Candle accident.

[Dabrowski]

No, I didn't burn my house down.

But one of my candles (large church style candle) decided this evening to melt it's side down, and leaked a lot of molten wax.

The wax ran over the edge of the saucer it was on, over the edge of the shelf, down a £200 speaker, and onto the carpet.

The shelf I can deal with, the speaker will probably survive once I've picked all the wax off the cones, the problem is the carpet.

I've figured the wax would be too thick to soak into the fabric, it's just all stuck down and matted, anyone know how to deal with this?

[Swanny007]

I'm not sure. I had a candle drip on the new carpet in an apartment I lived in. I tried using an iron and piece of cloth to heat it and get it out. That didn't really work. I tried spray on/rub off things. In the end much of the wax residue remained... I never found anything that worked wonderfully. Hopefully someone else has a good tip.

[Woz]

Cut any large bits of wax out if you can do so without affecting the carpet too much. Then place a few thicknesses of common old garden variety Brown Paper over the wax and run a WARM iron over it very gently. The wax should melt and be absorbed into the paper. Change the paper as needed and work slowly and carefully. Of course, make sure the iron is not too hot or you may damage the carpet itself.

Onya
Woz

[londrum]

cut out the affected section of carpet with a pair of scissors, and then wash it under a warm tap.

[LifeinAsia]

A flame torch should melt the wax. :)

[londrum]

yeah, or just drip a load of wax all over the rest of the carpet as well, and then it won't notice

[callivert]

put some newspaper over it, then iron it. It heats and softens the wax. This is what you do for clothes, so it could work for carpet also.

[King_Fisher]

I dont know if it would work with wax, but here's what I did for some bubble gum my kids mashed into the carpet.

Took some dry ice and left it on the mess for about 20 minutes. Froze it solid
and I was able to pick it off with tweezers.

Normally heat just makes a bigger mess of things!...KF

[Essex_boy]

A flame torch should melt the wax. - Or Napalm.

[trannack]

I've also done this - and it was on friends dead expensive carpet while I was house sitting - aaaahhh. Anyway. Kitchen roll and iron - totally got it out without leaving a mark at all.

As mentioned before - don't get the iron too hot - and just keep replacing the kitchen towel until it is totally gone. I didn't ine newspaper or brown paper got it all out - guess they aren't as absorbant.

Good luck!

[Dabrowski]

Wow thanks for the suggestions guys!

I was going to go with KF's suggestion but I think I'll try trannack's kitchen roll.

I agree that normally I'd have used newspaper or brown paper but thought the wax would be too viscous to be absorbed.

Now just one question, how warm is a warm iron? Just turned all the way down, or are we talking 'touch' warm with the red light still on?

[trannack]

You'll have to tweak this as you go - but best advice would be to start on low - and if it isn't working gradually increase the heat until you reach the necessary temp. I guess some of this will depend on what fibres are in the carpet - and quality of the wax.

[Old_Honky]

The absolute best thing to get wax off a carpet is a steam cleaner. I'm not just saying that because I sell them, I have personally used one to clean off wax drippings after we had a power cut a year or so ago.

Rubbing and ironing on paper will only get off some of the wax and as for cutting bits off the carpet, not a good idea.

This is what you do;

Buy or borrow a steam cleaner. It has to be a proper pressurised steam cleaner not one of the cheapo un-pressurised ones because the steam is not hot enough.

Use the detail nozzle (sometimes called the steam jet or concentrator nozzle), hold a large towel to one side of the wax stain then get the detail nozzle as deep in the pile the other side of the stain as you can and blow the wax out of the carpet and onto the towel. Don't try and rub the wax that will only spread it thinly. Blowing the stain off from the side really works and you will end up with no wax on your carpet.

[edited by: Old_Honky at 2:04 pm (utc) on Dec. 17, 2007]

[Dabrowski]

LOL! But then how do I get it off my towel? Blow it onto the wall?

[Habtom]

But then how do I get it off my towel?

I say you first get it off from the carpet, as soon as you do that, start a different thread "how do I remove it from my towel?", that needs a different set of skills. :)

[Dabrowski]

Maybe I could blow it onto an England towel and sell it on eBay 'As used by David Beckham statue in Madame Tussauds'?

[Old_Honky]

0/10 for initiative.

You wash the towel in the sink or in the washing machine using a hot wash.

[Dabrowski]

Hey chill out dude, only kidding. If I had a steamer I would do it that way, but as I haven't then iron and kitchen roll will have to do.

I've currently disguised the patch for now by putting a pile of xmas pressies on top of it, so I'll let you know how it goes after they're gone!

[Old_Honky]

Hey chill out dude, only kidding.

I know, so was I.

[lawman]

You two kidders .... oh my. :)

[Dabrowski]

ok, just an update.....

Thankyou for all suggestions, I have completely removed the wax with no visible signs left on the carpet.

I have had experience with irons and carpet before, not good, so I went with KF's suggestion with a little modification.

I used the thin end of a metal nail file, first stabbing the large patches to break them up, then combing the wax out. Every now and again stopping to scrub the carpet with the hoover's brush.

Took a little time but worked fantastically.

Of course, I would probably have used napalm but I'm all out.