# Candles Not Burn to Edge



## woodedareas (Sep 10, 2010)

Our bees wax candles are in 3" glass containers and we have used a #2 and #4 wick. Although they burn nicely they do not burn to the edge of the glass container and leave about a 1/4" or more of wax along the side of the jars. Does anyone have a suggestion to improve burring to the edge of the glass? I do use cotton wicks.
Thanks


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## SS1 (Jun 1, 2013)

I'd have to ask my wife as she is the candle shop owner.. buit off the top of my head I know she uses different wicks for larger candles.. Different wicks change the size of the melt pool.. I would try a slightly larger size until you can get the melt pool JUST to the edge of the jar.. Too large a wick means too little burn time and excessive heat in the glass/jar too small means wasted wax... best I can do at the moment!!!!


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

I made some candles recently for the first time, and I recall reading that beeswax candles don't work well in containers. I think i saw it on youtube.


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## Bee Bliss (Jun 9, 2010)

Container beeswax candles can be a pain, but so can any container candle. You have to balance the wick size with the container diameter (especially the open top diameter) for the purpose of melting the wax to the edge and also not having a wick that is burning wax too fast and starving the flame and getting too hot and getting sooty. 

I would have thought the #2 wick (braided, right?) would have been close, but apparently the #4 is not working for you either. It can get quite hot inside containers candles, especially the deeper the candle burns. I have used different size wicks and the #3 wick is too large for my canning jar candles (smaller diameter than your candle). The flow of air/oxygen is not very good for container candles, the containers get heated up and can get sooty, especially if too large a wick is used. Ideally, the air should feed from below the flame and not have to fight the hot air rising from the container. My experience with container candles has been with using wide mouth canning jars and so maybe your wider container is a little more forgiving. 

Do you make 3" diameter pillar candles without containers? What size wick do you use for those? 

You just have to experiment using different wick sizes. Try larger wicks. Watch the burn and that will tell you what you need to know.

I can see the benefit of using the hurricane type containers where the side is elevated just a little at the bottom to allow fresh air to enter below the candle, feed the flame and rise out the top. They also protect the flame from drafts.


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## Bee Bliss (Jun 9, 2010)

Just thought of something else. 

The rule of thumb is beeswax pillar candles should be burned 1 hour for every inch of candle diameter. Anything less and the candle will not burn to the edge and thus begins the tunnel effect. Not sure how this translates to glass containers, but there must be some similar effect.


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