Tealight warning

[Mydahliasareshit]

Something just happened, and with Halloween and Bonfire Night approaching thought I'd mention it.

Been using candles and tealights of all kinds for 35 years without any issues whatsoever.

I had a couple of 8 hour tealights with only about 20 mins left in each, and just lit them to finish off while chilling and reading. Normally have them in a tealight holder or glass jar but didn't fuss tonight.

I noticed one of them started flaming up rather high, about 5 inches, before pretty much completely combusting on itself. Never seen this happen before. Dealt with it swiftly by suffocating the flame (no water) and all fine except for a circular burn mark on the shelf (silly me).

Obviously won't be using them without a sturdy holder ever again, but was taken aback by how quickly it happened (and grateful I was present and nothing else caught).

Apparently the physics of it are in the last mm of wax that get so hot amplified by the aluminium casings it can just go off.

Very handy post thanks @Mydahliasareshit And I have seen this happen actually! Several times. Rather alarming to say the least. I would never EVER go out without extinguishing any lit candles!

I have seen this too! The foil cup sort of crumpled in on itself in the end.

Ooh, I did that when I was a teenager. Mum seriously unimpressed.

I've seen it happen inside a wax burner. Flames were licking up the burner and the pressure of the tealight "exploding" cracked the burner. Luckily, I was in the room and managed to chuck a wet tea towel over the whole mess, but it was pretty impressive.

Apparently the physics of it are in the last mm of wax that get so hot amplified by the aluminium casings it can just go off.

😱 That would never have crossed my mind. Thanks for the explanation.

on the last pack I bought it had a warning to only light once.
maybe that's why.

I've never noticed it before.

I'm only going to do that from now on, thanks for letting us know!