Wax Melt Warmers
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I had not, until recently, used a wax melt warmer in my home. I’ve usually used candles or diffusers for fragrance.
Wax warmers, or wax melters, are devices that you place in a room to provide fragrance. They’re an efficient and eco-friendly alternative to candles. There’s no flame, low energy consumption, and they come in many pretty styles and colors!
Most candles come in glass jars. After you’ve used the candle, you often throw the jars away. Glass takes millions of years to decompose, which means they’re piling up in the landfills. And that’s not good.
One solution to this problem is wax warmers. Yes, some wax warmers are made of glass. Mine is. But they’re still more eco-friendly because you don’t toss them. You reuse the wax warmer repeatedly. Just keep adding new wax melts to it.
The wax melts are similar to candle wax without a container. They’re scented wax that comes in cubes or other shapes.
You place the wax melt on top of the wax warmer, turn it on, and let it melt. Then it slowly releases the scent into the air as it melts in the dish.
With wax warmers, you won’t have to keep buying candles when you’ve used them up. You can just keep buying the wax melts. Plus, wax melts are typically much cheaper than candles.
Types Of Wax Warmers:
There are tealight wax warmers and electric wax warmers. Mine is an electric wax warmer.
Tealight warmers come with a dish on top where you place your wax melt. You put the tealight underneath so that it will warm the dish where the wax melt has been placed.
Electric warmers are flameless and rely on electricity. There are two types of electric warmers. Some use light bulbs, and others have a heating element built into the plate.
My daughter rented a house to a woman, and a fire did severe damage to the house. It’s the house I live in now. After all was said and done, the fire inspector said the woman had lied about the cause. He said the fire was due to leaving a candle burning too close to a curtain.
So accidents happen with candles if you aren’t closely watching them. It’s safer to use a wax warmer.
I ordered this Better Homes & Gardens full-size hobnail wax warmer from Walmart to see if I like this type of thing. Here are the hand-poured scented soy wax melts I ordered.
Is It Safe To Use Diffusers Around Pets?
I recently read it was not good to use a wax melt warmer around pets. And you know that is a high priority for me. Now that I have three cats, I won’t be using the wax melts because I read that the fragrance itself can be an irritant to their lungs.
Many air fresheners, especially the plug-in types and reed diffusers, contain chemicals that can be harmful to cats. These products often include essential oils, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and other synthetic substances. That can cause a range of health issues in cats, from mild irritation to severe toxicity.
It’s best to avoid diffusing essential oils around dogs and cats. In addition to inhalation exposure to potentially toxic essential oils, microdroplets of oils could collect on your pet’s fur.
This exposure could lead to dermal absorption or eventual ingestion once your pet grooms or licks itself.
Home remedies for fleas or skin ailments using essential oils can be dangerous and are never advised, as concentrations and purity vary widely.
“Although some people use essential oils orally and topically for their own health needs, essential oils sold for human use should never be administered directly to pets,” cautions Dr. Michelle Lugones, DVM.
Some essential oils are known to be especially toxic to pets—including popular formulas such as tea tree oil, wintergreen, and pennyroyal. Pet parents should not even apply these on themselves because their pets could come in contact with the oil on their skin, adds Dr. Lugones.
So, in my estimation, I would say don’t use this type of thing if you have pets in your home.
The walmart warmers are not equipped with a sensor on the inside of the on/off switch and can indeed still cause harm because the bulb melts the wax at a higher than needed temperature. Also there is no warranty on their warmers either.
Thanks for the tip. I never leave mine when I’m using it.
I use a wax melter every day. I love it. I used to burn candles every day. Then, I had trouble with my furnace. It turns out the soot from the candles made my furnace filter clog. The filter was BLACK and I had to make sure the furnace was off before I could change the filter, as It was sucking it so hard with the soot!
The soy melts are safer than most candle type material. I would think that the amount of chemicals used to scent the melts would not be a huge amount given the size of a melt. Keep in mind also that you have houseplants that
will remove impurities in the air, so I think your exposure would be minimal. I have over the years used candles, plug -ins, essential oil diffusers and even room sprays. We have always been a multiple pet household, and our furbabies have lived to ripe old ages without difficulty. These days I am more conscious of indoor pollutants and strong scents as the critters have such a sensitive sense of smell. All in all, I think there are always ‘work arounds’ to keep us and our safe and happy! I love the hobnail wax warmer you got. So pretty and cozy looking with the light.
Be careful with essential oils, things like tea tree oil and some others are toxic to cats .
I have one of those too. I buy soy wax melts from my neighbor, a college student, who is running her own candle business as she goes to nursing school.
Hi Brenda. I like the new format. The photos are beautiful. I use Scenty warmers all the time and love them. They are very clean, have tons of fragrances and even have plug in wall warmers. Thanks for sharing. I love your blog ❤️
Brenda, I burn candles just about everyday, and have used wax melts off and on, many many times also, and even had the oils you plug into the wall socket. Just want you to know, we have always had a pet, dogs, ,the last one we had, from puppy to old age (17). We’ve usually had a cat also, at the same time, and through out the years, from young until old age (17). I never had a vet bill for any thing caused from this type of thing. Only for their shots and check-ups. So, maybe we were just lucky, but over the years, 57 years, I would tend to think this is not a health threat to pets. With cats, tho, I always burned a candle where they could not get to it, to knock it over, or get burned. Bonnie in WI
I’ve used a few if these in a mini crockpot.
https://pin.it/5q2CNNi
You can search Pinterest for natural room scents. The above link is from The Yummy Life.
I like all the categories on your blog. So easy to browse items of interest. Thank you!
My daughter and I use wax melt warmers all the time. We have two of them and I change the wax melts every week! We love shopping for different scents! Thank you for telling us that the Essential Oil diffusers are bad for pets. We don’t have any but I was considering them!
I was confused when I logged onto your blog this morning and your current post wasn’t there! I then saw “Blog” at the top and clicked on that. So it was easy to figure out.
I rarely diffuse essential oils anymore because of what I’ve read online about them and pets. The times I do, it’s in the back spare bedroom. The cats mainly stay in the living room and kitchen. I have a friend who uses a diffuser in her living room all the time and has two cats and a dog – and her pets have always been fine. So go figure. I’m not going to take any chances though.
As far as the wax melts, keep in mind that those are made with artificial fragrances. Same with candles (unless specifically made with essentials oils) and any plug-ins. So the scents that these products emit are actually worse for pet’s (and humans) lungs, not to mention they cause cancer. Here’s an article about this for more info:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/five-mustknows-on-the-dan_b_4737654
I didn’t know that. I did email the company who makes the soy melts, Julie Ann Home, and asked her if the cubes have phthalates. I’m just looking for something to scent my apartment that is safe.
Yep, if the female Cardinal is in view, the male isn’t far behind 🙂 Usually – but not always, unless the female feels very secure in a setting – you will hear and see the male first. If the male signals it is safe by a short call, the female will appear. I have a wax melter, it uses a little light bulb underneath the tray and plugs right into a wall outlet. I use mine the most between Thanksgiving and All Kings Day when I want the smell of cinnamon and pine trees in the house. In the spring/summer I will melt lilac, Lily of the Valley and apple scented wax. I can usually use my melts about 3 times before the scent from an individual melt fades too much to waft through a room.
When you say you use the melts about three times, does that mean that the first two times you turn it off before it fully melts?