TROUBLESHOOTING CANDLE WICKS

TUNNELING
It’s important to point out that tunneling, which occurs when wax forms a tunnel around the wick, can happen with candles that have been poured or made correctly and is dependent on achieving a full burn across the surface of the candle more than anything else.
If this problem continues to persist across all the candles you make, you might try making future candles with a wider wick.
 
DROWNING CANDLE WICK
If the cause is related to the wick, it could mean that the wick is too small for the container/candle size.
Could also be a result of overfilling the container with wax.
 
FLICKERING FLAME
Usually means the candle wick is too long, which leads to a large, too-hot flame.
Try this: extinguish the candle flame and trim the wick; if the same flickering immediately appears the wick size is incorrect.
 
MUSHROOMING WICK
A mushrooming wick occurs when the wax in the candle isn’t able to burn fast enough to keep up with the wick that you have chosen.
In most cases, the cause is a wick that’s too big. Try trimming the wick so that’s it’s shorter and molding it so that’s it sits straight above the wax.
 
SMOKING WICKS
Usually a sign that the wick is too large, as a too-large wick will burn up more melted wax than the wick can burn.