Incandescent bulbs and the destiny of the lava lamps

[Fernando Nicotera]

Hi guys, i know that this topic has been made many times, but I wanted an update on this subject. I recently aquired a mathmos fluidium and I was wondering where do you all get bulbs from. Some people told me to go online, because the hardware stores only sell led bulbs now, are these bulbs still produced or are lava lamps condemned thanks to the incandescent bulbs ban? How is mathmos trying to solve this problem? Will an astro bulb work on a fluidium? Are they still producing these bulbs or are they just using the ones that are left?

[Zapiao]

Lava lamps are doomed for sure.

[Johnny]

I spoke to local hardware shop and there was a loop hole in the law that some bulbs are still being produced. i think it be quite a few years before there are no incandescent or Halogen bulbs available, problem is bulbs for the fluidium youre either gonna have to go for a 40watt golf ball shape ( and purchase a glass heat shield ) from Goolamp online or try a 30watt reflector edison small screw in bulb. 

Ive stocked piled up on bulbs so have plenty to last me years, sounds drastic but just incase. if your planing to buy bulbs go for a good brand name, if the bulbs cheap chances are it wont last long as ive found out 

[Fernando Nicotera]

The main problem is that even if I stockpile on bulbs, this hobby still remains not  sustainable... Mathmos should have found a solution by now, incandescent and halogen bulbs have been banned for years

Johnny said:

I spoke to local hardware shop and there was a loop hole in the law that some bulbs are still being produced. i think it be quite a few years before there are no incandescent or Halogen bulbs available, problem is bulbs for the fluidium youre either gonna have to go for a 40watt golf ball shape ( and purchase a glass heat shield ) from Goolamp online or try a 30watt reflector edison small screw in bulb. 

Ive stocked piled up on bulbs so have plenty to last me years, sounds drastic but just incase. if your planing to buy bulbs go for a good brand name, if the bulbs cheap chances are it wont last long as ive found out 

[Mr T]

Hello Fernando.

You might find this useful.

https://www.ebay.it/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&...

Also Mathmos still sell bulbs although they are expensive. They have a special exemption to sell the bulbs for lighting their lava lamps and they say they have an ongoing supply. But this could change in the future if the rules change.

[Fernando Nicotera]

Yeah i know they sell bulbs, but they do not sell bulbs for fluidiums anymore... The closest thing to them are the astro bulbs, do they work on fluidiums?

Mr T said:

Hello Fernando.

You might find this useful.

https://www.ebay.it/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&...

Also Mathmos still sell bulbs although they are expensive. They have a special exemption to sell the bulbs for lighting their lava lamps and they say they have an ongoing supply. But this could change in the future if the rules change.

[lampfancy]

Mathmos still sell halogen Fluidum bulbs here - although personally I don't trust those halogen bulbs in a Fluidium, they are larger than the incandescent bulbs and sit very close to the 'fins' on the inside of the base, I fear they would fry the base over time. Mine seems to run fine on an r39 30w reflector bulb, if yours is the model fitted with a glass heat shield you could use the 40w SES 'Golf-ball' type bulb aswell - you can still get these on Amazon, as mentioned they are subject to a special purpose exemption so are still legal to sell as long as it's not for 'general purpose' lighting.

[Alfred]

I'd assume the bulbs Mathmos sells have been well tested, though FWIW they do seem to be frequently out of stock. I do have a few, but haven't had to use one yet.

Note, it looks like the Mathmos bulbs do use a full reflector, not a dichroic filter. This kind of bulb should reflect most of the IR radiation (and thus most of the heat from the bulb) up towards the globe. Halogen bulbs with dichroic filters reflect visible light upwards, but allow IR to pass through the filter to make the bulb feel less hot from below. These can usually be identified by the filter's semi-transparent green or purple color which varies with viewing angle.

[Mr T]

Mathmos has told me that their Astro SES bulb will fit the Fluidium.

Fernando Nicotera said:

Yeah i know they sell bulbs, but they do not sell bulbs for fluidiums anymore... The closest thing to them are the astro bulbs, do they work on fluidiums?

Mr T said:

Hello Fernando.

You might find this useful.

https://www.ebay.it/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&...

Also Mathmos still sell bulbs although they are expensive. They have a special exemption to sell the bulbs for lighting their lava lamps and they say they have an ongoing supply. But this could change in the future if the rules change.

[Christian]

https://www.ebay.it/itm/Halogen-Reflektor-PAR16-40W-E14-Alu-warmwei...

Mr T said:

Hello Fernando.

You might find this useful.

https://www.ebay.it/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&...

Also Mathmos still sell bulbs although they are expensive. They have a special exemption to sell the bulbs for lighting their lava lamps and they say they have an ongoing supply. But this could change in the future if the rules change.