Mathmos in USA

[Verax]

Hi all, I'm in the US, and am trying to get some Mathmos lamps. Has anyone tried UKAddress.com? It seems like it is reasonably priced, and exactly what I'm looking for. Thoughts?

Cheers!

[064idi3z31saf]

I'm really excited to hear if this worked for you. I've been wanting a LUNAR forever and this just might well be might ticket to finally owning one of these precious beauties

[Todd Miller]

I just got an addy from forward2me

[Kirk]

Todd - let's get some Mathmos lamps!

[Mark Koenig]

I'm also curious to know if the lamps from the U.K. can be used on U.S. current with a simple adapter plug, and if the replacement lamps can be purchased here.

[ChuckM]

I can answer this question. I bought several Mathmos lamps. The blue heritage Astro works fine with a simple plug adaptor and a 110v version of the bulb but the black heritage would not work for me. The bulb (110v version) wasn't getting hot enough. I had to convert the lamp with a standard socket and 110v reflector bulb to get it to flow.

While I think you can keep things stock, the main issue I have had is that the adaptor on the wall is kind of chunky given US wall socket sizes. The bigger issue is that these bulbs are not east to find and and quite costly. When I could find them cheap online, the shipping is pricey. When I find them with free or cheap shipping, the price is otherwise high.

My personal feeling on this is that once you convert them it is no different than of Mathmos decided to sell them in the US. What is stock anyway? If you bit these lamps in France, the plugs are different anyway. Just my two cents.

[Mark Koenig]

ChuckM said:

I can answer this question. I bought several Mathmos lamps. The blue heritage Astro works fine with a simple plug adaptor and a 110v version of the bulb but the black heritage would not work for me. The bulb (110v version) wasn't getting hot enough. I had to convert the lamp with a standard socket and 110v reflector bulb to get it to flow.

While I think you can keep things stock, the main issue I have had is that the adaptor on the wall is kind of chunky given US wall socket sizes. The bigger issue is that these bulbs are not east to find and and quite costly. When I could find them cheap online, the shipping is pricey. When I find them with free or cheap shipping, the price is otherwise high.

My personal feeling on this is that once you convert them it is no different than of Mathmos decided to sell them in the US. What is stock anyway? If you bit these lamps in France, the plugs are different anyway. Just my two cents.

Hmmm - interesting.  Doesn't make sense to me that the blue Heritage Astro works and the black one doesn't - aren't they the exact same size?  I agree that simply converting the socket and plug to 120v AC U.S. specs ought to work, PROVIDED THAT the heat specs for a 40w U.S. bulb are the same as for the U.K. bulb.  This is what I don't know.  Also - do the U.K. lamps come with an inline dimmer, like the U.S. China-made lamps?

[ChuckM]

The lamps from Mathmos do not come with a dimmer. I actually installed inline dimmers when I rewired my lamps just to resolve that issue. When I bought my Telstar from lights.com, it came with US wiring installed and a US bulb. I don't know if Mathmos rewired the lamps or if lights.com does it upon arrival, though they don't come in a standard Mathmos box, so I have to wonder. Anyway... the Telstar uses a bulb that is marked at a higher wattage than the UK sticker that is on the inside of the Telstar (i.e., whatever bulb they install seems to be the closest they can get in the US that fits the socket. As a result, it tends to overheat after some time. I resolved this by putting it on a dimmer as well.

I can't speak to the intended heat profile of Mathmos Astro lamps, but my best guess is that it is all somewhat close. I believe someone had posted that Heritage lamps flow at a different temp than the standard Astros. I cannot recall which requires more heat in general, but I did notice the difference with the black lava. The base itself is not the problem. I swapped blue on black and the blue flowed fine on the black base. It was just something about the black lava... needs a tad more heat. It isn't a huge amount more, but just a bit from my n=1 experience.

In any case, I didn't feel too bad about switching to different bulbs and the like. I imagine that if you buy a chinese LL lamp in the UK, it uses some random 40W bulb too... or possibly a 35W bulb and then that is probably the reason WE have dimmers in the US now! 

Anyway... my point of it was that the electrics on these things are not the magical part for me... and I would hate to have to order expensive bulbs that are just as likely to vanish from the earth (where else would you use these special Euro socket bulbs in a 110V system?) I would bet that the electric guts on a Mathmos lamp come from some factory in China anyway... for me it is the quality of the base, cap, and flow. They just happen to make it dead-easy to change out the electrics to something more convenient for our region... thank you Mathmos!

Mark Koenig said:

Hmmm - interesting.  Doesn't make sense to me that the blue Heritage Astro works and the black one doesn't - aren't they the exact same size?  I agree that simply converting the socket and plug to 120v AC U.S. specs ought to work, PROVIDED THAT the heat specs for a 40w U.S. bulb are the same as for the U.K. bulb.  This is what I don't know.  Also - do the U.K. lamps come with an inline dimmer, like the U.S. China-made lamps?

[Critter]

Mathmos wires their lamps for different markets. They just don't sell the Astro in the USA. They still may wire some of the Astros for North American markets though....Canada may not be off limits to the Astro.

[Todd Miller]

What I use is something similar to this;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1000-Watt-Voltage-Converter-Transformer-Hea...

It takes 110-120vac and steps it up to 220/240vac.

Just buy a UK power strip and plug in your lamps.

Then they stay original. 

There are sources to buy Uk bulbs on ebay. 

Here's where I get my bulbs;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121052008327?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&a...

[Mark Koenig]

Mark Koenig said:

Anyone have a source for decent inline dimmers?

Todd Miller said:

What I use is something similar to this;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1000-Watt-Voltage-Converter-Transformer-Hea...

It takes 110-120vac and steps it up to 220/240vac.

Just buy a UK power strip and plug in your lamps.

Then they stay original. 

There are sources to buy Uk bulbs on ebay. 

Here's where I get my bulbs;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121052008327?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&a...

[Kirk]

Update - got an email from UKAddress this morning, and my Fluidium was approved to ship to my Forward2Me address.  I'll let you know when it arrives at Forward2me.

[Verax]

Nice! Mine should be arriving today. :) (as well as an Ebay.uk lamp. :)