Grande

[Captn Johnny]

Hi there everyone, my name is John and im the new guy around here. First id like to say what a great sight! Im loving all the pics and info. My first question is about the grande' s I see a lot of people have them and they look great and I would like to order one of but my problem is all the reviews I find seem to be complaining about being cloudy from the get go and not clearing up. I also was looking in the library on them and I found that the person who wrote about them there noticed the problem also. That post is a few years old that I read. Has this problem ben cleared up ( no pun intended ) . Or are they still like that when there new and you guys are filtering them or what? I want one but I dont want to have to mess with it right out of the box.

[Gwen Williams]

Most of the Grandes you will find here have been either filtered or Goo-kitted.  There seem s to be an issue in the china formulation that affects all lamp sizes rendering them cloudy if they are shipped at all.

[Gary]

hi john i bought my grande from argos,they fetched it out from the back the right way up,i carried it home so carefully but it was cloudy on start up and for about a week of cycling i thought i was gonna have to go back then it sort of came good so i persevered and within a fortnight or so it was like crystal clear this was about a year ago,just need to source some bulbs now or an alternative method as they gonna be obselete ive heard every thing now seems to be energy saving sorts

[Tim Gill]

Grande's are a bit hit and miss at the minuet - I have 2 grande's and they are both china formula and they are fine. However people on hear have got grande's and they are cloudy - they have either resorted to gookitting them, filtered them or let them clear with lodes of cycling.

[Brent]

I goo-kitted one and I filtered one. I like the kitted one much better. In my case the filtering negatively changed the flow but I don't think that happens to often.

 

 

[Erin]

Most Grandes here are GooKit'd. GooKits can be found on eBay. Sadly, one has to be in possession of a bad Grande, first. ;) Almost any Grande you buy will have to be dumped or filtered. Sometimes they show up cheap on eBay for $60 shipped. I'd snag one then. 

[Captn Johnny]

Thanks for the info. Just one more question do Grandes run off of a standard 100 watt bulb? Or is there somthing better? I know this bulb ban thing is in effect and i wanna stock up on the best bulb.

[Mattmos]

Hey John, I purchased 4 Grandes from SonicElectronixs off of Ebay, and not one lamp was cloudy. They all work and look great. They have the cheapest prices, ranging from $64.99-$69.99 with free S/H. Just look for those prices, and that's Sonic Electronixs lamps. All others are selling their lamps for $85 and up, and they want $20 for S/h. The lamps take 100Watt-R20 bulbs. Stock up, they are being discontinued. Here's one site:  http://www.bulborama.com/cart.php?m=search_results&headerSearch...   These bulbs are 10,000 hrs. for only $5.99

[Erin]

^ What he said. I'd like to see pics of your Grandes Matt! I haven't seen clear ones. 

Mattmos said:

Hey John, I purchased 4 Grandes from SonicElectronixs off of Ebay, and not one lamp was cloudy. They all work and look great. They have the cheapest prices, ranging from $64.99-$69.99 with free S/H. Just look for those prices, and that's Sonic Electronixs lamps. All others are selling their lamps for $85 and up, and they want $20 for S/h. The lamps take 100Watt-R20 bulbs. Stock up, they are being discontinued. Here's one site:  http://www.bulborama.com/cart.php?m=search_results&headerSearch...   These bulbs are 10,000 hrs. for only $5.99

[Mattmos]

What I meant by clear was, not cloudy. Now I do have one lamp that has clear liquid with red lava. The other three are purple liquid with yellow lava, blue liquid with yellow lava and purple liquid with pink lava. 

[Mattmos]

Can I take pics, save to my computer and then upload from there? That's how I did my avatar pic.  

[Erin]

No, I know. I haven't seen non-cloudy Grandes! Pics pics pics! 

[Mattmos]

No Kiddin', I must be the lucky one cause all four of these bad boys were non-cloudy. When I take the pictures, can I send them to my computer and upload from there?

Erin said:

No, I know. I haven't seen non-cloudy Grandes! Pics pics pics!