Colossus Lamps available!

[Charlie]

Found oozinggoo.com when I was looking for ways to repair the Grande I picked up at CostCo a few years ago.  It's one of the Chinese made ones that has gone extremely cloudy and ceased to flow (going to try replacing the fluid one of these weekends). 

It was here that I found out about really big Lava lamps.  I was bowled over by videos of the  Colossus lamps and really want to see if I could get one, I couldn't find them available anywhere so I wrote LavaLite.  I wanted to let this group know what I got this from Lava Lite today:

We have a special promo on the Colossus for serious buyers.   This will be the last time the Colossus will be seen.

Please see attached promo sheet with pricing included.

If you are interested please contact on my direct line at 630-496-6663.

 

Best regards,

 

Susan Michaels

Customer Service Representative

LAVA LITE

630-496-6663 direct line

[e-mail]

www.lavalite.com

Sadly these prices are outside of my discretionary funds, even though they include shipping.  I post it in hopes that someone here may be interested.

 

[Kirk]

I was talking to Susan Michaels at LL earlier in the week, and she let me know that LL is coming out with a couple of lamps in the fall that all of her Colossus buyers would be interested in.  Hmmm.... I wonder what they are?  She's not saying.  :>)

She has us all in an email group and is planning on notifying us about the new lamps in the fall.  Here's hoping for a great surprise!  Any guesses?

[choda boy]

maybe some colossus lamps that flow properly?

[Ben]

I agree. I look longingly at Smart Astros and wonder why LL hasn't come into the 21st century. I too see a dual approach with cheaper intro lamps with incandescent bulbs and a high-end line with LEDs. Maybe they'll offer LED/heating element retrofit kits for our old lamps!

Critter said:

My guess is that it involves the American production and a return to building some quality lamps again.  The current business model is not viable (cheap Chinese production with low quality) for the long term and as we all know LL's reputation has taken a hit in the last decade.  

I can see the Chinese, Walmart quality lamps continuing for now.  However, in addition to that a second line of higher grade lamps with at least some American manufacturing involvement coming out to supplement the product range is quite likely.  Albiet, these lamps would likely carry a higher price point, and that is fine by me because I prefer to spend my money on quality products that work from the time I open the packaging and for the twenty years that follow!  Anyhow, that's my prediction.

But, perhaps in the end we'll see a combination of Chinese made parts (stands, bottles, etc) with final assembly and filling occurring in the U.S.  

Critter

Oh, and I too am excited for what is coming.

Kirk said:

I was talking to Susan Michaels at LL earlier in the week, and she let me know that LL is coming out with a couple of lamps in the fall that all of her Colossus buyers would be interested in.  Hmmm.... I wonder what they are?  She's not saying.  :>)

She has us all in an email group and is planning on notifying us about the new lamps in the fall.  Here's hoping for a great surprise!  Any guesses?

[Keith]

I've thought all along with this release of the Colossus that they would be introducing some kind of replacement.  The add says "this will be the last time the Colossus will be seen" but that doesn't mean they won't have something just like it or similar with a different name.

[Brad]

hmm, maybe the grande starship or another 250oz. + lamp?  autumn, do you know? :) thanks for the tidbit of information, kirk.

Kirk said:

I was talking to Susan Michaels at LL earlier in the week, and she let me know that LL is coming out with a couple of lamps in the fall that all of her Colossus buyers would be interested in.  Hmmm.... I wonder what they are?  She's not saying.  :>)

She has us all in an email group and is planning on notifying us about the new lamps in the fall.  Here's hoping for a great surprise!  Any guesses?

[Ben]

Just got my table ring and 200w bulb from Susan.  

For starters, I discovered just how hard it is to put the globe on the base with the giant glass table taking up where I need to stand.  Not helping is the fact the base is waist-high on top of a table and nothing holds the table in place until the globe is in position.  I decided to skip the table for now and I'll at least have it for someday in the future if I put the lamp directly on the floor.  No need to damage myself or have a Colossus globe exploding all over my basement.  

Note how the 200w bulb is straight out of The Land Of New Old Stock, LOL.  I will cycle it with this bulb, but I don't see that being a suitable solution, even if it does work.  I googled the heck out of those bulbs and no one has them since they have been off the market since 2009.  I want the reassurance that I will always be able to get a replacement bulb in the future.   

While I had the globe off and on the couch to swap bulbs, I was surprised to see the wax was completely unattached from the coils (see photos).  This is after a cool-down from a stuck flow.  I would have assumed the wax would reconnect to the coils after a cool down.  I've never seen the wax unattached in my smaller lamps.  Since it's so heavy, I can't lift it to see what the wax & coil are doing while its running but I can see down inside.  As I type this, with the new bulb installed, it has the same "crater" in the middle of the wax and I can see bare glass and coil at the bottom.  The globe hasn't finished warming up yet; temp is 99 degrees at the moment.  This does not look promising at all. 

Is the wax likely to reconnect, or is it off the coils forever?  This certainly sounds like a culprit to my problems of stuck flow, overheating, and general finickiness that several of us are dealing with.  

[Brad]

wow, GTE!  that IS old.

[Jim]

I hope the upcoming lamp stands about 6'5" and has a 20 gallon globe. 

[Bridget T]

On my one lamp that does not flow well, I can clearly see a similar setup, coil and wax stacked together, not merged into one and I'm quite sure that's the problem in a nutshell on the bigger lamps.  I don't like seeing naked coils.

It's great to see a photo illustrating that problem on the colossus globe, wish I'd thought to take a picture of mine this morning, but was in too much of a hurry to get the replacement globe on the base.

Ben said: 

While I had the globe off and on the couch to swap bulbs, I was surprised to see the wax was completely unattached from the coils (see photos).  This is after a cool-down from a stuck flow.  I would have assumed the wax would reconnect to the coils after a cool down.  I've never seen the wax unattached in my smaller lamps.  Since it's so heavy, I can't lift it to see what the wax & coil are doing while its running but I can see down inside.  As I type this, with the new bulb installed, it has the same "crater" in the middle of the wax and I can see bare glass and coil at the bottom.  The globe hasn't finished warming up yet; temp is 99 degrees at the moment.  This does not look promising at all.

[Ben]

Wikipedia says GTE dropped out of the lighting business in 1993. This bulb is original gangsta. I don't know what musty old hardware store Lava Light found it in, but I must say I am impressed they are trying this hard at customer service. That is a plus!

Brad said:

wow, GTE!  that IS old.

[Autumn]

I can't say sorry. :p

Brad said:

hmm, maybe the grande starship or another 250oz. + lamp?  autumn, do you know? :) thanks for the tidbit of information, kirk.

Kirk said:

I was talking to Susan Michaels at LL earlier in the week, and she let me know that LL is coming out with a couple of lamps in the fall that all of her Colossus buyers would be interested in.  Hmmm.... I wonder what they are?  She's not saying.  :>)

She has us all in an email group and is planning on notifying us about the new lamps in the fall.  Here's hoping for a great surprise!  Any guesses?

[Brad]

:)

Autumn said:

I can't say sorry. :p