Recently I was asked why we recommended putting 1/2 teaspoon of water in the bottom of each 9 hour tealight cup, and why we now crossed that out on our packaging!. It's a question I've had a few times over the years, and so I thought I'd answer it here.
When I decided to start making pure beeswax tealights, I was aware of a problem often experienced with the taller tealight cups called "flash over". Flash over can happen as a longer burning tealight burns because you have both the heat of the flame and the molten wax heating up the cup. If the flash point of the wax is reached (around 199 degrees celcius for paraffin and 205 degrees celcius for beeswax), then all the wax in the cup goes on fire. The fire is usually contained within the cup but can cause damage to the surface of the holder or table, and is obviously a little dangerous if unattended.
During the many months of wick testing we did for the tealights, if we experienced flash over with a wick, it was immediately eliminated from possible selection. However, with my background as a lawyer, I thought it prudent to put the warning on the box as we had to have the boxes printed prior to beginning production on the tealights and even if flash over only occurred 1% of the time I didn't want customers to be alarmed. Five years and over three hundred thousand tealights later, we are relatively confident that flash over does not generally occur with Queen B tealight candles. We also erred on the side of crossing out the instruction because the water in the cup could sometimes be drawn up the wick of the candle causing it to splutter! It's a fine line to walk.
Obviously the general instruction of not leaving candles burning unattended always applies as does using common sense and always burning your candles on a heat proof and fire-safe surface.
If you want to see what flash over looks like, see our blog post from last year where we put Queen B tealight candles to the test versus competitor tealights.
Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.
Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.
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