Eliminate Smoke Plumes when Extinguishing your Candles

It’s getting pretty late, you’re tired, and you’re ready to go to bed and call it a day.  So you probably do what I used to do when extinguishing a candle which is to pretend it’s your birthday, make a wish, and blow out that delectable candle you’ve been enjoying all day.  Unfortunately, now you’ve got a plume of smokiness rising up from your candle turning your wonderfully scented space into a smoke stenched room.  Yuck!

Now, being the astute candle aficionado that I am today, I’ve learned when I want to quell my candles for the evening I’m able to completely avoid that nasty plume altogether by using a simple tool called a wick dipper.

If you’ve not heard of a wick dipper before you’re probably thinking to yourself that sounds too good to be true, but I’m here to assure you that it’s not!

To use a wick dipper to put out your candles you simply grasp the wick dipper handle and use the end of it to push the lit wick down into the wax pool that’s been formed from burning your candle, completely submerging it in the wax, thereby extinguishing it.  Magically, that plume of smoke you typically observe when snuffing out your candles will be almost, if not completely, nonexistent.  Once the candle has been submerged and extinguished you then use the wick dipper to pull the wick up out of the wax, and it will be splendidly and lightly covered with a coat of wax ready to go for the next burn first thing in the morning!  Check out this Youtube video to see a wick dipper in action.

The other great advantage of using a wick dipper is that it allows you to center your wicks.  Once you’ve put out the flame with the wick dipper you can use it to nudge the wick back to the middle of the candle.  This will allow the candle, on the next burn, to form an even wax pool which will reach to the edges of your candle container at roughly the same time.  Centering the wick will ensure that you’re getting the most of your wax which will extend your candle’s life span.

Now when I first learned about wick dippers and how to use them I had my reservations about trying one.  I remember the first thought I had was “I can’t be man handling my candles!  I’ll snap the wick right off into the wax pool!  Is a little smoke worth potentially damaging my candle?!”

But the lure of this seemingly magical method and the promise that it would eliminate the after-smoke proved too much for my curiosity.  I had to at least give it a try.  I decided to experiment with a wick dipper on one of my cheap candles.  Much to my delight the wick of this cheap candle flexed easily right down into the wax pool giving hardly a trace of soot and was then effortlessly lifted straight and centered perfectly.

Since that very first experiment I’ve used a wick dipper ever since to put out all of my candles.  Over the years of my wick dipping with a variety of different candles I’ve not once broken or damaged a wick.  A flawless finish to my candle burning every time!
“I want a wick dipper too!” you say.

If you’re on the frugal side like myself (or ‘stingy’ as my wife would call it – just kidding love you honey!) you can do what I did and make your own wick dipper.  Obviously if you go this route you need to be sure you make your wick dipper from a material that isn’t flammable!  Hmmm.. note to self… Make Your Own Wick Dipper could be a good idea for a future blog post.

If you lack the time or energy required to make your own wick dipper or perhaps if you’re maybe a bit classier than I am (probably not very hard to achieve!) you can take a look at the many wick dippers for sale through Amazon.  For full disclosure to my readers I receive a tiny commission on anything my readers purchase through that link but it helps keep the blog running (so thank you very much if you happen to buy a wick dipper from that link!)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic!  Feel free to share any comments or feedback in the comment section below and be sure to sign up to our email list to get emails whenever there’s a new post here.  I hope you found this post helpful and that it helps you to to further enjoy your candles!  Happy candle burning!