Burn Rate for candles

[psfponies]

I was told by a vendor at a craft fair that soy candles burned 50% longer then paraffin wax candles. I dont make soy or straight paraffin wax candles but use 6006 parasoy blend wax. When I tested the burn time on my candles they averaged around 6 to 7 hours an ounce. I was wondering if anyone else that tests their burn rate can list the type of wax and burn time.

Thanks

[EricofAZ]

Depends on the wick and the container that you use.

In my tealights with the small tealight wick, I get the same as you, 7-9 hr/oz with paraffin. Soy seems to be about the same but I have to use a larger wick.

I have some containers that are about a half pound (9.5 oz really) and I get about 45 hours of burn time = about 5 hr/oz. The diameter is pretty wide, like 3.2 inches, so it has a large wick to make a good melt pool. J50 and J223 are the wax choices.

I have some other containers that burn on a smaller wick, but have a smaller diameter, about 2.5 inches. I use an IGI wax in those, paraffin. Same burn time as the J's. About 40 hours for a half pound. That would be about 5 hr/oz as well. Slightly more though, but not much.

The IGI pillar wax (paraffin) burns about 60 to 70 hours for a full pound. Maybe more, I didn't measure the time perfectly. I think they dip under 5 hr/oz.

The pillar palm wax has a huge wick, a #4 square braid. They go about 100 hours or more.

I don't use soy very much. My recollection is that they probably do burn slightly longer than the paraffin, but not much.

Again, it depends on the wick and the container. I think if you have a wall to wall and deep melt pool with a large wick, you can expect to consume more wax per hour than if you have a barely wall to wall with a shallow melt pool.

Edited December 13, 2010 by EricofAZ

[LuminousBoutique]

Yeah thats quite the claim. The ONLY way they can claim that is if they are burning the same jar, similar wicking, same FO, evenly.