someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this

September 15, 2023 4:21 PM

I'm looking for some fake candles. I want to turn on a bunch of very realistic looking candles at the touch of a button. If a professional candle inspector looks at my candles from more than a couple feet away, I want them to be fooled.

I like to take baths. That's right, baths. I'm a dude though so I take Tactical Baths™. No, I'm kidding about that part. I take Long, soothing, luxuriously hot baths. Maybe with some music playing. There might even be bubbles. I've found that doing this once or twice a week relaxes me and helps me, if even for a brief moment, shut off the OVERWHELMING HORRORS OF EVERY DAY LIVING*.

What I don't like is the harsh overhead light in my bathroom. That's where the candles come in. I like to light a few candles. I like the light. The gentle glow. The flicker.

But I'm tired of the wax. Or the fact that most candles seem to last a week before the wick disappears down into the candle like a frightened turtle, rendering the candle useless. My bathroom looks like a graveyard for candles. No, I'm not looking for candle maintenance tips. It's almost 2024. Surely there is a better way.

I would like to get about a dozen realistic looking LED candles. I want to turn on all of them with the single click of a button on a remote. The candles and remote should be water resistant. I want individual candles I can spread out, not some sort of all-in-one candle cluster. Is this even possible?

Have you bought fake candles recently? Do they look real? Realistic enough? I'd prefer ones that don't have a fake-looking "flame" but rather something that looks like the flame is surrounded by the body of the candle so the whole thing glows. I'm sure there is proper candle terminology I could be using if I had paid attention in candle class back in Jr. High School.

Anyway, my question is: Can you recommend (and link to) a make/model of fake LED candles that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing and that can be controlled with a single remote? Cost is not an issue but it's a candle, Michael. What could it cost? Ten dollars?

*ok things aren't that bad but you know what I mean.

posted by bondcliff to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

Not cheap, but pretty dang great: pillars or tapers.
posted by shesbookish at 4:34 PM on September 15, 2023

I have these candles and I think they're great. They don't come with batteries (they need two AA batteries each) so keep that in mind. They have a wax coating so they look and feel realistic. I wouldn't submerge them in water but I think a splash here or there would be fine.

They do have an on/off switch on the bottom but I find the batteries last pretty long turning them off with the remote (I've had a problem with that before).

There are a lot on Amazon & I'm sure most are made by the same manufacturers and just packaged differently. I've bought many different candles & I've found that they all basically work the same -- the difference is just in the look.
posted by edencosmic at 4:45 PM on September 15, 2023

I have the same kind @edcosmic linked to. The key is to get the kind with the wax coating AND the light source sunken below the top of the candle. That way you get realistic, glowing light without a fake-looking wick. In my experience, you can use the same remote with all of them, even if you don't buy them all together.
posted by OrangeDisk at 6:13 PM on September 15, 2023

There is this github project that shows how to set up a set of LED candles to be controlled by Bluetooth.
posted by brookeb at 6:18 PM on September 15, 2023

I don't know if it was the same brand, but I was at a restaurant two nights ago that had a fake candle on the table that was realistic enough that I put my hand over it to check. They looked exactly like the ones that edencosmic linked.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:39 PM on September 15, 2023

I used the ones that edencosmic linked to for my wedding, they are pretty realistic and nice.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 7:41 PM on September 15, 2023

(Also A+ title)
posted by Sparky Buttons at 7:42 PM on September 15, 2023

Not a candle, so feel free to ignore, but I got this snazzy rechargeable led lamp to use for mood lighting in my bathroom (and also outside and anyplace else you might want a temporary soft glow lamp experience). It definitely accomplishes "soft glow" with a few brightness settings but does not flicker.
posted by A Blue Moon at 7:46 PM on September 15, 2023

All the suggestions above are great, but if you want to go whole hog on a collecting and decorating trend, let me introduce you to vintage fairy lamps and these remote-controlled tea lights to plop inside of them.
posted by pinkacademic at 7:59 AM on September 16, 2023

Haven't seen them myself, but I've seen these recommended, as well as the Homemory ones pinkacademic linked. I would put them in a mercury glass candle holder, which will hide them while letting the light out.
posted by umwelt at 9:58 AM on September 16, 2023

There are a lot of nice LED string lights with warm light; I use a set as a night light; they have a pleasant ambiance and you don't have to mess with batteries.
posted by theora55 at 11:00 AM on September 16, 2023

Thanks, everyone. I ordered the ones edencosmic suggested and somehow they have already arrived. I think they look pretty good, though it's not quite dark enough yet. The light looks like candle light, but the candles themselves look... I dunno... too uniform? Good enough though. My wife is up in Maine until Monday without any sort of cell service and she's a bit more picky about this sort of thing than I am but I think she'll like 'em just fine. We shall see.

I also marked brookeb's answer as best, which is a good answer with useful information. I did not mark it best because I'm going to get out the ol' soldering iron and Bluetoothify my candles, but because only on Ask Metafilter could you ask a question about candles and get a GitHub link as your answer. It's beautiful.

Also, I think you all should know that every single time I have typed out the word "candle" in this thread I have reversed the L and the E and, thankfully, autocorrect fixed it for me. You'd think I'd have learned how to spell it by, like, the third time, but I have not.
posted by bondcliff at 2:13 PM on September 16, 2023