Using Dripless Candles

No matter what atmosphere you are trying to create your candles, using dripless candles will reduce burning hazards, and create a cleaner more professional looking centerpiece.  Unlike traditional pillar or taper candles which are known for billowing smoke and soot as well as building up dangerous wax drips along the sides of your centerpieces, dripless candles burn perfectly leaving no ugly wax drips to be seen.  But you might be wondering, where does the wax go?  When a candle is lit, it actually burns off a majority of the wax almost vanishing into thin air.  However most of the time, the wick burns too fast for the wax to keep up causing unsightly and dangerous wax drips.  Dripless candles eliminate this problem.

How Dripless Candles Work

You might be wondering how dripless candles are made.  Is it really possible to control something as untamed as a lit flame?  Through testing and research, dripless candle manufacturers have discovered two ways of controlling the rate at which wax is burnt of a tapered candle.

• The Perfect Wax To Wick Ratio – The thickness, braiding, and treatment of a wick all play a role in how fast and how hot it burns.  With the average melting point of candle wax around 135-145 degrees Fahrenheit, dripless candles want to have use a wick that burns perfectly in this range.  The perfect wick thickness and treatment is a trade secret kept privately within the walls of each individual manufacturer.
• Double Dipped Dripless Candles – Another way to ensure that tapered candles don’t drip is to add an outer layer of wax to the candle with a higher melting point so that the normal wax is contained inside of itself until it has a chance to completely burn off.  Using stearic acid as an additive, candle manufacturers can create perfectly balanced dripless candles that contain their own melted wax!

Benefits Of Dripless Candles

It goes without saying that dripless candles offer a number of safety benefits. Hot semi-melted wax on the side of your candles is always a hazard whether it be children temped to play with it, or it dripping onto your head from a candle sconce.  For applications such as candle chandeliers, it is required that you use dripless candles so that you do not risk burning your family or guests.  Additionally it would be foolish to risk placing regular candles on antique furniture or pianos, as it will eventually drip hot wax onto the surface.

Beyond the obvious safety hazards, dripless candles simply look better.  A candle centerpiece looks it’s best just before it is lit.  While dripping hot wax stalagmites might look like fun to children, you don’t want it to ruin all of your hard work creating the perfect decor for your romantic evening.

Whether you are arranging a simple dinner for two, or lighting the unity candle at your wedding to symbolize the coming together of two people, dripless candles will burn cleaner, safer, and more beautifully than any other candle.