Candle Warmer vs Wax Warmer: Which to Buy When You Can't Stick to One Scent | Bluegrass Gifts

Every Listing Says Warmer, and the Two Don't Do the Same Job

You want the living room to smell like fall without a flame, so you go shopping and every listing says warmer. Half are lamps and plates built around a jar candle. The other half hold a little dish of wax. That is the whole candle warmer vs wax warmer question, and the names do not help.

A candle warmer heats a jar candle you already own, with a lamp that melts the top or a plate that warms the jar from below, and it suits someone with one favorite scent. A wax warmer heats wax melts in a dish and suits someone who likes to change scents, because the old wax lifts out and a new one goes in whenever you like.

If the wax warmer wins, our Sweater Weather gingerbread wax melts for a wax warmer are the scent we would start the season with: gingerbread, latte and crisp air. They come as a 9 oz bag of shaped tarts or an 8 oz squeeze pouch, $16.99 either way. First, though, which warmer you actually need.

The difference is where the heat goes. A candle warmer lamp hangs a bulb over the jar, so the top of the candle melts into a pool while the wick sits unlit. A candle warmer plate is a heated pad that warms the jar from the bottom up. A wax warmer puts the heat under a dish: a bulb or a heating plate in an electric one, or a tealight in the older style, which is a real flame and gets the same rules as any candle.

So the choice is not really about the gadget. It is about what you want to buy over and over for the next few years: jar candles, or melts.

Candle Warmer vs Wax Warmer, Side by Side

Here is the list we would want taped inside the cabinet door. Each line gives the candle warmer first.

• What goes in it. Candle warmer: a jar candle that fits under the lamp or on the plate. Wax warmer: tarts, or soft wax from a pouch, in the dish.
• Where the heat goes. Candle warmer: down onto the candle from a lamp, or up through the jar from a plate. Wax warmer: into a shallow dish, so the whole puddle warms at once.
• Changing scents. Candle warmer: change the jar, and the one you took off goes back in the cabinet mostly full. Wax warmer: let the wax set, lift it out, drop in something else. Tuesday is fine.
• How strong it gets. Candle warmer: as strong as that candle was made to be. Wax warmer: one tart for a bathroom, two for an open living room, or squeeze in what the room needs.
• How you know it is spent. Candle warmer: by nose only, because the wax line barely moves. Wax warmer: by nose too, but the fix is one fresh melt.
• What you keep buying. Candle warmer: whole jar candles, plus the odd bulb for a lamp. Wax warmer: melts, plus the odd bulb if yours runs on one.
• What is left at the end. Candle warmer: a jar of wax that smells of nothing, to scrape out. Wax warmer: one disc of spent wax for the trash, never the sink.
• Who it suits. Candle warmer: someone with a cabinet of jar candles they love, or one scent for the whole season. Wax warmer: someone who wants gingerbread in the living room tonight and something lighter in the bathroom by Friday.
• What to watch. Candle warmer: a jar on a plate gets hot, and so do a lamp's bulb and shade. Wax warmer: the dish and the melted wax get hot, and melts look like candy to small hands.

If you read that list nodding at the first half of every line, buy the candle warmer and use the candles you have. That habit already works.

◆ From the Workshop: Our squeeze pouch is the same coconut-soy wax and fragrance oil as our tarts, with one change: we add mineral oil. That is what keeps the wax soft enough to squeeze straight from the spout into a warmer dish, a little for the bathroom or more for the living room. It is also why we never call the 8 oz pouch natural; the tarts are plant-based and the pouch is not, and you should know that before you pick. The mineral oil changes how the wax handles, not how it smells: the pouch throws harder than a tart, and the scent holds batch to batch even when the wax color drifts.

What Happens to a Jar Candle That Lives on a Warmer

A jar candle on a warmer never burns, so the wax does not go anywhere. What leaves is the fragrance, a little at a time, out of whatever wax is melted: the top layer under a lamp, more of the jar on a plate. After enough evenings you have a candle that looks barely touched and smells like the memory of one. That is when people decide the warmer is broken. It is not. The candle is spent.

There is a real upside. A lamp melts the top edge to edge, so the candle that tunneled down the middle last winter gets a full, flat pool again. Some people scoop out the faded top layer to reach the wax underneath, which has not been melted yet. It can buy a tired candle more time, but it is a job with a spoon.

The trade is commitment. You are on that jar's scent until you swap jars, and every swap leaves another mostly full candle in the cabinet. If the real question is whether to keep lighting candles at all, we wrote a piece on wax melts vs candles and which one is right for your house.

Why a Wax Warmer Lets You Change Your Mind by Supper

A wax warmer is built around the idea that you will change your mind. The scent lives in a few ounces of wax in a dish, not a whole jar, so moving on costs you one melt. Gingerbread on a cold Sunday, something fresher on the Tuesday you cooked fish.

To switch, turn it off and let the wax set. It usually lifts out in one piece; if it holds on, a minute of warmth loosens the edge. The old disc goes in the trash, never down a drain. You also decide how strong it gets, which a candle never lets you do. Our tarts carry fragrance oil at ten percent of their weight, and one is plenty for a small room; the pouch lets you go lighter or heavier than a tart. If your warmer still seems faint, we wrote up why wax melts smell weak and how to get a strong scent.

This is where Sweater Weather earns its spot. Gingerbread, latte and crisp air make it a fall scent, best in the living room on a dark evening or near the front door, the first thing you smell coming in from the cold. When December shows up, lift it out and put in Jingle Bell Jammies: cinnamon, clove, evergreen and gingerbread latte. Nothing half-used goes back in a cabinet.

The rules are short, and they are the ones on our listing: use a warmer made for wax melts, never leave a warmer on unattended, and keep it away from children and pets. Melts look a lot like candy, and they are not food. A candle warmer is made for jar candles, so give melts a warmer of their own.

Candle Warmer vs Wax Warmer: What We'd Buy in Your Shoes

Open the cabinet before you open a shopping tab. If it holds jar candles you still like, a candle warmer will get every one used without a flame. If it holds half-burned jars you got tired of, a candle warmer will only warm the scents you already stopped wanting. That cabinet is telling you to buy a wax warmer.

The same goes for how you live. One scent all season, every room: candle warmer. Gingerbread in the living room, something fresh in the bathroom, something different the week company comes: wax warmer.

We are a small Kentucky shop with 5,000+ customer reviews, and we pour our Bluegrass Belle Wax & Wick melts by hand in the same shop where we carve our signs. Every scent comes as tarts in boots and hats, flowers, squares, hearts or bears, or as a squeeze pouch, and ships free in the U.S. If you want the next scent waiting when this one fades, the wax melts collection runs thirty scents deep, and any two or more melts or signs earn up to 20% off at checkout.

If the wax warmer won, start it on the first cool evening of the year. Get the Sweater Weather gingerbread wax melts, tarts or pouch, and have the living room smelling like October by the time the porch light comes on.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the downsides of using a candle warmer?

The main downsides of a candle warmer are that it only works with a jar candle that fits it, it keeps you on one scent per jar, and the jar still looks full after the fragrance is gone, so it is hard to tell when a candle is spent. The glass, the bulb and the shade get hot, so switch it off when you leave the room. Every new scent also means a whole new candle. If you like to change scents often, a wax warmer with melts is usually the better fit.

Do you pour out wax from candle warmer?

No, you do not pour wax out of a jar candle on a candle warmer; the wax stays in the jar, hardens when you switch the warmer off and melts again the next time you turn it on, until the scent is gone and the candle is spent. With a wax warmer you do not pour either: let the wax set in the dish, lift it out in one piece and add a fresh melt. Never pour melted wax down a sink, where it sets in the pipe. When you are done with the jar, scrape the wax into the trash and wash the glass.

Should you get the Sweater Weather tarts or the squeeze pouch for a wax warmer?

Get the tarts if you like dropping in one piece at a time, and the squeeze pouch if you want to squeeze in only what the room needs; both are Sweater Weather, both go in any warmer made for wax melts, and both are $16.99 with free U.S. shipping. The tarts come as a 9 oz bag in one of five shapes: boots and hats, flowers, squares, hearts or bears. They are coconut-soy wax with fragrance oil at a ten percent load, natural and plant-based. The 8 oz pouch adds mineral oil, so it throws harder, it is not a natural product, and its wax color can change from batch to batch while the scent stays the same.