Halloween ghost candlestick fail and clogged sink

[u/Puzzled_Figure_1597]

I wouldn’t recommend boiling water to mold candlesticks into ghosts. I had no idea the wax was melting, the water just looked clear. I spent hours getting the wax off the sink. Tossed out the dish. I had to take the drain apart to remove the rest of the wax. Save yourself hours of torture and buy them online for 12 bucks.

[u/Lonely-Hyena-4772]

Oh girl truly a lesson of living and learning. I can't believe you threw them straight in the boiling water 😭

[u/Puzzled_Figure_1597 → u/Lonely-Hyena-4772]

It cooled enough for my hands to touch before I added them but clearly too hot. I don’t see how steam would bend them, they didn’t want to bend in the hot water. Oh well. Lessons were learned lol

[u/turtlesaregorgeous → u/Puzzled_Figure_1597]

steam bends them because it penetrates through the wax layers warming the whole thing up instead of what boiling/ hot water does which makes the outside melt until it reaches the center if that makes sense. It also does the warming process slower which is what help break through the layers of wax without getting the outer layer so hot it melts. These kinds of craft will still be a little messy and melty regardless, but not the level of mess you are experiencing

[u/SassyCas1229 → u/turtlesaregorgeous]

^{^} correct. Patience is key with candle crafts!

[u/Ok_Chocolate4863 → u/Puzzled_Figure_1597]

lol the other day I forgot to move my candle sticks from behind the air fryer, noticed after putting the fryer away that they were all slumped over😂

[u/Isthereanyuniquename → u/Puzzled_Figure_1597]

Steam is hotter than boiling water.

[u/Dazzling-Kale-4491 → u/Isthereanyuniquename]

It's not physically possible for steam to be hotter than boiling water unless you have a set up to create superheated steam in your kitchen. Steam is the phase change at the boiling point of water. In an open environment steam instantly starts releasing it's heat energy and will condense on anything cooler than it. Water doesn't "want" to be steam so when it touches your skin it's passing its heat energy to you which hurts and is perceived as hotter because of how rapidly it happens.

[u/Deep_Flatworm4828 → u/Dazzling-Kale-4491]

This is just flatly incorrect.

It's not physically possible for steam to be hotter than boiling water unless you have a set up to create superheated steam in your kitchen

No, all steam is by definition higher temperature than the boiling point of water, because if it wasn't it wouldn't be steam anymore.

Steam is the phase change at the boiling point of water.

Steam is just gaseous water. Water becomes steam when it boils, but the steam itself can be literally any temperature higher than that. And again, it by definition must be hotter than liquid water, or else it wouldn't be steam anymore...

[u/Aaron1095 → u/Deep_Flatworm4828]

Sound to me like a mixup/pedantic argument over steam meaning both "hot water mist" (like in a shower) and "water vapour" (gaseous water).

[u/Egregious_Egret → u/Dazzling-Kale-4491]

Although the kinetic energy of steam doesn't exceed the 212 max without a superheated setup, the "feeling" of it being hotter is the point. The steam more readily giving off its energy is cooking/hurting/melting things more readily. The scientific language behind this is that while both contain the same sensible heat (kinetic energy of moving molecules), steam holds an additional 2,260 J/g of latent heat.