Beeswax Tea light candle issues

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks

I?m a total newb to candle making and was hoping some of you could help me. I?ve made a few skep candles from beeswax and they are burning really well as I was able to use the recommended wick. When it comes to beeswax tea light candles, I?ve been struggling to get reasonable results and was wondering if you could guide me in relation to wick choices. I?ve been testing tea lights that are 39mm wide and 24mm deep. A number of wicks have been tested but the results have been poor. What am I doing wrong? I know the wax is clean but I?m assuming that the wicks may be the problem (or is there something else that I haven?t picked up on) I?m just about to start a test burn on three candles.


The wick on the left is a CDN 6 with a quoted melt pool up to 46mm

The centre wick is a square braided cotton wick with a melt pool up to 40mm

The wick on the right is a square braided cotton wick with a melt pool around 50mm.

I will light them up in a couple of minutes and show you progressive photos throughout the first couple of hours. Hopefully someone will be able to tell me what the issues are. Will post again in about 15 minutes.

Cheers

Les

[Lesgold]

Here is a shot after 15 minutes. As you can see, the candle with the CDN wick is already struggling.

[The15thMember]

I was told by the company I get wicking from that flat braided wick (which the CDN is, correct?) does not work well with beeswax.  The candle on the right has too large of a wick, that flame is too intense.  I think the middle one looks fine, and I'd think the burn pool number on that one would be correct, since tea lights that have been lit a long time will essentially be totally liquid wax.  My candles look about like that, although they are a little shallower than yours. 

This old thread of mine has a picture of one of my lit tealights, in case it would help you to compare, although unfortunately when I took this picture I had just lit the candle.  https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=54174.0

If you want, I can light one tonight and take some pictures of it as it burns so you can see what looks normal. 

[Lesgold]

Thanks Reagan. That would be great. I?ll post another picture at the one hour mark. Things are not looking good at the moment. Max2 is using the same setup as me and tells me that he is getting reasonable results with the CDN6 wick. It appears to be drowning in its own melt. I agree with you that the one on the right appears to have too large a flame. I am pleased that you said that as I don?t have any experience in this area to make an informed comment.

[Lesgold]

Not looking good at the one hour mark. What?s going on here?  If they stay alight, I?ll post once more after one more hour.

[The15thMember]

Not looking good at the one hour mark. What?s going on here?  If they stay alight, I?ll post once more after one more hour.

Oh, look at that!  That's odd. 

I have started my control experiment.  I have a late hockey game to watch tonight (my Capitals are playing in Vegas), so I'll be up probably until after midnight, so I'll just keep you posted on what mine is doing all evening until I go to bed, as a comparison.  Well my evening anyway, I guess it's morning for you. 

Here is my candle before lighting it.  My tea lights are the same diameter as yours, but they are shallower, only about 19 mm.  I only had ones with slightly crooked wicks left after Christmas, so that's not ideal, but it should work okay for our purposes. 


Here it is just upon lighting it.


And here is 20 minutes.  I was going for 15 min., to match yours exactly, but I was working on doing the dishes after supper, and I missed my mark by a few minutes. 

[Lesgold]

Yours is burning quite well after 15 minutes. What wick are you using? After 2 hours, this is what I?m seeing.


Candle 1 and 2 are struggling. The third one seems to be going OK now after a rapid start and then a slow down. Most of the wax is starting to melt towards the end of the cup.

[The15thMember]

Yours is burning quite well after 15 minutes. What wick are you using? After 2 hours, this is what I?m seeing.


Candle 1 and 2 are struggling. The third one seems to be going OK now after a rapid start and then a slow down. Most of the wax is starting to melt towards the end of the cup.

I use these.  https://www.betterbee.com/candle-wicking/tlcw1-tealight-wicks-100-Pack.asp  Although I'm thinking about buying loose tabs and wicking in the future, since it'll probably be cheaper.  I'm also not super happy with Betterbee's wick quality.  They tend to form these little massed burnt spots on the wick, which makes them burn unevenly if blown out and relit.  The wide dark spot at the base of my wick is what I'm referring to. 

Here is mine at 1 hour.  Since this one has a crooked wick, the wax on the one side isn't quite getting melted.


Edit: Sorry, I attached the wrong image there initially, this is at 1 hour.

[Lesgold]

I can see what your are saying. It is still burning well. Here?s mine after 3 hours.

The middle one has now picked up a bit and the left hand one is still struggling.

[The15thMember]

I can see what your are saying. It is still burning well. Here?s mine after 3 hours.

The middle one has now picked up a bit and the left hand one is still struggling.

It's weird how those two were burning so low and then seemed to sort of pick up again.

Here is mine at 2 hours.  The heat has melted that other side now.  As you can see, the whole top layer of the wax is now melted. 
 

[Lesgold]

I?ve now put out all candles at 3 1/2 hours. Time to go out for a coffee. Two were burning well. I will light them up again when I get back. The CDN wick didn?t work very well at all. I will light up the other two when I get home.

[The15thMember]

Here is mine at 3 hours.  All my wax is liquid at this point, and it should continue to burn like this until it runs out of wax.  I'll let you know how long it lasts.  You can also see how weirdly shaped the wick is getting, which my higher quality wicking doesn't do usually.   

[Lesgold]

That wick has really mushroomed Reagan. It will be interesting to see how long your candle continues to burn.
I trimmed the wicks and got them fired up again. Here they are at the 4 hour mark.

Stopping and starting again may impact on the results slightly as the melt pool set and wicks were trimmed. Can?t do much about that as a coffee took priority.

[The15thMember]

So, I'm trying to compare apples to apples here.  You have your square braid wicks labeled small and medium, and I'm trying to compare that to my wick size, which is 1/0.  Did the company who sold you that wicking have it labeled that way (small and medium)?  I'm just wondering which size is the same, or similar at least, to mine.  The medium wick looks too big to me when it's burning properly, but it's odd that a wick that is too large would stall out.  It's almost like the wick isn't drawing up enough wax or something, but when it finally catches up, it burns okay. 

[The15thMember]

Hey, I just realized something.  Did you prime your wicks?  Mine are pre-primed, but that could explain why ALL your sizes aren't burning well. 

[Lesgold]

This is what I?m finding frustrating. There doesn?t appear to be a consistent standard between countries for wick sizes which does make it hard. From what I have seen today, my largest wick produced the most consistent flame even though it was too large at the start. As you just said, when all of the wax is liquid, all wicks seem to continue to burn well. If your wick is a 1/0, that gives me another point of reference.

[Lesgold]

The CDN wick was pre primed. I primed the other two.

[Lesgold]

Made it to the 5 hour mark and I have decided to shut down the right hand candle. The flame is  large, hot and is giving off black smoke. So the medium size wick is obviously too big for the job. Will keep the middle candle going and  see what happens.

[The15thMember]

The CDN wick was pre primed. I primed the other two.

Dang, I though I had it.    I guess if they weren't primed they wouldn't stand up though, so I should have known. 

This is what I?m finding frustrating. There doesn?t appear to be a consistent standard between countries for wick sizes which does make it hard. From what I have seen today, my largest wick produced the most consistent flame even though it was too large at the start. As you just said, when all of the wax is liquid, all wicks seem to continue to burn well. If your wick is a 1/0, that gives me another point of reference.

Yeah, it's unfortunate.  I looked it up and the 1/0 burn diameter in beeswax is about 1 in., or 25 mm, which means my wick is actually SMALLER than your small wick.  If that small wick is a 40 mm burn pool, that's about a #1 US sized wick.  That says to me that something other than just the wick size is wrong, because all the wicks stalled out, even the one that is too large. 

Made it to the 5 hour mark and I have decided to shut down the right hand candle. The flame is  large, hot and is giving off black smoke. So the medium size wick is obviously too big for the job. Will keep the middle candle going and  see what happens.

Oh yes, that wick is too large!   

My candle drowned itself at almost exactly 4.5 hours. 
 

[Lesgold]

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.