Mathmos Fireflow prone to overheating, what can I do?

[Koguri3108]

I have a Mathmos Fireflow with yellow wax and blue liquid, that seems to be very prone to overheating.

I have compared how it behaves with my partners fireflow, which is purple with blue wax, and his seems to have a very hard time to get going using the exact same candles as mine. I think that's because the lighter wax has a harder time giving off the heat it absorbed, so it overheats after some time.

Does anyone have any tips on how to deal with this?

The small bubbles it makes are really annoying and have a tendency to get stuck on the side of the glass when the lamp cools down, and I don't really know how to get rid of them. I'd like to avoid having to open it up and scrubbing it.

[Noz]

Unfortunately fireflows and pods, being quite small are very prone to heat differentials. And getting just the right tea light can be very frustrating. 

I have 3 on my coffee table and have tried so many different tea lights. The ones I use currently are chefs larder from booker. They work quite well but can take some time to get really going well. But generally don't over heat. Also home bargains tea lights work quite well too. 

Tried and failed are wilko, real rubbish. Start well but flame goes really small.

Bolsius. Work well but over heat in no time

Prices. Start poor then goes into hyper mode. Mega overheat. 

And Yankee. Poor performance. Flame too small and emits too much light out the sides of the holder. 

Which ones have you tried. So as I know which to avoid? 

Incidentally, I have a blue yellow, which sticks too. Yellow orange is a nice one. Wish they did some more. Violet pink is really dark. So is violet orange. 

[Koguri3108]

I live in Austria, so I don't really know any of the brands you listed, except for Yankee
In general I've made the observation that scented candles work better for me since they don't burn as fast and as hot as non scented kinds, and I've also noticed something quite peculiar.
I've managed to kind of control how bright and hot a candle burns by putting more ore less wax inside it/shortening the wick.
If a candle seems to burn itself out I pour a little bit of the wax out and if it burns too hot/the flame is too big I put some more wax inside it so the wick on the surface is shorter.
At least this has sort of worked with the last yankee candle that I used, I'm still experimenting with this method.
It is kind of a hassle though cause I need to fuss around with hot fax
Managed to spill it all over my walls that one time when I accidentally knocked one over, that was a nightmare to clean

[Arne]

you could dilute the fluid with distilled water in small amounts.

[Koguri3108]

Okay, so I've been doing some more experimenting with this and so far I have come to the conclusion that the longer the wick, the hotter the candle burns.
So what I have been doing is just cutting the wick roughly in half every time the lamp seems to get too hot.
Occasionally I cut the wick too short for the candle to burn properly, then i just pour some wax out.
This has been working very well for me, regardless of what kind of candle I use.

I have also been able to remove all the wax that has been sticking to the side of the glass.
What I do when i notice wax sticking to the glass is I wait until the wax properly heats up and then I gently twirl the lamp's bottle around its own axis, this way small wax bubbles break away from the larger wax bubble that's stuck to the glass.
The stuck wax bubble gets smaller and smaller the longer I do this, I just have to wait a bit after each time for the surface tension of the wax to gather it up into a smaller bubble, if it is still flat on the glass, no wax will break off.
Eventually there will be no noticeable wax bubbles left on the glass.
And if I don't let the lamp overheat, or at least not for too long then no new wax will stick to the side of the glass either! :D

[Lava_Head_UK]

I have 2 Blue / Yellow bottles same lamp same candle one flows great the other constantly overheats really quickly, bottles were from different batches so that might be the problem 

[Bowlerhat]

Hey I have a fireflow and got this exact problem, but I am using a non-mathmos tealights. 

One trick I use is to reuse old tealights (once lighted, then cooled solid) or cutting the wick too!