Rank 10 of 10
Yankee Candle
Unbeatable per hour, and it shows
- Origin
- Massachusetts, United States
- Founded
- 1969
- Wax
- Paraffin
- Price range
- $12 to $35
The verdict
Yankee posts the best raw value on this board and it is not close: $0.24 per burn hour, roughly a third of the next cheapest candle here. The 22 oz jar throws hard for the first sixty hours and held at 23 feet, better than four brands ranked above it. Then the three wicks start competing, the melt pool goes uneven and the last forty hours are noticeably weaker. It is paraffin, the scents are loud, and the jar is not going on anybody's coffee table. At this price every one of those is a fair trade.
Kate Gorski, Founder and lead reviewer
Background
About Yankee Candle
Michael Kittredge melted crayons to make his mother a candle in 1969 and accidentally started the largest candle company in the world. Yankee is the mass-market default in North America, and the 22 oz large jar is the single most common candle in an American house.
It earns its place on this list on arithmetic. Thirty-one dollars for roughly 130 hours is $0.24 an hour, and no other brand here comes within a factor of two. The cold throw is genuinely strong, the hot throw held at 23 feet in our room, and Balsam and Cedar is a better winter scent than several candles ranked above it.
What you give up is everything else. It is straight paraffin, so the glass carbons badly from hour 50. The three wicks do not burn evenly past hour 60, which flattens the throw across the back half. The jar is a jar. Nobody is keeping it.
Raw data
The burn log
3 units, 384 logged hours, one 18 by 14 foot room with the door closed and the HVAC off.
- Time to full melt pool
- 36 min
- Throw distance
- 23 ft
- Units burned
- 3
- Wick
- Three cotton wicks
- Vessel
- Clear glass jar with a screw lid
- Tested unit
- 22 oz, 130 h
- Tunneling
- None, but the three wicks burn unevenly after hour 60
- Soot
- Heavy carbon on the glass from hour 50 onward
- Wick behaviour
- One wick consistently outpaces the other two
- End of life
- 10 mm residue and a jar that needs boiling water to clean
The range
Signature scents
- 01
Balsam & Cedar
Fir, cedar and a little resin. The best thing Yankee makes.
- 02
Midsummer's Night
Musk, patchouli and sage. Loud, and oddly good.
- 03
Clean Cotton
Laundry, straightforwardly. The default for a bathroom.
- 04
Black Cherry
Sweet cherry and almond. Extremely divisive.
- 05
MacIntosh
Green apple and spice. The autumn staple.
The trade
What you gain, what you give up
In its favour
- $0.24 per burn hour, the best value on the board by a factor of two
- 130 hours from a single 22 oz jar
- Hot throw of 23 feet beats four brands ranked above it
- Sold everywhere, so replacement is trivial
- Balsam & Cedar is a legitimately good scent at any price
Against it
- Straight paraffin with heavy carbon on the glass from hour 50
- Three wicks burn unevenly past hour 60 and the throw drops
- Lowest design score in the test
- 10 mm end residue in a jar that needs boiling water to clean
Buy it if
Anybody who burns candles daily and does not want to think about it, and anyone scenting a large room on a small budget.
Skip it if
Anyone who wants the vessel on display, or who reacts badly to paraffin soot.
The arithmetic
Price and value
We burned the Balsam & Cedar, 22 oz large jar at $31, rated at 130 hours. That works out to $0.24 per burn hour against a board average near $0.89. On our value column Yankee Candle scores 9.4 out of 10, which accounts for measured performance and what the vessel is worth once the wax is gone, not just the rate.
Questions
Yankee Candle FAQ
Are Yankee Candles bad for you?
Paraffin produces more soot than soy or coconut wax, which is a real air quality consideration in a small closed room. Trim the wick to 5 mm, burn with a door open, and stop at four hours per session. In a ventilated room it is not a meaningful risk for most people.
How long does a large Yankee Candle jar burn?
The 22 oz large jar is rated at 110 to 150 hours. Our three units averaged 128 hours, though the final forty were noticeably weaker in throw.
Why does one wick burn faster than the others?
Three wick jars rarely stay balanced. One wick tends to pull the melt pool toward it after about 60 hours. Rotate the jar 120 degrees between sessions and trim all three wicks to the same length.
Is Yankee Candle good value?
It is the best value we measured, at $0.24 per burn hour against a board average near $0.90. On every other column it finishes last or close to it.