Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

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

smichaels@lavalite.com

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.

 

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I think we should take a head count of everyone having problems and as a group DEMAND a sizable partial refund for those of us who are willing to keep these clearly defective lamps. We shouldn't have to be buying and using all these other bulbs, and dimmers, and thermometers etc etc etc

When's the last time you had to put up with such BS from any other $700+ item you've bought? How is this even remotely acceptable? If this were a big screen TV, a washing machine, a set of car tires etc etc they would all be going right back to the store. 

I think LL thinks they "have us". Being that we're all such fans AND these things are huge pain in the ass to return.

So which of these bulbs is supposed to solve our problems?

Ben said:

Gwen:  I found a few Westinghouse bulbs on Amazon.  Any of these look familiar?

Westinghouse 250w heat lamp clear


Westinghouse 03483 250R40 HT R EZ Heat Lamp

Westinghouse 03484 250R40 HT EZ Heat Lamp

Westinghouse 3916 heat brooder

Westinghouse 03917 Heat and Brooder

Westinghouse R40 E26



Gwen Williams said:

Ben- I got mine at Menards. If you do not have a Menards you may just have to look at different home supply and hardware stores in your area till you find who sells them

Gwen, 

Can you provide the exact model number of that bulb? I have Menard's here in Chicago and want to get the one you say works well but as you can see there are many to choose from

Gwen Williams said:

Like Autumn, I too have has issues with my clear red, but nothing that did not clear up with a bulb change (westinghouse for me) and some time keeping it almost too hot and too cool intermittently and like others once I get it flowing right I leave it there, hubby and I just have been unplugging it instead of touching the dimmer again. At times mine still gets a bit hot and stalls, so we turn it off for 30 min or so then plug it back in and it's good to go.  Because these are lamps that are made to take some abuse I think they need to be tortured a bit before they are good to go, a break in period of sorts.

So has it solved the blob problem completely? Can you just set it and forget it or are we still expected to quit our jobs and spend all our time appealing to the lava god for it's beneficence (aka dialing in the quality  on the dimmer constantly)

Critter said:

Al,

I tried a 250watt Sylvania (from Lowes) and find the lamp works better with it than the Phillips LL sent with the Colossus.  I think others have had good luck with the Westinghouse too.  I am not sure about the others.

Damn I was looking for a silver bullet. I hate the thought of wrestling this globe several times just for marginal improvement

Critter said:

Ummmm. Have to say "no" not completely but I have had runs of more than 24 hours without messing with it.  I also think that cycling it has helped too.  But there is a part of me that thinks that I will achieve that within another couple months of cycling.

Al Chemysto said:

So has it solved the blob problem completely? Can you just set it and forget it or are we still expected to quit our jobs and spend all our time appealing to the lava god for it's beneficence (aka dialing in the quality  on the dimmer constantly)

Critter said:

Al,

I tried a 250watt Sylvania (from Lowes) and find the lamp works better with it than the Phillips LL sent with the Colossus.  I think others have had good luck with the Westinghouse too.  I am not sure about the others.

Do any of these bulbs help it heat up and get flowing faster then the bulb it came with?

I am getting better results on the 200w bulb, but I also agree that cycling the lamp is part of the solution.  The 200w bulb has taken out the dimmer challenges/frustration that I was facing with the 250w bulb. 

The Colossus is much more sensitive to temperature changes in its environment than the smaller lamps.  I find the 200w flood bulb from Norman Lamps is less sensitive to these temperature changes than the 250w bulb.  I can run the 200w bulb at 100% for many hours and even days without getting stuck.  There is still a point in time when it can get stuck (my Y/P stuck on day 3; P/P stuck on hour 20) , but I now have successful, consistent runs of 18-24+ hours with excellent flow.  I'm pleased with these results.

Finally, I agree with Ken, the Colossus is supposed to be run with a 200w bulb, so I'm using the 200w bulbs.  :>)


Critter said:

Ummmm this is the exact 200watt bulb I tried in mine and found similar results to the dimmed 250watt.  The only thing that has seemed to help has been cycling the lamp and running it. 

Kirk said:

Ken-I think you have quietly solved the problem. We just weren't listening. ; )

You are my new best friend! Thank you!

The one I have just has the number 03916 on the box. It was the only white one available at menards

Al, have you talked to Susan about a replacement globe? She has been very good to deal with.

Al Chemysto said:

I think we should take a head count of everyone having problems and as a group DEMAND a sizable partial refund for those of us who are willing to keep these clearly defective lamps. We shouldn't have to be buying and using all these other bulbs, and dimmers, and thermometers etc etc etc

When's the last time you had to put up with such BS from any other $700+ item you've bought? How is this even remotely acceptable? If this were a big screen TV, a washing machine, a set of car tires etc etc they would all be going right back to the store. 

I think LL thinks they "have us". Being that we're all such fans AND these things are huge pain in the ass to return.

Kirk, what is the exact temperature in your house? I'm sure that plays a role.

Kirk said:

I am getting better results on the 200w bulb, but I also agree that cycling the lamp is part of the solution.  The 200w bulb has taken out the dimmer challenges/frustration that I was facing with the 250w bulb. 

The Colossus is much more sensitive to temperature changes in its environment than the smaller lamps.  I find the 200w flood bulb from Norman Lamps is less sensitive to these temperature changes than the 250w bulb.  I can run the 200w bulb at 100% for many hours and even days without getting stuck.  There is still a point in time when it can get stuck (my Y/P stuck on day 3; P/P stuck on hour 20) , but I now have successful, consistent runs of 18-24+ hours with excellent flow.  I'm pleased with these results.

Finally, I agree with Ken, the Colossus is supposed to be run with a 200w bulb, so I'm using the 200w bulbs.  :>)


Critter said:

Ummmm this is the exact 200watt bulb I tried in mine and found similar results to the dimmed 250watt.  The only thing that has seemed to help has been cycling the lamp and running it. 

Kirk said:

Ken-I think you have quietly solved the problem. We just weren't listening. ; )

You are my new best friend! Thank you!

Ben - Temperature runs between mid-60s at night to mid-70s during the day.

well, i think bulbs make a difference. I do not think the brand of the bulb is the problem. I went and bought a new phillips 250 watt bulb last week. I have now made 2 different 60+ hour runs. I put the old bulb back in last wed,,,it stuck as soon as it became fluid. It (old bulb) is also a phillips. I believe that some bulbs do not adjust smoothly with the dimmer switch,,,even bulbs of the same brand react differently.

Also, after I got this bulb, i ran the lamp "cold" for 24 hours. I did this because i just wanted it to run without hovering,,not because i thought it would help.  I believe i got lucky and it did help.. Cold to me,,means that the lava is all wrinkly as it falls, and does not "snap back" when pooping,,and not smooth skinned on the bottom 50% of the globe while dropping.  After running cold for this 24 hours, i went to bed,,got up,, and it was flowing smoothly.  This change from wrinkle to smooth was WITHOUT touching the dimmer switch. Soooo,,,, i also believe "lave break-in" is a factor, or it needs a lot longer time to gradually heat up without hovering!!

My present run started flowing smoothly at 2am friday morn,,which will make it 66 hours when i shut down at 10 pm,,,,,after the walking dead.....

I still see the coils sometimes, as it runs, then they cover back up. I adjusted the dimmer  3 times in this run (so far),,but put it back to where it was all of those times about 15 minutes later as it was going cold on me when i turned it down slightly. So today, i have not touched it since i woke up at 5am this morning,,i just grit my teeth when it shows the coils until it recovers them. So far, so good, but i expect it to hover everytime the coils uncover. LOL,,,almost ready to start a betting pool on it! 

I have noticed it cools down slightly at night,,although the temp only drops about 1 degree in my house at night. I wake up and check it each night on the nightly bathroom run.....

I have thought about going for 100 hours or running for a week,,,,but am afraid it will hover while i do my 12 hour work day,,and be overheated for a long time.\

I only have a space approx the width of 2 of the lines on the knob,,that the lamp will run in,,anything outside that width, it goes cold and drops, or hovers.

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