How to deal with temperature variations during testing

[HorseScentS]

I don't do a powerburn until AFTER I have made my wick selection. The powerburn is just a "check" to make sure it won't become a torch if the customer doesn't pay attention... I think your candle may have flunked...

When I powerburn, I start early, stay up late and set the candle in a big flat pan of sand (or inside a big oversized hurricane with sand in the bottom) so that if the worst happens, the sand will slurp up all the melted wax and hopefully nothing will catch on fire. I'm touchy on the subject of fire, having lost my home to it 18 years ago, so I try not to take chances... Even so, I mess up sometimes anyway... fell asleep once while testing a 3 wick heart pillar set on top of the television. I overwicked it, it blew out, tunneled like a coal miner and overflowed the weenie little dish I had it sitting in, dripped and splattered down the front of the television and all over the floor. Did I mention it was red palm wax? When I awoke, 2 of the wicks had self-extinguished and one was dying down... they had had such fun while I was snoozing... The soot on the wax told the story of how high the flames were... I had only fallen asleep for less than an hour... It doesn't take long! I was lucky that there was nothing flammable anywhere around it!!! I didn't test on top of the television again...

So be careful when you're testing!! And, ya might wanna try a smaller wick in that 20 oz. tureen...

OMG! How horrendous! I'm glad it wasn't a terrible tragedy. Yes, I think this tureen would be safer with two 60z wicks instead of 62z, so I'm gonna try that next.

The alarm clock idea that someone else posted about is a great idea. A timer would work too.

But I don't understand how someone can power burn a 60 hour candle for 60 hours straight. lol You can't stay awake and watch the candle that long, and you can't stay home for 60 hours. So, do you just break it up into 8 to 12 hour sessions or something?

[HorseScentS]

Has know one ever heard of an alarm clock??? I'll either set the alarm to wake and blow the candles out or set it to wake and light the candle 4 hours before I wake up. My HTP wicks are relatively self trimming. I seldom have to trim them, except for the 104 and up sized.

The alarm is a great idea! So, you're sleeping during the first 4 hours that your candle is burning? Well, if you don't have to trim your HTP wicks much, maybe they're safer than zinks in case the customer falls asleep? I bet sleeping with candles burning is very common, especially since candles are often used for romantic liasons, after which people tend to pass out. lol

[HorseScentS]

So be careful when you're testing!! And, ya might wanna try a smaller wick in that 20 oz. tureen...

Actually, Stella, I was just remembering a scary Yankee Candle Encounter I had at my cousins house. She was proudly burning a 22 oz Vanilla Cake candle in her kitchen, and it had burned about halfway down. It had a melt pool about 1-1/2" deep and about a 2" high flame on a loooong untrimmed wick, which looked like zinc. She was cheerfully oblivious to the situation. And you could barely smell it when you were right on in the same small room. I had to go outside and come back in, in order to smell it even faintly. So, how can Yankee get away with that and not be responsible for millions of deaths annually? Cuz, I think my cousin is like many other customers who have never read a warning label and never heard of wick trimming.

Edited August 21, 2011 by HorsescentS

[SliverOfWax]

I know exactly what I am looking for during my burns. I am very very well read and in the process of becoming well practiced. Not sure why you would say you dont understand what all this has to do with my original question when you asked all the questions I responded to??? I believe my responses were pretty easy to understand yet you seem not to understand any of them. Oh well. I'll figure it out. No worries.

You're also a very fast learner, lol.

Robert, most national companies overwick their candles to ensure they will burn. They may not produce the candle you want (which, of course, is probably why you decided to make your own). But burn, they will.

I personally would rather err on the side of overwicking. There's almost nothing that pisses me off more than a candle that tunnels, then fizzles. My house is very warm in the summer and quite cool in the winter because I'm too cheap to endure high electric bills. I shoot for the best burn I can get in my house. What happens in someone elses house is completely out of my control.

Try not to mistake of over thinking and over analyzing. It will only make you crazy and it won't improve the burn of your candles.

[robertgibbens]

Good advice. Thanks Sliver.

It is true that HTP wicks curl, but the direction of the curl is unpredictable. And sometimes they don't curl at all. But even when they curl, the flame is still dead vertical and I have not found more melt on the curl side or less on the non-curl side.

As far as sleeping with candles burning goes, I test burn in a plastic shed, with metal tables. No guarantee that there wont be a problems, but I think at least somewhat safer than burning them in a house.

[Stella1952]

I personally would rather err on the side of overwicking. There's almost nothing that pisses me off more than a candle that tunnels, then fizzles

I disagree. An overwicked candle is a safety hazard. I would rather leave a little hangup in a container than put an overwicked candle on the market.

[rjwhite6]

I'm with ya Stella.

[chuck_35550]

I have a customer who tells me she falls asleep all the time and leaves candles burning all over the house. I do take pride in most of my customers telling me they trim wicks. I test with the wick untrimmed as if it were a customer's candle. I think the good Lord is just with most people when it comes to burning a candle. Anything burning should be supervised but like Stella, I have totally forgotten a burning tester until bed time. It's just the nature of the beast. I like the double wicked idea too.

[robertgibbens]

Are you saying that you sit in your candle shop for each test burn??