I've done it! Got a full set of Gen1 Fluidiums :)

[Danial Thomas]

Hey Guys,

After winning the Orange/Purple fluidium that was on eBay I've now got a full
set of boxed Gen1 Fluidiums with the round Lovegrove dot on the bottles :)

Opal/Clear
Yellow/Clear
Orange/Clear
Green/Clear
Orange/Purple
Green/Blue

I know there was some talk on here about if the Orange/Purple was genuine, I’ve
given it a good look over and everything seems to check out fine. It flows just
like a fluidium should and there's no sign of any tampering to the cap. There
is some heat damage to the base which is common on the fluidiums with the heat
shield and golf ball lamps which are in my opinion just not suitable and don’t buy
or use the new halogen ones from mathmos as they run the bottles way to warm
and overheat them within 4 hours. I’m lucky to have a handful of the 40w
reflector lamps so I run mine on them without the heat shields.

If anyone does have an orange base spare that isn’t heat damaged that they want
to sell please drop me a message, I don’t need the wiring just the base.

I will admit my Green/Clear is a bit of a hash, it’s the base/cap from one lamp
with a Lovegrove bottle from another which I had to refill from a new mathmos
bottle as it was cloudy. I liked the base/cap from the other lamp better as
they are a slightly darker green where the other is a little more translucent.
That one lives in my office at work with a new mathmos bottle in it :)

Just wanted to share the good news with you guys and I will get some pics up
soon, drop me a message if you have a spare orange base you want to sell.

Thanks
Dan :)

[Diin]

nice work, fluidiums are very nice lamps =]

[Bill Smith]

Hi Dan, I was also bidding on this but had my doubts glad to hear that it's a genuine one. I have the orange/clear and yellow/clear ones both with original boxes. Will hope to get me a full set one day. Was just wondering if yours have different levels in the wax content, only the orange one has more wax than the yellow one. You say that they suffer from heat damage could you please tell me what this consists of.

[Danial Thomas]

Me too Rich, a Blue/Clear and a Red/Clear would be fab! Im doing ok thanx m8, got a lot on but im keeping my head above the water just abouts lol! Hows things with you?

[Danial Thomas]

Hi Bill, Sorry for outbidding you m8, no hard feelings. As the bottles are filled by hand i think the lava level varies very slightly from one bottle to another, my green/clear is a little lower than the others but when its flowing it looks just the same tbh.

The heat damage is within the base next to the lamp and heat-shield if one is fitted. When used with golf ball lamps too much heat goes sideways and over time it melts the fins on the inside of the base which can be visable on the outside dependning on how bad it gets. The only lamps i find that dont do this are the mini 40w reflector lamps the fluidiums used to come with but these are no longer made and may have been specially made for mathmos. You can run them on a 30w reflector lamp as used in the astro baby but run-up time is longer and they will flow more slowly. If you buy a new lamp from mathmos you get a 40w halogen reflector lamp, these run the bottle way too hot and it overheats within 4 hours so stay away from them too! Im lucky to have a handful of the 40w reflector lamps but i dont know what anyone else does to get around the problem.

[Bill Smith]

Hi Dan, in my yellow one I am running it with the yellow coloured pearl bulb that came with the lamp and in my orange one I am running it with a red one. Both are original Mathmos bulbs 40w but are golf ball in shape and both have the heat shield in place. Are these the bulbs that give out too much heat only they seem to be the same as the bulbs pictured on the back of the fluidium boxes. I also have a clear pearl 40w Mathmos golf shaped bulb that came with the orange one and four other of the red 40w ones all original Mathmos in there boxes with the red sticker on. On the end of the box it says Mathmos BO11 is it all right to keep running them using these bulbs?

p.s no hard feeling on being out bid on the orange/purple lamp could not have gone that high any way may be I will find one at a car boot for £2.50 lol.

[Bill Smith]

Hi Richard, was this type of bulb supplied with the fliudiums and do you have any pictures of these bulbs? Or was the bulbs supplied just the plain pearl and the coloured booster type? Have both of the lamps on right now and love the glow they give off with the booster bulbs.

[Charles]

photos please

[Bill Smith]

Cheers Rich look forward to seeing them. Is this one off the 40w reflector bulbs you are on about being sold on ebay .

330451127081

[Danial Thomas]

Hi Bill, I didn’t mean to worry you, I’m just speaking from my own personal experience and I prefer not to run mine on the golf ball lamps. My opal fluidium has a minute bit of heat damage in the base from golf ball lamps and that’s with the heat shield fitted, I changed it for a 40w reflector but didn’t like the flow as it was too fast so I changed it for a 30w reflector as used in the astro baby and it flows perfectly. Also the golf ball reflector lamps throw too much light out from the base for my liking. The orange/purple I've just got is very badly heat damaged and that was fitted with a golf ball reflector lamp and heat shield, like I say it’s my own personal opinion and if yours seem to be running fine then I wouldn’t worry. I’ve attached a pic of the 40w reflector lamps that I'm using.

PS - That "rare" lamp on ebay looks like a standard 30w reflector from an astro baby, you can pick them up for pennies from any electrical wholesaler.

[Danial Thomas]

Hi Charles, If you mean pics of my fluidiums there are pics already in my album and i'll take one of the orange/purple tonight when its running :)

[Danial Thomas]

I think like the golf ball reflectors they were made specially for Mathmos or imported from somewhere like china as there is no manufacturer mark on them :( I was lucky, the fluidiums i bought new each came with a spare lamp and i bought some extra ones at the same time. Then apart from the orange/purple and the opal fluidium the others came with one plus one spare, so im ok for now but i'd like to stock up before tungsten lamps get phased out :( Could you buy the heat shields from Mathmos?

[Bill Smith]

Hi Dan, I do have two 30w spotlight R39 bulbs that I brought from homebase . Just took the one out of my LE World Cup Astrobaby and they look very much similar. The one out Astro as the manufacturers name on it Crompton 30w 240v CE140. And the grey paint on it comes more down the stem of the bulb. Would these be the better bulbs to use as I have just checked both my base's and there is no sign of any heat damage at all. I didn't even know this was a problem with these lamps. Looking on the back of the fluidium boxes it only seems to show two golf shaped bulbs one pearl and one booster coloured supplied with the lamp. And when I brought the lamps they both had been run with these golf bulb lamps. The pearl in the orange lamp and the yellow coloured bulb in the yellow lamp Although the orange one had been stored for some time not too sure about the yellow one. I would hate to cause any heat damage to the base's by running them on these golf bulb lamps although Richard did say that the coloured ones would be OK to use has they don't give out to much heat due to the lacquered colour on them. Is it the 40w clear golf bulb lamp that cause's the heat damage then? And are you running all your fiuidims on 30 or 40w reflector bulbs, did you buy the 40w one from one of the diy stores. Changing the subject does yours seem to have air or fluid bubbles in the wax when flowing only both mine do and I was wondering if this is a characteristic problem with these lamps.