Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

Hello all

I am new here so please bear with me. This seems to be the 'place to be' for lava lamp troubleshooting though :) Apologies for the longwinded story but I thought the more info for you guys, the more help you could give me.

I bought a massive lava lamp for my girlfreind on Xmas Eve, wasnt cheap but it is beautiful - or rather was. Foolishly I laid the bottle down in the boot of the car and got home and 3/4 of the liquid had leaked out. I was gutted to the point of tears as I had to tell my girlfreind when she came home later that day that her main Xmas prezzie was knacked then I found this website and hope is born!!! :D

The lamp is a Sunset Flask (stands 72cm high) - you can see it here :

http://www.febland.co.uk/lighting/ll318l_sunset_flask_lava_lamp.html

The shop I bought it from were supplied it by these guys (Febland) but all I can see on the base where the bulb is, is Made in China and the words Table Lamp with a model number of MG-S2400

Im hoping someone can give me some hints on replacing the liquid. The wax is actually yellow and the water WAS purple. There is still a quarter of the liquid in the bottle. I will obviously take the cap off (somehow) and empty it and start again but I would like to know what to do exactly to get this to work. I saw on other threads there was a guy who replaced cloudy Mathmos' with tap water, food colouring, washing up liquid and epsom salts but my lamp isnt a Mathmos so would this work for my lamp? Im not sure about the amount of water it holds, but its quite big.

The lamp was on display in the shop so most of the wax cooled near the neck of the bottle and there is a small layer of wax in the bottom of the bottle which appears to have a coil in it as well. The reason it leaked is because the lid/cap has a leak. I turned the bottle sideways and tilted it so that the water would go towards the top of the bottle and it started pouring out. I know you should always keep them upright but Ive gotten away with it in the past with my smaller Astro Mathmos'.

Any advice would be very helpful and I would be forever in your debt if I can get this Xmas pressie to work again - sorry for going on...

Jimbo

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Well hmmm,... you've gotten yourself in quite the predicament. There's a few ways you can fix your situation. Either A you try luck @ chemistry and search through the section here on how to make your own liquid. http://oozinggoo.com/howto.html
That's the link. Or since your pound is stronger than the US dollar you can buy a few lava world brand lamps and ship them over to you and Use the liquid as donor liquid. And discard the rest. Those are your 2 best options. If you have questions. Repost,I live on this site practically, and I'll do what I can to help.
I feel really chuffed that I have bought a lamp that a OG mod has, just different colours :D Not so chuffed at the answer though :( You are spot on Bohdan, I can see the rubber plug at the top of the bottle and the cap isnt coming off with any sort of ease but it obviously has a leak. I bought the lamp from my girlfriends shop (that she runs) on the sly so she wouldnt notice. So I know for a fact it's only been on display a month as she only had it delivered in November from the suppliers in the UK so it hasnt been 'overcooked' at all. Unfortunately she only ordered the one lava lamp and a glitter lamp in the same shape and size but I want lava not glitter so not swapping it for that.

Well as a result of your replies, my girlfriend has contacted the suppliers to see if they can sort out a warranty replacement - fingers crossed.

Thanks for everyones advice - what a balls up!

Jimbo
Hi guys

Well the suppliers have been right 'childs with no fathers' and after lots of arguments and trading standards threats, they say they wont ship another over and will just refund the shop. So I am going to have a bash at getting the cap off. I have bought a pipet, some epsom salts and red and blue food colouring so wish me luck guys. Will keep you all posted on how it goes.

Jimbo
I have used the "Molten Meditation" method (say that 5 times fast!) and it has worked well for me. All I can say is BE PATIENT! Add the epsom salts and dishwashing liquid slowly! It is much easier to keep adding it then to take it out!! It DOES work you just have to go very slow!
"Bert"
6-ft-under.com
PS Don't use tap water (too much bacteria and gunk--used distilled water.)
That method is what I am going to use. I was going to use tap water but Ive just had a brainwave. We have a water cooler in the house with a filter inside it so you fill it up with tap water and filtered water comes out. Might use that :)
Not sure where to get distilled water from in Cyprus so might try this instead :)

To be honest the most daunting thing for me at the moment is getting this cap off without ruining it as it will obviously need to go back on..
Jimbo
Heres a picture of the lamp before I start.... thought some people might be interested...
Attachments:
Well the cap is off with consumate ease - small flathead screwdriver lightly prized away part of the lip of the cap then it came off. I think I can see straight away the problem as well - the rubber seal and the foamy circular bit on top of that were not flush with the glass - they were partly stuffed inside the glass - if you look at the picture I have just put on of the bottle, and look carefully at the top of the bottle, you might be able to see what I mean. I am assuming that the rubber stopper should be completely flush with the glass all the way round. Right - time to empty it and clean it.

Jimbo
Dammit - got impatient and added too much detergent and the water has gone cloudy so gonna try and let the wax melt into one big lump and then empty it and start over. Anyone thats tried this method, when you add the salt solution how soon should you see a reaction? Perhaps my salt solution wasnt strong enough?

Jimbo
Hi all - just thought I would give you an update. Check out the attachment to see what Ive managed to do :) Its not the finished article but its pretty damn close I reckon. Just got to top up the bottle now and add more solution when I do as well as the food colouring but this was filtered water, 3 drops of washing up liquid and before it even thought about moving, the full 200g of Epsom Salts I had diluted into a solution. I am so pleased but more importantly so is the girlfriend and its all thanks to this forum :). There are a few bubbles in the lava but Im hoping they will disappear once its run for a bit and I put the cap back on. Will post again once I have been to the pharmacy and bought some more epsom salts (cant believe how much it took to start the movement) and will post a pic of the finished article but its looking good so far boys and girls - dont you think? My phone camera is a bit crap - the colour is a lovely bright yellow :) Might take a picture with my digital camera once its sorted :)

Jimbo
Attachments:
Job well done! Looks great! When recapping I use a little bit of automotive gasket sealant under the lid. (Just a bit--don't want it to squoosh out into the lamp!) The gasket sealant keeps the liquid inside, in the event that the lamp is laid down again.
"Bert"
6-ft-under.com
Slight problem - not sure of the cause.

Now the wax has left the coil and has settled in one big lump in the middle of the bottle since I topped it up with the same water and more salt solution. When I turned the lamp off, the wax doesnt float back down to the coil. Any ideas what might cause this? Have I added too much salt solution now? If so its no biggy, I can just empty some out and re-add water with no salt.

Jimbo
You have too much of something. More than likely, salt. Empty a little bit and try again. It should resolve the issue. These things seem to have a very delicate balance.

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