BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Candlemaking Making Candles in a Kitchen Kettle

I found this interesting article about melting wax directly in a Kitchen Kettle -

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Hi Lisa,

That is a really good article. I think the key thing - or at least it is with candy, is to be able to control the heat. Double boilers allow you to control the heat so the wax melts evenly and slowly with out burning. The presto pot set up the way it is explained in the article also seems to have the ability to melt the wax without scorching or burning it. Due to the heat/temperature control.

Have you melted any of your candles yet?? After chatting with you, I have been looking at my old candles . . .may just give give the double boiler method a try and see what I come up with.

I actually went out yesterday or maybe the day before and bought a cheap "wine bucket" - i.e. just a tall metal container with handles. It's used for putting a bottle of wine into to cool (in an ice water bath) in essence, like you see at restaurants. It was cheap and it fits nicely into my crock pot. Bob has said I can use the crock pot and he'll buy himself a new / better one. I have yet to give it a try though. I need to get some rocks so that the wine bucket doesn't rest flat on the bottom of the crock pot, so that it is mostly surrounded by water so that its temperature can't get over 212F.

I do have the box of old candles sitting in the kitchen, and the crock pot / ice bucket all set up - I just have to find an hour or two to give it a shot!

Oh also I found some "glass paint" and am painting over my old glass candle holders to give them new life. I'll take some photos to show you guys! It's very cheap and easy.

OK here's my notes and photo!

The "hard part" for many people is melting the wax in the first place when they're making candles. Wax is FLAMMABLE. You don't want to heat the wax up to a high temperature or it could catch fire. This is why just putting the wax into a pot on the stove is a bad idea, or putting it into a microwave.

Instead, you typically put the wax into a double boiler, in a water bath. The water can ONLY get to 212F before it boils away. It will never get over 212F. That guarantees your wax will only get to 212F since it's being heated by the water. A double boiler works, but because it's on the stove it gets the stove all waxy My boyfriend made me promise, when we got a new stove, that I would not use it to make candles on. I had to find an alternative.

Melting Wax in a Crockpot Instead, what I do now is melt wax in a crock pot. The crockpot lets you set the temperature, but to be doubly safe I still put the wax into an inner metal container and then set that metal container into a water bath in the crockpot. That way I can do my melting on the kitchen table, where I can control the wax spatter mess. I can melt the wax down into a nice wax soup to then pour into whatever mold I wish.

Here you see the wax melting in the metal container. Always keep a wax thermometer nearby so you can monitor the temperature of the wax just in case. Always have a notebook so you can keep track of what works and doesn't work, for your hobby records. And finally, always have a fire extinguisher within easy reach! You never know that wax is 100% safe, and it's better to be prepared.

The wax melts best if it is COVERED so we have a glass cover we put on top of this assembly to help the temperature stay at a good, warm temperature. Even so, we start by heating up the water to boiling in the microwave rather than expecting the crockpot to do that work for us. Then all the crockpot has to do is keep it warm.

Once the wax is all melted, it gets poured into the molds.

My first few candle making ventures I used my kitchen stove. I did go through a tedious ritual of covering the entire stove with aluminum foil. The counter tops were covered with old newspaper. That made it easy to keep my wifes' kitchen clean. Extra work but it did the job.

LOL what an idea, covering the entire stove with foil! We have a "flat top" stove with a completely smooth surface so I bet that might even work! Doesn't the foil conduct the heat all across its surface though?

Needless to say I poured very carefully. I only use it to catch any minor spills or drops of wax on the stove top.

I've seen the homemade wax melter before and thought it was a nice idea. I might get to it one of these days. My only concern has been on making sure the pour spout stays free from obstruction. We'll see how it goes.

I just used our crock-pot to melt down four more "candle pieces" - we made a new pillar, owl, fish and buddha out of them! It went really smoothly. We used a lid over the metal bin that holds the wax. We also used aluminum foil over the open part of the crock pot and that helped the heat stay in well.

Now we can give those candles away as gifts, and we are down to only a few candles left in the house. Less clutter!

That's great to use the aluminum foil to maintain the proper temperature. Recycle and reuse always helps to clean out the clutter.