Whether you light with olive oil or candles, you can avoid the soot buildup with these two tips.
One of the most common questions we get in our inboxes is whether we have a solution to the black marks people see on the wall or ceiling where they light their Shabbos candles. And at Chanukah time, there are at least double the amount of messages.
We discussed it amongst ourselves and didn’t have a definite solution so we turned it over to our readers.
The two tips that were most consistent are simplest:
- Use high quality olive oil that you would use to cook with. Some companies market olive oil composites as “candlelighting oil” also labeled “pomace” olive oil but they’re inferior and will cause excess smoke and leave marks.
- Trim your wicks. Extra long wicks will also cause too much smoke. Trim them to be ¼” long before each time you light and you should have minimal smoke. You can use regular scissors, but make sure to keep the trimmed piece from falling into the oil. Wick trimmers will hold onto that piece for you and make it easier to dispose of.
Oh, and if you do already have soot marks on your wall, try this soot sponge.
Need some other Chanukah cleaning tips? We have tips for cleaning the menorah glasses, cleaning wax off the menorah or the tablecloth, or even avoiding the drippy wax on the kids’ menorahs.
Which olive oil is high quality? Thanks
Any oil that you would use for cooking.
Costco Kirkland brand is one of the tops.
A tip my mother heard many years ago: if you use floating wicks, make sure that only 1/3 is above the cork piece, with 2/3 below. Been doing that all my licht bentching life and bH no soot marks on the ceiling!
That particular soot eraser doesn’t have so many positive reviews… perhaps there is another that works better? Has anyone tried it? Several people in those reviews saying the magic sponge works well, just make sure to quickly wipe up the drips.
A trick is to use neironim instead of candles for shabbos candle lighting. Since we’ve switched to neironim, we haven’t had any soot. Neironim start out looking like candles but turn into a clear liquid as they melt.
Thanks to BC- I used Costco organic olive oil and was the first year my house was NOT covered in black ash everywhere. Was a gamechanger! Thank you!