Home > Effective candle burning

25) Why do candles burn only in the middle and not the whole way around?

The main reason for candles burning down the middle and not the whole way around the candle, is that people do not allow the candle to burn for long enough periods of time. If you tend to burn the candle for about an hour and then blow it out, the candle does not have enough time to generate enough heat to melt the entire way around the candle, and it only ever gets to burn and melt directly around the wick in the center of the candle. You can eliminate this problem simply by burning the candle for longer periods of time before you blow it out.

Most candles come with labels that instruct us to “keep the wick trimmed”. This is a safety label, because if candlewicks are not short enough, the flame that burns off the candle will be higher and is considered more dangerous. Also, longer wicks produce more smoke, which is an undesirable effect to get from a burning candle.

While you should definitely trim the wick slightly if you have black smoke coming off the burning candle, or a very high flame- you don’t need to over trim the candlewick. Having too short of a candlewick limits the amount of flame, and if the flame is too short, it can only heat the wax directly around the wick, and therefore it will burn only down the center!