www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall cotton "lamp" wicks

We're having a challenge with our cotton lamp wick. Some lamps recently are burning out before the end of liturgy.

We use olive oil and have for a long time. We have cotton wicks, held up by "Russian" style basically like this [easternchristiansupply.biz], tho we don't bend the wick holders.

We use wicks from Holy Cross Hermitage. The wicks used to come in a small brown envelope like this [holycross-hermitage.com]. The wicks looked much like hand spun cotton, single ply. The latest shipment came in zip lock bags and are tightly spun and 4 ply. Using these, divided into single ply or two ply, recently some of our lamps are burning out before the end of Divine Liturgy.

We tried using cotton from a mop head today in a couple lamps during a work day and they also burned out before a DL would have ended. We tried "opening up" one ply of the new style Holy Cross wicks to make it look more like the old more softly twisted wicks. We only had an hour to let those burn before we needed to leave. They were still burning but that doesn't convince me of anything as what I've seen is that the lamps seem to be burning fine and then go out. When they go out of course the wick is burned all the way down to the metal holder.

I might have thought the problem was how the wicks were pulled up, how far they got pulled up, to prepare to be lit the next time, but 4 that went out were ones I'd pulled up in the temple area but also a number on the altar lamps, which the deacon had pulled up, also went out before the end of DL as well.

For those of you who use this style of lamp can you recommend wicks you've been happy with? As I said these same lamps did not burn out in the past so there is no reason to think it has anything to do with the oil or the wick holders, neither of which is any different than in the past.

I like floating wick holders, myself. They are self-trimming and usually last for several hours of continuous burning.

I would recommend, if you want to continue using more traditional lamp wicks, that you go to an arts and crafts store (e.g., Michaels, AC Moore, etc.) and look in the candle-making section, where you can get high quality wicks at reasonable prices.

At St. Elias in Brampton we have over 80 lamps fueled by olive oil and using wick holders from Nativity of Christ, Old Rite Church in Eire, PA. We use wick purchased from the hardware store available through the Lehigh Group, Macungie, PA www.lehighgroup.com [lehighgroup.com] It is medium wight cotton household twine of mixed fibers: cotton, polyester, rayon. We cut it to 12-14" lenghts double it and feed it throught the wick holder. It should be primed before lighting it. In the church it burns for vespers, matins, and Divine Lit. This is about 6 hours of burning time. After this we trim the wicks and fill the lamps with more oil. At home I can burn it for 12 hours. Much less air flow.

If you contact me through this forum's mail with your full name and mailing address, I will send you some of this wick.

Question: How do these wicks avoid the oily, noisome smoke that comes from burning polyester and rayon? There are also nasty toxic fumes associated with those materials. Are synthetics just a small percentage of the total wick material?

Thank you for your responses.


Ours wick holders [tinyurl.com] are just like the ones shown on their web site.


Thank you Father David. I will PM you and be glad to try a bit of the wick you're using.

Today again two or three lamps on the iconostasis and 4 other lamps in very different parts of the temple again started out just fine, then appeared to go out but on closer look were in fact still lit, like embers, but ultimately went out completely. Apparently some on the altar again also went out.

I have reason tomorrow to be at the Orthodox parish I sometimes go to and I'm going to check with them as well.

Fiberglass wicks are fairly common for household and camping use; they don't have the issues of plastic wicks, are fairly stable, but have a shorter wicking distance.

I have no idea of the percentages of the fibers. However, I have no problem with smoke either when buring or when being extinguished. We used to use a 100% cotton wick purchased from the grocery store but it is no longer available. If you have the name of a supplier or manufacturer of 100% cotton wick that is available do let me know. If you send me your e-mail via the forum I can make available to you detailed notes on the care and buring of these wicks.

So, they use cotton mop head, one ply out of the 4 ply, same as we have in some of our lamps, including ones we tried burning during our work day, which didn't last 2 hours.

Fr Deacon David's PM gave a best length for the wick of 3/16” or 4mm which makes me think we have been pulling ours out too far, although why some would burn out and others not, I don't know. I'm going to pull the wicks back down to the length he suggests, 3/16” or 4mm. And even though our wick holders look ok to my old eyes, I'm also going to try cleaning them with the method he suggested- simmering in a pot with baking soda and water for about 5 minutes.

Fr David- Your twine wick arrived today! It's quite different in appearance from the several other options we've used. This Sunday I will clean the wick holders and discard the current wicks and next Sunday we'll see what happens with cleaned holders and your wick, following the description in your PM, plus, if needed, some of our other stuff.

Merci!

(Also my husband will be pleased with your postage stamp for the Quaker Missions Project [archive.southcoasttoday.com] funded by such stamps, which he's been collecting for and donating to for many years.)