Why did my melt stop smelling after one evening?

Because 8-12 hours is the normal life of one cube. The wax left in the dish is spent, not faulty — snap off a fresh 7-12 g piece and the throw returns.

Is a tea-light warmer worse than an electric one?

It runs hotter, and that costs scent. A full-size tealight pushes the dish past 80 °C and bakes the fragrance off, while an electric plate holds 60-75 °C and stretches the same cube much further.

Can I just add more oil for a stronger melt?

Only up to a point. The working load is 6-10% of wax weight; past about 12% the oil sweats out as the bar cools and leaves an oily ring in the dish instead of a stronger throw.

Do wax melts go off in storage?

Slowly. Sealed bars keep their scent for 12-24 months, but storage above about 30 °C or in direct sunlight softens the bar and shortens that window.

8-12 hof scent from one 7-12 g cube in an electric warmer

60-75 °Csurface temperature a hot-plate warmer settles at

6-10 %fragrance load by wax weight in a well-made melt

50-65 gweight of a standard snap bar

8-12 hours at 60-75 °C

Melted Magic X — Scented wax melts for electric and | meltedmagicx.com

One cube from a standard snap bar — 7-12 g of scented wax — keeps a room fragranced for roughly 8-12 hours in an electric warmer before the throw fades. The warmer's plate should settle at 60-75 °C: hot enough to keep the wax fully liquid, cool enough that the fragrance evaporates off the surface instead of baking away. Everything else on this page is the arithmetic behind those two numbers.

meltedmagicx.com
Melted Magic X · an independent reference on wax melts, burn times and warmer temperatures
Burn times, warmer temperatures and batch numbers for scented wax melts.

The answer in two numbers

The short answer, in numbers

50-65 gweight of a standard snap barIt snaps into 6-8 cubes of 7-12 g each — the bar is the batch, the cube is the dose.

0.025 kWhused per hour by a 25 W bulb warmerElectric warmers draw 10-40 W, so wattage is a fair proxy for how hot a model runs.

5-14 dayscure time before a fresh melt peaksOne to two weeks in a sealed bag is the usual working window for the hot throw to develop.

Every temperature that matters, one table

Wax melt points and warmer temperatures, with what each number does to the scent
Wax or warmer	Temperature	What it does to a melt
Paraffin, any grade	46-68 °C	Liquefies on every electric warmer
Paraffin, container grade	52-58 °C	The default snap-bar base; pools at 60 °C
Soy container blend	49-65 °C	Behaves like paraffin on a 60-75 °C plate
Beeswax	62-65 °C	Needs the warm end of the plate range
Electric hot plate	60-75 °C	Holds wax liquid without scorching the oil
Tea-light dish, full-size candle	past 80 °C	Bakes the scent off early
Fragrance oil flash point	above 90 °C	Safely over anything a warmer can reach
Candle flame tip	1,000-1,400 °C	Combustion — what a melt avoids entirely

Wax melt points and warmer temperatures, with what each number does to the scent

How long does one melt actually last?

Count on 8-12 hours of noticeable scent from a single 7-12 g cube in an electric warmer.

The clock starts when the wax liquefies and stops when the hot throw fades — not when the wax disappears, because nothing combusts at 75 °C and the wax itself never burns away. What leaves the dish is fragrance oil, evaporating off the warm surface hour after hour.

Scaled up, a 50-65 g snap bar breaks into 6-8 cubes, which puts a whole bar at roughly 48-96 scent hours. Lighter cubes from the same bar fade sooner; heavier cubes hold more oil and stretch toward the top of the range.

Warmer type moves the number too. A plate holding 60-75 °C evaporates oil at a steady rate, while a full-size tealight pushes the dish past 80 °C and bakes the scent off faster, shortening what the very same cube can give.

Throw faded to nothing within arm's reach of the warmer: the cube is spent, not the wax
A dish running past 80 °C on a tealight empties a cube noticeably faster
Bars stored above about 30 °C or in sunlight arrive at the warmer already weakened

Terms this page relies on

Snap bar: A scored slab of scented wax, 50-65 g, made to be broken by hand into single-burn portions.
Cube: One snapped portion of a bar, 7-12 g, dosed for a single dish and good for roughly 8-12 scent hours.
Fragrance load: The share of fragrance oil in the wax by weight, normally 6-10%; past about 12% the oil sweats out as the bar cools.
Hot throw: The strength of scent a melt gives off while warm — the quality that fades after 8-12 hours of evaporation.
Cure: The 5-14 day rest after pouring during which the oil binds evenly through the wax and the hot throw develops.
Flash point: The temperature at which an oil's vapours can ignite; candle fragrance oils sit above 90 °C, safely over the 60-75 °C working range.

Objections heard at the warmer

Why did my melt stop smelling after one evening?: Because 8-12 hours is the normal life of one cube. The wax left in the dish is spent, not faulty — snap off a fresh 7-12 g piece and the throw returns.
Is a tea-light warmer worse than an electric one?: It runs hotter, and that costs scent. A full-size tealight pushes the dish past 80 °C and bakes the fragrance off, while an electric plate holds 60-75 °C and stretches the same cube much further.
Can I just add more oil for a stronger melt?: Only up to a point. The working load is 6-10% of wax weight; past about 12% the oil sweats out as the bar cools and leaves an oily ring in the dish instead of a stronger throw.
Do wax melts go off in storage?: Slowly. Sealed bars keep their scent for 12-24 months, but storage above about 30 °C or in direct sunlight softens the bar and shortens that window.

How this reference is put together

The figures here are the standard working numbers of the craft: published melt ranges for paraffin, soy and beeswax, rated wattages and tealight sizes for warmers, and the weighing and curing practice used for home batches. Ranges are printed as ranges because the materials genuinely vary across grades and suppliers. No brand data and no sponsored figures are used.

Where these numbers come from

The figures are drawn from standard product specifications for container waxes, fragrance oils and warmers rather than from any single maker.