Which soots more? Soy or Paraffin?
Over-wicked sooty soy candle
Candle Testing--One scent with different wicks
As many of you know there is a huge debate over which type of candle soots more? Many people accuse paraffin of being the super sooting culprit. In fact, I have even seen some candle makers do tests to try and prove that paraffin soots more. The problem with one of the tests in particular that I have seen is that the candle maker was trying to hold all variables (wax, fragrance used, container size and wick) of the candle constant. They used the same wick, dye and scent to show that the paraffin candle sooted more. The problem is that they held the wick constant. Soy and paraffin do not use the same size wick for the same candle diameter. To really make this study work you would need to test burn each wax with the same scent and dye in the same container and get the correct wick for each. Then you could test burn those two candles soy vs paraffin with their own wicks but the same scent and dye.
The other problem that I have is that there are a lot of different paraffin waxes on the market. Some have more oil content then others and will soot more. To make this even more of a fair burn to really try and see if paraffin soots more you would want to test burn with a low oil paraffin. I am no lover of paraffin but I do think that a low oil paraffin can produce less soot than many other candles when wicked properly. Some soy candles soot like the dickens because they use too much fragrance oil or the wrong wick size as you can see in the top picture. Some paraffin candles soot very little because they have the proper balance of wax, wick, fragrance oil and dye. And I do say small amounts of soot as all combustion produces some soot. CO2 + H2O + incomplete combustive products (soot). The more complete combustion that you have the less soot you will have period.
When it comes down to it, the candle that produces the least amount of soot will be the one that is fully in balance to work with a wick that has been tested for it's particular combination of fragrance, dye, wax and container size. That is why testing is so important! Without proper testing you really won't know what your candle is doing and how much it will be sooting! Moral of the story--test test test!
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