Candle Wax on Cloth Upholstery

M

mndanelsncsu

New member
Hey, new to the forum here. I'll preface this by saying that I tried searching for the answer to my question prior to posting this, but didn't see what I was looking for. Here's what I've got:



Last summer, my wife and I were moving and she left of a box of candles in her car during the middle of the day and thought nothing of it. Later that day, we went to move more boxes and found that some of the candles had melted onto the cloth seats in her Accord. We tried to clean as much wax up as possible with towels and rags, but apparently didn't get it all because now the car has an overwhelming smell from one of the particular candles.. I can smell it before I even open the doors. Are there any tricks of the trade I can do to remove whatever wax may still be on the seats and also eliminate the smell? I like having a constant air freshener, but this is overboard.



Thanks in advance!
 
Haha, does the candle smell good?



I suppose I would do the regular cleanup on the fabric. Woolite+water with repeated scrubbing, wet-vac, and repeat. That should get out a lot of the candle smell.
 
To remove candle wax from fabrics, I was always told to lay a towel over the area then use an iron. An iron to iron clothes of course. It will heat up the wax and the towel will soak most if not all of it up.
 
'mike, to answer your question... yes, the candle smells good in moderation, but during the summer in NC with 100 degree days, its very overwhelming. Not only that, but it\'s my wife\'s argument to get a new car, because the smell is overpowering which I\'m not buying. There\'s no BMW in her future. \r\n\r\nThanks for the info thus far... I\'ll try anything at this point that won\'t ruin the seats'
 
You're not supposed to be doing kinky stuff with hot candle wax in your car anyway!! Save that for home, much easier washing the sheets than scrubbing seats.



If you have access to a steamer, you should be able to steam it, then wipe most of it off..
 
Yeah, I wish I could say that were the reason for the wax on the seat, but I'm married, so you know all that's out the window.



Which off all the aforementioned methods would be the best then? How would you rank the order I should try?
 
There's a product called "Wax Away", made by a company called Weiman. It's some kind of clear solvent that emulsifies the paraffin.



Forget where I got it...perhaps the "Home Trends" catalog (see if they have a website or do a 'net search).
 
I've had quite a bit of experience here. My method for getting wax out of carpet is to lay a WET towel on the wax and then iron the spot. Once that part of the towel has mostly dried then move to a new part of the wet towel. Repeat until you get up as much wax as you can. I was able to completely remove a fair amount of black wax from a beige carpet.



Results vary based on the quality of the candle wax. Cheap candles are much harder to get out.
 
Wax=oil=solvent. If you have an extractor, shop vac or LGM, spray a solvent base cleaner (fabric safe), scrub, suck, repeat a few times.
 
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