I Opened a New Carton of Candle Wicks and Suddenly My Flames Are Smaller — How Do I Compare the New Wick Batch with the Previous One?

The label, the variant and the trim come first

CSI sells Eco Candle Wicks in two variants, Thin (C1) and Thick (C2), at six pack sizes each, plus Cotton Braided Wicks Ready Made, wick rolls and wooden wicks. In a clear bag, a thin and a thick cotton wick can look close enough to pass. So the first check is paper: the old and new invoices and pack labels, side by side. If the new order says C1 where the old said C2, or the pack is a different product altogether, you have found the difference, and it is a mix-up, not a batch change. Message us with the order numbers and a photo; we would rather sort that out than have you re-wick a range.

The second check is you. Flame height depends on how much wick stands above the wax. If you recently started trimming shorter, changed to a new trimmer, or began trimming a candle that you used to light untrimmed, the flame shrinks with no change in the carton. The trimmer page's own tip is "Trim your wick to 1/4 inch before every burn", about 6.35 mm. Whatever height you use, use it on both cartons, and write it down.

Why flames shrink when nothing seems to have changed

The table ranks the causes behind "new carton, smaller flames", most common first. The ranking is editorial judgement; CSI has no failure statistics. The bench checks and the unscented twins together separate the first three rows from the rest.

Row 3 is the big one to exclude: fragrance oils change how the same wick burns, and a denser oil commonly calls for a wick adjustment (a tendency). If a new oil order and a new carton arrived together, the unscented twins separate them. Soot from a new oil batch is the stronger-but-sootier oil post's question, not this one. Row 5 is the late-burn family; mushrooming is scored in the mushroom log. The first-level version of "new wick or different oil?" is fixing a weak flame.

The six bench checks, old beside new

Take ten wicks at random from each carton, not the top ten. Work down the letters on the specimen card and write every figure down; the point is a record you can send us and compare with the next carton.

Bench differences are clues, not verdicts. Two cartons can measure slightly differently and burn the same; two can measure alike and burn differently if the coating or fibre differs in a way a ruler can't see. That is why the flame log follows, whatever the bench says.

The unscented flame log

Pour four unscented 150 g candles from one bag of wax, in jars from one delivery, on one day: O1 and O2 on wicks from the old carton, N1 and N2 on wicks from the new. No oil, no dye: fragrance changes how a wick burns, and this test is about the wick. In CSI 464 and the 150 g jar, pour at 80–85°C (the wax page states 80–90°C; the jar page's 85°C is the lower limit and governs). Cure them together on one shelf and burn at the age you normally test.

Material value, excluding labour, freight, packaging and GST. The wicks themselves are the cheap part of a candle; the batch they go into is not, which is why a carton is worth checking before it goes into a batch worth ₹11,709.14 in materials.

The protocol

Trim all four wicks to the same height before lighting and write it down. Stand a card marked in centimetres behind each candle, far enough back to stay clear of the heat, and read the flame's tip against it by eye or in a photo; never touch the flame or the glass to judge anything. Burn O1, O2, N1 and N2 together, spaced apart, out of draughts, within sight: four unscented flames can share a room because you are reading flames, not scent. Record flame height at 15, 30, 60, 120, 180 and 240 minutes; pool diameter at one, two and three hours; whether the pool reached the edge (commonly cited rules of thumb expect about 3–4 hours, or roughly an hour per 2.5 cm of width, about 2.8 hours in the 7 cm jar); pool depth at the end with a skewer; and any flicker, smoke or carbon. Repeat the session a few days later. That is 48 flame readings, enough to see a pattern rather than a moment.

Reading the log: carton, or something else?

If the carton is convicted and the old one runs out, the new carton needs its own wick bracket in your jar: current wick, and one step either side, through the full jar to about 1 cm of wax left (choosing the first three wicks sets up the rungs; the depth gates set the pass). A carton that burns differently in your system is not proof that it is out of specification, and CSI publishes no lot data to compare against; send us what you measured and we will look at it with you.

What not to buy for a smaller flame

The one purchase this page might lead to is a pack of the next wick step, and only after the log says the new carton burns cooler and the old carton has run out. At ₹9.44 or ₹12.00 a wick, the wick is rarely the expensive mistake; a batch of candles on the wrong wick is.

Wicks and tools for the comparison

Four items: the worked example's wick in both variants, the braided option with a stated height, the trimmer that makes a flame log fair, and the wax held constant in the twins. Chosen on page statements, price per unit and stock on 26 September 2026; CSI has no measured burn data, so nothing is ranked on performance.

Frequently asked questions