My Jar Narrows Toward the Bottom — Could a Wick That Performs Correctly During the First Half Become Too Aggressive Later in the Burn?
Share
What should I buy because of that? A reserve rung: a small lot of one rung down alongside your chosen wick. If C2 is the chosen wick, that is Eco C1, here the 50-pack (₹295.00): three test candles poured now plus one lead time of production. Start the C1 test today, not after C2 fails.
What does carrying the reserve cost? ₹295.00 in cash, at the same ₹5.90 per wick as any smaller pack. In our worked example it saves 13 days if you act today and 21 if you put it in the first order.
When can I place the production order? Not until the bottom zone passes: all three candles of one rung burned to about 1 cm left with no flame, soot or heat failure in the final third.
- Straight answer: the reserve rung
- Yes, it can: why the order changes before the verdict
- The reserve rung: which wick, how many, from which pack
- Keep the down-rung burning
- What the reserve costs against a lost reorder cycle
- No production order until the bottom zone passes
- From the bottom-zone verdict to the production order
- What to buy, and what to skip
- Frequently asked questions
Yes, it can: why the order changes before the verdict
Two things change as a candle in a narrowing jar burns down. The pool shrinks with the jar: at 6.2 cm inside, a centred wick is 3.1 cm from the glass instead of 3.8 cm at the top. And heat accumulates: the glass above the pool, the wax below it and the jar itself have absorbed heat over every previous session, so the flame commonly grows, the pool deepens faster and carbon builds on the wick. These are tendencies, not certainties, and how strong they are depends on your wick, oil, load and session length. The diagnosis of a failure already in hand, and the decision rule for picking the smaller wick, is the narrowing-jar retest post; the mechanism of lower-third flame growth is the lower-third aggression post.
This page owns what changes in your purchasing. The usual sequence (test, approve, then buy) assumes the verdict arrives in one piece. In a narrowing jar it arrives in two: a first-half pass and, a week or so later, a bottom-zone verdict that can overturn it. If you place orders only on verdicts, a late failure costs you a whole reorder cycle plus a new full-life test. If you place a production order on the first-half pass, a late failure costs you every candle poured in between.
| Depth | Inside diameter | Pool area | Wick to glass (centred) | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fill line (first burns) | 7.6 cm | 45.36 cm² | 3.8 cm | Full pool to the glass by burn 3; the ring |
| Near the base (final third) | 6.2 cm | 30.19 cm² (66.6%) | 3.1 cm | Trimmed flame height, pool depth, carbon, flame proximity to the glass, judged by eye |
The oil adds a little to the risk. Sage and Cedarwood sits in the woody family, and heavier woody and resinous oils are commonly linked to more carbon on the wick than light florals (a tendency; CSI has no measured wick data for any oil). Its page is honest about it: "Test wick size to suit your container and wax type."
The reserve rung: which wick, how many, from which pack
Which wick. One step down CSI's tabbed range from the wick you chose: Cotton Braided → C2 → C1. If your chosen wick is C2, the reserve is C1. If it is Cotton Braided, the reserve is C2. If it is already C1, there is no smaller sized, tabbed wick to hold: the untabbed Eco Candle Wicks Loose is described for "2 inch diameters", and anything finer means asking us or another supplier.
How many. Two parts. First, the test: three candles, so one odd candle is outvoted. Second, the lot: enough wicks to keep producing through one of your own lead times if the reserve wins, plus a labelled allowance. In the worked example, 120 candles a month is 4 a day; over a 10-day lead time that is 40, plus 5% for rejects: 42 wicks. Your lead time is your own figure; CSI dispatches from Pune and does not publish lead times or stock depth.
Which pack. C1 is flat at ₹5.90 a wick in every pack, so pick on count: 42 needs the 50-pack (₹295.00), which is cheaper in cash than three 20-packs (₹354.00). If your ladder already left C1 spares on the shelf, the three test candles come from those and the 50 is all lot.
| Line | Count needed | Pack | Price | Per wick | Left over |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 reserve test candles | 3 | shelf spares, or a 20-pack (₹118.00) | from shelf | ₹5.90 | — |
| C1 reserve lot | 42 | 50 (10-pack out of stock) | ₹295.00 | ₹5.90 | 8 |
| C2 lead-time lot | 42, less shelf spares (7 assumed) | 2 × 20 | ₹377.60 | ₹9.44 | 5 |
| Wicks, total | — | three packs | ₹672.60 | — | — |
| If you hold no C2 spares | 42 | 50, or 20 + 20 + 10 | ₹472.00 | ₹9.44 | 8 |
Why buy a lead-time lot of the chosen wick too? Because the same logic runs both ways: whichever rung passes the base, you want to start pouring while the production order is in transit. A lot is one lead time; a production order is a month plus safety stock. The difference is the whole point of the rule further down.
Keep the down-rung burning: the candles you were about to stop
If you ran a full ladder, you may already own the reserve test. The usual stop-buying rule says a rung that fails in the expected direction is never reordered (the 7 cm stop-buying rule). In a narrowing jar, read "fails" carefully: a C1 that leaves a thin ring at burn 3 at the 7.6 cm top may be the only rung that is still calm at 6.2 cm. Stopping those candles at burn 3 throws away the evidence you will need in a week.
| Option | Candles | Oil to buy | Wax to buy | Materials used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum: C1 only (C2 set keeps burning) | 3 × C1 | 100 g (₹696.20), 52 g left; a 50 g would leave 2 g | 1 kg (₹507.40), 448 g left | ₹631.96 |
| Controlled: C1 + fresh C2 from one pot | 3 × C1 + 3 × C2 | 100 g + 50 g (₹1,050.20), 54 g left (3 more candles); 100 g alone leaves 4 g | 1 kg + 500 g (₹767.40), 396 g left | ₹1,274.54 |
Per candle that is ₹210.65 on C1 and ₹214.19 on C2, excluding your jar, labour, freight, packaging and GST. The wick is a few rupees of each; the oil and wax are the test.
What the reserve costs against a lost reorder cycle
The diagram above lays the three options side by side on a worked-example calendar: candles poured on day 0, cured 3 days (the oil page says "48–72 hours for soy wax"), then one 4-hour session a day for 10 sessions to about 1 cm left, with a 10-day lead time. Your own grams per hour and lead time move every date; the gaps between the lanes are what matter.
| Option | Extra wick cash now | C1 verdict | Days vs A | Planned candles kept on schedule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A · no reserve: wait for C2, then order C1 | none until day 11 | day 34 | — | — |
| B · act today: shelf C1 poured on day 8, lots ordered | ₹295.00 (C1 lot) | day 21 | 13 sooner | 52 |
| C · next time: reserve in the first order | ₹295.00 (C1 lot) | day 13 | 21 sooner | 84 |
And if C2 passes the base after all? The reserve has cost you ₹295.00 in cash for 50 C1 wicks (your three test candles came from shelf spares), still worth ₹5.90 each. They don't spoil, and C1 is commonly the first rung for the narrower jars in a range. That is the honest carrying cost: cash parked, not money lost.
No production order until the bottom zone passes
The reserve plan buys lots, not production. The line between them is the bottom-zone verdict: all three candles of one rung burned to about 1 cm left, with no flame touching or drifting towards the glass, no runaway pool, no heavy soot or carbon, and nothing about the final third you would not sell. How far down a test candle has to go before it counts, and what to record at each depth, is the acceptance-depth post.
Why hold the line? Price it. Forty production candles poured on C2 on the strength of a first-half pass, at production prices (oil at the 500 g price, wax at the 10 kg price, the C2 wick), cost ₹185.50 each in materials, or ₹7,419.84 for the forty, before jars. If C2 then fails the base, those candles are seconds at best. The whole reserve plan's wick spend, ₹672.60, is a small fraction of that.
| C2 at the base | C1 over the whole jar | Reading | What to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passes all three | Rings at the top beyond your tolerance | C2 is the answer; the reserve was insurance | Production C2; the C1 lot moves to other jars |
| Fails: tall flame, deep pool or heavy carbon low down | Passes all three, top ring within tolerance | C1 is the answer for this jar | Production C1; start pouring from the reserve lot today |
| Passes | Also passes | Two acceptable rungs | Choose on the top (pool, throw) and buy one; don't stock both |
| Fails | Fails at the top | No CSI rung passes both ends | Stop buying rungs; ask us, consider a different jar |
From the bottom-zone verdict to the production order
Once a rung passes, the production order is candles × wicks per candle × (1 + allowance); with 120 candles a month and 5%, that is 126 wicks. The reserve lot covers the first 10 days while that order ships. Reorder points and safety stock follow the hub's method (the hub's production section); several wick SKUs on one reorder plan is the per-SKU reorder post.
| Line | Quantity | Packs | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| C2, if C2 passed | 126 | 100 + 20 + 10 = 130 | ₹1,227.20 |
| C1, if C1 passed | 126 | 100 + 20 + 20 = 140 (no C1 10-pack) | ₹826.00 |
| Sage and Cedarwood | 1,920 g | 4 × 500 g | ₹10,336.80 |
| CSI 464 | 22,080 g | 2 × 10 kg + 5 kg (25 kg) | ₹11,203.39 at the 10 kg per-gram price |
The oil line hides the one real saving on this page, and it runs against the obvious pack. Sage and Cedarwood's 1 kg costs ₹6.87 a gram; its 500 g costs ₹5.17. Two kilograms as four 500 g bottles is ₹10,336.80; as two 1 kg bottles it is ₹13,735.20. Argued against our own interest: buy the 500 g bottles and keep the ₹3,398.40.
A new jar batch that measures narrower at the base is a new jar for this purpose. If the base changes, so does the bottom-zone verdict; how to measure and order for a taper from scratch is the wider-at-the-top post, and what waiting for full life costs against a wrong bulk order is the heavy-base full-life post.
What to buy, and what to skip
Five items, chosen on page statements, price and stock on 1 October 2026. CSI publishes no wick-performance data, so nothing is ranked on burn results. Oil candle counts use 16 g per 200 g candle and 12 g per 150 g candle.
| Pack | Price | Per unit | What it covers here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thin (C1) / 10 | ₹59.00 — Out of stock | ₹5.90 | Out of stock on 1 October 2026 |
| Thin (C1) / 20 | ₹118.00 | ₹5.90 | the reserve test alone, if your shelf is empty |
| Thin (C1) / 50 | ₹295.00 | ₹5.90 | the reserve lot: 42 wicks, one lead time + 5% |
| Thin (C1) / 100 · 500 · 1000 | ₹590.00 · ₹2,950.00 · ₹5,900.00 | ₹5.90 | production, only if C1 passes the base |
| Thick (C2) / 10 | ₹94.40 | ₹9.44 | three fresh C2 candles |
| Thick (C2) / 20 | ₹188.80 | ₹9.44 | two of these top up shelf C2 to a lead-time lot |
| Thick (C2) / 50 · 100 · 500 · 1000 | ₹472.00 · ₹944.00 · ₹4,720.00 · ₹9,440.00 | ₹9.44 | production, only if C2 passes the base |
| Size | Price | Per gram | 200 g candles at 8% (16 g) | 150 g candles at 8% (12 g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 g | ₹354.00 | ₹7.08 | 3 | 4 |
| 100 g | ₹696.20 | ₹6.96 | 6 | 8 |
| 500 g | ₹2,584.20 | ₹5.17 | 31 | 41 |
| 1 kg | ₹6,867.60 | ₹6.87 | 62 | 83 |
| Pack | Price | Per unit | What it covers here |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 g | ₹260.00 | ₹0.52 per g | dearer per gram than 1 kg; a top-up bag only |
| 1 kg | ₹507.40 | ₹0.51 per g | three test candles with 448 g left |
| 5 kg | ₹2,537.00 | ₹0.51 per g | the same per gram as 1 kg |
| 10 kg | ₹5,074.00 | ₹0.51 per g | production, after the base passes |
| Pack | Price | Per unit | What it covers here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candle Wick Trimmer | ₹588.82 | ₹588.82 | the trim that makes late-burn flames comparable |
| Candle Wick Cutter (two other listings) | ₹177.00 · ₹295.00 | — | cheaper; any clean cut works |
| Pack | Price | Per unit | What it covers here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default | ₹354.00 | ₹354.00 | weigh candles before and after each session |
Skip for this order: Cotton Braided Wicks (₹120.00 for 10): a step up is the wrong direction for a wick that may already be too strong at the base. Steel Wick Holder (₹250.00 for 5): a narrowing single-wick jar doesn't need a three-hole bar. Performance Wooden Wicks (₹590.00 for 10): one listing with no widths, so there is no smaller wooden wick to hold in reserve.
CandleMakingSuppliesIndia sells the wicks, oil, wax and tools named here, and does not sell finished candles. This page still tells you that a reserve saves no money per wick, that shelf spares may make the order nothing at all, that we list no sized, tabbed wick between C1 and C2 or below C1, and that the Sage and Cedarwood 1 kg costs more per gram than its 500 g.
Every price was verified on CSI's live store on 1 October 2026. Stock was checked per size: the Eco C1 10-pack is out of stock on that date and is flagged wherever it appears; every other size shown is in stock. Product wording is quoted from the pages; where a page is silent in the text we captured, we say so.
The 7.6 / 6.2 cm diameters, the 200 g fill, the calendar (3-day cure, ten daily sessions, a 10-day lead time), the 120-candle month, the 5% allowance, the seven shelf C2 and the verdict table are worked examples or editorial judgement; burn behaviour near the base is described as common tendency, not CSI data. For bulk pricing, GST invoicing, and MSDS and IFRA documentation on request, message us on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926.
Frequently asked questions
- I Use an 8 cm Diameter Jar with Soy Wax and 8% Vanilla Fragrance — Which Wick Sizes Should I Buy for My First Burn-Test Ladder?
- My Jar Is Wider at the Top than the Bottom — Which Diameter Should I Consider When Planning Wick Tests?
- My 200 g Jar Has a Heavy Glass Base — Why Should I Complete a Full-Life Burn Test Instead of Selecting the Wick from the First Burn?
- My Candle Burns Perfectly Until the Final Third and Then the Flame Becomes Too Large — Why Is Full-Life Wick Testing Necessary?
- My Candle Jar Gets Much Hotter Near the End of Its Life — Can the Wick Become Effectively Too Aggressive as the Candle Burns Deeper?
- I Sell 500 Candles per Month and Use Three Wick Sizes — How Do I Set Reorder Points for Each Size Based on Actual SKU Consumption?
- I Have a 7 cm Diameter Glass Jar with Soy Wax — How Many Adjacent Wick Sizes Should I Test Before Choosing One for Production?
- How Do I Build a Wick-Test Ladder for a New Candle Jar Using Diameter, Wax Type, Fragrance Load and Expected Burn Behaviour Before Buying Wicks in Bulk?
Customer reviews: The six reviews at the top of this page are genuine, published Judge.me reviews left by CSI customers on the product pages named on each card — Eco Candle Wicks, Eco Soy CSI 400, Sandalwood Fragrance Oil, Soy Pillar Wax (Specially made for Pillar and Designer Candles), Woody Oud Fragrance Oil. They are general product reviews, not assessments of the wick-purchase advice on this page. Names, star ratings, dates and products are as recorded by Judge.me and wording is unedited. "Verified buyer" appears only on reviews Judge.me recorded as verified — Subhankar Roy, Reena Bagal, Payal Patel, Arminder Kaur, Dipali Sable. The reviews from Ashwini are published but not recorded as verified, and carry no badge. Reviews below five stars are included as published, not filtered out.
Figures verified 1 October 2026, CSI live pricing: Eco Candle Wicks Thin (C1) 10 ₹59.00 (out of stock), 20 ₹118.00, 50 ₹295.00, 100 ₹590.00, 500 ₹2,950.00, 1,000 ₹5,900.00; Thick (C2) 10 ₹94.40, 20 ₹188.80, 50 ₹472.00, 100 ₹944.00, 500 ₹4,720.00, 1,000 ₹9,440.00; Cotton Braided Wicks Ready Made 10 ₹120.00; Sage and Cedarwood Fragrance Oil 50 g ₹354.00 (₹7.08/g), 100 g ₹696.20 (₹6.96/g), 500 g ₹2,584.20 (₹5.17/g), 1 kg ₹6,867.60 (₹6.87/g); Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 500 g ₹260.00, 1 kg ₹507.40, 5 kg ₹2,537.00, 10 kg ₹5,074.00; Candle Wick Trimmer ₹588.82; Candle Wick Cutter ₹177.00 and ₹295.00; Candle Making Weighing Scale ₹354.00; Steel Wick Holder (Set of 5) ₹250.00; Performance Wooden Wicks 10 ₹590.00. Every size listed is in stock on 1 October 2026 except the C1 10-pack. Per unit = price ÷ grams or units, two decimals.
Non-price figures: load is a percentage of total candle weight (200 g at 8% = 16 g oil + 184 g wax; the standard 150 g candle at 8% = 12 g oil + 138 g wax). The 7.6 cm and 6.2 cm inside diameters, the 200 g fill, the calendar (3-day cure, one 4-hour session a day, ten sessions, a 10-day lead time), the 120-candle month, the 5% allowance and the seven shelf C2 are worked-example assumptions; pool area = π r² on inside radii. CSI 464 "up to 10%" and Sage and Cedarwood "up to 10% for soy wax" are the pages' stated ceilings, formulation limits not regulatory ones. Late-burn flame growth is described as a common tendency. Costs exclude jars, labour, freight, packaging and GST. Diwali 8 November 2026 is a calendar fact.