I am a total candle newbie, and I was able to use this 17oz Electric Wax Melting Machine by PEEWF Household Equipment to make my first batch of homemade candles.  This method required no double boiler, so if that method makes you nervous, this machine could make candle making more approachable for you – like it did for me!  

Have you tried making candles at home? This machine made it easy.

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PEEWF Wax Melting Machine First Impressions – Video Review

I created this video to document my experience using the PEEWF Wax Melting Machine Candle Making Kit. In this video, I’ll demonstrate how I used this “Smart Candle Making Kit” to make my first two candles, plus I’ll include info on what I learned throughout this process and what I would do different next time.

If you don’t enjoy watching videos, read on. I’ll include the key points from my video review in written form.

There are a ton of candle making kits on Amazon, but this one caught my eye since it’s an all-in-one solution.  I wanted to try out a kit that would include everything I needed to get started. 

My Ideal Candle-Making Kit:

• designed with personal use in mind
• beginner friendly minimal equipment
• entry level cost
• beeswax or soy wax included – no Parafin wax since I have cats.

I decided to try out the PEEWF Beeswax Candle Making Kit For Adults Beginners. This candle making kit seemed like a good value considering I wouldn’t need to purchase a separate hot plate. At the time that I purchased it, there were two options, one for a $70 Canadian price point and one for a $135 price point. At the time of this article, the price has gone down 10%!

I purchased the cheaper price point because the additional items featured in the more expensive kit didn’t seem worth the nearly double price point.

Kit Option 1

Includes:

• 17oz Capacity Electric Wax Melter
• 4 x 4oz Wax
• 2 x 4oz tins
• metal spoon
• 50 x wicks
• 2 x wax centering devices
• 56 x glue dots
• silicone mold

View Product Listing

Kit Option 2

Includes:

• 17oz Capacity Electric Wax Melter
• 6 x 4oz Wax
• 4 x 4oz tins
• silicone spoon
• 20 x wicks
• 2 x wax centering devices
• 56 x glue dots
• 4 x fragrances
• 4 x dyes
• gloves

View Product Listing

I purchased Kit 1. Kit 1 doesn’t have the fragrance, dyes, or gloves. Kit 2 has a few more packs of wax and 2 extra tins. It includes a silicone spoon instead of a metal one, which is better for the non-stick surface of the inner pot. Kit 1 includes a silicone mold while option 2 does not. The dyes and fragrance looked a bit cheap so I preferred to buy these separately, personally.

First Impressions

It arrived at my doorstep in two boxes, one with the Wax Heat Machine and AC adaptor and one with the supplies.  

The Wax Heat Machine reminds me of a little rice cooker.  It’s quite small.  I feel like the imagery makes it look a bit bigger, but maybe it’s an illusion since they have a child operating it on the product photo (see image to the right).  

There is a short and sweet instruction manual – which was simultaneously simple and confusing. Some of the pictures don’t reflect the kit, such as step five in the image shows the wax being poured from another container with a spout, which is not included in the kit.  

It comes with two four ounce candle tins to get you started. Shipping resulted in a slight divot in one lid, but not a huge deal for personal use.

In addition to the tins, it includes this silicone mold.  I was a bit confused about why this was included with a candle kit.  I fell down a Google rabbit hole and learned about wax sachets.  Wax sachets are used to freshen up small spaces like drawers, closets, cars, and bathrooms. The wax is usually made of natural ingredients like beeswax or soy wax, and the sachets come in different shapes and sizes. They are an alternative to traditional air fresheners with the benefit of not using harsh chemicals and are eco-friendly.  I’ve never tried one, but now I want to.

Featured Candle-Making Products in this Article

• PEEWF Wax Melt Machine Candle Making Kit
• Candle Shop Candle Wax Dyes

But for now, let’s get back to candles.

It comes with enough wicks for 50 candles plus 56 double sided glue dots.  There is a long metal spoon too.

1 lb of beeswax is included in four packs – according to the product description that is enough wax for five 4 oz candles.

2 stainless steel wick centering devices

The Wax Melting Machine consists of 3 parts:

• the body
• the non-stick inner pot, which is advertised as both 16oz and 16.9oz  in the instructions as opposed to 17 oz on the marketing materials
• The lid cover, which is translucent, although I was not able to see through it to monitor the wax.  I feel like it should have been more transparent if that was the goal.

Let’s prepare the candle containers!

I peeled the glue dot backings off and attached the wick to the bottom centre of the tin.   Next I placed the stainless steel centering device over the wicks and set them on top of my candle.  

Here is where I wasn’t sure if the wick should be wedged in the skinnier part of the key shaped cut out.  The wick seemed too thick to stay within this section, cutting into the outer waxy edge of the wick.  Following the instructions in the kit, there’s no guidance on this. 

Let’s make some candles!  

Wait, how much wax do we need to make these two candles?

So this is advertised as a Candle Making Kit, however, the instructions are generic, and do not actually guide you through the exact process of making the 4oz candles in your kit.  I figured out on my own that I would want to fill the candles to the line on the tin.  By volume, wax weighs 20% less than water, so I crunched some numbers and figured out I would need 3.2 oz of wax for each candle, or 6.4oz total for both tins.  In other words, a 4oz container does not contain 4oz of wax, which may not be not intuitive for someone totally new to this.

The kit doesn’t include a scale, so I got my kitchen scale out. I measured it out, plus a little extra, just in case I was wrong about the calculations.

Let’s Melt the Wax

I poured the measured beeswax beans into the inner pot of the wax melting machine.  It barely had enough room for the 6.4 oz of wax.  

I turned the machine on, then selected the Solid button.  The instructions recommend this setting when using wax with a bean look.  For Solid wax, it sets the temperature of the machine to 185 degrees Fahrenheit or 120 degrees Celsius.  If it is canned wax or shaved wax, “ . . . “  no instructions for you.  I’m assuming that you’re setting to the Canned setting, which would change the setting to 167 degrees Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celsius.

I was feeling pretty confident at this point.  The wax was melting, nothing was on fire, and all was well.  I had been following the text-based instructions.  

However, I flipped over the guide and looked at the the picture-based guide:

Now I was a little confused:  on the picture guide, it says “heat 70°C.” It doesn’t tell you to adjust it to 70° C after melting at full heat for a certain amount of time, nor it doesn’t make it doesn’t make any mention of 70° Celsius in the written set of instructions AT ALL. So I had done 10 minutes on the automatic temperature setting, and it was showing 237°F, the equivalent of 113 degrees C. At the time, I wasn’t sure if this was fine. 

I later realized that there is an error in the instructions, because 185°F is equivalent to 85°C not 120°C.  

All in all, the instructions were throwing me for a loop. Between errors and inconsistency, what was I to believe?!

I panicked and switched the units to metric and reduced the temperature manually to 70°C. So for my first set of candles, I did the first ten minutes at 85°C then the next 10-15 minutes at 70°C. 

In retrospect, I think I would have been fine to keep the temperature on the automatic setting.  My understanding after rereading the fine print is that it will raise the temperature up to a maximum of 120°C to melt it more quickly, but after the melting is completed, it will return the device to either 85°C if you chose the solid setting, or 75°C is you chose the canned setting.  The instructions included never indicate that you need to wait for it the machine to automatically cool.  

However, there is no mention of 70°C for either solid or canned, so overall, the messaging was super confusing.

I let the machine do its thing, and after about 22 total minutes, even with the reduced temperature, the wax was successfully melted.

Adding Colour Dye

The basic kit does not include any fragrance oil nor any dyes. For my first attempt, I did not add any scents.  I was reading that adding essential oils to candles can be dangerous for a variety of reasons, so I want to be sure to research traditional fragrance oils more before taking the plunge into scented candles.

However, I did purchase a set of Candle Shop Candle Wax Dyes in a variety of colours, sold separately from the kit.  Each packet is 0.1 oz, which seems small, but you only need a tiny bit for a candle.  I used Aquamarine 12 for my first attempt.  

To dye 2.2 pounds of wax, you only need 0.08 ounces of the dye.  Since I was making 6.4 oz of candles here, I only needed 0.015 oz.    

I had a problem: my food scale was not sensitive enough to measure to this degree.  In fact, after zeroing out my scale, even if I dumped the whole packet in, it didn’t register the amount.  I ended up eyeballing an amount, and I suspect it was a little too much, but at this point, I figured I’d give it a try to I’d adjust my expectations for next time.  

Once the wax was completely melted, I mixed in the flakes of dye.  According to the dye packet, melting the dye requires the temperature to be between 152 – 194F, or 66 C – 90C.  I was sitting around 70 C by that point, so I was ready to go.  

I put a piece of kraft paper down over my surface, just in case of any spills.  I filled my containers up to the fill line, pouring from the spout, which is really not much of a spout at all.  It wasn’t easy to pour from such a wide mouthed area. 

I had a little extra wax, so I poured it into the silicone mold provided with the kit, just for fun.  This wax isn’t scented, so I have no idea what I’ll do with this, but I just wanted to see how it would turn out.

Now it’s time to wait to see how these candles set.  The kit does not indicate how long you should wait before burning.  Some sites said to wait minimum 24 hours, while others say to wait two weeks for the beeswax candles to fully cure.

This is how they are looking not long after pouring them, same evening:

While we wait, let’s talk about the candle making process with the PEEWF Beeswax Candle Making Kit.  

Overall, how do I feel about the kit?

Keep in mind that I’m brand new to candle making, so I’m not comparing to any other kits out there. I was looking for a way to make candles occasionally for my own use with minimal fuss, without the use of a stove, since I’m typically crafting from my basement.    

The machine itself seems well made.  I wish the lid  was clear rather than only slightly translucent.  Although it is lightweight, it feels quite nice.   If I were to make any requests, I wish it had the set temperature and the actual temperature separate on the display, so you can see what the machine is trying to do versus where it’s currently sitting in comparison.  I spent a lot of time in confusion about whether the machine was set to the correct temperature.  

I wish there was a true spout on the inner bucket.  For these particular containers it wasn’t that difficult to pour the wax, but I imagine with certain candle molds, it could get dicey.

I think the instructions could have been more polished, especially when sold as a kit.  There were some bad translations, incomplete sentences, and conflicting information in the “How to Make Candle” section compared to the “Guide of Using Wax Heat Machine.”  Sometimes they used Celsius only, or sometimes they used both but swapped between showing Celsius or Fahrenheit first.  

When writing the script for the video, I returned to the product listing to get some key details and noticed that there is actually more succinct instructions included on the listing itself.  If they had printed out these instructions and tucked it into the supplies box, I think it would have been a way better experience.

Here are the instructions that are included in the listing:

Our candle making kit only needs 6 steps. 

Honestly, if they had adjusted the instructions above with minor modifications like the required setting (Solid) for the wax they provided, plus let you know what is the pouring temperature, those instructions would have been much more effective than what was included in the kit.

Pros and Cons

Positives:

• easy to use, once you wrap your head around the instructions
• easy to clean; the wax wipes out of the non-stick inner pot easily
• melts the wax quickly

Negatives:

• learning curve due to instructions, “kit” does not actually feel like a kit and feels more like a collection of supplies
• no spout on inner pot; be sure to wipe any wax that leaks down the side of the inner pot before returning it to the machine
• inner pot is small; if you want to make a candle bigger than 8oz you will need to make multiple batches of wax

The Final Result

Here is how my very first candles turned out.  I actually love the colour!  There is quite a bit of dipping, most likely from those temperature fluctuations where I was fussing with the settings and trying to figure out what was going on.  

How to Get the Candle To Have a Smooth Top

I tried two methods to fix the candle’s top layer to give the candle a smooth appearance:

Here is the one I flattened with more wax, and here is the one I flattened with the hair dryer. The hair dryer took more active time, so I preferred the new layer method.

Overall, I’ve been enjoying using the PEEWF Candle Making Kit. It’s quick to heat up the wax and easy to clean. Let me know in the comments what you thought about this candle wax melting machine.  Have you tried it out, or have you tried out a different melting method.

At the time of publishing this article, I’ve now made about 10 candles using the PEEWF Wax Melting machine. I plan to continue to make more using it. For larger candles, you do need to heat up multiple batches of wax since the capacity is quite small. When using the colour dye, you have to have the exact ratio of wax to dye otherwise you’ll see the pouring line between the batches.

If you’re making candles occasionally and want to get started, the PEEWF Candle Making Kit & Wax Melting machine could be a great solution.