How to Choose the Right Wick for Your Candles

Making candles on your own can be an exciting yet complicated task. When it comes to DIY-ing candles, you’ll likely get caught up in the endless variety of scents, vibrant colors, and types of candles. Most of the time, the key suspect is the fragrance oil, which is known to impact the burn tremendously.

• In our opinion, candles are the just RIGHT relationship between the air, wax, fragrance, and wick.
• All the wicks available through CandleScience follow the same rule.
• The type of wick that you choose will also be impacted by the type of wax that you are using.

This candle will have a consistent burn throughout the entire burning process. When making candles, choosing the right wick type and size is one of the most essential steps. Furthermore, your candle may burn faster than intended. If you’ve ever looked at a size chart for candle wicks, you’ve probably noticed that the sizing system is not the same from one type of wick to the next. Most types of wicks are assigned a number to indicate the size.

The melt pool width of a right-wicked candle should reach out to the edge of the container.

You can simply look at the chart below, or it you prefer, you can download the chart and print it off to use at home. Use this chart as a starting point to conduct your own burn tests. We can not guarantee that these wicks will work perfectly in your candles. A mushrooming candle wick is a sign that the wick you are using is too big or the wick simply needs to be trimmed.

• Finding the right wick for your candles can be stressful at times, as there is a lot of trial and error involved along the way.
• Furthermore, your candle may burn faster than intended.
• Deciding on the wax, container, dye, and fragrances for your candle is only half of the equation.
• Here is how to troubleshoot these problems and adjust your wick type/size accordingly.

Picking a candle wick can feel like a daunting process, which is why we put together this helpful chart to get you started. This candle wick chart is intended to help you get off on the right foot when you start testing candles. We hope this free resource will also help you save time and money in the testing phase.

Now we know what the right candle wick should be, and what factors will affect the choice of the right wick sizes. We will go on to show you how to choose the right wick size step-by-step. If a candle wick is too large in size, it may develop too much heat and have a deeper melt pool. Consequently, the container will be too hot or even shatter if you’re using a glass container. The wick works as a pump that pulls the fuel (the melted wax) to the flame.

How to Choose the Perfect Candle Wick

In other words, the best candle wicks are those with the right size and type to pair your candle wax and containers. The melt pool has extended to the edge of the container and is about 1/2 inch (13 mm) deep. The wick is burning cleanly with minimal to no carbon build-up. The ECO series is a specialty flat wick braided with interwoven paper threads. This braiding technique gives the ECO series an increased stability level found only in square braided wicks.

Lighting

They come together when the wax melts and has to travel up through the wick. The reason these factors matter is each wax has different properties, such as density, melt point, and viscosity (whether it flows like water or molasses). Also keep in mind that this chart is not intended to be used in lieu of testing your candles. It’s very important to test your candles before giving them as a gift or selling them. All the wicks available through CandleScience follow the same rule. Within a series the larger the number, the larger the wick.

However, we hope this guide can help point you in the right direction for choosing the right wick for your candles. If you’ve done any wick testing, chances are you’ve already noticed how these factors can affect the performance of your candle. Candles come in different sizes and materials, so knowing which candle wick is best for your needs is important. If you’ve ever used the wrong size wick in a candle, you know that it can cause all sorts of problems.

With so many variations it’s hard to give accurate wick recommendations for Beeswax. For this reason, it will take a bit more testing to find the best one for your candle. Note if a wick is not listed under a particular type of wax, that does not mean it’s incompatible. You may find success with any wax and candle wick size chart wick combination, but these recommendations should help you get started. We understand how difficult and time consuming it can be to find a wick that will perform perfectly. And we know it’s frustrating when there isn’t a tried-and-true method for cutting down the time and expense involved in testing.

The Right Wick or the Best Wick?

It’s also important to periodically test your candles to ensure that occasional variances in your wax or fragrances still work well with your chosen wick size. Ask your friends and family for feedback on how they thought the candles performed vs candle brands they’ve used in the past. Ask them questions about burn time, mushrooming wicks, scent throw, tunneling, and get all the feedback you can. After burning for four hours the surface wax should be molten from rim to rim of the container. If the pool of molten wax is significantly deeper than 1/2 of an inch, the wick may be too large. If the candle flame is too big then the wick size is too big or the wick needs trimming.

However, the truth is you should make a few dozen candles and a few months of testing before selling candles to anyone. However, if none of the three work ideally through this test, you need to adjust the wick size and restart. Light the three candles in the same atmosphere for the same time. Below we select some of the widely used waxes (or blends) and brands.

In fact, wood wicks are easier to handle, even if you’re a beginner at candle making. With the right wick, you can ensure that your candle is burning cleanly and efficiently for an enjoyable experience each time! Learn how to check if your candle is properly wicked here. The amount of heat required to melt them varies, as does the hardness of each wax after cooling.