Diagnosing a candle problem
Tunneling, frosting, a candle that pulled away from the glass? Walk Ellie through what happened and she'll help you figure out why.
When a candle doesn't turn out the way you hoped, Ellie can help you work out what happened — and how to avoid it next time.
Walking through it
Open the Diagnose a problem wizard, pick a category for what went wrong, and answer Ellie's questions. She reads it back as a diagnosis with the likely cause. In a candle workspace, the categories are:
- Wick & flame — tunneling, mushrooming, sooting.
- Surface & finish — frosting, wet spots, a rough or lumpy top.
- Structural issues — sink holes, cracking, pulling away from the vessel.
- Scent & fragrance — weak hot throw, no cold throw.
Saving it to your notes
Heads up: A Save to notes option lets you keep the diagnosis attached to the batch's record — handy for catching the same problem before it happens twice.
Diagnose vs. burn test — use the right tool
This diagnose flow is for a one-off problem: something about this candle went wrong, and you want to know why. It's a different tool from the burn test log, which is the formal, structured test across a set of candidate wicks — you run a series of burns, record the numbers, and let Ellie tell you whether a wick passed or needs sizing up or down.
Put simply: diagnose answers "why did this go wrong?" after the fact. Burn testing answers "which wick is right?" before you settle on one. If you're mid-way through sizing a wick, log a burn test instead — diagnosing a single bad burn won't replace running the series.
Good to know
Diagnosing uses Ellie's AI, so it counts against your monthly session allowance — see Free plan limits & what upgrading unlocks.