My 9 cm Soy Candle Tunnels with One Wick but Burns Too Aggressively with Two — What Wick Configurations Should I Test Next?

Why the gap exists: CSI's steps are coarse at 9 cm

CSI's sized, tabbed wicks are three: Eco C1, Eco C2 and Cotton Braided. In a 9 cm inside jar, one centred wick must melt 63.62 cm² alone, and each wick of a pair has 31.81 cm². Going from one Cotton Braided to two C2 roughly doubles the flames working on the same surface, with no tabbed step in between. That is a coarse jump, and at 9 cm it is easy to land on either side of it.

Before reading the ranked list, be sure both failures are real. The single should leave a ring at burn 3 with 3–4 hour sessions (the rough hour-per-2.5 cm rule gives about 3.6 hours for 9 cm), a centred wick and still air. "Too aggressive" on the pair should mean something you saw: a trimmed flame persistently past the commonly used 2.5–5 cm range, a pool well past 1 cm deep, mushrooming or soot, or flames leaning to the glass, judged by eye and never by touch. How to tell an in-between size from a spacing fault is the in-between wick post; this page owns what you buy once you know. If the single was short and you have not yet tried any pair, start with the 9 cm next-order post instead.

If your 9 cm is the outside of the glass, the inside is about 8.3 cm on our 0.35 cm wall assumption (54.11 cm²), and a 2 × C2 running hot is less surprising. Measure inside edge to inside edge before you buy anything.

The ranked buy list, option by option

Each option is three 300 g candles at 8% (our labelled fill: 24 g of British Rose + 276 g of CSI 468 each), poured with the same wax, oil, load and jar batch as the candles that failed. The candles cost almost the same whichever wick goes in them, because a candle's oil and wax come to ₹261.53 before any wick: 68.6% wax and 31.4% oil at this fill.

A: re-space the pair you own

Two flames close together can build one hot central pool that reads as "too much wick" when it is really "too close". Moving the pair from 4.5 cm to a labelled 5.5 cm apart takes each wick from 2.25 cm to 1.75 cm from the glass: the centre cools, and the flames come nearer the wall, so watch the glass by eye in the final third. The rule for reading it, and a full three-spacing ladder, is the spacing-alone post; the wall-side trade-off is the wicks-too-close-to-the-glass post. For the purchase it is simple: three candles of oil and wax, no new wicks if the hot pair's spares are on your shelf.

B: step the pair down

If the hot pair was 2 × C2, the next smaller CSI pair is 2 × C1. It also saves ₹7.08 a candle in wicks (₹11.80 against ₹18.88). If your hot pair was already 2 × C1, option B is not available: 2 × C1 is the smallest pair CSI's tabbed range can make, and a mixed pair would be bigger, not smaller. What remains is A (spacing), D (braid) and E.

One basket for options A, B and C

Pour A, B and C together: same wax bag, same oil bottle, same day, same cure. Add D only if you want the braid answered in the same round.

Why three 100 g bottles: 100 + 100 + 50 g (₹896.80) leaves only 34 g, and a split result needs a three-candle re-pour of 72 g; three 100 g leave 84 g, which covers it. The wax is the same story: three bags leave 516 g, short of the 828 g a re-pour needs, so add a 500 g bag (₹325.00) only if an option splits. All nine candles burn ₹2,491.81 in materials before your jars, and every per-candle figure here excludes your jar, labour, freight, packaging and GST.

The mixed pair and the braid: experiments, labelled

C: one C1, one C2

A mixed pair puts a smaller and a larger flame in the same pool. In principle it sits between 2 × C1 and 2 × C2 in heat; in practice the two halves of the pool may melt unevenly, with the C2 side reaching the glass first. That is our judgement, not a measured behaviour, and it is why this option is experimental. Read each side separately at burn 3: ring width on the C1 side and the C2 side, pool depth on both. If the C2 side runs hot while the C1 side tunnels, you have learned that neither wick suits this jar, and the mixed pair is out. If both sides reach the glass calmly, it goes to a full-life test like any other configuration. It costs ₹15.34 a candle in wicks and no extra pack once A and B are bought.

D: Eco Braided, cut to length

CSI's Eco Braided Wicks are sold by the metre, unsized, for "large diameter container jars" in the page's words. A centred 10 cm cut (a labelled length; cut yours to clear your jar) costs ₹9.44 from the 5 m roll. Nobody can tell you whether it lands between Cotton Braided and a pair: the page states no braid size, which is the point of testing it. Adding D to the round costs ₹1,139.20 more in cash than A + B + C alone (the roll, a fourth 100 g bottle and a 500 g bag), ₹4,428.20 from nothing, and burns ₹812.90 in three candles. Its page does not mention tabs; the only tabs CSI lists come with the Braided Wick Roll (₹706.82, 100 tabs, ₹7.07 per tabbed wick), a different braid.

The honest end point: when CSI has no step to sell

Suppose the re-spaced pair still runs hot, 2 × C1 still runs hot, the mixed pair melts unevenly and the braid tunnels. Then this jar, wax, oil and load sit between CSI's tabbed steps, and nothing else in CSI's range fills that space: no sized, tabbed wick between C1 and C2, none between C2 and Cotton Braided, none above, and one wooden-wick listing with no widths. The non-wick levers (trim discipline, session length, fill height, load within the stated ceilings) are worth trying, and how to weigh them is the in-between options list. But a lever is not a wick.

A wick from another supplier is not "a C1.5". Even a wick sold under the same size label as one you know is a new wick until it passes in your jar (the supplier-switch post; and the equivalent-size claim covers why a supplier's "equivalent" needs a full-life check).

If a gap-filler wins: what production costs

Price the winner before you fall in love with it. Per 1,000 candles, the wick bill for each configuration on this page:

Then the usual step to quantity: wicks = candles × wicks per candle × (1 + allowance). Worked example: 100 candles a month on 2 × C1 with a 5% allowance is 210 wicks, ₹1,239.00 a month, covered by two 100-packs and a 20-pack (₹1,298.00). Next to ₹7,363.20 of British Rose a month, the wick line is small. The formula and the approval gates are in the cluster hub; if the winning pair later digs a deep pool after several burns, read the deep-pool double-wick post before reordering.

How far down a test candle must burn before it counts is the acceptance-depth post.

What to buy for the gap test, and what to skip

Five items, in the order the gap test needs them, 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 24 g per 300 g candle and 12 g per 150 g candle.

Skip for this test: more Cotton Braided: it is the single that tunnelled, and CSI has none bigger. Performance Wooden Wicks (₹590.00 for 10): one listing, no widths, so it cannot be "a bit smaller" or "a bit bigger" than anything; CSI does not sell a wider or narrower wooden wick. Eco Candle Wicks Loose: described for "2 inch diameters". And do not change wax or oil to fill a wick gap without saying so: that is a new test.

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