How To Remove Candle Wax From Carpet

by Taylor

Below I've gathered several tips for how to remove candle wax from carpet.

This is one of the most exasperating and troublesome things to drip onto your carpet, since it seems to almost immediately spread and be almost impossible to remove.

There are several basic techniques you can use to remove the candle wax, which are shown below in the two videos featured.

Of course, this does not necessarily deal with the issue of stains left behind in the carpet from colored wax. Instead, first you need to deal with getting the wax itself off. Then, next you deal with the stain from the dyes in the wax. For more information about this, you can check out my article on candle wax stain removal.

The videos below focus on home remedies for removing candle wax from carpet, but there are also some useful candle wax removers, safe for carpets, that you can try. If you've used one of these, or a stain remover to get rid of any colored stain from the carpet afterward, please share your stain remover review here to tell me more about it.

In addition, if you don't see a technique below that has worked for you in removing this pesky problem from your carpeting, you can share your tips for how to remove candle wax stains here, or read other tips which have already been submitted for other surfaces, like clothing, glass and more.

Remove Candle Wax Stain From Carpet With Iron

The video below shows how to remove candle wax from carpet using an iron, when your candles drip or spill onto the floor.

This method can be useful because it can be quite difficult to remove candle wax from carpets, because the wax clings to the fibers and is thus even harder to just scrape off than it is for cloth, which has a smoother surface.

The video does not mention this, but you should use caution when using an iron on your carpet, however.

Some carpets, if made with man-made fibers, can melt at a lower point than what you would expect.

Therefore, you should only get the iron as warm as needed to melt the wax, no hotter, and also test the iron in an inconspicuous area of the carpet before proceeding to make sure you will not harm your carpet with the heat.

Further, many people will put something between the iron and the carpet, such as a paper towel, butcher paper, a paper bag, etc. This keeps the iron from making direct contact with the carpet, which lessens the likelihood of the carpet fibers actually melting.

For example, a reader, Missy said:

My mom used a brown paper sack and an iron to remove candle wax from carpet.

There is also another video below sharing additional tips for removing candle wax from carpet using additional alternative methods.

Photo by The Pink Princess

Krud Kutter As Candle Wax Remover For Carpet

by SR101 Reader

SR101 Reader says:

Krud Kutter works good for wax and stain removal from carpets, although it does take a lot of elbow grease to do it.

Taylor says:

Thanks for this tip!

For those of you not familiar with the original Krud Kutter, this is a cleaner and degreaser that can be used on many different surfaces for many types of stains and messes. It advertises itself as being good for removing grease, grime, oil, tar, wax, dried latex paint, and as a tile and grout cleaner.

I looked up a bit more information about this product, and confirmed it is safe for carpets, although not in its concentrated form, which is how it is normally sold, even in the spray bottles.

That means for use on your carpet use one and a half (1 1/2) cups of concentrate to 1 gallon of water.

Further, you should always test products like this in an inconspicuous area before using on any surface, including carpeting.


I'd love to get more reviews of this product, or any of the other Krud Kutter removers and cleaners available.

You can share your own cleaner and degreaser reviews here or read other reviews already submitted.

Remove Wax Stain From Carpet

I like this video below, because it actually shows you two techniques, the cold method and the hot method, for getting rid of the candle wax in your carpet, if that unfortunate spill occurs.

The cold method involves freezing the wax with a baggy full of ice, and then scraping off the wax with a dull knife.

I have tried this technique, and it does work pretty well for big globs of wax. However, if the wax has spread it will be difficult to completely remove all the wax with this method alone, although it isn't bad to remove as many big clumps of wax as you can with this method.

The hot method I normally think of for candle wax removal is a warm iron (shown in the video above). The hot method shown in this video below though is different though.

The video suggests heating a metal spoon with a lighter to make it hot, and then laying this on brown butcher paper to heat the wax, and get the wax to transfer onto the paper from the carpet.

The pros of this method, I believe, include that you can heat a much smaller area of your carpet with the hot spoon versus an iron, and further I doubt the spoon gets as hot as an iron, meaning there is less chance of hurting your carpet in a large area from the heat.

The big con of this method is using an open flame around your carpet, which could become a fire hazard.

Therefore, if you are going to try this method please exercise caution and remember your fire safety!

So, what do you think of these suggestions? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments, or for you to share your own tips here. You can also read even more tips that have already been submitted.

Photo by ~Brenda-Starr~

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Carpet Stain Removal Tips

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