Lava sticking to globe. Mathmos Jet

[Kevin Fleming]

Hi,

 

I have recently attempted to replace the liquid in a green goo/clear liquid Mathmos Jet. My first few attempts using Epsom salts and washing up liquid (fairy liquid) were an absolute disaster, I have had to empty the liquid, clean and start from scratch 4 times. However, a few days ago I got it right (so I thought) liquid was clear and goo moving nicely. After running perfectly for two days the goo has now started sticking to the sides of the bottom of the globe. The wax is melted and looks fine, but just will not let go of the side of the globe. I can post some photos if it helps, (my profile pic has the lamp in question doing this)

 

Any Ideas on how to put this right?

 

Cheers.

 

Kev.

[Johnny]

ive had this problem many times when refilling jet bottles even with mathmos contents, it was always at the bottom of the bottle round the sides,  i can only put it down to the bottle not been fully dry after washing out, i.e still has water droplets on it. or as mathmos told me a few years ago when washing the empty bottle out use a cheap washing liquid ( not fairy liquid ) and rinse fully.  i persumed that any water dropplets would have mixed with the master fluid when i poured that in first before the wax.   what ever causes it its a blood pain

[Kevin Fleming]

I cannot see how it's the bottle not being dry as I filled it with water anyway, I threw all the original liquid out as it was a mess. So my preocedure was 1 water - 2 epsom salt - 3 fairy liquid - 4 epsom salt - 5 fairy liquid. I could understand a problem if I washed the bottle out and then filled it with the old mathmos liquid but this was not the case. Also, it worked great for 2/3 days, before deciding to play funny buggers. Am considering adding a little more detergent or dishwasher machine glass finish. From what I have read it seems that this is a surface tension issue between the lava at a hot temp (at the bottle bottom) and the glass. However, experimenting could ruin the lot.

 

Any ideas??

Johnny said:

ive had this problem many times when refilling jet bottles even with mathmos contents, it was always at the bottom of the bottle round the sides,  i can only put it down to the bottle not been fully dry after washing out, i.e still has water droplets on it. or as mathmos told me a few years ago when washing the empty bottle out use a cheap washing liquid ( not fairy liquid ) and rinse fully.  i persumed that any water dropplets would have mixed with the master fluid when i poured that in first before the wax.   what ever causes it its a blood pain