Wax sitting on the bottom

[Sam Moss]

I recently bought three lamps and for some reason one (my favorite of course) the wax just sits in one blob and doesn't rise or do anything. Is it fixable or am I out the dough? Thanks to any and all.

Sam~

this is my second post my first one never came back from Preview.

[Sam Moss]

BTW it is not the bulb as I have inter-changed them

[Erin]

What kind of lamp? What size/model? What bulb are you currently using and how long have you let it run?

[Sam Moss]

Thanks Erin I realized after my post that I left out a lot of pertinent information. Not realizing just how many different types there are these days. What an eye opener. All lamps are not created equal it seems and they vary from decade to decade. I found three new ones on sale in the past week and they are 12oz Lava Lite model 1954 made in China w/15w bulbs. I have now been told to not leave them on for over 7 hrs but just for the heck of it have left one on for 48 hrs and it seems to work the best out of the three. Reading posts on this site I have since gotten the one in question back up and running fairly well. It still has some small seperation but when I swirl it it seems to want to go back working. But for some reason it just sat at the bottom for a good day and a half so I tinkered and tinkered and now it is chatting with Gwen deemed to be " lazy wax " and that that is common in Chinese lamps. My take on these lamps was relating to the one I got in '68 (boy wish I would have kept that one) and how well it flowed and was thinking they all were the same. NOT. Found out a really good one from UK that has the LED and computer chip can run upwards to 200 smackeroos when the dust settles. I do remeber the one in the 60's costing 30 dollars and and those were the days when you could get a good used car for 2-300 dollars so they where rather expensive then.

[Erin]

Chinese-made Lava Lite lamps have a whole host of issues. And they cannot hold a candle to the vintage lamps from the 70s-90s. 

If you plan on buying more in the future, opt for Mathmos or vintage Lava Lite (pre 2002). 

Good luck! 

[Sam Moss]

Thanks Erin and it has been a learning experience and as usual coming off the hip to find out. One more question are the Mathmos these days compatible with our (US) electric configuration?

[Erin]

There are a few options. You can get an adapter, but just using an adapter means they'll be running at 1/2 power here in the US. I have successfully re-wired both Mathmos Jets and Mathmos Astrobabies, but not the larger Mathmos Astro. 

There's a lot more to learn about lava lamps than one would think! I was surprised, too, when I first started collecting about two years ago. 

[Sam Moss]

Now here's a kick in the head...the one in question is now working to beat the band. Go figure .Sits for two days on go then I moved it to another location and now it is acting like it has some sense. I guess the moral of the story is to keep tweaking and hope for the best. Shake Rattle and Roll then over heat then cool off then hair dryer then cool then leave on for two days this mind you between swirls then set in another spot forget for about an hour then restart (while you are thinking of giving it to a friend) then look over and for crying out loud it is working. I don't get it. Been saying that since '68 too.

[Erin]

Some of them can be touchy and will flow differently in different rooms based on temp, air movement. The China lamps are just goofy sometimes. 

[Sam Moss]

How true.  It seems the wax formula these days doesn't have the ability to break up into different size shapes like the old days. Now it seems the wax stays in pretty much the same shape. To me the lamps looked better when the wax broke up into random blobs and created more of a cascade of different shapes now they resemble golf balls. I was wondering if there is a way to tweak the wax and also if filtering the fluid to remove any impurities would help.

[Vision]

Supposedly the "Wax Formula" is exactly the same. It seems Chinese factory workers can't follow procedure but pump out product. That is to say... there is a curing process that the goo has to go through in order to flow artistically. It has to be heated to a specific temp then cooled at a certain rate. If that procedure isn't followed, you get the stereotypical Chinese crap. It's "Quality Standards" vs. "Culturally Insane Workers" that only care that product is flying out the door. Typical Chinese business practice.

American Boss: This is crap!

Chinese Worker: But we made so MUCH of it in so little time!

Boss: BUT IT'S CRAP!!

Worker: But it's ingrained in my culture that the harder I work, and the more corners I can cut, the better.

Boss: Stop being a numbskull and follow procedure!! We're losing business and we look like idiots!!

Worker: Ok.

(shove his thumbs in his ears and keeps doing what his Communist Chinese superior tells him to do)

[Tim Gill]

Very true - it sums it up in one!!!

Yea it is down to the formula - it isn't until recently we have discovered this as prevesoley we thought LL had purposely cut corners and cut the formula - they had cut corners by moving to china but not the formula.

They are planning to bring it back to the USA but this will be next year or more.

Sam the thing you could do to is to add Epsom salts or propane glycol - there is information on hear how to do this, it could help it flow better. I don't recommend swirling the lamp this is something you really shouldn't do.

If you want a decent lamp find a USA made vintage one on ebay or get a Mathmos one.

The one your talking about with the LED's is the smart astro - some people on hear have them and they have had mixed reviews.

[Vision]

Er... I'm assuming, that you are assuming, that Sam will dump out the existing Masterfluid then make new solution/fluid with an Epsom Salt concentrate or Propylene Glycol. 

I would never recommend adding anything to an existing MasterFluid, unless you have an instrument to measure it's gravity, and even then you can mess it up because we don't know what it's chemically made of.

Tim Gill said:

Sam the thing you could do to is to add Epsom salts or propane glycol - there is information on hear how to do this, it could help it flow better.