This was just a fun experiment to make a heated candle dish that gave the same effect as the Glade "scented oil" candle system.
The scented oil candles had a metal body with the wax formed round it. The body sat into a specially shaped and insulated aluminium dish with a magnet under it. When the candle was lit the flame would heat a couple of fins on either side and the heat would be conducted down into the base so that the whole candle would ultimately melt into a self sustaining pool of liquid wax. The wax was wicked up the sides of the base by capillary action to the wick itself.
In this little experiment I'm trying to make a low voltage electrically heated dish that can turn ANY tealight into a "scented oil" style pool of wax. I used a glass saucer intended for an espresso cup and used standard silicone sealant to glue 24 x 1 ohm quarter watt resistors onto the glass. They can actually be run at higher than quarter of a watt as the silicone acts as a thermal coupler to the glass, thus heatsinking them.
By running the whole 24 ohm string at 12V it passes half an amp (500mA) and dissipates 6W of heat evenly over the glass surface.
The results were a bit variable. It worked in that you ended up with a pool of fragrant wax with a burning wick in the middle, but the flame height progressively dropped until it was quite small. Possibly due to impurities clogging the wick or air starvation due to the simmering haze of molten wax in the vicinity.
But it's a start. In the past I had good success with a small dollar-store ladle with its handle bent round underneath it and screwed to a wooden base. In that version I used a cluster of 1W resistors siliconed to the ladle.
Things to note. The behaviour will depend on the ambient temperature, so it will vary between winter and summer or according to indoor temperatures. If the wax gets too hot it will fume and may even ignite completely. (YAY!)
The use of resistors for localised and adjustable heating has other uses too.
The scented oil candles had a metal body with the wax formed round it. The body sat into a specially shaped and insulated aluminium dish with a magnet under it. When the candle was lit the flame would heat a couple of fins on either side and the heat would be conducted down into the base so that the whole candle would ultimately melt into a self sustaining pool of liquid wax. The wax was wicked up the sides of the base by capillary action to the wick itself.
In this little experiment I'm trying to make a low voltage electrically heated dish that can turn ANY tealight into a "scented oil" style pool of wax. I used a glass saucer intended for an espresso cup and used standard silicone sealant to glue 24 x 1 ohm quarter watt resistors onto the glass. They can actually be run at higher than quarter of a watt as the silicone acts as a thermal coupler to the glass, thus heatsinking them.
By running the whole 24 ohm string at 12V it passes half an amp (500mA) and dissipates 6W of heat evenly over the glass surface.
The results were a bit variable. It worked in that you ended up with a pool of fragrant wax with a burning wick in the middle, but the flame height progressively dropped until it was quite small. Possibly due to impurities clogging the wick or air starvation due to the simmering haze of molten wax in the vicinity.
But it's a start. In the past I had good success with a small dollar-store ladle with its handle bent round underneath it and screwed to a wooden base. In that version I used a cluster of 1W resistors siliconed to the ladle.
Things to note. The behaviour will depend on the ambient temperature, so it will vary between winter and summer or according to indoor temperatures. If the wax gets too hot it will fume and may even ignite completely. (YAY!)
The use of resistors for localised and adjustable heating has other uses too.
Yet again, thank you sir. You are the best.
Hi. Seeing this in 2021 while searching for similar experiments of wax with resistors. I am developing a tactile display for people without sight where i plan to use wax drops and programmable resistors to harden/soften parts dark/light sections of images so that the image could be figured out by touch. Thanks for your video.
Hi, what is watt of the resistor?
Glistening Snow. Was expecting a yellow comment and wasn't disappointed. Think perhaps move the resistors out a bit? Don't really need as much heat in the center with the flame, but do want to keep the wax at the edges melted.
yellow stuff must be banana flavored snow
I only just saw this video. The size of the flame is based on how much wick is above the wax. If there is more wax melted, the wick will remain smaller. In the unheated candle, it burns the wax off as it melts, resulting in more wick being exposed. When artificially heated, more wax melts resulting in the smaller wick and smaller flame. Smaller flame = longer burn time as the flame uses less wax 🙂
Maybe somebody should write a comedy sketch about purchasing 4 candles!
put a bag of sand under the bowl with a heating pack under the sand
its a hand-warmer!
A CURVED bowl? A non-curved bowl is called a plate. Love ya !!
Commonly the reason for the wax issues is wick size if not large enough won't burn all the wax
You can actually collect the wax remnants of burned candles. Collect them in a jar. And when the jar is full make a new candle out of it with your own wick.
Four candles or fork handles
I'd love to try this with resistive wire.
wick is dropping in the heated dish. silicone keeps the melted wax too far up the wick for a proper flame. pay attention to supporting the metal plate at the botton of the wick, under the cable.