(Lava Chat)

Mathmos Glitterball Not Blobbing

As in the picture, the fluid is nice and clear, and the lava rises but won't blob....any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by andy ross on March 1, 2019 at 4:21am

Takes about ten-fifteen minutes, depending on ambient temperatures...
I've started to dim the moment the first blob appears, there's enough residual heat in the rest of the goo to get it going, but the quantities are greater

Yes, the glitter effect in yours is odd, it can't be on the way out, the flow is too good the rest of the time
Other people may be able to answer that one, I can't, sorry...

Thinking back, with mine it was the gold flaking off from the dying goo, hardly any movement

I have run standard glitterballs on 25w golfballs….. some flow, some don't!
Again, ambient temps may have a say in the matter.... good luck, keep us posted?

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Permalink Reply by Mark on March 1, 2019 at 4:33am

Very helpful, thanks Andy

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Permalink Reply by andy ross on March 1, 2019 at 6:14am

We really need one of the superusers like Christian or Arne...

But I just had one thought - if you have a 25w small reflector (not golfball) that might do the trick with this mix?

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Permalink Reply by Mark on March 5, 2019 at 5:51am

Thanks Andy, I didn't have any 25w reflectors.

However, after simply running it several times a day for a few hours, it's now working consistently, although it takes approximately 3 hours to break up (in a cool house). How does that compare to other people's lamps?

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Permalink Reply by Mark on March 7, 2019 at 9:57am

Picked up another one this week (ebay bargain, i.e., 'Gold and Silver Lava Lamp')

Original fluid was pretty yellow, so swapped it over straight away, and also gave the inside of the bottle a little scrub with hot water and washing up liquid as it had a film all over it.

No need to remove the wax when cleaning as it's water resistant. Just keep your bottle brush away from the wax.

This one was flowing properly after just 1 hour.