Beeswax Tea light candle issues

[The15thMember]

Thanks for helping me along the way Reagan. Your candle worked pretty well throughout. All of mine were failures. My middle candle still continues to burn but there were some disappointing times where it nearly went out. It may be that initially there was some tunnelling which was choking the wick. Don?t really know (I?m just guessing) I?ve found some other wicks that I might try in conjunction with the smaller polycarbonate cups that you were using. Your tea lights looked much better as well as using less than 2/3rds of the wax. That would also help to keep the price down. 4 1/2 hours burn time is not a bad effort.

Thanks, I do like those clear cups.  Then you can see all that beautiful wax.  Tea lights were the first candles I ever made, and I didn't have any problems with them.  I've had some struggles with my big molded candles, but never the tea lights or my birthday candles. 

Man, I'm just racking my brain about this, and I just can't make sense of it.  Why would the medium wick, which is CLEARLY too large, stall out like that in the middle.  The only thing I can think, which may not really make sense, is that the medium wick is burning too fast, which is causing the wick to get too short too quickly, and it's drowning as a result.  I can't tell from your pictures if that's actually happening though.  Was the medium wick much shorter during that stalling stage? 

But then the question would be, what is wrong with the small wick?  Is it just too small, and the medium is too large?  And why am I using what appears to be a smaller wick than both of yours and mine is working?  Is that 40 and 50 mm burn pool number for these wicks definitely for beeswax, and not soy or paraffin or something else? 

And on top of all that, the Caps are losing to the Vegas Golden Knights 6-2! 

[Lesgold]

I?m scratching my head about this as well. The square braid wicks are designed specifically for beeswax and they do burn well on the other candle that I?m casting. Perhaps something will click after a good nights sleep. It?s always fun doing this sort of stuff when there is input from someone else. I?m hoping that a few more members with experience in this area can add to the discussion and help to sort out what the problem is. The candle is burning well now with some mushrooming developing on the wick.

There is about 5mm of wax left in the melt pool which should mean over an hour of burn time left. Don?t have any issues with how it is travelling so I think I?ll shut it down. Total burn time using this wick would have been just under 8 hours.

[The15thMember]

I?m scratching my head about this as well. The square braid wicks are designed specifically for beeswax and they do burn well on the other candle that I?m casting. Perhaps something will click after a good nights sleep. It?s always fun doing this sort of stuff when there is input from someone else. I?m hoping that a few more members with experience in this area can add to the discussion and help to sort out what the problem is. The candle is burning well now with some mushrooming developing on the wick.

There is about 5mm of wax left in the melt pool which should mean over an hour of burn time left. Don?t have any issues with how it is travelling so I think I?ll shut it down. Total burn time using this wick would have been just under 8 hours.

I agree, this has been fun.    And that candle seems to be burning normally now, and looks to be the right size wick.  Very odd.  Perhaps someone else will have some ideas. 

[Lesgold]

Some new wicks and tea lights arrived today. Made a test candle. The wick tilted was a little off centre but the candle continued to burn much better than any others tested. This is the result after 3 hours.


After 6 hours the candle had consumed most of the wax. The residual wax on the walls of the cup had melted and was consumed by the flame. Looks like this may be the way to go in the future.

[The15thMember]

Some new wicks and tea lights arrived today. Made a test candle. The wick tilted was a little off centre but the candle continued to burn much better than any others tested. This is the result after 3 hours.


After 6 hours the candle had consumed most of the wax. The residual wax on the walls of the cup had melted and was consumed by the flame. Looks like this may be the way to go in the future.

That looks much better.  So just a different brand?  Or was there a wick size difference here too? 

[Lesgold]

Hi Reagan

I tried a different brand from another company. This is a wick recommended for beeswax tea lights. Just started on a final test burn a few minutes ago. If it turns out with similar results, I?ll go with them on a larger scale.