Why does my candle have a small hole in the middle of the wax?

During the processing of your candle, we take great care in ensuring you are getting the best candle possible.  However, there are times during the pouring process that the wax temperature may have been too hot while pouring and small holes or gaps might occur in the wax after curing.  However, this does not affect the burn quality or scent.

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Why do my candles tunnel?

Two of the main reasons a candle could tunnel are poor quality and too many short burns.  In the case of poor quality, most likely the wrong wick was used in the candle.  If the size of the wick is too small, it doesn’t create a large enough flame, which in turn doesn’t create enough heat to melt the wax.  What you want to see when you burn a jar candle or any type of container candle is for the wax pool to reach all the way to the edge.

 

Sometimes the tunneling effect is caused by too many short burns.  Take note to the size of candle you are burning and to how long you are going to leave it lit.  If you know you will have to extinguish the candle in an hour or even two, light a smaller one like a votive or tea lights.  A four inch diameter jar candle won’t usually melt out to the edge in an hours time.  A few short burns in a row will start your candle tunneling.  What starts to happen next is as the flame works its way down into the candle it starts to melt wax off the walls.  This wax runs down the sides and fills up the hole around the wick and drowns it out.  Once that happens, relighting the candle will not work.

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How do you fix a candle that has "tunneled"?

The easiest way to fix your candle is to remove all of the wax that is higher than the area around the wick.  Use a butter knife or a fork to carve away the built up wax.  You can use that wax in a candle warmer or toss it in the trash.  If you try to light your candle it may not easily light.  This is because the wick is not long enough due to the liquid wax which ran down into the hole surrounding the wick.  When the wax hardens it leaves the wick to short to light.  You can carve some of the wax away from the wick and try lighting it.  A better option is to lay the candle on its side, use your lighter to melt the wax away from around the wick and pour it into the trash.  Ignite your candle and make sure that you allow the wax pool to reach the edge before blowing it out.  For the poor quality candle, you can do a temporary fix using the method above however, you will need to repeat the process after a few burns because the candle will not ever melt all the way to the edges.

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