shroom vs scent

[Gbhunter]

I have the 18.5 oz libbey jars they are 3 3/4 inches in diameter but it shrinks to about 3 1/5 or less at the neck. I have tried every &%$#-*&% wick combination ply,lx,htp,CD,rrd,papercore and now square braid. All mushroom. I used #3 it tunneled and left a ton of wax unmelted so I went to #5 still pool is not big enough and now with the scent it mushroomes. 2 wicks is not a good idea because of the neck,the wick would be to close to the glass causing it to get boiling hot. According to the Candlewic wick guide for this wax should be #6. How do you know if soy is smoking? Does it leave a residue?

Perhaps this libbey jars are crap and I should have just got one with straight sides.

Any ideas I'm at wits end?

[rjdaines]

What is the wax?

[Gbhunter]

Candlewics soy 125 . Searching online for this mushrooming issue was useless. Almost all stated that you will have mushrooming to one degree or another. Everyone states that the wick CD is special for some reason. I have some wicks but the are raw all my wicks are I do not by pre tabed wicks. I don't need 500 wicks only to find out that as weather conditions change the wick will be ineffective or that I don't like it.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Gbhunter

[rjdaines]

I use CD wicks in 464 and 415 and still get some mushrooms but it really seems related to the FO. Easy enough to test, make candles with and without the FO. Not much one can do about it other that maybe wick up or use less FO, or look for another FO.

[Gbhunter]

You seem you say what most sites state. They say that mushrooming is unavoidable it just depend on how much you will get.

I will try CD one more time and see if I can get better results. On the brighter sides my palm pillars leave a paper thin shell when the #3 square wick is used with no blow outs. It works great for that. I will pour the candle today. I will also not use the palm wax to prime the wick, it worked fine without it.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Gbhunter

[Beth]

Have you tried regular pre-tabbed wicks that are already coated?

[Gbhunter]

I did not "buy" them per say. I got a sample pack of rrd,htp(holy moly did that one mushroom),lx and raw stabilo wicks that I have not tried yet. I talked to the manufacturer and he stated the coatings are only so the wick stays rigid. All the chmical aplications are done on the raw wick. So far none worked. I have a feeling I just bought crap jars that make wicking difficult. I have like 10 rolls of wick I will never use. But the alternative is to have 500 tabed wicks I'll never use. I have been told by more than one source that if I want a clean burn I will sacrfice scent throw to some degree. Will square braids work in soy? The #3 square burned my palm pilar perfectly leaving a super thin shell and no blow outs. The 45 ply does well in that wax too...I just don't know if those candles smoke since its such a light color soot. So I might be thinking I have these pillars down and dialed in and for all I know they are chimneys. I wish I could test it some how. When I first started with parafin I turned the walls black, I still get some shoot from my parafins but was also told this cannot be complestly eliminated and have the candle not tunnel(sorry for the spelling English is not my primary language). In essence I was told if i want a candle with a perfect burn I would need to blend waxes and do hundreds of burns only to find out that once the humidity changed I would be back to some soot.

As of now I have a #6 no f/o or color

Also 2 24 ply wick set up also clean

And 2 6 CD wick setup

Then just for giggles I have a #5. 20% beeswax 80% 125 soy mix with only 4% f/o

All in the 18.5 libbey jars. This tought me if I'm going to buy a bigger jar it better not narrow at the top.

This is the jar I use:

https://www.candlewic.com/store/Product.aspx?q=c54,p1304

Edited December 23, 2011 by Gbhunter

[ChrisR]

I did not "buy" them per say. I got a sample pack of rrd,htp(holy moly did that one mushroom),lx and raw stabilo wicks that I have not tried yet. I talked to the manufacturer and he stated the coatings are only so the wick stays rigid. All the chmical aplications are done on the raw wick. So far none worked. I have a feeling I just bought crap jars that make wicking difficult. I have like 10 rolls of wick I will never use. But the alternative is to have 500 tabed wicks I'll never use. I have been told by more than one source that if I want a clean burn I will sacrfice scent throw to some degree. Will square braids work in soy? The #3 square burned my palm pilar perfectly leaving a super thin shell and no blow outs. The 45 ply does well in that wax too...I just don't know if those candles smoke since its such a light color soot. So I might be thinking I have these pillars down and dialed in and for all I know they are chimneys. I wish I could test it some how. When I first started with parafin I turned the walls black, I still get some shoot from my parafins but was also told this cannot be complestly eliminated and have the candle not tunnel(sorry for the spelling English is not my primary language). In essence I was told if i want a candle with a perfect burn I would need to blend waxes and do hundreds of burns only to find out that once the humidity changed I would be back to some soot.

As of now I have a #6 no f/o or color

Also 2 24 ply wick set up also clean

And 2 6 CD wick setup

Then just for giggles I have a #5. 20% beeswax 80% 125 soy mix with only 4% f/o

All in the 18.5 libbey jars. This tought me if I'm going to buy a bigger jar it better not narrow at the top.This is the jar I use:

https://www.candlewic.com/store/Product.aspx?q=c54,p1304

Bold is mine.....I don't know who or why they told you these things, but they are totally untrue. You are using a soy wax and as I stated before, soy waxes can be very picky on which FO's work. If you can't get a decent throw, move on to another FO, plain & simple. You definately do not have to sacrifice a clean burn to get a good scent throw. You also can get a clean burn double wicking, which a couple of us have suggested. You can try one wick till you're blue in the face and it may never work, no matter who tells you it will.

As far as this crap that soy or palm won't produce black soot, that is also totally not true. I have a 100% soy container candle from someone else that I show at all my home parties on how black the jar gets when not wicked or timmed properly.

[Gbhunter]

Excellent. The only thin I found online is that the softer the wax the bigger the wick needed. Sooo I built some candles last night.

The #6 smokes when disturbed even slightly. The one with two 24 ply wicks burned edge to edge after about an hour with minimal shrooming on one of the two wicks. 21 ply may work better as the jar get pretty hot. I have not tested the stabilo wicks yet.

I decided to see if it is true that a harder wax will need a smaller wick so I made a candle that's 80% soy 125 and 20% beeswax. And used a square #5 which is a wick that failed epicly before, I also turned down the f/o to 4 % it mushroomed 5 min after being lit...I almost threw the thing against the wall. But I do bonsai as well so I have become more patient. I cut the shroom and re-lit and its been burning perfectly and unlike before no shroom and also unlike before the pool is almost edge to edge. At 23:00 house EST I will take a picture of all three. The #5 square seems not to smoke, but time will tell on the jar. The f/o is detectable but not strong. Bees wax gets pricey, what happens if you mix palm wax into soy? I know it will shrink which is a pain in the behind. If i do a double pour it will look super ugly. I could just add palm steric instead of beeswax. The double wick is by far the best however one wick is getting a shroom this is a clean non f/o or color candle. I think. I can get the same result with 2 21ply wicks.

Here is a pic of an almost consumed palm pillar that was wicked with #3 wick, 45ply burns well also but the walls of the candle collapse:

http://www.angelfire.com/on3/shellandpaulsphoto/candles/IMG_20111223_162120.jpg

Edited December 23, 2011 by Gbhunter

[EricofAZ]

I don't know about the wax that you are using, but I've noticed overall that I get less mushroom with the ECO wicks.

[Pam W]

I don't know about the wax that you are using, but I've noticed overall that I get less mushroom with the ECO wicks.

I never get 'shrooms with ECO wicks unless I overload the FO..even then, its minimal. That said, I have no experience with soy.....only use paraffin.

[jeanie353]

I never get 'shrooms with ECO wicks unless I overload the FO..even then, its minimal. That said, I have no experience with soy.....only use paraffin.

Pam...can I ask which paraffin you had good luck with HT and Eco? If you don't want to put your recipe out there, I understand...np

My favorite wick is Eco. I also get no mushrooms but do seem to lose HT with Ecos when I put the same container candle side by side with one wicked with another wick. At this point, I believe I'd use any paraffin if I could get back to using Eco wicks and having good HT.

I began using them many years ago in 415 and have yet to find a wick that compares as far as quality of burn. HTP is a close 2nd in my testing with soy and para.

[Gbhunter]

I get great throw from ECO wicks I use condlewic's 70% soy 125, and 30% 4144 parafin. It works great.