Help Me Choose a Reed Diffuser or Fragrance Lamp or Scented Candle?

Want your home or office to smell great? Should you choose a highly Scented Jar Candle or one of those beautiful new Fragrance Lamps or a Reed Diffuser?

First, lets look at Fragrance Lamps or Effusion Lamps or Catalytic Lamps or Infusion Lamps ? (They are all different names for the same thing!). Depending on who you listen to, Fragrance Lamps were either discovered by two European scientists in the 1850s or by Maurice Berger, who started the Lampe Berger Company in 1898. Either way, early Fragrance Lamps were prized for their remarkable ability to destroy odors, disinfect and purify the air.

Fragrance Lamps work by burning an alcohol based fragrance oil in a Catalytic Wick Stone. You light the stone for a few minutes to get it up to operating temperature and then blow out the flame. The catalytic action in the wick stone cleans the air and destroys odors while powering fragrance into the room.

OK, how about those Reed Diffusers? Reed Diffusers use a special grade of natural reeds to slowly, gently, and continuously diffuse a low level of fragrance into your room over a period of months. The fragrance solution is held in a container that may be a decorative vessel or a simple glass jar. The fragrance solution is pulled up the reeds by capillary action and slowly diffuses into your room. You can “flip” the reeds occasionally for a burst of fragrance.

The smaller Reed Diffusers may last for a month or two while the larger Reed Diffusers may work for up to 9 months. Once your Reed Diffuser stops releasing fragrance, you may purchase a fragrance refill and a new set of reeds and put it back to work for you. As a general rule, the more expensive Reed Diffusers will throw off a higher level of fragrance for a longer period of time .

OK, how about the traditional Scented Jar Candles? Candles have been around for thousands of years. Scented Candles have been a mainstay of the home fragrance scene for hundreds of years. A Scented Candle works by creating a melted pool of scented wax at the top of the candle. The fragrance in the melted wax evaporates into the air in the room. The more fragrance the candlemaker puts into the wax, the more fragrance you smell. The larger the wax pool at the top of the candle, the more scent evaporates into the room.

Since fragrance costs twenty times more than wax, highly scented candles cost more than the cheap ones you can buy at the discount store. Very highly scented candles like Courtney’s Candles actually have little liquid pockets of scent oil that you can see thru the glass container.

Soy wax candles are recent fad on the candle scene. Their makers tout the advantage of a lower tendency to produce soot. The problem is that soy wax will only hold about half the fragrance load of high quality paraffin wax, so you don’t get all that much scenting power with a soy candle. Besides, as long as you keep your wicks trimmed short to about 1/8”, good quality paraffin wax candles will not smoke anyway.

So how do you decide if a Premium Scented Candle or a Fragrance Lamps or a Reed Diffusers is right for you? Here are a few pluses and minuses for each:

AIR PURIFICATION – Fragrance Lamps really do clean the air in the room. They will eat up pet odors or smoking odors, not just cover them up with fragrance. Scented Candles and Reed Diffusers can only try to cover up odors with nice scent.

COST - Scented Candles and Reed Diffusers do cost less to operate than Fragrance Lamps. Dollar for dollar, you’ll get about twice as much scent out of a Premium Scented Candle as you will from a Fragrance Lampe.

SAFETY – Reed Diffusers are the SAFEST choice . Reed Diffusers NEVER use any heat or FLAME. Scented Candles require a constant flame to operate. You need to keep an eye on them and trim the wick as necessary. You need to remember to blow out the flame if you leave the area or go to sleep. You have to blow out your candle before it burns to the very bottom of the jar. Fragrance Lamps only require a flame for a few minutes to get started. Your Fragrance Lamp will go out by itself once the fuel is consumed.

QUICK FRAGRANCING – A Fragrance Lamp fills your room with scent much faster than a Scented Candle. The Catalytic Wick Stone pulls in air from the room and sends it back out full of fragrance. Scented Candle fans are surprised at how quickly a Effusion Lamp will scent a room. The Scented Candle requires some time to create the melted wax pool at the top of the candle before it can start scenting the room. Reed Diffusers release their fragrance very slowly over a long period of time.

SOOTING – Scented Candles do have a tendency to give off soot… that black smoke that can darken walls and ceilings over time. Keeping your wicks trimmed to 1/8” prevents soot and gives you a longer candle burn time. Candle Warmers eliminate sooting by using a heat source to melt the wax and release the scent into your room. Fragrance Lamps do not soot and actually clean the air in the room.