Flower Pot Candle Heaters

[Miles]

Flower Pot Candle Heater.

Flower Pot Heater Is Dangerous.

I made this article with the intention that it will possibly save somebody's life.

Candle Heaters Do They Work?

Here we have a flower pot candle heater.
it is basically a terracotta pot with another one inside and a whole series of nuts and washers attached to a bolt which runs through.

Now, first, let me begin by saying that these clay pot heaters are very effective at dealing with condensation in an environment like on a boat.
If I'd been using this tea light heater throughout the night, there will be zero condensation.
They are extremely effective at dealing away with condensation.

The Clay Pot Heater.

The terracotta pot on top gets very hot and the bolt here gets so hot that you can't touch it.
In this case, this was attached to a chain because it's on a yacht(out of water).
Now, please take note of this because these are extremely dangerous devices.
The tea lights inside generate about 40 watts each so that's four in there now. So there are about a hundred and sixty watts of heat.
The heat inside gets so intense and what you actually create is a bomb.
The paraffin inside these kettle lights very quickly melts, it turns into a liquid as the candle heater works.

Flower Pot Heater Debunked.

Now, let me explain how these are dangerous. These kettle lights, tealights, whichever you want to call them, they should never be less than eight centimetres apart.
In this case, they are near on right next to each other.
What happens is there are two scenarios that can unfold because the wax turns to liquid, the intense heat creates the possibility for those liquids in each terracotta pot to ignite, however, if the wax liquid wax would leak out and get into this tray at the bottom, it then comes down the bar inside and you can never get rid of it.

Now, I had a fire with one of these and that exact scenario happened.

The wax leaked out and it came down the shaft of the threaded stud and during the night it flashes and flared up.
The whole thing ignited.
All the paraffin wax inside the saucer ignited and the flames came reaching out all the way up.
They came so high that they actually melted the hook and in the video below you can look at the damage it did there.
It was hanging on a hook and ignited in the night.
It nearly burned the boat down...I am serious.

Flower Pot Heater Does It Work?

Now, as I say these flower pot candle heaters are extremely effective at dealing with condensation, however, they are exceedingly dangerous. You must never ever use tea lights that close together. Now, despite saying this I still use this device because as I say it does deal with the condensation, however, I only use one tea light at a time but even then there is a danger because the heat that gets generated from this the device is really quite remarkable, it is intense heat.

The clay pot once it's been running for 10 minutes, you can't hold it, the threaded stud bar there is impossible to touch it without burning your fingers so please, please, please, if you're going to make one of these do not under any circumstances put multiple tea lights in and never ever leave it unattended.

Flower Pot Heater...Test?.....Please do not!

The possibility for this to ignite and flash flare is extremely high.
These are not safe devices and even though they may be aesthetically pleasing and very effective in many ways they are totally and utterly lethal.
They are very dangerous.
If you use these at some point the possibility of having a fire erupt within the actual liquid wax itself is extremely high.
These are very, very dangerous.
I had a lucky escape.
Please don't make the same mistake.

[Miles]

What makes terracotta flower pot heater dangerous? We explain why in this update to our previous safety warning about tea light candle heaters in an earlier 2014 video.
The flower pot candle heater is totally lethal and you are putting yourself in grave danger by using any of these tea light candle heaters. The design of the flower pot heater is the main source of the danger, as the terracotta pots used that are designed to insulate the heat from the candles causes the air around the candles to be extremely hot. This topped off with the fact that these tea light candles turn into liquid paraffin when used and that paraffin vapour accumulates in the superheated cavity of the terracotta pot. This creates the opportunity for a flash flare from within the terracotta pot and this in effect is an explosion.
Don't be fooled by any other design of flower pot candle heater and by that I refer to ones with, or without a studded bar for radiating out heat more.
Firstly, flower pot candle heaters do not work and secondly by design you are creating a deadly scenario.
Video transcript follows:
In 2014 we made a video warning people about the dangers of terracotta flower pot candle heaters. In this video, I'm going to
explain to you exactly why these candle heaters are so dangerous. In order to understand these heaters, we have to understand how they are made up. The very first thing is you need two terracotta pots, one fits inside the other and it insulates the other one that way Next on the list is the terracotta saucer, this is to stand your
candles in so they can burn. The purpose of the eyebolt is not only to hold everything together it serves also as a radiator because this gets heated up by the candles and the heat is radiated out
from that bolt. Last on the list is the candles themselves they're known as tea lights in the UK, I'm not too sure what they are known as in the rest of the world. When you light a tea candle, the wax is solid but within no time at all that wax turns into a liquid. When the wax melts into a liquid it turns into paraffin, paraffin wax as all it is is just a liquid paraffin wax. While that burns in the intense heat of the flower pot heater it starts to produce a vapour this vapour is not visible to the eye. As your candles burn the vapour and the
heat inside the flowerpots increases dramatically everything seems fine there are up to four candles burning away creating a little bit of heat in the cold of the winter. Now you are at a critical time you have liquid paraffin wax, you have paraffin vapour contained within a very. very. very hot flowerpot ready to burst into flames. If you're wondering how I know this? I know this because it happened to me in 2014. I had a lucky escape, I walked away
with my life. Flowerpot candle heaters, please don't use them, they're lethal. Flower pot candle heaters don't really work, don't put yourself at risk over an online idea that doesn't work in the first place.

[Miles]

Cold weather is here and around this time people try these flower pot candle heaters.
Flowerpot candle heaters are lethal. I nearly lost a boat to a fire in 2014 which was on dry standing in a boatyard.
Please don't be tempted to try them in this cold weather.

[Miles]

This video has actually gone viral on Youtube and has well over one million-plus views.
The one underlying and reoccurring element is people insisting on using these devices despite the warnings.
It appears the novelty and attractive design appeals more to people than their own safety and well being.
These flower pot candle heaters are dangerous not by design or due to the fact it has a bolt running through it or has two terracotta pots. They are so dangerous because of the paraffin vapour that gets given off by the candles and then ignites into a fireball.
Some say use beeswax candles or similar but really at the end of the day, the notion of developing a superheat from candles is bonkers.
It is like expecting a Seagull outboard to get the QE2 across the Atlantic.
Whilst the idea of insulating heat is obviously a necessity, achieving this by trapping inflammable vapours is quite simply a suicidal prospect.