Wick Help, Pretty Please!

[countyline]

Okay, so I'm trying to wick the Libbey heart dish (yes, I know there are several posts on these...I have read them all!) and I need help. Not so much with the dish actually, just wicks in general. I think I would have the same issues in any container.

Anyway, I am using 50/50 Ezsoy/J223, 9% FO load.

This is what I have tested and my results:

3 - 51Z: Full MP on first burn; ended up being much too big of a wick by the bottom of the container. HUGE shrooms, smoking

3 - 44Z: Full MP by second burn, but still have shrooms

3 - CD12: same as 51Z, but less shroom.

3 - CD 8 - Full MP by 2nd burn (maybe a tiny bit on skin on the very top side of heart,) least mushrooming of any of the wicks, BUT: the wicks won't stand up! These suckers keep falling over an hour or so into the burn. Otherwise, this would be my wick. Or maybe a CD 10. Grrrr!

3 - ECO 6: Full MP, Huge shrooms on first burn.

3 - LX 20: Full MP, Medium shrooms on first burn.

3 - RRD 40: Full MP, Huge shrooms by 2nd burn.

Sooooo...as you can see, if you made it this far, I have tested.... a lot! I know some of these probably seem like small wicks for the container, but I prefer to wick for the bottom half of the jar to keep it safe. They all achieved a full MP by the 2nd burn.

My questions are this:

1. Is there ANY such thing as a wick that doesn't mushroom?

2. What's with the CDs refusing to remain upright? Anyone else experience this?

3. The only other thing is have to test is HTP 73; could these maybe be more rigid than the CD? Or are they the same wick?

4. ANY wick suggestions that I haven't tried? Pretty please with sugar on top?

Sorry so long...I've just spent so much time and $$$ testing these things, I feel like I HAVE to figure it out, even though I really just want to quit! Thanks for any tips you guys may have!!!!

PS: I know this is a high FO load; don't really want to reduce it as they're also not throwing as well as I would like.

[Barbara AL]

The LX's are the only ones that stand up straight for me they are self-trimming you don't have to trim them after the first time. The only other suggestion would be to try 3 LX's 16's and see how that works.

HTH

Barbara

[countyline]

The LX's are the only ones that stand up straight for me they are self-trimming you don't have to trim them after the first time. The only other suggestion would be to try 3 LX's 16's and see how that works.

HTH

Barbara

Thanks for the reply. I do like the look of LX (silly, huh?) and wanted them to work. Do you have mushrooming with these? Maybe I would have less if I wicked down?

[bugtussle]

I use 3 44-32Zs. They Shroom a little but do stand up in parasoy. With that heavy an FO load, I think you're going to get mushrooms. Carole

[ChrisR]

I agree with the LX16's as a good starting point, depending on the FO, you may even be able to use (3) LX14's. I'd go for a full MP by the 3rd burn. They definately shroon very little to none if you get the wicking right!! Good luck!!

[topofmurrayhill]

Certain wicks are said to mushroom more than others, but actually any type of wick can burn with no mushrooming and any type of wick can mushroom. None are immune.

What determines whether you get mushrooms is the wick (type and size) in combination with what the wick is burning. To reduce mushrooming you need a type of wick that burns your candle mixture well, plus it needs to be the right size. Some mixtures will make any wick mushroom. It doesn't have to be the fragrance oil; even just the wax can be prone to causing mushrooms.

The one thing I would critique about your approach is that you're hardly getting any idea what type of wick is working best with your candle mixture. If you want to test a certain type of wick, let's say ECO, then get a sample pack and try different sizes until you find the best size. For instance you only tried one size of ECO and it was much too big, so you won't know whether you prefer CD or ECO until you try smaller ECO sizes and find the best one.

As far as the CDs falling over, I don't really understand that. They should be rigid enough for the purpose. If you mean that the tips are curling, that's normal. If you mean that they're toppling over at the base, then they might not be secured properly to the wick tab. Regarding CD vs. HTP, the sizes are different but the design is similar. I think in your shoes I would test additional sizes of some of the wick types you've already tried.

[countyline]

Thanks for the replies, Chris and murray. I really appreciate the input. The reason for my seemingly haphazard approach is simply those are the wicks I had available. At the time I chose those wicks,

A: they were what I had and

B: I used a wick recommendaton chart and thought that most of these wicks were comparable in size.

Clearly I was mistaken. Guess I'm going to have to break down and order wicks, I was trying really hard to avoid placing an order because it's almost impossible for me to JUST order wicks. boo hoo!

Oh, and as for the CDs. I know they curl. I loved this wick 'til the third burn, when they started falling over at the base. The wick at the base of the heart was so far over that it was nearly touching the glass. The RRDs also did the same thing. I use wick stickums from BC; they were definitely still attached. I had to use pliers to get them out. These are like 4-year-old old wicks...maybe that could affect things?

[countyline]

I agree with the LX16's as a good starting point, depending on the FO, you may even be able to use (3) LX14's. I'd go for a full MP by the 3rd burn. They definately shroon very little to none if you get the wicking right!! Good luck!!

Wanted to add, I'll definitely order some more LXs to play with. I really liked this wick. And it doesn't fall over!

[topofmurrayhill]

Oh, and as for the CDs...I loved this wick 'til the third burn, when they started falling over at the base. The wick at the base of the heart was so far over that it was nearly touching the glass. The RRDs also did the same thing.

It must be a problem with the wick assemblies, especially if it's happening with a cored wick like RRD. Sometimes they don't tighten them properly, so the wick comes loose from the tab when the wax coating melts. You could try squishing the neck of the wick tabs with pliers and see if they stop toppling over.

Yes I figured you were just testing with what you had on hand. I know this can be a very expensive pursuit, but there's nothing unusual about the amount of testing you've done and sometimes it's less work and confusion to approach it methodically.

Sounds like you may already have the best size with CD and maybe you can stop them from getting dizzy. If you want to compare with another wick and you'd like to minimize mushrooming, I'd focus on ECO next and try sizes 2 and 4. Can't promise they'll work better than CD but there's a chance.

I would not discourage you from finishing testing LX as well, depending on how ambitious you feel, but I seriously doubt they will mushroom less than the other two. Still, they do burn kind of differently and it might be an interesting comparison. They might curl less, although they do curl increasingly as you wick down.

Good luck.

[Jokerjen]

How's the testing going? I am gonna use almost the same blend..something very similar to 223 that we get here in Canada and try LX 18's...will let you know how it works out!:smiley2:

[countyline]

STILL plugging along. I bumped up the soy and am having pretty good luck with the ECO 4. I need to wick down again to ECO 2 for some fragrances, though.

I also ordered some more CD 8 and 10 to restest. I've been pinching the wick assemblies tight with pliers on all of my wicks after murrrayhill's suggestion, an I'm having a lot better luck, so I thought I would revisit the CDs and see if that would make them work. Love to hear what you come up with!