Slow Jet

Posted by Lucy on May 15, 2008 at 3:45am in Problems & Questions

Hi All

I now have all 4 of the matching base & wax colour combo Mathmos Jets with clear liquid, ie, purple, yellow, orange & green (no white one though :( )
The green, orange & yellow all blob in that lovely slow, languid way, when you get a massive blob which deforms at the bottom and smaller blobs fall away from it, which I love even though I know it's not most people's idea of a great flow.
The purple one takes AGES and alot of the time sits at the bottom, rising up and down, but when it does blob it forms perfect spheres and doesn't look as fluid as the others, the blobs don't form inverted teardrop shapes like the others.
Is there something in the dye in the wax that would make this colour behave differently?
should I use a higher strength bulb? They all use the same bulb ATM. I am hesitant to use a higher strength bulb in case it damages the wax, and as Mathmos no longer produce the 'Jets' and these ones are becoming more difficult to find, so want to keep them nice and new looking.

I will add a video of them all going when I can sort my camera out.

Any advice guys?
Thanks

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jerome Dopson on May 15, 2008 at 5:46am: An interesting situation. I must admit, I like the flow you speak of with your other 3 Jets. I only have orange, yellow and white Jets althouth the white one doesn't have the matching white lava, only red.

Regards
Jerome; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucy on May 15, 2008 at 5:54am: there's someone selling a white/white jet on e-bay.... can you believe this!:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MATHMOS-JET-SPERMWHITE-LAVALAMP-USED-IN-MINOR...

I like them, but not that much!

The green jet is particuarly nice... they are not so 'in demand' it seems, so you could pick yourself up a bargain. The green has the best flow also, even though it has slightly blue liquid (not clear as it should be with original bottle) but the blue makes the green more mellow when on, I had a green/clear bottle and the green was a bit too bright.
I have to be carefull, cos Jets catch my eye and I could end up with loads of them!
I was after a white one with orange a while ago, but turned out the liquid was slightly purple, not what I was after.
The white/red combos are lovely, hopefully i'll get one of those at some point!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jerome Dopson on May 15, 2008 at 5:48am: Maybe it is to do with the colour dye they use as this is quite an unusual colour for Mathmos I think?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bohdan on May 15, 2008 at 2:04pm: What happens if you put the purple vase on the orange base how does it flow then.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucy on May 15, 2008 at 3:48pm: I haven't done that yet. they are all warming up ATM so once melted, I will swap them over.... i'll let you know. thanks; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bohdan on May 16, 2008 at 2:48pm: Also remember if you use a higher bulb wattage you will melt the plastic base housing.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucy on May 17, 2008 at 4:10am: I swapped them over, and it worked brilliantly! bit confused as they are the same bulbs, how random is that!
So, i swapped just the bulbs, and the orange one is working great with the purple's bulb and vice versa.
Mental, don't understand it, but it works for me!
Thanks x; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stephen on May 16, 2008 at 6:23pm: Needs more surfactant so the wax will flow better and not stay in perfect spheres. And needs some more salt in the water if its not rising high enough fast enough to suit your taste.

Basically you want to just add some very small drops of clear liquid soap or detergent to the water when it's pretty cool then let it warm up and see how it flows. A little at a time. It may take a few days.

Then work on the salt.

You can't, and don't want to take the dye out, so don't worry about it.

Steve; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucy on May 17, 2008 at 4:14am: Can't open the bottle and (as reply to Bohdan) it's now working alot better.
The wax is still making perfect spheres, but is flowing quicker now, so i'm happy with that.
I have meddled with lamps before with salt and soap, but always found that it compromised the wax or liquid in some way, so don't really want to do that.

Thanks for your help anyway, and I may do this with 'project' lamps that i have.
Cheers
Lucy; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bohdan on May 17, 2008 at 9:34am: Jets are hard to adjust the liquid always swap to another base and let them run for some
reason this helps and all is well again. The orange base jets for some season run hotter
then purples or greens. And sometimes all is needed is a good run in another base to get
it going fine again.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucy on May 17, 2008 at 12:15pm: Maybe the orange runs hotter simply because they absorb the heat better, i imagine a green would be a 'cooler' colour.

Thanks Bohdan, you're a star!; ▶ Reply to This