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I can't understand this?…CD wicks


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Hello Everyone,

I normally use zincs in my parasoy blend but I have been testing with CD's again. OK same batch, exact jar cd 5 and cd 6. The smaller cd5 is mushrooming like crazy and the 6 is not??? no drafts etc I would think the 6 would mushroom first and yes I triple checked them before labeling the test jar and you can physically see the 5 is a narrower wick. I just wondered if anyone had experienced this when wicking down? FO is 7% Thanks in advance

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Hello Everyone,

I normally use zincs in my parasoy blend but I have been testing with CD's again. OK same batch, exact jar cd 5 and cd 6. The smaller cd5 is mushrooming like crazy and the 6 is not??? no drafts etc I would think the 6 would mushroom first and yes I triple checked them before labeling the test jar and you can physically see the 5 is a narrower wick. I just wondered if anyone had experienced this when wicking down? FO is 7% Thanks in advance

I just last week went through wick testing my parasoy with CD wicks. A friend who uses them helped me out. I was using a CD 12 and had mushrooms yet the CD 10 wasn't quite right either. She told me to try a CD 8 and "as crazy as it may sound try a CD 14". Sure enough....the CD 14 did not mushroom and the ROC was lower than the CD 12. It was explained to me the larger size burned more efficient.

Unfortunately, as it turns out I won't be using any CD wick on the parasoy blend I use. While the larger size burned better it wasn't acceptable. I do know many people really like them. They just didn't work for me in my wax.

HTH

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I just last week went through wick testing my parasoy with CD wicks. A friend who uses them helped me out. I was using a CD 12 and had mushrooms yet the CD 10 wasn't quite right either. She told me to try a CD 8 and "as crazy as it may sound try a CD 14". Sure enough....the CD 14 did not mushroom and the ROC was lower than the CD 12. It was explained to me the larger size burned more efficient.

Unfortunately, as it turns out I won't be using any CD wick on the parasoy blend I use. While the larger size burned better it wasn't acceptable. I do know many people really like them. They just didn't work for me in my wax.

HTH

Oh, thank goodness. I, too, thought I had labeled my jars wrong! My CD10 had a little mushroom, yet the sides were coming down nicely when the CD12 had much more hangup. I change my mind on which is better each time I burn them, lol.

So, for CD users: what's your first thought on wick size for a 7 oz tumbler, 2½" diam, maybe smidge wider, GB415, creme brulee...

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Another vote for CD 7 as a starting point.

The "thickness" of the wick has little to do with it. That depends on the actual wick and the thickness of the wick wax on the raw wick. As pointed out, sometimes it isn't so much the SIZE as the EFFICIENCY of the wick in completely combusting the wax and heating enough for a good HT without being too hot for the container. It's a BALANCE you are looking for... sometimes how to achieve that balance seems counter-intuitive.

Edited by Stella1952
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Another vote for CD 7 as a starting point.

The "thickness" of the wick has little to do with it. That depends on the actual wick and the thickness of the wick wax on the raw wick. As pointed out, sometimes it isn't so much the SIZE as the EFFICIENCY of the wick in completely combusting the wax and heating enough for a good HT without being too hot for the container. It's a BALANCE you are looking for... sometimes how to achieve that balance seems counter-intuitive.

A CD7? oh dear... can you evaluate this candle please? lol, it's the CD10/415 from above...this is just after the 6th burn. There's just a little hangup left to come down. The flame wasn't ridiculous. Jar was warm, but not so hot you couldn't touch it. Mushroomy, yes. HT, yes. I also did an ECO6 & it was too small. Actually, I think I did a CD10 because I didn't have any 8s at that time.

6thburn-1.jpg

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Looks pretty good to me - that's not very "mushroomy" - the wick needs trimming. How's the throw? If the throw is good, I think that looks pretty pleasing. Since that's a 2.5" container, I would have probably started testing with an 8. I'd have never gone near a 12. If I don't have the size wick in stock that I want, I order a sampler and wait for them to arrive rather than compromise. It pays to keep a range of sizes around for this reason.

You need to post these testers in new threads so they won't get lost... ;)

Edited by Stella1952
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Throw is good. I was hoping I was on the right track! I do trim it before each burn. & I have since stocked up my wick selection, lol. And I also ordered the samples from Wickit. Holy cow, they sent me 2 monster size bags of Premier & Superior wicks. So I should be good to go now!

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Once again - wick charts are VERY narrow in their scope. If you check the data sources, they usually state that these results were from candles made from paraffin wax (no FO, no dye) and burned under laboratory conditions. A few suppliers claim to test all their FOs in soy, but I have not seen any manufacturer's data in soy or palm, or bees wax that I recall...

Those are merely very loose guidelines. There is no way that a manufacturer could test all its wicks in all brands of wax with all the different combos of additives, FOs, EOs, dyes and sparkle stuff that users put in the wax their wicks are supposed to burn. There is no "correct" wick chart - you have to use your judgment (or develop some) about the size you think may be a good point to begin testing. As you learn from your own testing, you will improve in your skill of estimating what wick would be right for a particular application... When you study the charts and tables, there is a range and some overlap between sizes. If you look at the consumption rates, you can get a rough idea of how that wick performed in that wax, etc. so you can see trends in the RoC and the sizes, etc.

The short answer is: I don't pay much attention to any "charts" but the ones from the wick manufacturer and I don't pay a whole lot more to those because they are not testing with the same kind of wax as I am using.

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