Brand New Lava Lamp Not Flowing

[Joseph]

So yesterday i bought a clear water/ purple wax Premier 16.3'' lava lamp. Plugged it in at around 4pm and left it running throughout the night.

The wax expanded but never actually flowed. Around Midnight it started to have some float up and down, but a lot collected at the top and never actually came back down. So i went to sleep and that is where i left it.

Woke up this morning, around 6am, and the lava lamp was still doing the same thing, a very slow flow with a lot of wax collected at the top (and apparently stuck).

I return it this morning when the mall opened, and got another Premier but this time in a clear water and neon green wax. Plugged it in at 11:10am, it is now 5:03pm. It has expanded, and made a sort of thick column up the side of the globe, but not actually moving. 

Is there something i'm missing? my small 14'' lava lamp never had a problem. Do this bigger premier lamps need to be broke in or something? Help?

[Modulo '70]

You think they would test their products. Quality is very suspect if you ask me.

[Joseph]

Well the lava lamp finally flows, but it takes 8 hours to get to operating temperature, it has to get the globe so hot that it will burn you when you touch it.

I think that they made some bad wax.

[Joseph]

I got to thinking about it, and is it possible that it's not getting hot enough? My house can get up to 80 degrees during the day when I run it (bit of an older house) so I know that the ambient room temp isn't to blame, and I don't run the ceiling fan.

I tried a standard 60w soft bulb in the base and it lit up, it was just to big, so now it makes me wonder why the 60w clear ceiling fan bulbs I bought for it never came on.

Anybody have a suggestion of a bulb I can put in the base for it to run hotter?

[Brad]

you need a 60w A15 bulb

[Joseph]

Well I finally got a 60w bulb to put into it, and it has been flowing perfectly now, the bulb it came with was just not hot enough for the lamp.

I think the first bulb I got was meant for a different type of base, at Home Depot there are 2 types of 60w a15 bulbs. One for a medium base, which works for the lamp, and a candelabra base for decorative lights which didn't work.

Brad said:

you need a 60w A15 bulb

[Brad]

score!  interesting though that it won't flow correctly with 40w.  glad you got it working!

[Keith]

I generally give a new lamp a week to break in.  If it's not flowing right by then I consider it a dud.  Glad you got if figured out with the 60 watt bulb, you might consider getting a dimmer though.  If it starts to show signs of overheating you could dim it down until you get the right flow.  It's a shame when these new lamps don't work right.