Help me with "overbubbling" of my lamps!!

[Daniele]

Hi to everybody.
As you've probably noticed I'm new here, but am getting waaaay to many lamps all of a sudden.
In a week I got a midnight clear/green, a lavalite 32oz in clear/blue and a aristocrat yellow/red.
well... I'm having hard time finding a bulb that fits in the lamp being not so long to be too close to the bottle.
Now I found a bulb, but the lava tends to separate in pretty small (olive size or a bit more) bubbles and very rapidly, plus there are dozens of very small bubbles all around, as if it where sparkling water.
--With the aristocrat, I tried to put it in the base of the mathmos, and it tends to form veery big blobs, and at time columns, since there is a big amount of wax that flows at the top, and sometimes the wax from the bottom fuses with the one of the top.
When I put it in the aristocrat base, it tends to make many small blobs, that move fast. In both cases, then, there are many small sparkles in this lamp too.
How can i get them to have a regular flow? are those sparkles (in both of them) the referred to "cloudyness".. then I fear it occurred in the transportation.bye

[Dr,WHAT?!]

Sounds like you may be overheating your lamps. You may want to check the wattage of the bulbs. Sometimes when I buy lamps online from ebay they'll come with 60w bulbs in them which will kill your lamp. All those lamps you listed should take a regular 40w appliance bulbs. If your not sure what wattage bulb you have look on the metal part of the bulb and in very small typesetting you should see the wattage listed. If theres nothing at all listed go buy some new 40w frosted bulbs. If that doesn't seem to work then a dimmer may help keep the heat down and restore the proper flow to your lamps.

[Daniele]

Thank you! prompt as usual!!by the way, I solved that issue on the plugs, remember.
I was implying that the bulbs are 40W that's the problem, by frosted you mean opaque? that may be less hot??

[Dr,WHAT?!]

ya the opaque ones usually are less hot. Well if they are all 40w bulbs then try dimmers.

[DjTrevrok]

Also if you can find 130v bulbs they burn cooler than 120v bulbs

[Bohdan]

Run them for about 3 hours a day let them cool down for the rest of the day. Then let them sit for a few days without running them .Then you can run them for 4 to 6 hours a day . Remember in house temp. should be around 70 deg. I have run mine at 80 deg. but for short time only as not to over heat them. Every lava lamp has its own way of flowing. Some
have bubbles some form columns that come and go some have air bubbles in them as they run some
lamps will change there flow and bubbles will start to go away slowly. Columns come and go depends on the heat of the bulb more hot it is the columns will start to flow. Some lava lamps have hundreds of
wax bubbles this will also go away a little after a while it is the nature of the lava. Cloudy lamps are
like a milky white liquid this is caused by the delivery of lamps in the summer time . If so run that lamp
for about 4 to 5 hours a day after a few days let it sit for a day or two then run it again for a few days.
The milky color is the wax suspended in the liquid along with the wax white dye. In time it will clear
up nice.

[Daniele]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-LAVA-LAMP-Light-16-Green-and-White-NR_W...
This is the problem, more or less!!!

[Bohdan]

This is a nice flowing USA lava lamp old style.I have a few of them. Large to small lava
also this pic shows it to be very clear.

[DjTrevrok]

Many times also the tiny rapid blobs that rise and fall right away mean you are not getting hot enough. if the blobs gather and stay at the top you are overheating.

[Daniele]

Ok!!!
FORTUNATELY no milk or shit like that.. just the wax.
ok.. so when blobs are pretty much and stay at top is way too hot... but how comes if I use 40w? probably it should be of 120 instead of 130??
... I'm a bit discouraged:( I hope not to tamper them irreversibly, but If I understood correctly until you don't drop them when they're hot it's fine!!!
thanks

[DjTrevrok]

130v runs cooler, as it only puts out 40 watts running at 130v. home current is 120v, so the bulb will only produce around 35 watts of light. If that doesn't work you are going to need to either try a 25 watt 120v bulb or get an inline lamp dimmer (19.00 home depot) to cool it down. you can run 6 or so lamps off 1 dimmer.

[goodude26]

If you want to find a 25 watt appliance bulb, look at either Lowe's or The Home Depot. I forget which one has them, but they do have them there. Pick one up and see if your lamp flows on it.
I once had a 32oz clear/red lava lamp that had the hundreds of tiny blobs problem. The problem was the wax was too runny or something....it was a 2003 China Lava Lite from when they first came out. I had to use a 25 watt appliance bulb to get it to run with the bigger blobs.

If the "sparkles" you are talking about are what I am thinking. They are air bubbles in the glass. Do the sparkles just stay in one spot like a bubble on the glass or are they actually floating around inside with the wax?

Also, quite a few lava lamps that I have flow just fine, But they have lots and lots of tiny, pin head to BB sized lava balls floating around in the globe also. It is normal, though annoying to a new collector. I have gotten used to it now. But it is something that a lot of globes may do.

I hope this info helps you.

W_J

[Daniele]

thanks, apart from the shops to buy in, which may be at thousands of miles, since I'm Italian :) .
I just thought of getting a 25w bulb, and just was struck minutes ago with another idea: here in Italy we have 250v electricity, that may render to hot the bulb too, so maybe a 25W or 15w italian produces the heat of 40w AMERICAN.
fortunately, the sparkles are very very tiny bubbles moving around, not chips in the glass.
bye