Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

I have just got hold of two fluidium lamps, I only have one bulb. I used the bulb in the yellow one last night and have it in my orange one today, anyone know where I can get another bulb, please.

Views: 355

Attachments:

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi Vikki,
Assuming you're in the UK, these are the ones that mathmos sell now: http://www.mathmos.com/fluidium-lava-lamp-bulb.html
They're currently out of stock, but these look the same: http://www.dbaelectricltd.co.uk/2-x-PAR16-Halogen-Light-Bulbs-40W-SE
Personally I think these halogens run a little hot though, so you may want to use a dimmer switch.
I've been using the old 30w spots (like the ones in the astro baby and jet). Again, mathmos sell them: http://www.mathmos.com/30W-Astrobaby-Telstar-Jet-lava-lamp-Screw-fi... but they're a crazy price, and you should be able to find them cheaper elsewhere. The Fluidiums will take quite a bit longer to heat up with these, but then they'll run beautifully with no overheating.

Thank you, the husband found a 30w golf ball bulb in a drawer today and fitted it for me. It does seem to be taking a lot longer to warm up than the other one, which is a 40w reflector. 

The orange one (40w reflector) seems to have alot of air bubbles in it, is this normal for a fluidium? 

I'm completely new to all of this.

Attachments:

Be careful with the golfballs as a 40w will melt the inside of the plastic base.

If it's a 30w bulb though, that's likely to be a modern halogen bulb like this: http://www.argos.co.uk/product/8269018t which probably won't get hot enough anyway. The traditional golfball style bulbs would have been 25/40w.

Lava and glitter lamps are quite particular when it comes to bulbs, so you're best off using the ones I've recommended above.

Air bubbles in the wax aren't uncommon though, although they may clear a little with use. Your Fluidum may not have been used for a while.

You're spring/coil in the lamp on the right isn't laying flat either, so should flow a little better once that's dropped.

Thank you so much for your advice, I'm such a newbie when it comes to lamps. Always been after a mathmos lamp, so when I found these two for £20.00 I had to buy them. 

Will get my hubby to order bulbs from the places you said as would hate to harm my lamps. 

How would I get the coil to lie flat?

The liquid in the orange one is cloudy compared to the yellow one, will it clear after I run it a few times? 

No problem, £20 was an absolute bargain, as they generally sell for between £60-£100.

The Fluidiums are a little 'tricky' relative to other mathmos lamps, but a very unique design, and they certainly hold their value.

When the lamp is nice and hot, you may be able to lift and turn the bottle very gently to one side for the coil to drop, but more likely you'll have to unscrew the cap (when hot), and gently push the coil down with a long clean rod of some sort (e.g., a long skewer or straightened coat hanger).

The cloudy fluid is unlikely to clear unfortunately.

Thank you so much for your advice, is there a way to replace the cloudy liquid? 

Or would you just leave it as it is? 

I'm not a fan of cloudy lamps, and would probably look out for a replacement bottle.

However, there are plenty of people here who restore old lamps and retain the fluid and/or wax.

I have an American friend whose changed the fluid on mathmos lamps and they look brand new/crystal clear. 

I changed the fluid in a vintage american lamp (a 'Consort Capri') just using replacement water, and diluted salt solution, and it worked perfectly. However, I tried to do the same with a mathmos lamp recently and failed miserably!  Takes practice I guess.

Basically you use distilled water, salt/diluted salt solution, and a surfactant, and hopefully someone else will link you to a thread with clear instructions.

Of course you can always buy a new mathmos lamp, or look out for one on ebay that looks very clear, and simply swap the fluid over when the lamps are cold.

Reply to Discussion

RSS

About

Autumn created this Ning Network.

GooHeads

Groups

© 2024   Created by Autumn.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service