floats top & middle, no flow

[Col B.]

OK, I've researched in here and have not seen a problem just like this one.

I have a 1990's lava lite.  Takes 40 (not 49 damn auto correct) watt like my ancient gold based one (was my grandmother's from the 60's), however is substantially narrower, but the same height.

Problem: once upon a time, way back we changed the colour of the water and the lava. Worked great still for years. I now find out it was opened or loosened again, still worked, but the cap was not completely resealed apparently.

When did that happen? Don't know. 

So I tried it and all it does is: all my wax when heated goes to the top, be in a big blob-which churns- tries to break blobs off to go down, but they can not sink to bottom.

I cool it, tilt, have wax go back to bottom, but no luck in getting it working.

I have re-melted wax back together and returned original fluid to it. No luck , still did same after waiting & running 8 on, cool, then go again.

I have changed the bulb. Went from frosted, to clear, to higher wattage, etc... No luck.

I have gotten my grandmother's back up and running after non-use of 15 years, gotten a no flow one working perfectly- all in the past month. But alas, this one just will not work! Please advise and help.

Sorry for any errors, I'm mobile right now and also this autocorrect does wacky things.

[Col B.]

Anyone? 

[Brad]

based on the physics of how lava lamps work, it would seem that the wax is less dense than the water, so it floats.  in order to fix this, you need to decrease the density of the water.  i would dump out the water and refill with distilled water.  then heat the lamp until the wax melts completely, then begin to add a saturated mixture of epsom salt or pickling salt.  you can do this by heating some water, then stir in the salt until it dissolves.  do this until the salt begins to precipitate from solution.  then slowly add the solution to the lamp, ~ 1tsp. at a time until the wax begins to rise and fall.  to reduce the surface tension of the wax (i.e. less goo balls and more stretchy flow), add a couple of drops of dawn dish soap.

there are other methods to repair lamps on this board, so you may want to search.  i know this method works, so it's the one i recommend.  good luck!

[Col B.]

OK, I'll try that again. Sorry, forgot to add that in to original sigh typing with stylus makes typing slow and I left stuff out accidentally. 

What happened was all lava broke apart, with TONS of air bubbles. Never hit wax w/any of the solution, had it run down inside of glass. But all was going up and down for a day in little bits. Then POOF second day and after this.

So fluid needs more salt mix or complete redo.  OK.

I checked the archives from the 'old site' then in here, but it seemed this one had just about everything done to it except scrapping all and replacing all. Sigh and lol

Thank you VERY MUCH!

I'll post an update tomorrow, gonna work on this bad-boy again tonight :-) 

Brad said:

based on the physics of how lava lamps work, it would seem that the wax is less dense than the water, so it floats.  in order to fix this, you need to decrease the density of the water.  i would dump out the water and refill with distilled water.  then heat the lamp until the wax melts completely, then begin to add a saturated mixture of epsom salt or pickling salt.  you can do this by heating some water, then stir in the salt until it dissolves.  do this until the salt begins to precipitate from solution.  then slowly add the solution to the lamp, ~ 1tsp. at a time until the wax begins to rise and fall.  to reduce the surface tension of the wax (i.e. less goo balls and more stretchy flow), add a couple of drops of dawn dish soap.

there are other methods to repair lamps on this board, so you may want to search.  i know this method works, so it's the one i recommend.  good luck!

[Brad]

i guess you could also try dumping some of the water and fill back with distilled water, no salt.  i would actually try that first before dumping all of the water and starting over.

[Col B.]

BTW did you post a page elsewhere on this method? Just curious because it was one of the first help pages I found for it!

Brad said:

based on the physics of how lava lamps work, it would seem that the wax is less dense than the water, so it floats.  in order to fix this, you need to decrease the density of the water.  i would dump out the water and refill with distilled water.  then heat the lamp until the wax melts completely, then begin to add a saturated mixture of epsom salt or pickling salt.  you can do this by heating some water, then stir in the salt until it dissolves.  do this until the salt begins to precipitate from solution.  then slowly add the solution to the lamp, ~ 1tsp. at a time until the wax begins to rise and fall.  to reduce the surface tension of the wax (i.e. less goo balls and more stretchy flow), add a couple of drops of dawn dish soap.

there are other methods to repair lamps on this board, so you may want to search.  i know this method works, so it's the one i recommend.  good luck!

[Col B.]

LOL Good thing I poured liquid into mixing glass pitcher instead of sink!

Took out about a 1/2 cup and replacing now, let's see what it does

Brad said:

i guess you could also try dumping some of the water and fill back with distilled water, no salt.  i would actually try that first before dumping all of the water and starting over.

[Brad]

i didn't but i think there is one around here somewhere.  lava library at the top?

Col B. said:

BTW did you post a page elsewhere on this method? Just curious because it was one of the first help pages I found for it!

Brad said:

based on the physics of how lava lamps work, it would seem that the wax is less dense than the water, so it floats.  in order to fix this, you need to decrease the density of the water.  i would dump out the water and refill with distilled water.  then heat the lamp until the wax melts completely, then begin to add a saturated mixture of epsom salt or pickling salt.  you can do this by heating some water, then stir in the salt until it dissolves.  do this until the salt begins to precipitate from solution.  then slowly add the solution to the lamp, ~ 1tsp. at a time until the wax begins to rise and fall.  to reduce the surface tension of the wax (i.e. less goo balls and more stretchy flow), add a couple of drops of dawn dish soap.

there are other methods to repair lamps on this board, so you may want to search.  i know this method works, so it's the one i recommend.  good luck!

[Col B.]

"Molten Meditation" is the name of the page. That's how I found here, they mention they learned it here.

Water section replaced, light on, waiting for action

Brad said:

i didn't but i think there is one around here somewhere.  lava library at the top?

Col B. said:

BTW did you post a page elsewhere on this method? Just curious because it was one of the first help pages I found for it!

Brad said:

based on the physics of how lava lamps work, it would seem that the wax is less dense than the water, so it floats.  in order to fix this, you need to decrease the density of the water.  i would dump out the water and refill with distilled water.  then heat the lamp until the wax melts completely, then begin to add a saturated mixture of epsom salt or pickling salt.  you can do this by heating some water, then stir in the salt until it dissolves.  do this until the salt begins to precipitate from solution.  then slowly add the solution to the lamp, ~ 1tsp. at a time until the wax begins to rise and fall.  to reduce the surface tension of the wax (i.e. less goo balls and more stretchy flow), add a couple of drops of dawn dish soap.

there are other methods to repair lamps on this board, so you may want to search.  i know this method works, so it's the one i recommend.  good luck!

[Col B.]

Whoo-hoo!!! Success!!! Took 1/2 cup out, then added distilled back up to 'norm' level.  Let warm up, had some movement, but too low. So slowly over past few hours added in saline solution and, well, see photo I'm adding! Thank you, wouldn't have done it that way, would have been complete redo of fluid with more aggrivation involved. 

Gonna seal this cap up tomorrow, crossing my fingers it stays good overnight!

Brad said:

i didn't but i think there is one around here somewhere.  lava library at the top?

Col B. said:

BTW did you post a page elsewhere on this method? Just curious because it was one of the first help pages I found for it!

Brad said:

based on the physics of how lava lamps work, it would seem that the wax is less dense than the water, so it floats.  in order to fix this, you need to decrease the density of the water.  i would dump out the water and refill with distilled water.  then heat the lamp until the wax melts completely, then begin to add a saturated mixture of epsom salt or pickling salt.  you can do this by heating some water, then stir in the salt until it dissolves.  do this until the salt begins to precipitate from solution.  then slowly add the solution to the lamp, ~ 1tsp. at a time until the wax begins to rise and fall.  to reduce the surface tension of the wax (i.e. less goo balls and more stretchy flow), add a couple of drops of dawn dish soap.

there are other methods to repair lamps on this board, so you may want to search.  i know this method works, so it's the one i recommend.  good luck!

[Brad]

no prob!  glad you got it flowing again.