Forums > Technical Discussion > burn time problems

Posted: 28th Nov 2001
Vlad. Do you mind if we have a little more information?For example...1. Are you using poi or staffs?2. Do you know how wide the wick is and how long? eg 3 inches wide and 1.5 feet long per end.3. Are you spinning off excessively or not enough?4. Is the wick tightly bound, loosely bound or is it a cathedral style weave?5. Do you on average move the poi really fast, reasonably fast or at a relaxed speed?Sorry for all the questions but it makes it much easier to make a more informed answer.As for me with my staffs, I've found a high temperature and low humidity can make me use fuel up almost twice as fast, esepcially if the wick is only loosely bound.Cheers------------------Charles (INFERNO)newdolbel@hotmail.comhttps://juggling.co.nz

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Posted: 28th Nov 2001
I'm using poi with approximately 4 feet of 2.5 in wide wick, done interleave/cathedral style (I followed adamrice's isntructions). I'm not sure how tightly bound it is...I don't really have anything to gauge that with. I spin off until I don't drip or I don't hear a lot of fuel hitting the ground. During the testing I was doing it was fairly relaxed, though maybe on the slightly faster side. I understand it's probably pretty difficult to analyze something like that remotely, but hopefully someone may have some advice to troubleshoot it. BTW, I've only put on about 8 burns per wick.

How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?

Posted: 28th Nov 2001
That really is a short burn. Should be at least double that, I'd think. Is it possible you just aren't soaking them enough? I know, you probably are, but I'm just grasping at straws. Your first few soaks will take a few minutes; after your wicks have a few burns in them you'll be able to get an adequate soak in under 30 seconds.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy

Posted: 28th Nov 2001
whoa vlad, your from tucson. my home town. did i spin with you? well good luck with your poroblem. wish i had more experience with kevlar to help you out...

anyone got a light?

Posted: 29th Nov 2001
Definitely soaked them enough. Before the first burn, they had been soaking all day. between burns at least a few minutes.What happens to a cathedral-style wick based upon how tight it is? I would assume looser --> more fuel exposed --> shorter burn.Yep, pozee, that's me. do you remember when you did it with us if it felt like a short amount of time?thanks for the comments so far.Vlad

How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?

Posted: 29th Nov 2001
Vlad--I haven't done any testing on this, so take this with a grain of salt, but my intuition is that a wick made up too tightly will not allow the fuel at the center to transport out from the center very well. So you'd only be burning off the fuel closer to the surface, leaving the fuel at the center unburned. In other words looser=better.On the other hand, I've heard it said that if a wick is not made up tightly, it'll wear out more quickly. There may be some truth to that, but I'd rather get satisfactory burn time.And finally, unless you've bound the cathedral wick at the corners, or bound it *really* tightly *and* used really big washers to compress the bundle, it doesn't seem like it would be possible to compress the whole bundle all that tightly. So I'm still kind of at a loss.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy

Posted: 29th Nov 2001
Just from observation:I think that temp and humidity do have something to do with burn time. Moving from Colorado to Michigan and also going to Burning Man and coming back to MichiganI have noticed that in dryer climates I do not get the long burn time I get in the humidity--seems that might have something to do with evaporation?--for instance I can spin my wicks out and save them to burn later in Michigan--at Burning Man this was not an option--too dry or that's what I attributed it too.Also from spinning in the cold, I noticed that it is very hard to spin my wicks out thoroughly and that my burn time is longer, at least by 45 seconds. Of course I have no hard evidence to support this --just experience from moving so much and spinning in radically different climates.Hope this helps!

Posted: 29th Nov 2001
The beach is generally windy, and wind + fast spinning tends to make burn time ridiculously short.Could try spinning somewhere else, and see how long they last? Rule out if it's to do with humidity in general or sea-spray specifically.

Posted: 10th Nov 2012
I've got a similar problem. I'm using the medium cathedral poi available through this website, and have been using them for a few weeks now. I've noticed, however, that the first time I burned them, I got an insanely long burn (>5min) but, since then, I've been lucky to get 2 minutes. I'm burning with kerosene, and soak them for a minute or two beforehand in the fuel, and give them a quick spin or two to get rid of the fuel. Afterwards, I soak them in water to cool them off, and store them in a tupperware container with a little bit of fuel. Is there any reason for this reduced burn time that anyone can think of/any possible solution?

Posted: 11th Nov 2012
"Afterwards i soak them in water to cool them off"
If your wick are wet with water then they cant soak up as much kerosean. Less fule = less burn time. You need to dry out your wicks leave them outside in the sun for a few days to dry. If you need to cool your wicks then put out the flames let them cool for a short while then give them a quick dip in your kerosean. Warning never do this if your useing a fule with a higher flash point like white gas!!!!

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