How do you remove candle wax from carpet?
Maria from Los Angeles
First, carefully scrape off all you can with a putty knife. Second, take several layers of paper towels and put over spots gently iron over the spots with your iron on no steam setting . If you are worried about your carpet fibers test in a place where it won't show or on a carpet scrap. Also, use the lowest setting. Hope this helps. (06/19/2001)
Tonight, Halloween, my dog knocked a candle jar off a table and wax just streamed across my carpet. I had no idea what to do, so I figured I'd let it harden and try to pick it off. Well that just made my wax line and splatters all white looking on my beige carpet. So I searched online and ended up at this site. I'm glad I did because I followed the advice of Susan. Although after scraping it I vacuumed up the loose wax. Then I put paper towels down and set my iron to the lowest setting and wha-lah, the wax absorbed into the paper towels and my carpet is fine! Thanks! (10/31/2003)
By Valorie
Try this firstly, use a brown paper bag or just a plain paper bag, put a few spots of vinegar onto the carpet then put warm iron (set on low) onto the paper bag for about 10 seconds, then the wax should stick to the paper. Repeat until no more wax comes up. Then if there is any residue use a damp cloth or a sponge and add a little vinegar and rub it in this should remove any stain left. (04/24/2004)
By Beatrice
May I just advise people to make sure that before using an iron and paper towel, make sure that the iron is on a low setting first as my stupid boyfriend tried this out and now i have to sit and look at a iron shaped scorch mark in the middle of my carpet! (01/09/2005)
By LORNA
You guys are awesome! I just tried this maneuver and it totally worked. All I did was used pieces of a brown paper bag and my iron on setting 2 which is basically the lowest. It only took me about 10 minutes and it was the easiest thing I've ever done as far as cleaning spills! I was even able to get this huge chunk of wax off the kitchen chair. Thank you all and thank God for this site! (03/03/2005)
By Kristy
To say I had a "major" wax spill on my dining room carpet is an understatement. Knowing that I already had a disaster, I had nothing to loose by trying the paper bag/iron technique to remove the wax. To my utter amazement and absolute delight, it worked. Not only did it just work, it worked extremely well! From my personal experience, I found better results using (brown) paper bags over paper towels. (04/29/2005)
By Sandy
What I have done in the past and has worked for me, is I take an old rag that can be discarded. I heat up an iron (on low), place the rag over the wax and iron it out. It takes a few tries but it will come out. (05/14/2005)
By Leila Gibb
First get the wax as cold as possible with a bag of ice. Scrape the largest chunks up with a spatula.
Now get a pile of newspapers and a hot iron. Use a three layers of paper. Put the paper over the wax and iron back and forth for just a minute. Then get three more layers and iron for another minute or so. Repeat this process a few times until all the wax is gone. You'll be amazed, really. (05/20/2005)
By Ardis Ilene Barnes
Thank you so much for this site. A true life saver. I was very skeptical at first, worried about the carpet fibers, worried if i would damage the iron in any way. Then I thought I've just got to give it a go. it didn't take very long, maybe 20 minutes or so. and once i cleared the large patch of wax in the lounge, I went investigating other rooms where I knew there were wax splashes on our carpets. Much easier than I thought it would be. Thank you! (07/10/2005)
By Sharon J
I discovered a couple hours ago a big glob of hardened wax on my rug, and I don't know for how long it's been there! So I tried the brown paper bag method and it seems to have worked to a certain degree. I've got wax residue deep in the shag, though. It's pliable after I run the iron over it, but it's not coming up. Vinegar doesn't seem to help. Any suggestions? (07/13/2005)
By Michelle
THANK YOU! We have had a glob of candle wax on the carpet for over a year and have tried everything until I found this site. It ABSOLUTELY works. (07/13/2005)
By Joe
Michelle,
Keep using the iron while using new paper towels. I also had the wax deep into the shag. Just use your fingers to fluff the carpet fibers up each time and it will eventually come up. It may take a while but I think it work for you..it did for me. Good luck! (07/13/2005)
By Joe
I used the brown bag/iron technique to remove candle wax from a beautiful canvas handbag that I have and it worked like a DREAM! Thanks a million to the genius who came up with this! (07/21/2005)
By Alison
It should work to use the iron off method. Make sure that your iron is set on delicate or low, cover the wax on the pants with paper towels on both sides of the fabric. Keep ironing until the wax is gone. Basically the method melts the wax and the paper towels absorb it so make sure when the towel has wax in it, to use some new sheets. (07/25/2005)
You just saved my night, wax is gone. however I would recommend you don't use the weekly adds section, the ink will bleed into your carpet. I used vinegar and soap to get it out FYI. (09/21/2005)
By melinda
I THANK GOD FOR YOU! I have just moved into my new apartment. I bought this place abut 1 month ago and just put in a new white berber carpet that cost me a fortune! Last night I left a huge candle burning by mistake on a silver plate on the counter top that faces my living room from the kitchen. This morning when I woke up I didn't even notice that the brand new candle dripped from the candle onto the countertop then off on to my white carpet.
When I got home from work, I was frantic! The pile of wax was about 1 foot in diameter and piled about 1/4 to 1 inch think! The candle was originally about 14 inches tall and 3 inches diameter. I started to scrape off the candle wax hoping it would all come up in one piece and some of it did, but the area where it originally started to drip ended up being about 5 inches around.
It took me a whole roll of paper towels and about 2 hours of careful ironing, but it came up! The candle was a dark mountain blue color and had a wonderful scent so it left a bit of a shadow on my carpet so I took some Resolve Dual action carpet cleaner and i was able to remove the stain almost in its entirety. All it looks like now is a tiny little shadow on my carpet which I can definitely live with.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! This method is a life saver! (09/22/2005)
By kristy in miami
Ok, so this is going to sound odd, but I am going to ask before I assume. My wife had a foot/hand waxer, one of those used at spas for Lord knows what. Anyway, it holds probably 1/2 to 1 gallon of wax. Not sure of the type. The dog knocked it over, spilling it on the carpet... ALL OF IT! Is this iron trick going to work? (09/28/2005)
By Eli
Hello Eli,
Yes, it should work but first I would try to scrape up as much as you can with a putty knife. When you have it down a little, you can try the iron and paper towels. You can also use newspaper over the paper towel but don't put them directly on the carpet or the ink from the newsprint might transfer.
Hopefully you can get it to come up with less than 744 rolls of towels. (09/28/2005)
This spot is about 2 feet across and thick. In fact, knocking on the top of the spot sounds like knocking on a hardwood floor. I did use the iron and pare towel trick and, by God, it works like a charm! It is a long process, due to the volume of the spill and the larger area than a normal candle splash, but it IS working. (09/29/2005)
By Eli
Thank you so much. My husband and I just moved into this really nice apartment two months ago. Last weekend wax dripped onto our brand new carpet. I used paper towels and an iron and it worked great. It wasn't a little spot either. Thank you so much!
(10/05/2005)
By renter
Thanks so much thrifty fun it worked just super! I always use this site to find handy household hint. You're much better than that hints from Heloise. (12/03/2005)
By Krex
Place double layers of white paper towels over the wax. Use your iron over the towels to melt the wax into the paper, effectively blotting it up. Move the surface of the towel to provide a free area as needed until all the wax is removed. (12/13/2005)
By Cate Kohr
Another tip that works: Goo Gone will remove the wax, then scrub with a mixture of Oxiclean and hot water. I then used hot water in my carpet cleaner to finish rinsing and get it up. Only drawback is that the Goo Gone odor is not gone for a while! (12/13/2005)
By kayse
The iron and paper towel method removed dark green candle wax from a "pine" scented candle. This worked great removing all of the stain from my brand new carpet. Thanks! (12/13/2005)
By Scott G
Yeah, watch out with burning the carpet. I did that slightly. But mostly I just removed the big wax stain, the slight burn stain is little in comparison. Make sure you have two paper towels stacked on top of each other when you do this technique. (02/15/2006)
By
I have been looking and asking how to get candle wax out of my bedroom carpet. I must say that the hot iron over the paper towel is the bomb, never seen something work so good. Thank you guys for that. (04/13/2006)
By wesley
I have to tell you I wasn't sure whether I should try this or not but it works. I used a butter knife to scrape off the built up wax, vacuumed, two paper towels and an iron (on a low setting). The wax was spread across a huge area along with the spot where the candle actually landed. Anyway, you could see grease like spots on the paper towels as I moved the iron. Of course I used about a half a roll of paper towels but you can't even see where the wax was. Thanks for the tip! (05/09/2006)
By LD
My daughter scraped a RED candle out of its container and "finger-painted" on my beige carpeting. I kept reading about ironing the carpet but I was a little worried about burning our carpet since the builder put in cheap carpet. I decided to use my hair dryer on the hot setting and focus it on one little spot at a time. After heating up a spot at a time, I blotted the spot with paper towel and it came out like a breeze!!! I was in shock. The wax has sat under a chair for over a year and we forgot about it! I used a regular spot cleaner after that to clean up any extra residue and you can't tell it was ever there! (05/09/2006)
By KB
I love this advice! I had red candle wax and it worked like a charm! I rent so this really saved my butt. (06/25/2006)
By Tiffany
Thanks for the advice. I'm renting an apartment and was a little nervous about using an iron on the carpet. I used a blow dryer and paper towels now you can't even tell there was ever wax there. (08/14/2006)
By Caroline
I couldn't believe it myself but it really works. Right after I used the iron and paper towel theory, I used a vacuum to pull up some of the residue and it seemed to work for me. Thanks a lot for the advice. (09/08/2006)
By Mel
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