Astro vote

[Noz]

A new vote has arrived. 

Clear pink

Yellow red

Pink blue. 

Not very imaginative. 

Must vote by Monday. 

I'd like a pink blue myself as I've already got both the others. 

What are your thoughts? 

[Noz]

The one I bought for my mum is crystal clear but is really sluggish. Maybe after a few runs? 

Seems to be a bit more purple ly than other pinks we've had. 

My original one has turned red where the base wax has yellowed. But is an amazing bottle. 

[MonsoonStorm]

Mine arrived today (despite DPD's best efforts not to by delivering to a random house in another village...)

Pink/clear bottles are fine, green/red has a bit of gunk on the outside but I'm fairly certain it will come off with some glass cleaner or acetone, it normally does.  Starting them up now to see how they look.  The green/red so far looks quite nice - wax hasn't warmed up enough to move yet though.

[MonsoonStorm]

Mine are taking their time, but it's both colours.  My room isn't the warmest so hard to tell atm.

Noz said:

The one I bought for my mum is crystal clear but is really sluggish. Maybe after a few runs? 

Seems to be a bit more purple ly than other pinks we've had. 

My original one has turned red where the base wax has yellowed. But is an amazing bottle. 

[lampfancy]

Bottle no. 2 (replacement) looking like it may be a non-runner.

:- /

Anyone had the fortune to recieve a defect free bottle?




[Noz]

Mine is ultra sluggish. 4 hours before even just a small bubble pops up. Then another 15 minutes before another.  Really disappointed. 

I've now totally given up on it. 

[lampfancy]

Why not get in touch with them? I’ll be doing the same (again)



No need to take it lying down, so to speak.



I basically have a ‘standard letter’ for faulty bottles at this point.

[Paul]

Mine are really "heavy" also. They seem to be making them less and less buoyant recently. I'm not going to ask for a replacement as that will be the same coming from the same batch (and I’m tired of having to keep contacting them).

Not too bad when it gets going but no chance it would work in a black base (like most of the newer bottles) with a normal bulb. 

[Noz]

Emailed them yesterday. So far being ignored. Will try again on Monday. 

[MonsoonStorm]

I've found theyve improved as they've been run more.  May be worth giving them a long running stint

[Noz]

My one is improving with age, but only slightly. Works much better with a 40w halogen bulb. But the wax still pea shoots a lot with a huge blob at the bottom. Doesn't ever seem to move properly at all. 

But I am putting this down to the individuality of the bottle, as we know some have a life of their own. I am going to try it with an incandescent bulb to see how it works with that. 

[MonsoonStorm]

Where do you get your 40w bulbs? struggling to find mini ones.

There are some 50W ones on amazon which I could use with a dimmer, was just hoping to find 40w instead.  It's looking like anything beyond 35w is becoming scarce - the vast majority of bulbs are LED now.

Noz said:

My one is improving with age, but only slightly. Works much better with a 40w halogen bulb. But the wax still pea shoots a lot with a huge blob at the bottom. Doesn't ever seem to move properly at all. 

But I am putting this down to the individuality of the bottle, as we know some have a life of their own. I am going to try it with an incandescent bulb to see how it works with that. 

[Noz]

Mine is an older base from 2013 with a ses bulb. So I've swapped a 35w out for a 40w and my astro works better with sluggish bottles. 

They're the same ones used in the fluidiums. 

I didn't want to up the wattage too much as I was worried it may crack my bottles. 

But you can get gu10 40w halogens on ebay and amazon. Quite reasonable too. 

Of course it would be much simpler if they went back to the old formula which flowed wonderfully. Something is definitely amiss at the factory. And hasen't been quite right since they moved. 

BTW incandescent 40w really struggle with these clear pinks. Just a dome and nothing else. Same with my green red.