Remove Candle Wax
Candles are a great addition to nearly any room in your house, but, unfortunately, candlelit ambiance sometimes comes with a mess. Do you have stubborn dried candle wax on your tablecloth, clothing, or candlestick that you can't seem to remove? Don't stress - with the right approach, cleaning candle wax spills isn't hard. Usually, removing wax is a simple matter of re-melting it or cooling it so it can be chipped off. See Step 1 below to get started.
Contents
Steps
Using a Hair Dryer
- Find and plug in a blow dryer. In this method, a blow dryer is used to re-heat and melt the candle wax so that it be easily wiped up. This method is a great choice for hard surfaces like tabletops and candlesticks. It's not quite as good of a choice for fabrics, especially if the wax is colored, as melting the wax without immediately soaking it up can cause the stain to spread.
- Blow dry the wax until it melts. Set your blow dryer to a "hot" setting and use it to heat up the wax. As you do so, try not blow the wax around - it's easier to wipe up if it's all in one puddle, rather than spread out.
- Wipe it away. Use a cheap cloth or paper towel to wipe away the melted wax. Wax can be difficult to get out of the cloth or towel you use to wipe up the mess, so be sure not to use your "nice" towels. An old rag or a disposable paper towel will do the trick.
- Get rid of leftover residue. If there's a film of wax left over, get rid of it with a little spray cleaner and a damp rag or sponge. All-purpose cleaning fluid works fine. If you're working on a fragile surface (like, for example, a fine wooden tabletop), be sure not to damage your surface with an abrasive rag or sponge.
- If necessary, repeat. If, after wiping and scrubbing, any lingering bits of wax remain, try melting them again with the blow dryer and wiping them up, then using spray cleaner again. Repeat until clean.
Using an Iron
- Set an iron to medium heat. This method is similar to the blow dryer method in that it removes dried candle wax by melting it. However, this method differs in that it allows you to soak up wax as it melts, rather than wipe it up when it's all melted. Because of this, it's a great choice for wax that's stuck to fabric or clothing.
- Though it's obvious, one thing bears mentioning: as you should during any occasion that calls for a hot iron, use caution with this method. Handle the iron with care - if you're unsure whether it's hot or not, flick a little water at it, rather than touching it. Never leave hot irons unattended, especially not face down.
- Layer towels over the wax. As your iron heats, put paper towels on top of the troublesome wax, making sure that they are as large or larger than the iron. Cover the layer of paper towels with a fabric kitchen towel.
- Place the iron on the kitchen towel. Gently rub the iron back and forth as you would if you were ironing clothes. This will gradually heat and melt the wax, which will be absorbed by the layer of paper towels as it melts. Keeping the iron in constant, gentle motion prevents it from burning your towel.
- Replace paper towels as necessary. Periodically remove the iron and towels to check your progress. If your paper towels start to appear saturated with liquid wax, discard them and replace them with new paper towels. Repeat until the wax is fully absorbed.
- Replacing saturated paper towels is important. If you allow your paper towels to become completely soaked with wax and continue working, you'll start to spread hot wax around the fabric, rather than soaking it up. This can make the stain caused by wax bigger, which you definitely don't want.
- Turn off the iron. When you seem not to be making any more progress on your candle wax, you may turn off your iron and discard your paper towels. Be patient - this can take upwards of ten minutes. When you've soaked up all the wax you can, all that should remain is a slight discoloration in the fabric (assuming the candle was made from colored wax).
- Remove any remaining color with a carpet cleaner. To get any lingering discoloration out of your fabric, switch to a carpet or fabric cleaner. Use an appropriate cleaner - one that won't damage your fabric - and scrub gently with a wet rag after allowing the cleaner to soak in.
Cooling and Scraping Using Canned Air
- Get a canister of compressed air. Unlike the above methods, this method involves cooling rather than heating dried wax to make it easier to chip or scrape off of a surface. This method is a great choice if the wax is on a hard surface, such as a table or counter top, especially if the wax is too soft and gel-like to easily remove, but not liquid enough to wipe away or soak up. This also works well on non-washable fabrics like rayon and silk.
- Canned air is available at most office supply stores. It's also commonly kept in any place where computers are used, like office buildings and schools, as it's often used to clean computers.
- Blow the air on the wax to cool it. Spray the wax with compressed air. The cool, rapidly-moving air should gradually cause the wax to cool and stiffen, becoming more brittle.
- Scrape away the wax. Once the wax has hardened, use the edge of a credit card (or another similar stiff plastic item) to scrape it off. The wax should easily separate from the surface it's attached to, chipping off in brittle chunks. Repeat the blowing and scraping processes as needed.
- It can be tempting to do so, but don't use a metal object (like a knife) to scrape. Metal can gouge or scratch the surface you're trying to remove the wax from, permanently marring its surface.
- Follow up with all-purpose cleaner. When you've scraped as much wax away as you possibly can, you may notice a thin film or residue remaining. Use a little all-purpose cleaner and a wet rag to quickly soak this up and leave your surface like new.
- If you're having trouble, use ice. Using ice to freeze some stubborn wax can create minor puddles, but it's quicker and even more effective than canned air. Grab an ice cube with a rag and rub the wax, touching the ice directly to it. The colder wax gets, the more brittle it becomes, so you should have even greater success when scraping it away.
Tips
- Wax and water do not mix; washing the area with water will not help remove the wax.
- Hair dryers can burn cloth if used too close, especially on high heat.
- If it's on a glass table or mirror table, make sure to scrape away any easy removable wax. Then make sure you have a wet rag that has warm water. Scrub it hard or fairly rough enough to take some wax off. Then take a dry rag and wipe away all until you can see yourself clearly or it looks shiny.
- If it's on something small put it in the freezer for 1 hour and then use a fork, knife, or spoon to pull it up.
Warnings
- Don't spray canned air on your skin.
