Lava life span???

[julian rafalko]

Mathmos says their lava has a 2,000 hours life span, but I have a 30 year old lava lamp that´s still working, it moves slowly but it moves. Is old lava more durable??? Did Mathmos design a new lava that lasts less so we have to buy their replacement bottles???

[Tim Gill]

It all depends on how long the lamp is run for, where its keped e.g. in the sun, in a hot enviroment etc thies can reduse the life of the lamp / bottle.

I don't think the older lamps last longer iinfact they may detarate quicker beceuse of the old more chemical based formular.

I doubt mathmos changed there formular in a attement to shorten the life of the bottle.

[Johnny]

its been like 2000 hours since the 1990s, wether thats down to how long the bottle takes b4 it clouds up or the wax stops functioning, id say more like clouding as i got wax thats quite a few years old and still flowing great

[Modulo '70]

Who was it here (Tom from Germany/Swizerland I think) who ran a Mathmos Telstar for about three years solid. It could still be running for all I know. I've been running my classic Mk5 shiny chrome pink/red Crestworth Astro since Wednesday and to no ill-effect.  It's been running beautifully for three and a half days solid so far! Saturday a.m. will be four days!

 

AC

[julian rafalko]

Continously??? Doesn´t  the lava "cook"? They say to never have them on for more than 6 to 8 Hrs....

[Tim Gill]

Its not a good idea to leave them on for ages as they can / will overheat but this will just affect the flow - if the lamp is running at the right temp then there is no problem leaving it on overnight say but it not recommended for general safety reasons.

[julian rafalko]

"Safety reasons"??? Can they explode or something?

[Tim Gill]

I just don't think it would be wise to leave electrical items such as lava lamps on overnight / while your asleep but there probably isent a big risk, its each persons choice - it has been done before and there has not been problems reported.

Lava lamps have been known to explode if you heat them way above the designed temp and if they are fully sealed with all the continence in. Aparentaly someone has been killed when he was heating a lamp and it exploded.

Under normal conditions lamps wont explode, if you do deiced to bring the temp of a lamp higher then designed then you should do some research into this and use the proper methods etc. (Its all in the lava library if you want to know).

[Metallica Man Trevor]

My wife has a midnight blue clear she got in the 90s, its been on since then. The only time its been off was for anew bulb

[julian rafalko]

How long at a time???