Lava Soup - Replacing the Liquid

[Erin]

This thread is going to be a bit messy, since I'm still learning, but I'm going to share with everyone what I've learned about replacing the liquid (not the wax) in older (60s and 70s) Lava Lite lamps. Please attempt at your own risk and know your results will vary. I would only attempt this on a lamp where the liquid is so cloudy that you can't see through it.

I will continue to update the original post with new information as I come across it. 

I'm sure many of you have seen/have something like this:

Filtering is always an option, but most of the time on these old lamps, they will cloud up again. At least that's been the case for me. I did try and filter this one, and it cleared, but after two runs, it clouded up again:

Same with this one:

I do have one lamp that is cloudy when it sits, but will clear up almost completely after running. It's a weird one. So, before you do anything, run the lamp several times (1 week or more - 4+ hours or more) and if you're not seeing any improvement, you probably never will. Cycling a lamp is a good way to clear up mild haziness on 90s lamps, but cloudy lamps like this from the 60s and 70s almost never clear up after cycling. 

I have dealt with lamps that have junk in the lava/coil, too. I have taken the lava and run it through a fine-mesh strainer to get some of the crap out. It was worked with decent success.Obviously, strain while the lava is hot. 

What I've found out is this: once you remove the lava/liquid from the globe and clean it, 1) you'll really need to clean the crap out of the inside of the globe (use a degreaser like Jungle Jake) and 2) I've almost always had lava stick to the globe after this process. Oddly, I've been lucky and oftentimes, the lava will unstick itself, esp after several experiments with liquid/additives. If you don't need to do anything to the lava, just leave it. There seem to be more problems with sticking once the lava is removed from the lamp and put back in. 

When I replace the liquid, I replace it entirely. No sense in saving cloudy liquid. Unless the lava needs to be "cleaned" too, my vote is to just pour out the liquid when the lava is cold and replace with water. Leave the lava (wax) intact and try to minimize wax knocking the side of the globe as much as possible.

I've had good luck using both tap water and distilled when replacing the liquid in my globes. I didn't see any real noticeable difference between the two. That being said, we have pretty decent water here. So, if you don't want to deal with distilled, I see no problem in using tap water to replace your water, but if you're concerned, spend the 97 cents and buy a gallon of distilled. 

Here are all the things I've added to the liquid/tested (not all at the same time obviously):

Epsom salt * Canning (or pickling) salt * Glycerin * Propylene Glycol (50/50 mixture of PG and water) * Miracle Bubbles * Sodium Laureth Sulfate (also known as Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate * Ajax dish soap * Shampoo

Here's where you can find the following supplies. Links are posted within. Most of this stuff is for the US, but can be found worldwide:
 

• Epsom salt - Grocery store, personal care aisle or Amazon.com
• Canning (or pickling) salt - Grocery store or Amazon.com
• Glycerin - can be found on Amazon.com
• Propylene Glycol (50/50 mixture of PG and water) - Found on Amazon.com - I bought the 50/50 mixture, but if I had to do it over again, I'd just get straight PG.
• Miracle Bubbles - Can find at Wal-Mart, Walgreens. These are blowing bubbles and are very cheap and common. Don't get the perfumed stuff. 
• Sodium Laureth Sulfate (also known as Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate) - can be found on eBay, here and here. 
• Ajax dish soap - Grocery store. Any dish soap will do. Some have recommended Dawn. 
• Shampoo - tried it, but would not recommend. Too many other ingredients in it. 

So what are these items/what do they do?

• Epsom salt - changes (increases) the density of the water 
• Canning (or pickling) salt - changes (increases) the density of the water 
• Glycerin - Changes the way the wax acts. 
• Propylene Glycol (50/50 mixture of PG and water) - not sure yet. Will update later. 
• Miracle Bubbles - acts as a surfactant
• Sodium Laureth Sulfate (also known as Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate) - acts as a surfactant
• Ajax dish soap -  acts as a surfactant
• Shampoo - acts as a surfactant

Per Kaia: 

Polypropylene Glycol and Glycerine do exactly the same as salt (alter the density of the water) but without the risk of the coil/gauze rusting. Glycerine is far more concentrated and you will need a lot less mixed with water than PG to achieve the same effect.

Some older Crestworth (and others probably) lamps used pure water, which is why people get varying results with additives.

So, what's a surfactant (also known as "surf")? "A substance that tends to reduce the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved." Also, you can read the Wikipedia entry on it. From what I can tell, the surfactant is what breaks up the wax and causes it to "snake". When you first add it, you'll see the lava do some weird stuff and then normal out a little bit. Always add surf drop-by-drop with an eye dropper or something similar. 

Why canning (or picking)/Epsom salts? Regular salt can and will cloud the water. 

When experimenting, only add one ingredient at a time. If you add two and you like what happens, you won't know which ingredient worked. 

So, how to start? When the lamp is cold and the wax is solid, dump out all the liquid. It's going to stink, so be prepared. The liquid takes on a petroleum smell and your new liquid will do the same once it's been flowing. Be careful not to bump the wax around too much. If possible, you can empty out 99% of the liquid and replace with new stuff; that way, the wax is surrounded by a thin layer of original fluid and hopefully, shouldn't stick. 

Pour in new water, slowly. I'd recommend cold or lukewarm. Then, turn on the lamp. You'll see air bubbles in the liquid and on the wax - this is normal. 

Once the wax has melted, this is where the experimentation comes in.

I have replaced the liquid in two late 60s model lamps and each one has been a little different. I tried a bazillion things, but here's what worked for each one. It should be noted that both of these globes have what I call "low wax" (see here for pic) - something that is common (and normal) for late 60s lava lamps. All it means is that less wax was used during production. These lamps will run on a 30W flood bulb instead of a 40W appliance bulb. I believe the entire formula for these lamps may be different than 70s lamps. Not sure. 

1) My green/red Century: I must've tried everything with this lamp. At least six different attempts were made. I had wax sticking at first, but it resolved itself. Once the lava wax melted and started to "dome", I added some epsom salts (pre-mixed with warm water at a ratio of 4:1 water to salt), a few drops at a time until the lava separated and flowed to the top. Be careful about adding too much salt mixture - when I did, the lava separated from the coil entirely and caused problems. So just add enough that the lava separates and flows to the top. Once it did that, I added a drop or two of plain old dish soap and the wax did all kinds of funky stuff. Don't add too much dish soap - just a drop at time. You won't need more than a few drops. 

The lamp doesn't "normalize" until you've run it a few times. So try something, run it for an evening and then see if you like it. Also, I did my salt first, then dish soap. Each time I added my chosen surfactant (dish soap / Miracle Bubbles / SLES) the wax got pretty bubbly/foamy-looking.

As the lamp continues to cycle, this has lessened. As of yet, I don't know a way to prevent this. 

This is what I ended up with (happy with the turnout):

 

2) My yellow/orange Squiggle Aristocrat. This one has been interesting. This one required no salt, just some SLES and it flows almost perfectly. I have no idea why, but I'm happy. Could it be possible that this one was different because I used tap water instead of distilled? Not sure. 

The unknowns:

• I don't know what propylene glycol does (someone here recommended it)
• I don't know what glycerin does (someone here recommended it)
• I don't know if there is any kind of surf that will not cause the wax to get foamy looking (it does seem to clear up though)
• I don't have a good way of unsticking the wax from the globe if it happens, though luckily, both lamps have rid themselves of this problem with several cycles. 

So, the simple version? Salt-water mixture and SLES/Miracle Bubbles restores lamps! Well, the liquid anyway. ;)

[Erin]

I welcome all input. Please know this is just MY take on re-doing the liquid. Thanks to all who have helped me along the way - there have been many of you. I hope this helps people restore their lamps! :)

[ColinW]

First thanks for the help. Restored my cloudy from the store clear with black lava 52oz

I kept my wax and made new liquid with epsom salt and dishsoap

I think what the glycerin does is change the property of the wax, so if you were starting from scratch you could modify your wax adjusting it's density. Probably easier to just goo kit it in that case.

[ColinW]

[ColinW]

Here it is now, it's a little more wild, but I'm going to cycle it a bit and see if it calms down.
Its got just a slight haze, but it's soo clear compared to the milky colour it was.

[Erin]

That looks decent! Thanks for the input Colin. I'll add your thoughts about glycerin to my original post. 

[ColinW]

Previous was my pics from last night....
Well not happy this next morning, it's a little cloudy and flaky looking. My guess is I have too much epsom salt in it, so it isn't a solution at cold room temperature. I think my wax was a little too runny as well. It's just too wild.

So dumped the liquid giving it a go again, this time a little slower between additions. Going to try aquarium salt this time, it's pure salt no additions. My guess is you can absorb more sea salt in cold water than epsom salt in cold water so I think I will end up with clear water when cool and warm.

[ColinW]

OK did some geek reading on the subject of Sodium Chloride (Pickling salt or Aquarium salt) and Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt)
"calcium chloride consists of 3 atoms and has a molecular weight of about 111 units, while magnesium sulfate consists of 6 atoms and has a molecular weight of about 120 units. So it would figure that it takes more energy to cause magnesium sulfate to dissolve, than it does calcium chloride."
That being said Sodium Chloride should stay in solution easier and remain clear at room and warm temperatures, but it will take slightly more of it to change the gravity of the water than it does epsom salt. So I think it may be a better way to go to end up with a clear restored lamp.
Will keep y'all posted.

 

[ColinW]

I think it turned out much better, slow moving big blobs, flow to the top and back down.
Took a lot more salt solution than epsom salt solution, but I didn't measure it.... just winged it.

[ColinW]

So I think the salt was the answer. Crystal clear when cold, still fantastic when hot. This is 6 hours running.

[Erin]

Not bad!

[ColinW]

Well thanks for the courage to give it a go Erin, found your link from google,

Your lamps turned out great, and I figured I was tired of having a milky lava lamp!

So happy I gave it a go.

[Erin]

Good news Colin! Thanks for sharing your experience.

I've got some stuff to add from user Vince. He's been successfully clearing some new China-made lava lamps from Lava Lite:

"Erin, this was a 'dump and run' thing, based on results I got with the Nightmare Before Christmas lamp.  Rinsed the bottle with goo kit surf and water prior to filling.  Poured in distilled.  Then about 1.5 oz water with 1 tsp espom salt.  A half second squirt of dishwash liquid.  This worked on this one nicely.  Another one I'm trying is not having the same results. "

"This came about by chance when I was trying to make an adjustment on the Nightmare lamp you saw.  I had wanted to just add epsom to that lamp so I could get the lava to sink, stay at the bottom so I could empty the liquid again and try to start over and get flow.  What I ended up doing is what I did for this one.  It worked..  For the surf, I just put a few drops in with some distilled water and swished it around the globe to coat the inner glass, then I dumped that. For the epsom, one teaspoon in about 1.5 oz of distilled water.  The water was nuked so it was warm/hot so the epsom crystals could dissolve.  The dishsoap was tricky-- I'd say I poured in about the equivalent of 20 drops. It was just a squeeze about 1/2 second long right into the lamp."

"I think many lamps re-cloud up because the wax has the original liquid embedded in it and it needs to work out of the wax.  A couple runs with "test" liquid might clear the crap out of the wax prior to a final liquid restoration.  Just my two cents."

Source: http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/img-0376?commentId=1566398%3ACommen...