Some Noob Questions

[Fabrik]

Hello I am new here
but it's about 1 year that I am playing with lava lamps (tryin to build one)
I have bought a couple of cheap lava lamp in italy marked LIVARNO LUX but they do not work,
the lava makes a couple of bubbles and the stops on the bottom making 1 ball that slighlty touch the coil and everything stops :(
I tried to fix those lamps but I have one problem water gets very very cloudy.
I followed your tutorial but I have 1 main problem..
To make lava enough fluid to touch the coil I need to use a LOT of dish soap
I mean many spoons addedd to distilled water, so I think I may have used a wrong type of soap
should I use dishwashingmachine soap?
Also for my home made lamps with home made ooz I get always the following:
-I take the bottle with solid ooz on the bottom and fill it with distilled water and light up
- Ozz melts and make a litte dome
- I add salt for dish washing machine the dome iis higher but nothing moves
- I add 1 drop of soap, nothing happens

I reapeat adding salt or soap but nothing happens, water become cloudy and the lamp is wated...

I what am I doing wrong?

Thanks a lot!

[LampHead]

I would start by using a higher wattage bulb on a dimmer switch, it sounds like it is running to cold to flow. Different wax needs different heat.

LampHead

[Fabrik]

Ummm well searching on the wbe I have found that my lamp is this:

http://www.edi-light.com/content.php?l=en&id=&c=produkte&am...

but I can bet is Chinese, I payd it only 8€ has 40W bulb and the bottle is about 20 cm of height

should I try 60w bulb? (the tag on the aluminium base says 40w maximum) :(

[LampHead]

No I would stay with the 40 watter in that lamp, those are pretty small. Are you mixing the salt in water before you put it in the lamp ?

LampHead

[Fabrik]

Yes I am using drops of distilled water saturated salt. (this saturated water is a bit milky like it was full micro-air bubbles and adding too much salt seem to make water a bit cloud too)
By now it seems that the soap is failing, ooze on the bottom of the bottle is a sphere and do not touch the coil so it does not warm enough, to "brake" the sphere i need to add so much soap that the water become cloudy..
But may be there is something else.. how can I try to solve it step-by-step?

[Fabrik]

thanks fot the advertising,
by now I will try to repair my cheap lamps
you know about now a lava lamp for me worth 10€
I cannot afford 80€ for that :)

[GabbertjuhNL]

hahaha i've bought 3 of those, the green one works and the 2 red ones dont... still looking for a solution though