I need help with my Mathmos Jet lamp...

[Ceri]

I bought the lamp about a week ago, it's my first lamp, it's the original clear with red lava.

It stopped working a 2 days ago so i shook it rigerously in temper & to my delight it started working again, now only 1 problem the liquid is very cloudy from the red colouring from breaking up the lava, It has started to settle & clear a little but is taking a long time I would like to know if there is anything i can do to help this process along? Any responses will be much appreciated.

[Ford Prefect - NPNG]

hello!
Your wax has combined slightly with the liquid.
unfortunately, there isnt really anything else you can do but wait and cycle the lamp, letting it rest up good in between times.
It may not ever clear completely, and your only options if it doesnt are either to replace the liquid, or to filter it.

you see alot of cloudy lamps about, and they are generally caused by the lamp being shook when its hot, knocked over etc.
i have spoken to someone on here who shook his lamp, and all was well in the end, so it may be OK, but i wouldnt advise shaking them!

I have some jets, and one of them wouldnt flow, but i was advised to put it on a different jet base, as the one i had wasnt hot enough. sure enough, it started to flow great.

Be patient with the lamp, but be prepared for it not to clear up.

When you say it has started to flow again, is it flowing in exactly the same way as before, or a bit differently?

[Ceri]

It is flowing just the same but the liquid has now a fairly cloudy & some redening/pinking, from the lava, i actually have cycled it 4 times since & is cleared enough to see the flow which thankfully is fine is just the liquid is cloudy, so you say i should try filtering the liquid if it doesnt clear how do i go about this use filter paper or a sieve? i'm new to this so don't really know how, it actually was flowing fine & all of a sudden stopped flowing so i shook it let it rest then ran it continuosly for about 10 hours & saw it starting to flow propperly so then started rest & run process to try & clear the clouding, seems to have worked quite well so far so will persist with this. if it clears to a good enough condition I'll start posting pictures & videos of it here for everyone to see, as is a beautifull lamp, I paid £2.99 for it on a car boot sale what a bargain!, Ok it's inline switch had gone so took one off another lamp, & it had no bulb so bout 3 new bulbs at £3.98 for 3 so still very much a bargain.

[Ford Prefect - NPNG]

yes a bargain indeed!
to be honest, i have never filtered any lamps, but to get a proper filter just for that lamp would be a bit of a false economy as they are about £50+
if you use filtering material, papers etc, you will loose some of the liquid which would be a shame.
Search the forum for discussions on filtering, just type filtering into the search box at the top and you'll see how the pro's have done it!
10 hours maybe a bit long for a jet to be running. when it stopped flowing, had it been on for a long time?

[Ceri]

No it had only been on for about 30 minutes when it stoped flowing, I shook it rigerously was just like the flow had got stuck, I then left it rest for about 4-6 hours before running it 10 hours the reason I did that was that the liquid was red & i couldnt see through it enough for several hours to see the lava flowing, but seemed fine after that I then left it rest & didnt run it until the following day, have rest & run it as i said 4 times, so 10 hours then each time after ran it about 2 hours each time. Like i said its fairly cloudy now but not badly cloudy.

[Ford Prefect - NPNG]

well at least it wasnt overheating. fingers crossed it will clear more on its own.
do you have plans to buy more? nice thing about jets is they are very affordable and a great way to start a collection :)

[Ceri]

Ye was watching a few on ebay I tried bidding in the last 10 seconds but on all 3 occasions was out bit unfortunately. There was one Jet i wanted with Green wax & blue liquid, I even increased my maximum bid by £10, but I guess I'll get more chances in future, I can also buy new Mathmos Astro for £13.98 including carriage, but i prefer Jet lamps to Astr & really had my heart set on getting the Green/Blue 1 but I guess I'll get more chances in future.

[Ford Prefect - NPNG]

yes, thats happened to me a few times, but the green/blue do come up quite often so i'm sure you'll snag one soon. the green flows really very nicely, my fave of the jet flows.

I too am not a massive fan of the astro, i prefer astrobabys and telstars.

you'll be skint in no time if the lava takes hold! i only wanted one jet originally but theres always something else to buy!

[Ceri]

Ye but i guess so i have just bught a new sof so am skint already but am gonna save to get more lamps.

[Ford Prefect - NPNG]

well a sofa is really more essential than lava after all.
I'm off to bed, catch ya soon and i hope the jet gets better
:)

[Ford Prefect - NPNG]

i'd aggree with astrobaby and get a new bottle. i know its a shame but much quicker!

[Ceri]

Cool, well will keep trying on ebay, & in the mean time keep cycling the lamp with the run & rest process, thanks for all of your replies :)