How Do I Compare a New Bulk Wick Lot Against the Development Sample Before Releasing It to Production?

Your new lot, made precise

The worked example, labelled: your candle is a 200 g single-wick soy candle at 8% (16 g of oil and 184 g of wax) in your own jar, approved on Eco C2 after replicate testing. You kept 20 wicks from the approved sample, measured them, and sealed them. A C2 1,000-pack (₹9,440.00) has just arrived. Before anyone wicks a production jar with it, you want to know it's the same wick.

This post owns that check: what to measure, what to burn, and the release rule. What to write on the order so the right product arrives is 6993; how many wicks to retain, how to store them and for how long is 6995. If the new wicks come from a different supplier altogether, that's a wick change, not a lot check, and it needs full replicates: an equivalent size from another supplier.

Why a new lot can look or burn different: causes, ranked

Ranked by how often, in our judgement, each one produces an apparent lot difference. The first four are on your side and cost nothing to check; signs are common observations, not CSI data.

Cause 6 is the one you're looking for, and it's the last to conclude. Wick lots can differ in ways a ruler won't see (fibre, braid tension, coating), which is why measurement alone can release a lot but can't clear a suspicious one. The published background on why two wicks of the same length and thickness can still burn differently is the same length and thickness, but different burn; for how a lot difference shows up as late-burn growth, see mushrooming only after several burn cycles.

The incoming measurements and the accept rule

Take 20 wicks from across the pack, not the top layer: some from the top, some from the middle, some from the bottom of the bundle. From a 1,000-pack that's 2% of the wicks, and they go back into production if the pack is released. Measure them exactly as you measured the retained sample, ideally the same person with the same ruler.

The diagram shows why length is recorded as a difference from the retained median rather than as an absolute figure: it works whatever your wick's real length is, and it keeps you from treating an illustrative number as a CSI specification. In the worked example, Lot A's median is +0.5 mm and every wick sits inside the band: it's released on measurement. Lot B's median is +3.0 mm, beyond the 2 mm tolerance, and 5 of its 20 wicks sit above the band: it's held for the burn.

The side-by-side burn: six candles, paired limits

Lot B fails on the top third alone; you'd stop there and record it rather than burn it to the bottom. The pattern (longer wicks, taller flame, bigger mushroom, faster burn) is consistent: this lot behaves like a stronger wick in your jar. It's exactly the kind of difference that would have reached customers as soot complaints if the pack had gone straight to the pouring table.

Release, hold or reject, and what to buy meanwhile

Bridging stock. If a lot is held and you have no released wicks left, order the smallest quantity that covers the gap. Worked example, labelled: at 250 candles a month, about two weeks is 125 wicks; Eco C2 100 + 20 + 10 = 130 for ₹1,227.20. Ask us on WhatsApp whether stock from a different lot is available before it dispatches, and measure the bridging pack against your retained sample too. We'd rather tell you we can't confirm a lot than send you more of the one you've just held.

Argued against our own interest: if your measurements pass and the order is already burn-checked, don't run a burn just because it feels safer; it takes 10 days and tells you little the ruler hasn't. And if a lot fails, a bigger order from us isn't the fix: a held lot is a conversation about that lot, and the wick range we list has no in-between size to switch to. CSI's sized, tabbed wicks are three rungs (C1 → C2 → Cotton Braided) plus one wooden width; if a lot difference pushes your candle to the edge of its rung, the honest options are a formula adjustment, a pair of smaller wicks, or a WhatsApp conversation about what we stock.

The step back to production

A released pack goes into production with its date and lot written on the batch sheet for every candle it wicks, so a later complaint can be traced to a pack. Keep 20 wicks from it, sealed, as the next reference. How much wick stock to hold so a held lot never stops you is safety stock for a shared wick; how much to order is 6999. For the record-keeping that ties a lot to a test, the published guide is organising hundreds of burn-test results.

What to buy, and what to skip

Four items, chosen on page statements, price and stock on 7 October 2026. CSI publishes no wick dimensions or burn data, so nothing is ranked on performance, and each card says when not to buy.

Skip for now: a bigger wick order to "dilute" a doubtful lot; a different wick size as a quick fix for a lot difference (that's a formula change, with its own replicates); a second scale or holder type mid-test; and any burn on a pack whose measurements pass inside an order that has already been burn-checked.

Frequently asked questions