2nd Nov new lamp launch

[Noz]

A completely new lamp is being launched on the 2nd Nov. 

Can't link the picture sorry. Won't let me.

But looks die cast, and possibly looking at the curvature it might be taking an astro bottle. 

And first 100 out the window. Now a lottery of all the orders placed on the same day. Seems irrelevant to still call it first 100 when it isn't. 

What are your thoughts on what it might be? 

[Susan]

LED colour changing lava lamp would update their range.

[jonny p]

The way that its now gone is because people were selling the first 100 for profit this way be nice surprise if you get one or not to me. The neo has a diffrent formula than astro already its design to run on lower 20w voltage and the heat from a tra light could power one of these bottles I'm sure indeed they do get hot I hope its electric though but makes sense if people want a lava lamp with out using electric atm with cost of living I be buying some its interested design though

[CAPTAIN SKYWALKER]

Hello Guys,

Reading through some of the above posts seems to indicate that some people think a tea light powered lamp is the way to go and not electric powered ones (some folk have mentioned that they run multiple tea light powered lamps.)

Please, please, please, bear in mind that candles (even tea lights) produce carbon monoxide, so ensure your room is well ventilated and don't run too many for too long (carbon monoxide is known as the 'silent killer' because none of our senses can detect it) or you may find that your tea light powered lamp is the last thing you ever see...

Someone has posted that low voltage lamps run at 20 watts (my interest is the big lamps, hence my rocket range taking up all my energies) so I'm not familiar with the wattage of smaller lamps, but if 20 watts is correct, those lamps cost 2 cents to run for ten hours... (If you live in Seattle, 5 cents in Hawaii and about 4 cents in England.)

Plus of course, tea lights don't come for free either... There's still a cost, albeit tiny.

(Hey, with the money you save running tea light powered lamps, you can treat yourself to a carbon monoxide alarm... Just a thought.)

Be safe guys...

Oh and to MonsoonStorm who questioned my economy measures (she asked about cutting back on heating the horses stables...)

Don't worry about the stable block, I have a clever treadmill system in place for all the polo ponies, race horses and rescue donkeys where they all have to walk a treadmill for 2 hours before they are given food. The treadmills provide enough power to heat the stables and also to power the refrigeration machine that cools the penguin enclosure (after all, the polar bears don't want to eat warm penguins, do they?)

[Susan]

I'm not a fan of the tea light lamps myself. My Husband bought me a Mathmos fireflow01 tea light powered lava lamp and also a glitter bottle with nine different colour ways for my Birthday a couple of years ago. I've used it a couple of times, it's a great lamp and produces mesmerising effects but I don't use it. I've only used it a couple of times because it's not my thing being candle powered, very much a novelty item. He paid £260 for the collection for me, I'd sell it tomorrow if I could get that money back for him. 

I loved the Mathmos colour changing LED Astros, Smart Astro I think they were called, we owned three of those lamps and sadly due to failures they had to be returned. 

[MonsoonStorm]

Yeah, I strip the coating off my neo bottles, it looks awful.  Thankfully it's not too difficult to remove.

I understand why they need it so that they can market it as child safe, but I much prefer it without.

lampfancy said:

What appears to be an ‘open’ section of the base did first make me think it may be candle powered, but as above, this didn’t seem to stack up with it appearing to be an Astrobaby/ Neo type bottle, unless they’ve tweaked the formula, or perhaps it uses multiple tea lights.



If it does turn out to be some sort of Neo variant, then hopefully it will omit the coating applied to the glass - since surely there wouldn’t be much point including when it wouldn’t meet ‘child-safe’ requirements with an open flame or exposed bulb/ luminaire anyway.

Lack of new colourways is an early layer of disappointment, though :- |

[Noz]

There are plenty of safe alternatives to paraffin wax tea lights. Natural beeswax and soya tealights don't produce carbon monoxide. Plenty of safe alternatives. My lounge is huge anyway and very well ventilated, so no worries there. I would not use them in a bedroom though. 

I regularly use a white Neo lamp most days. I have modded this to use a 25w bulb so I can use my favourite violet red bottle. And it works really well and never overheats. 

Having thought about it overnight. I doubt I would buy a candle powered Neo lamp. I'm more than happy with my mains powered one. It's only the astros and ios I've stopped using so much. 

And if it is a candle powered Neo, how will they get round the plastic coating on the bottles. Surely this is a major fire hazard? Plus how will it illuminate? A tea light won't even touch it. 

If it is mains powered, I may reconsider. 

I don't understand why mathmos dropped the smart LED lamp thing. I was cool and modern. I loved mine it was blue to red but went faulty and had to be sent back. They must have lost thousands on them. But why give up? Why not refine and improve? 

[MonsoonStorm]

My biggest issue with the candle powered lamps is that they are very candle dependant.  I found even the mathmos supplied candles tended to make the lamp run too hot.  I have seen a couple of "fixes" on youtube that involve adding a barrier/heatsink type effect, but they definietly ruin the aesthetic.  It would be nice if mathmos could include either a damper type system or the ability to raise/lower the candle to temper the heat.

It doesn't look like a colour changing system to me, that would really need white wax and they've seemingly ruled out new colourways.  I think they have abandoned white (outside of limited edition runs) due to the discolouration, which is a shame really.  I'd be more than happy to fork out for a new white every once in a while if they kept it permanently in stock.  Just sticking a notice on saying "This bottle WILL discolour" should allow people to make an informed decision and potentially protect Mathmos from copious returns.

@CAPTAIN SKYWALKER... it sounds like you may need a change in job so that you can dispose of the treadmill and just stick it on the expense account...  have you considered a job in government? ;)

Susan said:

I'm not a fan of the tea light lamps myself. My Husband bought me a Mathmos fireflow01 tea light powered lava lamp and also a glitter bottle with nine different colour ways for my Birthday a couple of years ago. I've used it a couple of times, it's a great lamp and produces mesmerising effects but I don't use it. I've only used it a couple of times because it's not my thing being candle powered, very much a novelty item. He paid £260 for the collection for me, I'd sell it tomorrow if I could get that money back for him. 

I loved the Mathmos colour changing LED Astros, Smart Astro I think they were called, we owned three of those lamps and sadly due to failures they had to be returned. 

[MonsoonStorm]

I must admit I'm not overly sure about this,  I've never seen a huge amount of them on eBay, just the occasional one.  The couple of first 100's that I've got are tucked away safely.  A bit sad really, I should really use them.

Of course, since they just switched to using a sticker to signify a first 100 edition then it would be pretty straightforward to fake them anyway (did they continue that with the platinum vinyls?  I didn't buy one).  I was very disappointed with the sticker on the black vinyl.

jonny p said:

The way that its now gone is because people were selling the first 100 for profit this way be nice surprise if you get one or not to me. The neo has a diffrent formula than astro already its design to run on lower 20w voltage and the heat from a tra light could power one of these bottles I'm sure indeed they do get hot I hope its electric though but makes sense if people want a lava lamp with out using electric atm with cost of living I be buying some its interested design though

[Noz]

No, the platinum vinyl was etched onto the cap. Looks much better.

I sent my black one back as it had a dirty great scratch on it. 

But the black telstar, pink and orange Neo, and Pod lamps just had a sticker on the box with a numbered postcard in the box. Very lazy. 

[MonsoonStorm]

I haven't used my black vinyl, but the other thing that struck me with them just whacking a sticker on the cap is that the cap gets hot, surely the glue will just melt and the sticker will come off...?

[Susan]

That's exactly what we thought, plus the best detail of the cap is under the sticker. We've only run our black vinyl once.

MonsoonStorm said:

I haven't used my black vinyl, but the other thing that struck me with them just whacking a sticker on the cap is that the cap gets hot, surely the glue will just melt and the sticker will come off...?

[Paul]

All you need to do with the candle lamps is trim the wick as small as you can (about 2mm) before lighting, you won’t have any issues overheating then. I got into the candle lamps pretty late but I really like them now, still a bit gutted I missed out on the O1 tho. 

The Platinum Astro was also a sticker unfortunately but a clear one so it looked slightly better, still lame to just use a sticker I think. 

I wish they would bring back a revised Smart Astro or a Neo, such a shame they didn’t engineer them properly then just abandoned them. I never had any issues with mine breaking, but they were supposed to regulate temperature which they didn’t at all and overheated very quickly.