Lava Grande Doesn't Flow Much

[Jeff]

Hello,

I've been a guest of the forums for years, decided to finally join last night.  I've been collecting lava lamps since I was a teenager. 

I'm writing to inquire about my Lava Grandes...they used to both work excellently at about 80% (dimmed), now neither never seems to flow much.  Neither really has been used heavily either, in fact tonight's the first in at least a year I've fired any of them up...and the past 10 yrs I've probably onl had the on maybe 5 times total, since they don't flow much I don't bother to turn them on. 

Attached is a pic of one of them, the other one I didn't run tonight.  The most it'll do is eventually that rising blob will connect w/ the top and there will be a snake of lava for about 15 min or so, when it finally sinks down and breaks off, then the cycle repeats.  Takes almost an hour to even form the snake again.  I never get any of the blobs and breakup, like the one I have, also attached a pic (the small red one, that is my favorite, oldest lamp too). 

My other Grande is basically the opposite.  All it ever does is release little tiny wax bubbles, each tiny little bubble will have a pocket of either air or liquid (not sure how to tell).  No pics of that one yet, since I didn't run it tonight along w/ the others.  I will get some possibly next weekend if I turn it on.

This behavior is after the lamps have had plenty of time to warm up fully (been on at least 6 hrs), and it never changes much even in another 6-8 hrs. 

I have dimmers on both of the Grande's and have tried less heat, but that just results in even less flow.  They used to both run great at about 80% of full brightness...that was why I had put the dimmers on since they seemed to run too hot at full, now they don't flow hardly at all at 80%, and at full it isn't much better.   

Any advice anyone has that might fix either of these would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

Jeff

[Jeff]

The first pic is the Grande the 2nd one w/ the glitter tornado lamp in it is of one of my 1st lamps...and has the best flow of any...would love if the Grande's had this kind of flow.

[Kirk]

I think the tiny ball flow on the Grande is heat related.  Try replacing the bulb or use a socket extender to raise the bulb.  Slow column flow is probably a lack of heat, too.

[Jeff]

Interesting....so you think its not enough heat on either one....kind of interesting since when I first got them for the first year or 2 I had to dim them down, they seemed to want to overheat (wax would ball up and lift off the bottom and kind of just hang there about a third of the way up the globe)....when I researched this on the forums back then that seemed to be indiciative of too much heat so I got the dimmers and found a sweet spot where they both worked great.  Used them like this for over a year or so. then things kind of got busy due to starting a full time job after graduating college and all my lamps sat dormant for a long time.  I'd try to start them up at least once every few months for awhile but even that fell to the wayside and they all sat for a few yrs idle. 

 

Fast fwd to 2011ish...I started to get back into trying to run my lamps at least bi-monthly again, and this was how the Grande's acted from that point on.  Granted I'd only run them 1 day here and there, but every time this was how they'd act.  Maybe I need to get them turned on more frequently again back to back? 

 

All my other lamps would usually act a bit slugguish at first but by the time I'd turn them off 8-10 hrs later they'd usually be flowing pretty much like their old selves...except for the Grandes.

 

The one Grande I had on yesterday (the orange/purple one) I put on a timer so it'd kick on again today seems to be a bit better tonight than it was yesterday, but still kinda sluggish.  Going to keep this one on the timer into the weekend and see if it gets better over time w/ back to back runs.

 

The other one I can try a socket extension...where might I find that?  Is it a home improvement store type thing or should I just order one online?

[Jeff]

Added 3 pics of the blue/green one.  This is about all I get out of it...even after its on for 10+ hours.  Do you still think this is not getting hot enough? 

 

The orange/purple one seems to be flowing much better tonight than it has in a long time...maybe that one just needs some back to back days of run time?

[Brad]

i don't think it's getting hot enough.  have you tried a new bulb?

[Jeff]

Thanks for the tips...I've had it on the timer now the last 3 nights and every night the blobs are a bit bigger...and its a bit more active.  SO maybe it just needs some run time.  I'm going to order a socket extender also to try that idea out too. None of the local stores have a ceramic one...Home Depot has a plastic one in store, but I don't think it'd stand up to the high heat.  They also show a ceramic one, but its not available in store.

[Marley's Ghost]

Jeff, here is the link to the porcelain socket extender I got for my Grande from Amazon;  If it happens to show my name and when I ordered it, please tell me so I can delete this link real quick.  I can see all info, but don't know if everyone else can.

http://www.amazon.com/Medium-Porcelain-Extender-Extension-Adapter/d...

[Jeff]

Hello,

Thank--you for the link...I just went and ordered 2.  Can't beat the price either.  No, it didn't show anything about your order, at least not that I saw anyways.

 

 

[Marley's Ghost]

You're most welcome, Jeff.   And thank you for checking about my private info.  I sure didn't want that out in public!!!
 
Jeff said:

Hello,

Thank--you for the link...I just went and ordered 2.  Can't beat the price either.  No, it didn't show anything about your order, at least not that I saw anyways.

 

 

[Jeff]

Well thought I was going to get to try this out tonight, as I saw my order was delivered today but when I got home I found they screwed up and sent me someone else's order of candelabra to medium base adapters.  Now I have to deal with a return and wait longer for my socket extenders. This sux :(

[Metallica Man Trevor]

I hate when that happens!!!
 
Jeff said:

Well thought I was going to get to try this out tonight, as I saw my order was delivered today but when I got home I found they screwed up and sent me someone else's order of candelabra to medium base adapters.  Now I have to deal with a return and wait longer for my socket extenders. This sux :(

[Jeff]

Well I came home tonight and found another package from the amazon seller...and this one had the right items in it!!  So i'm not quite sure what happened...I think they accidently printed my address label twice and sent me someone else's order too, since the invoice in that one did not have my name or address on it.  And also there's no way the return request I submitted last night at almost midnight would have that kind of turnaround time.  Besides, they did respond to the return request and stated they would send another set out, and that response was about noontime today.  They also stated I don't have to return the incorrect items either. oddly enough.   However, I still have to pursue a 2nd return request now because one of the 2 extenders was damaged in shipping.  It's cracked and I'm not sure if I can trust it or not due to the amount of heat involved here.  So I wrote to the seller again w/ this update and asked how they wish to proceed.  I may end up with 4 socket extenders, and 3 candelabra to medium base adapters for the price of 2 extenders when all is said and done...can't complain there I guess :)   

 

@Marley's Ghost...you used these extenders in a lava grande correct?   I installed the one good one into the green/blue grande and it seems its just a tad too tall and the globe is touching the bulb.  I'm not sure if this will cause a problem but my gut instinct it telling me it will either cause the bulb to shatter and fail when it gets hot, or possibly the bottom of the globe.  Thoughts on this?  Did you still use the reflector bulb or did you switch to a standard 100 watt when you used the extender?  Unfortunately I don't have enough time to fire it up tonight to see what its going to do because I have to be up for work early tomorrow.

 

@lavalava Thank-you for the welcome!  I love this forum...I used to peruse it a lot back in late 90s/early 2000s then I kind of got out of lava lamps for awhile and forgot about it...but now I'm back into them again for some reason :)