When you purchase candles it is pretty common for them to say how long they will burn. This "burn time" is determined by the manufacturer through careful testing and can be impacted by all sorts of factors including wick selection, candle size, and wax consumption. If your candle didn't burn for the advertised time it can be due to a variety of reasons. The reality is that some manufacturers advertise inflated burn times but at Honey Candles we take pride in measuring candle burn times accurately and base them on a “light it and leave it” scenario involving as little maintenance care as possible – this doesn’t mean that candles don’t need some attention while burning! Learn more about candle care here and remember that you should never leave a burning candle unattended.
If your Honey Candle didn’t burn for the advertised amount of time, chances are something went sideways. You can troubleshoot this by asking two quick questions:
- Did the majority of the wax get consumed?
- If not, why not?
The first question is a quick yes or no. The second question is a bit more complicated and if you’d like some help getting to the bottom of it please reach out to us.
To maximize your burn time you want to make sure you are achieving full wax consumption, or as close to this as possible. Remember that the wax is the candle’s fuel and if some of it goes unused you’re leaving burn time on the table (sometimes literally but don’t worry, you can read about how to clean wax off your table here). Two common things that lead to incomplete wax consumption are drips or spills and burn sessions that are too short.
Drips and spills
Dripping or spilling candles can be caused by a few different factors including drafts, carbon build up, heat build-up (often caused by enclosed hurricane style holders or burning candles near other candles or heat sources), and wicks that end up too long or have been broken off or trimmed too short. Any wax that pours out the side of your candle is no longer available as fuel and will decrease the overall burn time of the candle.
Burn sessions that are too short
For larger diameter candles like Pillars , Tins, and some Ornamentals, you want to make sure you’re allowing your candle enough time to melt a wax pool that reaches close to the edge of the candle each time you light it. If you are burning it for shorter periods of time the wax pool doesn’t get big enough to consume the wax near the edges of the candle and you end up with tunneling. Candlesticks are a better choice for short burn sessions.
To achieve full wax consumption, you’ll need to make sure the burn sessions are long enough and look after your candle while it burns. Keep an eye on it and if it drips extinguish it, fix the problem, and re-light.