topic Re: Candles? Cautionary tale. in Home

Candles? Cautionary tale.

this is my nic — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 22:46:57 GMT

I love scented candles, but now use the flameless unscented ones for two reasons.

I used to light scented candles in the evening after dinner. Loved the fragrance and the beautiful light. When we were moving from our previous house to our current one and took down our pictures and mirrors the walls looked dirty. They were! All the candle residue accumulated on the walls. There wasn't enough time to repaint and washing the walls would have been a real time challenge. In addition to the dirty walls, our Duette (sp?) blinds were also discolored. Yuck!

Several years later we were settled in our new home and rarely burned real candles; Christmas was the time we used scented candles. On Christmas Eve the family had left after dinner and I stretched out on the sofa and fell asleep. My husband was awake, thank God! I woke up to him yelling "what's on fire"? I had a candle in a glass container atop an old family wash stand. The glass cracked and the flame burned through the glass, setting the wash stand on fire. DH got the extinguisher and put out the fire. We could have lost our new house and our lives.

If my tales of woe can save anyone else from what happened to me, my work here is done! Be careful!

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

Snowpuppy — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:03:52 GMT

I primarily burn real candles and have never had a soot problem. Ever. I buy only made in the US candles from sellers I trust. If it's on your walls, it's in your lungs.

While not super stylish, my candle holders are from either Libbey glass or Anchor Hocking. I have 1 pair of Waterford that hold dinner tapers.

Those are the mfg I also trust to hold up.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

151949 — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:04:36 GMT

I rarely burn real candles because I have cared for numerous burn patients where the fire started with a candle. Polyester fabrics melt from fire and become extremely hot , resulting in severe burns.

All that said - I had a fall scent candle burning today and forgot to blow it out before I went out . When I got home and saw it burning away, I was so angry at myself for not blowing it out.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

OKPrincess — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:06:14 GMT

I prefer flameless candles too. Safer and the best part is the timer. 🕯

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

January121 — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:11:22 GMT

I only use frameless candles .... much safer & they go on & off automatically 🙃

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

NicksmomESQ — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:13:03 GMT

I stopped burning real candles a few years ago.A friend of mine had a candle tip over onto the table.Luckily,she was there & put it out before it spread.When I heard that I threw out all my candles.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

AuntG — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:14:31 GMT

Real candles only get burned on our smooth topped stove. The rest of our decorative candles run on batteries.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

fthunt — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:14:33 GMT

Soot is the reason I gave up real candles long time ago. It's expensive to paint - a pain to disrupt living area and dangerous. Soot comes primarily from cheap candle wax ? - some are much better than others = but more expensive for that reason. Give me Disney candles any day - which I have plenty.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

this is my nic — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:34:03 GMT

@Snowpuppy,

I only burned "good quality" candles, never from discount stores. The glass container came with the candle, similar to Slatkin's. I had no idea they were making a mess of the walls, window treatments, and, yes, our lungs!

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

GCR18 — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:23:00 GMT

Good reminder. I've never been a real candle burner. Growing up, my mother only lit tapers for the dinner table on holidays. I use flameless.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

tucsongal — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:27:03 GMT

I burn candles much less often than I used to but I do like them as an accessory. When I do burn one, I also do it on the stove and I turn the timer on so I never forget to blow it out.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

KathyM23 — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 01:25:13 GMT

I don't burn real candles not only because of the fire danger, but animals are super sensitive to fragrances due to their enhanced sense of smell and can be irritating to them. I stick strictly with flameless candles.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

J Town Girl — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 03:09:54 GMT

@KathyM23 wrote:
I don't burn real candles not only because of the fire danger, but animals are super sensitive to fragrances due to their enhanced sense of smell and can be irritating to them. I stick strictly with flameless candles.

I was just ready to post the same thing. In addition to my other pets, I have a bird and they are very sensitive to any types of fragrance. You have to be very careful about anything you use in your house.

My husband has said that our bird probably has helped us make our own lives safer. No candles, no non-stick cookware and very careful use of cleaning products.

I do, however, love flameless candles. Only unscented ones though. I have them in almost every room. I don't like sleeping in a bedroom that is completely dark so I have two small ones that are on timers and run for a few hours after we go to bed.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

FranandZoe — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 12:33:19 GMT

I've never burned candles because I've always had cats and I was afraid of them knockng them over. And I've heard about too many fires caused by candles. I worked for a social service agency and I remember one woman who had lost everything due to a house fire cause by a candle. I remember her begging me to never use them and to warn everyone about the danger. I only use flameless.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

Sweetbay magnolia — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 12:46:52 GMT

I burn them all the time, when I'm home. I am careful, but it is always good to be reminded.

One way I cut back on soot was to stop lighting them with matches! Now I use a lighter and it has made a difference. I also trim the wick before every use.

I used to extinguish them outdoors. I used a whatever-those-things are called I guess "candle dipper" (yuck then there was embedded burned wick pieces in the candle). Since I use mostly jar candles, now I find just putting the top on to be the most effective and less sooty, less O2 to feed any exhaust.

Oh - all my walls need to be painted, anyway.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

OhioAngel — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 15:46:41 GMT

I only use flameless candles and love them!!

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

Phantom41 — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 18:10:16 GMT

I recently started following MrKongsMom on youtube and she uses a "candle crock" which I had never heard of. Went to one of her videos and it looks like a nice alternative if you don't want to actually burn the candle. They are electric and you set the candle on it and it diffuses the scent when warm. Amazon has quite a few varieties and I ended up ordering one. Some of my BBW candles are pretty sooty so hopefully I can still enjoy the smell without the mess.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

FastDogWalker2 — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 18:18:23 GMT

Real candles terrify me. When I do burn them, I always set my oven timer so I turned forget to extinguish them.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

Mominohio — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 19:30:25 GMT

@this is my nic

Very valuable information and great reminders to know what you are burning and remember to put it somewhere safe.

I have a ton of 'real' candles and have made it a point to start to use them up.

I have come to the place where I now only light a candle in the kitchen and most of the time, set it on the stove.

I'm careful to buy and watch for the soot, and it hasn't been a problem since I figured which brands were bad for it and stopped buying them. And having it on the stove is much safer should it break or spark, and any soot is going up into the range hood, so helping keep the house clean.

I will say that the darkening of your walls that you noticed when removing the pictures wasn't just from candles. It comes from cooking, heating systems, candles, fireplace use etc. And just general aging of the paint will cause color differentiation as the part behind pictures/mirrors gets no light like the rest of the wall.

I'm a firm believer that walls need to be washed once a year (unless one paints every other year or more) because I've had this happen in areas of my home that never see cooking or candle residue. Even with yearly washing, all those other things will 'dirty' a wall everywhere something isn't hanging.

Re: Candles? Cautionary tale.

Mominohio — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 19:36:36 GMT

@Phantom41 wrote:
I recently started following MrKongsMom on youtube and she uses a "candle crock" which I had never heard of. Went to one of her videos and it looks like a nice alternative if you don't want to actually burn the candle. They are electric and you set the candle on it and it diffuses the scent when warm. Amazon has quite a few varieties and I ended up ordering one. Some of my BBW candles are pretty sooty so hopefully I can still enjoy the smell without the mess.

I have some of these, and I don't really care for them.

Safer as there is no open flame, for sure, but they get very hot (at least the older ones I have do, maybe they have redesigned them) and you can still burn yourself. You also have to remember to shut them off, or they will run constantly and to me it would be like leaving any small appliance plugged and and on, probably not a good idea in the long run.

Also, I found I got very little time out of the candle. It melts and releases the scent from the entire candle and you get relatively few hours of fragrance compared to burning the same size candle.

You still have a hot wax issue too, so if a child or animal get's near and knocks it over, you can have a big mess.