buying a whole pack of the 20s. Should I try a different kind of wick??

Arg! This is frustrating! Wicks are crAAAAzy and I think they each just do whatever they want!

Thank you so much for any advice!

[geekrunner]

Hi kbelle,

I have worked with LXs, and have not had that trouble with the 21s or 22s. Have you tried cutting a piece of the 21 from a different wick? As far as the mushrooming goes, in general it indicates that you need to wick down, but if you are getting a 1/4 inch MP after three hours, that is just right and you would not want to wick down. You can tolerate the mushrooming if it's not too bad, or try another wick type like HTP, RRD, cotton or zinc.

It just depends on how anal and obsessive you want to get, and there is alot of it here

HTH! geek

[tlc]

I use that same wax with the htp wicks. The wick that works well for me in the 8 oz jj's is the 83's.

Good luck!

[Twoscentsworth]

Would also suggest a different wick for soy....try the RRD's or CD's

[KBelle]

Thank you so much for the info. I'm not just thrilled with the LXs after these burns, so I guess I'll try another. I don't know what to do with all these other wicks I'm accumulating. I only make this one type of candle! lol

[Gdawg]

I use soy (not ecosoya) and we have had good results with the CD wicks. As for all the wicks you are accululating lol I would try to re sell them on here on under that section.