Save money and be prepared by having these 50 Hour Soy Survival Candles on hand. I have seen stores charge a lot of money for survival long-burning candles, but you can make your own for less than $2.00 per jar and it is so easy to do!
I swear I am reaping so many benefits from doing this Happy Homesteading series of posts, as I get to learn these new skills and find out to to survive on my own a little bit more. Plus doing these projects are so much FUN!
All you need are some half pint glass canning jars, a 5 lb. bag of soy wax, some wicks, aluminum foil and a #10 can.
WAX: I found that the most cost effective price for soy wax was on amazon : The Milliard Wax 5 lb. bag is $12.99 plus free shipping if you have amazon prime. I checked my local craft stores and unless you have a coupon this is still a better deal. I used soy wax because it is all natural, renewable, non toxic, burns clean, helps support the American farmer and has a longer burn time than many other types of paraffin waxes.
WICKS: I ordered these Candlescience 6 inch Soy wax coated candle wicks for $8.99 (50 pack). I think you might be able to also find a smaller pack of 6 inch wicks at your local craft stores for less, but since I get free shipping with Amazon prime, I love ordering my items online, saving a trip.
GLASS JARS: The 5 lbs of soy wax will fill 13 half-pint sized glass canning jars. You can buy these half-pint jars online at Amazon, or at your local Walmart/Target store for around $8-$12 a case. Also keep your eyes out on craigslist or yard sales for canning jars. Luckily I had a box of unused jars sitting in my garage from a time when I was going to make some jam and didn’t (ahem.)
#10 CAN: You can use a double boiler pan if you like, but for ease in cleaning I wanted to use an old #10 can to melt my wax in. I can throw the can away or reuse it again the next time I make candles. If you do use a #10 can, make sure and bend one of the edges so it will be easier to pour the hot wax in the jars.
How To Make 50 Hour Soy Survival Candles
Start a double boiling system by bringing a larger pot of water to boil. Only fill it half-way so when you add your can of wax the water won’t overflow. I filled my number ten can with 2.5 lbs of soy wax flakes.
While the water was heating up, add the wicks to each of your jars. Tip: if you have a hot glue gun add a drop of hot glue on the bottom of the metal part of the wick and stick it straight in the center of the jar. It helps the wick to hold up straighter after you pour the wax.
Once the wax is melted, using hot pads I poured the wax into the jars with wicks.
To help hold your wicks straight while it cools poke hole in a little square of aluminum foil, thread the wick through and seal around the jar.
I then melted the other half of the soy wax flakes and poured them into jars as well.
After they all cool, trim the wicks to 1/4 inch. I just set the scissors across the jar so all the wicks would be the same size after being cut.
Then enjoy your 50 Hour Soy Survival Candles! Just put the lids on them (adding in a pack of matches) and pack them away until your next power outage or disaster. Then you will have heat as well as light for up to 50 hours each candle.
Note: I did add some essential oils to one of the candles and it smelled lovely. I was thinking that if there was a power outage or disaster it would be better to have non-scented candles so it wouldn’t give me a headache, so keep that in mind. And only use products that are safe to use with melted oil so you don’t get exploding wax or something.
WORTH THE COST? YES – can cost as low as $1.18 per candle, which is an amazing price for Soy candles with a 50 hour burn time.
WORTH THE TIME? Yes, for the amount of money you can save, and how quick and easy it was this is very worth the time.
Price breakdown:
- I paid $12.99 for the 5 lb. bag of Soy wax
- I paid $8.99 for 50 soy wicks ($0.18 each wick = $2.34 for 13 wicks used)
- I had the jars sitting in my garage. If you didn’t you would pay $8-$10 at Walmart or online.
- Note: I was able to fill 13 jars with the 5 lb.s of wax
Final cost for me was $1.18 each candle, but if you needed to purchase the jars it would run you $1.79-$2.00 per jar.
How To Make 50 Hour Soy Survival Candles
Instructions
- Start a double boiling system by bringing a larger pot of water to boil. Only fill it half-way so when you add your can of wax the water won't overflow. I filled my number ten can with 2.5 lbs of soy wax flakes at a time and did this twice.
- While the water was heating up, add the wicks to each of your jars. Tip: if you have a hot glue gun add a drop of hot glue on the bottom of the metal part of the wick and stick it straight in the center of the jar. It helps the wick to hold up straighter after you pour the wax.
- Once the wax is melted, using hot pads I poured the wax into the jars with wicks.To help hold your wicks straight while it cools poke hole in a little square of aluminum foil, thread the wick through and seal around the jar.
- I then melted the other half of the soy wax flakes and poured them into jars as well.
- After they all cool, trim the wicks to 1/4 inch. I just set the scissors across the jar so all the wicks would be the same size after being cut.
Notes
Have you ever made your own homemade candles? Any other tips or tricks you have found to save even more money?
Loved you rendering and candlemaking posts. For the jars, many brands of pasta sauce and other products come in actual canning jars. That will also cut the cost.
– Kitty
Made these and the work great, thanks!
I love the idea of 50hr candles. I’ve seen similar ones made with Crisco (or generic shortening).
I also like the tip of taping the matches right to the holder. If you have stick matches you can dip them in wax to make them waterproof.
at what point do you add the essential oil and how much?
The soy wax link you provided is now selling it for $29.99, not 12.99. FYI
$61.95 now for the 5 pound
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I am making my candles today as my “Survival Saturday” project! I ordered from Amazon as you recommended and so far I am having fun! Thanks again for making it so hassle free!
Thanks for the detailed candle article and instructions! Where else can we sell our candles other than Etsy?
When you burn the candles to they smoke?
I didn’t notice any real smoke except maybe when lighting and snuffing it out.
If you were to use Beeswax in place of Soy would the burn time be about the same? Thank you so much!
I am not sure because I am not tried it before. Anybody else tried it?
Thank you for this awesome tutorial! I followed your instructions and just finished making 26 survival candles! Final cost for me was about $1.50 each, which is much cheaper than any others I’ve seen for sale. We’re a prepper family so this was a fun weekend project for us. : )
How awesome!
I just finished burning one of my candles and I only got 35 hours of burn time. I didn’t burn it continuously, through, just for a good part of the day for a few days. I wonder why mine burned faster. I had the same jars, wax, and wicks. Do you think it was because I didn’t burn it continuously? Or maybe because it’s the hottest part of summer? I’m not a very experienced candle person so I’m not sure!
Sorry, I am not sure why you only got 35 hours from your candle. Next time you burn another one let me know how it does.
I just saw this and love the idea. Out of curiosity, how long do they take to cool? I was thinking about making these at a church activity and I was just wondering if I would have time for them.
a few hours 🙂
I see in your recipe that you stated you used 2.5 lbs of the 5lbs in the bag, for 13 pint-sized jars.
Is what you stated right, and that you had extra wax left over? Or did you use all the wax for 13 pint-sized jars?
The 5 lbs of soy wax will fill 13 half-pint sized glass canning jars. I used only half of the wax at a time so it wasn’t filled too full.
Just a side-note: whenever I buy candles (from tea lights to fancy dining room tapers to basic power-out candles) I freeze them for four hours or more. Overnight works well.
They then burn twice as long. (I have never burned them frozen, they might then burn even longer-or not at all!)
I tried an experiment with my fancy tapers, and burned them at dinner after having frozen one pair (actually, I had forgotten about the little experiment until I burned them!) the difference was drastic to say the least.
It’s worth making space in the freezer overnight.
My question is, How do you get the wick to burn the whole time down and not fall in and not get the whole use of the candle. For some reason mine are not burning the whole wick down & I can’t figure it out. Please email me your answer.
I usually cut the wick if it’s too long so it stays straight/not bending. It seems to always burn all the way down for me this way. Thanks for the question.
Silly question, but what is a #10 can?
You have probably seen a #10 can before but it is usually not labeled. They look like metal cans of coffee that you might see at your local grocery stores or if you ever seen food stored in bulk it usually is in one of those cans. It is about 5 times as large as a metal soup can and holds more food for a longer amount of time.
What step do I add the essential oils?
I added in some essential oils into the individual jars before adding in the wicks. That way I could control how many candles I added them to. 🙂
How hot do candles get I want mine to heat up a little green house 6 ft wide x 2 ft deep and only 2 ft high.
This is so late to the thread but I just used up my paddywax soy candle which cost me £15-16 and as much as I loved it, was I grudging having to pay it again. This is perfect, I’m going to use lemongrass and verbena essential oil and hopefully it’ll smell as good 🙂
Thank you for all the creative ideas, I am now obsessed with this blog!
xox