Aldi shopper warns others after own-brand candle ‘explodes’ into chunks of glass

An Aldi shopper has warned others after the recent ‘explosion’ of a burning candle.

Cath Lewis-Clugston, a fan of the budget supermarket, was left angry after a candle shattered on the evening of December 13th.

She was left with a mess of hot wax and dangerous shards of glass in her living room. 

The 58-year-old from Matlock in Derbyshire bought one of Aldi’s substitutes for Yankee Candles, the Aldi Black Forest Gateau candle. 

The candle with a whopping 170 hour burn time is currently on sale on the Aldi website for £3.99, and has proven popular with candle lovers.

Ms Lewis-Clugston said she had several candles burning that evening when all of sudden she heard a loud bang and her cat to sprinting upstairs.

She told the Sheffield Star: “I noticed the candle had gone out.” But on closer inspection she saw that the flame hadn’t just gone out, but that the glass jar had shattered. 

She added: “I went over and there were large chunks of glass scattered about on the coffee table, I had the candle on a wicker mat, and there was wax all over the place. I thought, ‘It’s exploded.’

“I am somebody who likes to burn scented candles, and I’ve burned them for years and years, quite often Yankee ones, but other ones as well. Never once has this happened. This is the only time.”

Luckily, neither Ms Lewis-Clugston nor her cat Lizzie was harmed in the incident. She said:  “It was just lucky I wasn’t sitting next to it, or there weren’t kids or anyone else around.

“I am a retired police officer. I can say I’ve been to house fires in my job that have been caused by far less than things like that.

“After I realised what it was, I was really quite angry. It clearly isn’t fit for purpose if it can’t withstand the heat from the flame, and it shouldn’t be sold.”

After the incident, Ms Lewis-Clugston took to social media to see if other people had experienced similar issues with Aldi candles.

Last year in December, a mother said her son was ‘nearly blinded’ when the supermarket candle exploded across the room. Emma Landers told the Liverpool Echo that the Aldi Number 3 candle was placed on their fireplace before it became ‘like a bomb’.

Earlier this year in July, Maisie Sutton shared a similar experience warning people not to buy the candle after it had been lit for 10 minutes.

More recently, in October this year, Emily Redfearn posted pictures of her Aldi Coconut Noir Candle in pieces on Twitter. She wrote: “Hey @AldiUK , we’ve just had one of your candles set fire and explode in our bedroom. We lit the candle around 4 hours before this.

“Thankfully we both noticed it, but how has this passed safety tests? The outcome could have been a lot worse than the burn marks on our furniture.”

Aldi has not commented on the issue. 

Remember to never leave candles lit in rooms you aren’t in, and also avoid burning them for excessively long periods of time to avoid the glass jar getting too hot. Always be safe!