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While not the law, industry standards serve as voluntary standards for candle makers as it pertains to testing. ASTM F 2417 is the primary source for standard candle testing. It outlines procedures, provides clear definitions for all components of the standard, and characterizes all fail points of a burn test.
…but the procedures outlined within aren’t exactly realistic for how customers really consume their candles. For instance, we know that wick trimming is recommended but most people ignore this. Well, the wick testing guidelines in ASTM F 2417 require you to trim the wick before each 4-hour burn.
4 hours? Yep. Figuring out the average candle use time would be an interesting statistic, but it’s likely all over the map.
Some people start a candle then run out the door 20 minutes later, blowing it out before it has a chance to burn. Others may burn the candle all day as they quarantine in their office, well exceeding the 4-hour limit commonly printed on candle instruction cards.
But you still need to follow the industry standard. Well, technically you don’t have to, but if you ignore it your candle making operation is at risk for making a product against industry standards. In a Product Liability case this won’t look too great.
Testing your candles in unique and alternative patterns is a good way to understand the limits and behavior for more realistic consumption. In fact, it’s darn near Best Practice to conduct variance and chaos candle testing. But no matter what you do, always have a formal industry standard burn test for every candle in your records, just in case.
And don’t only do it once. Try and test your candle design with relative frequency if you’re pumping out hundreds through various lots of wax. A starting point may be 1 in every 100 or 200 candles should be quality tested to make sure you’re within the allowed margins of your product’s expected performance.
Voluntary is expected in the case of problems
Also conduct quality of life tests – variance, chaos, etc
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