sick of wicking votives - venting

[chris77]

I have made so many votives that I'm happy with. I just can't seem to get the wicking right....so this is a venting message! I'm using a paraffin pillar/votive blend. I've tried rrd29,34...lx 10/12/14....tried cotton 30/40. I just don't know. Am I too much of a anal, obsessive compulsive perfectionist? Probably. I just don't want to settle for less than perfection. Some votives self consume, never melting out all of the way to get a full melt pool. Others get a big melt pool fast and I get a huge mushroom and some smoking. other's melt out all the way but the pool is shallow and the wick burns down to barely a flicker. They all burn so differently. I'm frustrated. I'm running out of test wicks! I know some say they hate to make votives, I love it...I think it's fun. I just can't get the wicking right!

Thank you for listening!

Chris

[SatinDucky]

Don't know if it'll help or not, but remember to let them burn all the way down. Like containers, sometimes they get a small amount of hang-up that will catch up. I've found that if a wick is close but not quite, I'll try it two or three times. Sometimes it just burns odd. I did the same as you to begin with so many sizes and types. My problem though was impatience, I think. I'm guessing you're starting with a tight holder and the wick trimmed to the right length?

[jillgunter]

I use zinc wicks for my votives. The 36 size works great. It can be frustrating sometimes...

[chris77]

My problem though was impatience, I think. I'm guessing you're starting with a tight holder and the wick trimmed to the right length?

Me? Impatient? I want it to be right and I want it right now!!!!

And yes, I'm using a tight holder and the right trim. I am not always trimming the 2nd or 3 burns. Trying to burn it as a customer might.

[wvcandleguy]

nice to know that I am not the only obsessive compulsive chandler on the board..

[dcroome2005]

WV- you obsessive?? nahhhhh never!!! LOL

Christina

[siberia]

Hi there! I'm totally obsessive about wicking properly...drives my husband nuts. lol Assuming you are wicking a paraffin standard votive, I would go with HTP 31. This works with every FO I have ever used (and that's a lot ).

This is obsessive:

[SatinDucky]

Hi there! I'm totally obsessive about wicking properly...drives my husband nuts. lol Assuming you are wicking a paraffin standard votive, I would go with HTP 31. This works with every FO I have ever used (and that's a lot ).

This is obsessive:

Those aren't proper votive holders...LOL

[chris77]

Thank you Kimberly....you just made me feel a whole lot better!

[siberia]

Those aren't proper votive holders...LOL

Those aren't standard votives. They are palm octagon votives. For testing purposes I burn them the way most customers would as it is difficult to find a perfect fit for this shape and size.

[tlc26]

why don't you try CD?

[topofmurrayhill]

It's a normal frustration with votives I think. You never know what kind of container people will use and what randomness might intrude. It's real sensitive to wick type and wax and sometimes FO and sometimes divine whim.

When I made swap votives I came up with a brand new wax formulation and had to wick from scratch. My obsessive heart never was quite satisfied, but after sending out the package I changed the wax a bit and switched to a different kind of wick, and suddenly I was getting perfect burns. Yesterday I burned one top to bottom and it had a nice flame all the way for 19 hours with no soot, no mushroom, and lots of scent throw.

You'll hit upon it eventually. Life is hard for perfectionists.

[MaryinCary]

Are you avoiding the use of zinc wicks?? IF NOT, do yourself a favor and get 2 sizes of wicks. #1) 36-24 zinc #2) 44-24zinc

For lighter FO's use the 36, for heavy (and I mean HEAVY) use a 44. With the Lx series. a 10 or 12 should do it, if not, there has to be something going on with either the wax combo you are using or the amt of FO. Votives are not that difficult. I use one of 2 wicks for every votive/FO blend that I have and that's ALOT. I use both a votive wax and/or a pillar wax for votives, sometimes a combo of both and have never come up with any problems. I would look into the waxes that you are using and make sure that your fO load is not more than what the waxes can handle.

[siberia]

Life is hard for perfectionists.

Boy, isn't that the truth! lol

[chris77]

Mary - thank you for the info. I have not tried zinc wicks. Ordered some samples from a certain company and have yet to receive them. I'm using between 8 and 9% FO....wax is rated for 8% with most FO's. It is possible that there is nothing wrong with the wicks I've been testing...it is most likely me...afraid of putting out a bad product....and wanting my product to be the best....I don't like to fail! I don't want to give myself a bad name. I'm going to try everything that has been suggested in this thread.

Thank you everybody for your help! So glad I found this website!

[Fern]

I think you should contact RobinOR...she makes those octagon votives and I believe they are bigger than your standard votive...add the palm wax into the mix and it only makes it more difficult. I don't think she uses Palm wax, I believe it's Calwax, but maybe she could guide you a bit on those. I've made many palm wax pillars and found that the RRD's worked best in that type of wax but I see you've already tried those...so I'm out of ideas.

[chris77]

I think you should contact RobinOR...she makes those octagon votives and I believe they are bigger than your standard votive...add the palm wax into the mix and it only makes it more difficult. I don't think she uses Palm wax, I believe it's Calwax, but maybe she could guide you a bit on those. I've made many palm wax pillars and found that the RRD's worked best in that type of wax but I see you've already tried those...so I'm out of ideas.

I don't use palm wax. The rrd 29 is working ok right now in my pillar/votive blend that I added 25% soy125 to. Hopefully I've got one down...a gazillion to go!

[Fern]

Oops...looks like I misunderstood what you said in your post regarding the type of wax you were using.

[candlesprite7]

why don't you try CD?

Yeah try a CD wick, I love them! Heinz CD (whatever the number is for votives, for some reason I cant rememebr right at this second)

[MaryinCary]

Oops...looks like I misunderstood what you said in your post regarding the type of wax you were using.

No Fern honey, you didn't misunderstand WHAT....it was WHO. Siberia uses the palm! Different person with a totally different problem.

[wvcandleguy]

WV- you obsessive?? nahhhhh never!!! LOL

Christina

shocking ... aint it

[Fern]

MaryinCary: Oh....duhhhh!

[siberia]

I apologize if I created any confusion regarding Chris' OP. I was just trying to make him feel better when it comes to being obsessive about wicking properly.

[aswan01]

Hi there! I'm totally obsessive about wicking properly...drives my husband nuts. lol Assuming you are wicking a paraffin standard votive, I would go with HTP 31. This works with every FO I have ever used (and that's a lot ).

This is obsessive:

You're right - this is wonderfully obsessive! I thought I was bad buring 6 with different wicks at a time, but 15! I just made my first batch of palm votives & was doing a search for wicking them when I came across your test burn pic. I'm so impressed by it that I saved it to my desktop so I can enlarge it & study all the burns carefully. I've picked out the best 5 from the pic to test. Of course I can't tell about flickering or smoking or scent throw from a pic, but it sure helps to see how they are burning after 2 hours. I wish more would post pics of their test burns either during, as you did, or after, so we ALL don't have to stumble around blindly trying to figure out how to wick the same candles.

Thumbs up to you, Kimberly.