what to do if candle wick is too short
When indulging in beautifully fragranced luxury candles, you might occasionally encounter a problem with the wick becoming cached or too short. If that happens, it tin can be hard to light (or relight) the candle.
Merely don't exist intimidated; we can fix this.
Candle wicks can become as well short for several different reasons. Sometimes it'southward an issue with the size or quality of the wick, and other times information technology might exist because you trimmed it too curt or didn't trim information technology enough.
Here'southward our 3-footstep solution for fixing any candle wick that gets too short:
- Melt it
- Dig it
- Light information technology
Before we bound into a detailed caption for each step, let's talk about some of the reasons why your candle wick might have gotten too short.
Or if you're in a hurry to gear up your wick, click here to skip to the solution.
THE Problem: Why Your Candle Wick Got Too Brusque
There are 2 types of causes for short candle wicks: the type that's exterior of your command and the blazon that'southward inside your control.
The beginning type usually has to do with how the candle was made.
- If your candle wick is drowning, that means the size of the wick might be too small-scale for the candle container or the quality of the wick is low. This causes the wick to burn too quickly and "drown" in its own wax pool. When the surrounding wax cools and hardens again, the wick might be too brusk to relight or even completely buried inside.
- If your candle wick was already buried or likewise short when you offset got it, the trouble may have been caused during shipping or delivery. Peculiarly during the summer months, candles can start to cook inside their box if they're left besides long on a porch or inside a truck on a particularly hot solar day. When that happens, the wick can bend or tilt into the soft wax.
- Drastic temperature changes, especially during the winter, tin can cause the candle wax to expand. This can also cause your wick to seem shorter, making your candle more difficult to calorie-free.
The second type of crusade has to do with how the candle was burned. The skillful news is, non just tin can you fix it, but you can also foreclose information technology from happening in the time to come!
- Did you forget to trim your wick? Trimming is an important part of candle care because it prevents the wick from crimper and "mushrooming" as it burns. We recommend trimming it in one case every 3-4 hours to keep it at a good length and shape; otherwise the wick might curl upwardly or fall into the wax puddle, becoming buried.
- Did you trim your wick too brusk? Side by side time, wait until the wax has cooled and and so trim the wick to a length that's betwixt ⅛ to ¼ of an inch.
- Did your candle tunnel? Tunneling means that simply a modest area of wax around the wick melts as your candle burns, creating a pocket-sized pigsty instead of allowing the unabridged surface of the wax to cook evenly. As the hole gets deeper, it can become filled upwardly with melted wax and cause your wick to go buried. Read our article nearly candle tunneling and how to ready it.
THE Solution: How To Fix a Candle Wick Is Buried or Also Curt
Earlier nosotros kickoff, double check if you can calorie-free your wick using these tips:
- Use a long wand candle lighter or an actress long match and hold the flame direct on peak of the wick for upward to xxx seconds to melt some of the surrounding wax.
- Attempt belongings the candle upside down equally you light it. But don't do this for more than 10-fifteen seconds because yous don't want to have wax dripping on your hand.
If y'all were able to light the wick, that's great! Now just permit your candle burn and savour it for a few hours until the wax on the surface is evenly melted once more.
If not, don't worry — a buried wick can be easily fixed with stuff you already have at dwelling. Here'south what to do if your candle wick is as well short to light.
Step 1: Melt Information technology
The first step to set up a wick that'due south too short is to soften up the surrounding wax past melting information technology.
To do this, you'll need either a oestrus gun or blow dryer. If you lot don't accept either of these, a long wand candle lighter will also work — it'll just take some more than time.
Hold your heat gun or accident dryer (on high heat) over the candle wick to start melting the surrounding wax.
If your wick was buried considering information technology's either tilted, bent, or curled, stop heating the wax one time it's soft and move onto step 2.
If your wick was trimmed too brusque, go on melting the wax until you have an fifty-fifty layer of liquid wax on the surface before moving on to step ii.
Pace 2: DIg It
The next step is to dig out the wick. The way you exercise this depends on if the length of the wick is also short (over-trimmed) or if the wick was buried (tilted, bent, or curled into the wax).
If your wick was buried, employ a pair of tweezers or a Q-tip to nudge the wick back to an upright position, making certain it sticks out above the surface of the wax. Hold it in this position until the wax cools.
This is easier when the wax is soft merely not completely melted, so if y'all're having trouble simply wait until the wax becomes opaque and try again.
If your wick was too short, pour out some of the wax that you melted until there's about ⅛ to ¼ inch of wick higher up the surface. You tin also employ a paper towel to dab and soak upward the excess wax to avoid potentially making a mess.
At the end of this step, permit the wax cool.
Step three: LIght It
The last step is to light your candle again and reset it's "memory" past allowing it to evenly melt the entire top layer of wax.
We do this to even out whatever marks left behind when nosotros dug out the wick in step 2. Information technology as well prevents the candle from tunneling the next fourth dimension you lot burn it, which tin can crusade your wick to get cached again.
This tin can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on the size of your candle. Our general dominion of thumb is to let the candle burn for 1 hour for every 1 inch of diameter.
About the Harlem Candle Visitor
The Harlem Candle Company makes elegant, handcrafted luxury candles with beautifully unique fragrances inspired past the richness of the Harlem Renaissance.
Every bit fellow candle aficionados, we promise that y'all establish this article helpful in case you ever demand to salvage a buried candle wick.
Source: https://www.harlemcandlecompany.com/blogs/journal/3-steps-to-fix-candle-wicks-that-are-buried-or-too-short