debratant Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Yep...have read about it, but have never experienced it until now. Was burning one of my pumpkin cheesecake tarts in my tea light warmer. I had put a fresh tea light in and had only had it burning for approx an hour. I always burn my warmer on my stove top, good thing. I had left the kitchen to fold some laundry and when I came back upstairs there was a fire in my warmer. The entire plastic tea light cup on the top edge was on fire. It was a circle of fire in there. It melted the cup half way down. I was totally flabbergasted that it happened. The tea light was made with left over 4627 wax from previous candle pours....with a 15TL wick from candle science, which is what I always use. I've also always used these same tea light cups from candle science. I dunno what to think. I'm afraid to burn another. I will take pics tomorrow of the tea light and the warmer and post them up. The whole inside of the warmer is charred black. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsie Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Wow!!! :shocked2: Glad you are ok! Can't wait to see the pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnvyCandles Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Could likely be the melter, if it keeps too much heat inside, this could help melt the tea light cup.I have only melted a plastic tea light cup when I used a much larger wick in it (never had one catch fire), but some tea light warmers do not have sufficient air holes...Glad nothing serious happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debratant Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 (edited) Here are the pics...took pictures of the warmer too. I've had this warmer for 4 years and I've never had an issue. I burn tarts with tea lights nearly everyday in this warmer in my kitchen. That's why I'm upset this happened. I could understand if the tea light was burned down, however you can see that this one was not. If you compare it to a fresh one...you can see how much of the plastic melted. And its hard to see...but this warmer has 3 of the little air holes up top...and the back opening is fairly large. I always burn it with that opening facing towards me so I can keep an eye on it as it burns. I'm pretty safety conscious when it comes to that. I'm terrified of fire in the house...who isn't.On a bright note...my tart was absolutely awesome. I was on my third burn and it still smelled up my whole house. Upstairs in the bathroom you could even smell it LOL. Now I'm afraid to burn a damn tart. Edited September 19, 2011 by debratant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnvyCandles Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 WOW, that cup is burned halfway down! Right to the line in the middle!Yes, the opening on the back of the warmer is pretty big, plenty of air should have been able to circulate...Interesting and scary... That enamel is pretty black, I wonder how high the flame got? I think we used to use 17 TL from CS and they are still pretty small... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in KY Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I have always heard you should only use unscented t-lites in a tart warmer. But if you use scented wax all the time then who knows what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetsCandles Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I have always heard you should only use unscented t-lites in a tart warmer. But if you use scented wax all the time then who knows what happened.I'd heard the same thing. Although a couple years ago, I had a plastic votive cup that I was assured would work as a holder as well as a mold. It melted on me. Didn't catch fire, thank god, but I was burning an unscented votive, and a tiny wick in it. I won't use them for candles anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricofAZ Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 My first reaction was that it might be overwicked. But since you use the TL-15, that's not likely. I use that same wick for the most part in tealights with plastic containers. Sometimes I use TL-10 but I have to filter the wax to do that.Don't over FO the thing. If you do filter the wax and get a good clean paraffin to burn, the Tl-10 should be more than enough. Don't go to TL-21, that's overkill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella1952 Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 While I hate the metal cup things for tealights, the plastic cups have always worried me... I'm glad the fire happened in a wise location and didn't cause any harm except to your nerves... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnvyCandles Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 If the plastic cups are supposed to be rated V0 ( or whatever) according to the suppliers they are supposed to burn for no longer than a few seconds. Or is this rating pretty much bs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixie Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 omg, how scary is that. I'm so glad it didn't turn into a tragedy and that you were able to catch it before it got out of control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitn Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 WOW that is scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella1952 Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 This applies directly to my decision never to use flammable containers for candles. All it takes is ONCE to cause a big problem. I don't like the odds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksranch Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I don't much like the metal containers for them, but it's still all I'll use... so glad it didn't turn out worse for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HorseScentS Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Yep...have read about it, but have never experienced it until now. Was burning one of my pumpkin cheesecake tarts in my tea light warmer. I had put a fresh tea light in and had only had it burning for approx an hour. I always burn my warmer on my stove top, good thing. I had left the kitchen to fold some laundry and when I came back upstairs there was a fire in my warmer. The entire plastic tea light cup on the top edge was on fire. It was a circle of fire in there. It melted the cup half way down. I was totally flabbergasted that it happened. The tea light was made with left over 4627 wax from previous candle pours....with a 15TL wick from candle science, which is what I always use. I've also always used these same tea light cups from candle science. I dunno what to think. I'm afraid to burn another. I will take pics tomorrow of the tea light and the warmer and post them up. The whole inside of the warmer is charred black.If the tealight was scented wax, maybe the FO had settled to the bottom of the pour pot by the time you poured that tealight and there was a glob of flammable FO in it, which flashed when the flame heated it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babyv Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 I don't make tealigts but I ordered a few from PL (partylite) and they come in the plastic holders. I lit three in a row in my spa room. The wax had completely melted and i saw one of the wicks slide to the side and catch on fire. Lucklily I was in the room but I would not buy or make a tealight in plastic again. I have children and at work I would not chance it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristineG Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 (edited) I used to make these till they caught fire! It's true, no matter what I did, the plastic caught on fire! The wick always fell over and caught the sides on fire. For a long time, I thought it was just mine but recently, a friend gave me some party lite tealights in the plastic and yes, it caught fire too! Actually, it had to be more than a few seconds because I was working in my office and smelled something burning. It dawned on me that I had a tealight burning and yes...it was flaming! Thank goodness I had it on a little dish. Edited September 20, 2011 by KristineG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 For those who have had wicks tip or wander catching fire, were the wicks affixed to the cup like you would a container candle or loose (just placed in the cup)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spark-me-up Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Thanks for the pics! WOW!Maybe, even if the plastic cups ARE rated, when you refill & burn & refill & burn, the plastic gets degraded somehow over time???That's the only thing I can think of... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bart70 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 My thoughts,The tealight was fragranced, the warmer itself fairly contained with no direct ventilation ( in terms of heat escape).It might not be outside the realm of possibility that the contained heat within the warmer heated things up to the point where the flash point of the FO was met, resulting in ignition of the vapor component of the FO at the melt pool (Temp of melt pool rises, FO vaporises towards flash point, flame provides the point if ignition).Have seen this same thing occur in other scenarious (not candles) but the same theory would apply if the contained heat caused the melt pool to reach the required temp to ignite the FO vapor.I believe this is the reason why fragrances tealights should not be used in warmers.Bart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsie Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Thanks for the pics! WOW!Maybe, even if the plastic cups ARE rated, when you refill & burn & refill & burn, the plastic gets degraded somehow over time???That's the only thing I can think of...I'm not familiar with people refilling tea lights, so is this done? Just because I haven't heard about it, I guess it doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but that sounds risky to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricofAZ Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 There was a company that recently had to recall 7 million tealights for this very reason. I wonder if the folks who make the plastic holders changed their formula and are making plastic that is more sensitive to heat. It wouldn't surprise me if some company decided to dump them on ebay now after the recall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WimbleyW Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Did you write to the company about this? I've always been wary of plastic tea lights too. It just doesn't make sense to have something that is flammable or can burn holding a candle. I realize they can put something in the plastic to make it flame retardant but I'd rather use metal tea cups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottster Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 For our tealights, we use the Tealight Cups from Peak along with TL-28 1" wicks. We've made and sold a few thousand tealights and never have had any issue with them. In addition we have personally burned about 100 of our own tealights without any wick problems or any other issues. First thing that really comes to mind is how many different leftover pours were these tealight(s) made from? Were they different scents or over several batches of the same scent? I would say just destroy the other tealights from this batch, obviously something isn't right with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debratant Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) I never refill tea lights, but that doesn't mean someone else doesn't do that out there lol. I did not contact CS to report the burning plastic...I have switched my burner to my fall burner...and it has more air holes, and so far, no problem. However...I am only burning when I can really watch it.Because I am not a seller and only make a few candles at a time...when I pour containers, if there is any left over wax in the pour pot after filling my containers, I will pour some tea lights so as not to waste the wax. Since I use tea lights so much, it has worked out well for me. So, I will keep like 4 tea light containers at the ready to be used if needed, since I seem to always have just a tad left over. Hope that makes sense. Edited September 23, 2011 by debratant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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