How to Clean a Wax Warmer Full of Wax That Smells Like Nothing | Bluegrass Gifts

The Dish Is Full and the Room Smells Like Nothing

You switch the warmer on, wait, and get nothing. The wax in the dish has been there three scents running, a dog hair is set in it like a fossil, and the best it can manage is warm crayon. The scent is gone, the wax is not, and it is time to learn how to clean a wax warmer.

To clean a wax warmer, warm the old wax until its edge turns glossy, switch it off and unplug it, then pop the disc out and wipe the dish with a paper towel. A dish that lifts off can go in the freezer instead, but the base never gets water, the freezer or a metal scraper.

Then give the clean dish something worth smelling. Ours is Lemonade Stand, a strawberry lemonade wax melt for a freshly cleaned wax warmer: fresh lemonade, ripe strawberry and sugar, poured by hand in our Kentucky shop and sold as a bag of shaped tarts or a squeeze pouch.

First, though, lift the dish. If it comes off the base, every method below is open to you. If it is fixed in place, as it is on plenty of plug-in and ceramic warmers, use the warm-pop and keep the freezer and the sink out of it.

How to Clean a Wax Warmer the Warm-Pop Way

This is the method we would reach for first: it works on any warmer made for wax melts, fixed dish or not, and needs only paper towels. Watch the wax, not the clock; warmers run at different heats.

1. Let it set. If the wax is liquid, switch off and wait until it is solid and opaque to the center. Half-set wax smears.
2. Warm it, briefly. Switch on and watch the edge. When a thin, glossy ring shows where the wax meets the dish, switch off and unplug.
3. Pop it out. Push the disc from one side with a folded paper towel, or tip a removable dish over the trash can, and it slides free in one piece.
4. Wipe while it is warm. One slow lap with a folded paper towel or a cotton pad; the leftover heat keeps the film soft enough to wipe away.
5. Cut the shine. Any greasy film left once the dish is cool comes off with a cotton pad and a little rubbing alcohol. Let it dry completely before the warmer goes back on.
6. Refill light. Fresh wax, well below the rim.

Already liquid and no patience? Switch off, unplug and drop two or three cotton pads into the pool; they drink it up, and kitchen tongs lift them out while they are still soft. To plan ahead, lay a short cotton string across the wax the next time it melts, ends over the rim, and when the scent is spent, warm it to the glossy edge and lift the disc out by the string. We covered the filling side of this in how to use wax melts without making a mess, and the short version is one or two melts, never a heaped dish.

◆ From the Workshop: There is always wax left to clean out, and the reason is in the recipe. Our tarts are a coconut-soy wax blend and fragrance oil, ten percent by weight, so a 9 oz bag holds a little under an ounce of fragrance oil and roughly eight ounces of wax. The fragrance is what leaves the dish and fills the room; the wax stays put, melting and setting until it smells like nothing. It stops at ten percent because wax only holds so much fragrance oil before the extra weeps out onto the surface, and an oily tart is a mess in the bag and in your warmer. A full dish with no smell left is not a broken warmer; it is a melt that finished its job.

The Freezer Trick Works, but Only on a Dish That Lifts Off

The cold method is the tidiest one there is, with one hard rule: the dish goes in the freezer, the warmer does not. Let the wax set and the dish cool, unplug, lift the dish off and freeze it until the wax looks frosty and the dish is cold to the touch. Wax shrinks a little as it chills and lets go of the dish, so a press of the thumb or a gentle twist pops the disc out whole.

Two steps get left out of most instructions. A freezing dish should never go straight back onto a warm base, because glass and glazed ceramic can crack from a fast jump in temperature, so let it come back to room temperature first. And a cold dish sweats: dry it completely, inside and underneath, before it goes anywhere near the cord. If your dish does not lift off, skip all of this; the warm-pop does the same job with no water anywhere near the unit.

A Clean Wax Warmer Means the Film, the Ring and the Outside Too

An empty dish is not the same as a clean one. Old wax leaves three kinds of mess behind, and each has its own fix, done with the warmer unplugged and cool.

• The greasy film. Leftover fragrance oil and a thin skin of wax. A cotton pad and a little rubbing alcohol take it off; let the dish dry before it goes back on.
• The tinted or dark ring. Color and baked-on residue where the edge of the wax sat. A paste of baking soda and a few drops of water on a soft sponge, worked in small circles, lifts it without scratching. Wash a removable dish by hand in warm, soapy water and dry it; give a fixed dish a cloth that is damp, not wet.
• The drips down the outside. Let them harden, then lift them with a fingernail or an old plastic gift card. Wipe the base with a barely damp, soapy cloth, spraying the cloth and never the warmer. Wax on the cord or plug comes off before the next use, and a cracked or damaged cord retires the warmer.

Glazed ceramic wants gentle tools: scratches from a knife or a metal scouring pad grip wax and old scent, so stay with the soft sponge even on a stubborn ring. Wax that reached the counter gets the same treatment: let it harden, lift it with the card, wipe. And if you came here about a hair-removal wax heater, that is a different machine, and its maker's cleaning instructions are the ones to follow.

Can You Just Drop a New Melt on Top of the Old Wax?

It sounds thrifty, and it is the shortcut we would talk you out of. The old wax has given up its fragrance and only takes up room, so the new melt spreads into twice the wax, the two scents muddy together, and the pool creeps toward the rim, which is how wax ends up down the side in the first place. Clean it out first, every time.

The schedule is simple: clean the dish whenever the scent quits or you want a different one. How long that takes is its own question, and we answered it in how long wax melts last. Dust or pet hair settling into the wax is a fine reason to clean early.

Then refill on purpose. With tarts, that means one or two in the empty dish. The squeeze pouch makes it easier still: it is soft wax you squeeze straight into the dish, so you put in exactly what the dish should hold, with no crumbs on the counter and nothing heaped above the rim. For that first fill we would pick Lemonade Stand, fresh lemonade, ripe strawberry and sugar, a bright one for a kitchen while you clean or a mudroom that smells like dog. The 9 oz bag of tarts and the 8 oz pouch are both $16.99 and ship free in the U.S.

We are a small Kentucky shop with 5,000+ customer reviews, and we pour every melt by hand in the same shop where we carve our signs. If lemonade is not what your house wants, the wax melts collection holds all thirty scents, and since any two or more melts or signs earn up to 20% off at checkout, a freshly cleaned warmer is a fair excuse to line up the next scent too.

The dish is empty and clean, which is the easiest it will ever be to decide what goes in next. Make it the Lemonade Stand strawberry lemonade wax melts, and let the first thing your clean warmer smells like be fresh lemonade and ripe strawberry.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you remove cold wax from a wax warmer?

To remove cold wax from a wax warmer, switch it on just until the edge of the wax turns glossy, then switch it off, unplug it and push the disc out in one piece with a folded paper towel. If the dish lifts off the base, you can let it cool and freeze the dish alone until the wax looks frosty, and it pops free with a press of your thumb. Wipe the dish with a paper towel afterward. Never chip at cold wax with a knife, and never put the base in the freezer.

Does wax in a wax warmer go bad?

Wax in a wax warmer does not spoil the way food does, but it does wear out: the fragrance oil is the part you smell, and a little more of it leaves the wax every time it melts, until what is left smells like nothing at all. Dust and pet hair also settle into an open dish. When the scent is gone or the wax looks dull and dusty, clean the dish out and start fresh. Dropping a new melt on top of the old wax only waters down the new scent.

Should I get the Lemonade Stand tarts or the squeeze pouch?

Get the Lemonade Stand tarts if you like dropping in a shape or two at a time, and the squeeze pouch if you want a stronger throw and exact control over how much wax goes in the dish. The 9 oz bag holds tarts in one of five shapes (boots and hats, flowers, squares, hearts or bears), made of our coconut-soy wax blend and fragrance oil, natural and plant-based. The 8 oz squeeze pouch is the same wax and fragrance oil with mineral oil added, so it is not a natural product, and its color varies from batch to batch while the scent stays the same. Both are $16.99 and ship free in the U.S.