Heritage Century is now a red glitter!

[Marley's Ghost]

I cannot get my Heritage Yellow/Red Century to work worth a dime.  It flows after several weeks of running, but very "bad" flow.  

Becoming disgusted with it, and needing an extra base anyway, I put my Red 52 oz. China Glitter on it thinking it would surely run glitter.    It doesn't even generate enough heat to make the glitter flow much at all.   That is not complimentary to the Heritage Century base, and I won't even discuss the original globe anymore.   

The glitter only flows up the middle of the globe to the top, and the rest of the glitter, although it can be seen very well, is just sort of sitting there getting bumped around very very slowly.  It's a pure shame.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

That's quite sad, since the bases LOOK good. Is there any chance that the issue is heat loss-- that it's what the late-90s heat ring was trying to fix, that is, too much heat accumulating in, and dispersing from, the big lower cone? If I had one of these bases, I'd be tempted to fold over some aluminum foil for strength, fold it into a sort of cone, and insert that down around the socket in an attempt to keep all the heat in.

[Marley's Ghost]

The bases look very nice, Jonas, and this situation is not good for LL.   I even used a 60 watt bulb in the first week of receiving my y/r Century, just to get it to unstick and completely melt the wax.  It would not flow on the first 40 watt appliance type bulb, it did with the 60 watt, and didn't overheat, but still crap flow.  The new 40 watt reflector they sent doesn't work either, but it doesn't stick, just not good flow at all.

This base is not heating up enough to even run glitter, let alone the wax.   You might be onto something with the homemade heat ring idea.   I'll try it and see what happens.   Unfortunately, although both lamps are Centuries, the heat ring from my old Midnight Century will not fit into the Heritage Century base.  
 
Jonas Clark-Elliott said:

That's quite sad, since the bases LOOK good. Is there any chance that the issue is heat loss-- that it's what the late-90s heat ring was trying to fix, that is, too much heat accumulating in, and dispersing from, the big lower cone? If I had one of these bases, I'd be tempted to fold over some aluminum foil for strength, fold it into a sort of cone, and insert that down around the socket in an attempt to keep all the heat in.

[Rodrigo]

That sounds frustrating libby, that just proves that also the bases dont get enough heat into the globes, im running mine with a 60w and Im in the process of getting this Heritage century flowing better with some adjustments.

What I did is the following: Cracked the globe open and filtered the liquid til crystal clear, then I ran the lamp until fully molten and added PERC to the wax while inside the globe. I added so much perc that all the wax just barely domed at the bottom on 60w but to my surprise now that the wax is heavier, it cools COMPLETELY flat. So i mixed up some distilled water and glycerin and started adding with a syringe, after about 3/4cup of glycerin/water the lamp now flows WAY better i mean not excellent but its in par with my other China neon and other 52oz lamps. The flow is not snakey but it does have stretching blobs and most important of all now the wax goes up and then back down, it doesnt stay all at the top like before.. This proves what i was initially speculating about these globes, the wax is too light in relation to the water. As soon as it reaches running temp all the wax stays up top, stuck or not. I will post videos and pics of this fixed lamp flowing. Theyre definitely NOT right from factory so dont keep them. Chemicals need to be addded to achieve China like flow.

[Marley's Ghost]

That's bad that a person has to go through all that to get a lamp to flow, Rodrigo.   Mine stopped sticking and melted completely when I stuck that 60 watt bulb in there, but it still wasn't the kind of flow we all want to see.  So, it is now a glitter lamp.   I might crack that y/r heritage bottle one of these days and try your tricks!   Thanks for sharing that!!
 
Rodrigo said:

That sounds great libby, I thought of doing that for a while but didnt have any nice spare 52oz globes. However im in the process of getting this Heritage century flowing better with some adjustments.

What I did is the following: Cracked the globe open and filtered the liquid til crystal clear, then I ran the lamp until fully molten and added PERC to the wax while inside the globe. I added so much perc that all the wax just barely domed at the bottom on 60w but to my surprise now that the wax is heavier, it cools COMPLETELY flat. So i mixed up some distilled water and glycerin and started adding with a syringe, after about 3/4cup of glycerin/water the lamp now flows WAY better i mean not excellent but its in par with my other China neon and other 52oz lamps. The flow is not snakey but it does have stretching blobs and most important of all now the wax goes up and then back down, it doesnt stay all at the top like before.. This proves what i was initially speculating about these globes, the wax is too light in relation to the water. As soon as it reaches running temp all the wax stays up top. I will post videos and pics of this fixed lamp flowing. Theyre definitely NOT right from factory so dont keep them. Chemicals need to be addded to achieve China like flow.

[Rodrigo]

I 100% totally and completely agree with you on that Libby, i dont see WHY we should have to do absolutely anything to these lamps other than screwing a bulb in and sitting the globe on the base to get them to flow. I just had mine sitting here and had to try something.. Some brake parts cleaner as perc for the wax and glycerin to adjust the density of the water afterwards helped, its still not 100% in par with my neons yet but i think i can get it there, but still all this work shouldn't even be needed with a 50$ lamp. My pink neon grande however is going strong and flows great (other than the black bits) but flow wise is quite excellent. Its been running since wednesday and it just flows fine the entire time, the globe isnt even too hot! i love it.

Marley's Ghost said:

That's bad that a person has to go through all that to get a lamp to flow, Rodrigo.   Mine stopped sticking and melted completely when I stuck that 60 watt bulb in there, but it still wasn't the kind of flow we all want to see.  So, it is now a glitter lamp.   I might crack that y/r heritage bottle one of these days and try your tricks!   Thanks for sharing that!!
 
Rodrigo said:

That sounds great libby, I thought of doing that for a while but didnt have any nice spare 52oz globes. However im in the process of getting this Heritage century flowing better with some adjustments.

What I did is the following: Cracked the globe open and filtered the liquid til crystal clear, then I ran the lamp until fully molten and added PERC to the wax while inside the globe. I added so much perc that all the wax just barely domed at the bottom on 60w but to my surprise now that the wax is heavier, it cools COMPLETELY flat. So i mixed up some distilled water and glycerin and started adding with a syringe, after about 3/4cup of glycerin/water the lamp now flows WAY better i mean not excellent but its in par with my other China neon and other 52oz lamps. The flow is not snakey but it does have stretching blobs and most important of all now the wax goes up and then back down, it doesnt stay all at the top like before.. This proves what i was initially speculating about these globes, the wax is too light in relation to the water. As soon as it reaches running temp all the wax stays up top. I will post videos and pics of this fixed lamp flowing. Theyre definitely NOT right from factory so dont keep them. Chemicals need to be addded to achieve China like flow.

[Rodrigo]

I think the heat loss can be solved with those 40W spot bulb LL sent out in replacement. Home depot carries them for like 4$

Jonas Clark-Elliott said:

That's quite sad, since the bases LOOK good. Is there any chance that the issue is heat loss-- that it's what the late-90s heat ring was trying to fix, that is, too much heat accumulating in, and dispersing from, the big lower cone? If I had one of these bases, I'd be tempted to fold over some aluminum foil for strength, fold it into a sort of cone, and insert that down around the socket in an attempt to keep all the heat in.

[Marley's Ghost]

Those new bulbs LL sent us melts the wax completely, but the flow is still horrible.  If the room temp drops, they'll freeze in a spike too.   UGH   It's running to dim, running to turn back up, etc., etc.  all day.   I'm tired of it.   I'll make me a homemade heat ring like Jonas suggested, and see if my Century "Glitter" will flow faster.
 
Rodrigo said:

I think the heat loss can be solved with those 40W spot bulb LL sent out in replacement. Home depot carries them for like 4$

Jonas Clark-Elliott said:

That's quite sad, since the bases LOOK good. Is there any chance that the issue is heat loss-- that it's what the late-90s heat ring was trying to fix, that is, too much heat accumulating in, and dispersing from, the big lower cone? If I had one of these bases, I'd be tempted to fold over some aluminum foil for strength, fold it into a sort of cone, and insert that down around the socket in an attempt to keep all the heat in.