hole down the middle

[seattle70]

I just had a friend call me and tell me my candle (BCN's Twiggs and Berries) burnt right down the middle. I used a CD-14 in a 9oz mason with J223/Soy combo which had worked fine before. I am at a loss and petrified this happened to the whole batch!!!

Any ideas?

[gerrie]

Wonder how long she burned it for. I've had people light a candle and let it burn for 30 minutes, not nearly enough time to get a full melt pool. Then they wonder why it burned straight down. Tell them about setting the memory of the candle by burning it for 1 hr for each 1" of the diameter.

[seattle70]

I thought of that too but she said (and she has bought lots from me) that it just did a nose dive. I'm mortified. Maybe Twiggs is too heavy for that wick? I thought since I had the 223 in it I could pick a wick in the middle, which seemed to work fine at first.

[Pam W]

if it did it suddenly, then I guess it had an air pocket

[MaryinCary]

I've used BCN's T&B and altho I use a different wax (straight J-50) I had to wick up. Very heavy FO!

[gerrie]

I thought of that too but she said (and she has bought lots from me) that it just did a nose dive. I'm mortified. Maybe Twiggs is too heavy for that wick? I thought since I had the 223 in it I could pick a wick in the middle, which seemed to work fine at first.

Please don't take this wrong, but this is just one reason every single scent has to be tested, never know which oils will need to be wicked up, or down for that matter.

But it almost sounds like maybe a air pocket like Pam said, since it did it so fast.

Can you get the candle from her so you can take a look at it and see what it looks like to you.

[Pam W]

I guessed it might be an air pocket cause one of mine did that just yesterday. A 4" pillar - I'd burned it several times and all was well. Lit it yesterday and after a couple hrs noticed that the melt pool was gone! There were holes on both sides of the wick. I did poke relief holes but obviously missed those spots. It's a new mold & I was testing wicks ---just glad it didn't happen to a customer or friend.

[seattle70]

I am going to guess air pockets because another person just told me that the T&B (same batch) burned flawlessly. She is bringing the bad one to me so I can "operate". Thanks everyone!

[Connie]

As far as the rest of your batch, if they are containers, you might want to take the heat gun to the top. Sometimes air pockets are just under the surface and can't be seen until you hit them with heat gun. Once the top melts it will fill in the pocket.

[cindym]

I hit all of my container candles with a heat gun after they have cooled to avoid this problem, I jjust go around the top of the candle til the top layer is completely melted, just to make sure, this has never had and affect on the final look of the candle. Also the smaller the jar the more apt this is to happen, when I did jelly jars, it happened often, I think when I posted about this the bottom line was the top cooling faster in smaller jars.