Glycerin, Propylene glycol or fog machine liquid - what's best?

[Innotic]

Hello folks, it's me again.
I've successfully restored two of my lamps, but I want to make them even better.

Both are chinese products.
First one got problem with bubbly wax - not sure if it's problem with the liquid or wax? I've got many small bubbles which irrates me alot:
The other one is also chinese, but filled with Mathmos wax. Flows very nice (maybe too bubbly and less stretchy), but liquid is starting to cloud.

Now I want to make new liquids for this lamps without any salts. Which of these chemicals will be the best to use here? I need Your help, because i spend too much money on these babies already :)

[Jus]

Hmmmmm...I just use water, epsom salt and kid's bubble solution.  Really cheap and works great!  Would like to add that in the past I'd use Dawn dishsoap for the surfactant and although it worked fine initially, later it caused the globe to turn cloudy. Upon inspection it wasn't the fluid which became cloudy, it was cloudy because a thin layer of I don't know what had developed on the inside of the glass. That's why I switched to bubble solution.  Sorry I couldn't directly answer your question; hopefully another will...good luck!

[Tim Gill]

I would recommend propane glycol - fog fluid would work but as it is has a lot of water in it you will need to keep adding more. I have had this problem with a grande I was working on - just had to keep adding fog fluid then draining it then adding more - I will get around to sorting it out just using PG instead of fog fluid. 

[Innotic]

Oh, I've never tried this bubble making stuff :) It may do the trick. So first i"m going to equip this bubble solution, make a liquid and we will see what happens. I've got some glycerin now, but it's not very helpful with lamp with bubbly wax. As i noticed, wax from Mathmos is better, because when using same ingredients it's not catching bubbles like chinese one.

[Innotic]

I've added this bubbles and all I achieved is sticking to the sides in both lamps. DAMN!!

[Joanne]

did you remove everything and scrub the globe first ? Also i had problems with any surfactant until i got this . http://www.ebay.com/itm/260672864661?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_...

[Tim Gill]

I just use boiling water and dawn washing up liquid to wash the bottles and they usually work out fine but i know that others had have really bad ones and it has needed some sort of solvent / degreaser - the bottle has to be completely clean before refilling.

[Innotic]

Yes, globes were perfectly clean before attempting this - they worked with previous liquids.

[Tim Gill]

Surprising???

How badly is the sticking and where abouts is it - mabie its not getting hot enough

[Dephcon]

Jus, could you estimate how much salt and bubbles are required for a 52oz globe?  My two new china lamps are uber boring and I'd like to replace with clear liquid and figure I'd give custom distilled water a go.  

Jus said:

Hmmmmm...I just use water, epsom salt and kid's bubble solution.  Really cheap and works great!  Would like to add that in the past I'd use Dawn dishsoap for the surfactant and although it worked fine initially, later it caused the globe to turn cloudy. Upon inspection it wasn't the fluid which became cloudy, it was cloudy because a thin layer of I don't know what had developed on the inside of the glass. That's why I switched to bubble solution.  Sorry I couldn't directly answer your question; hopefully another will...good luck!

[Jus]

I add 10ml of bubble solution to each quart of water. I make a super-saturated solution of epsom salts and water by heating about 3/4 cup water to near boiling, then I add epsom salts and stir till no more salts can be dissolved into the water (I also re-microwave the solution to keep it really hot to aid the dissolving).  The resulting super-saturated solution is added drop-wise with a glass dropper until the wax is rising and falling as desired.  Sorry I can't give straight-forward amounts, but I can tell you the average 8oz kid's bubble solution and a cup or so of epsom salts crystals should be more than enough to do two 52oz lamps.  Good luck!

[Dephcon]

Thanks Jus.  I'll try to find some epsom, distilled water and bubble solution after work.  I might also grab some fog juice next time I go to Spencer's in search for new lava colours.

[Goo Geek]

Some solutions will work in the short term (a few months or less) but not for the long term (years). I have a couple of 52oz lamps I redid with fog solution and distilled water combinations a couple of years ago and they are still looking good. No salt, no soap. Both salt and soap tend to do bad things to lava over time. It is easy to get short term results. The challenge is to find a solution that will last.

If you look under my discussions back in 2011 you will find a number of threads dealing with your question.