Problems with a 1996 Lava Lite and may simply GooKit it

[ChuckM]

Hey all,

this is my first post... I was waiting for membership confirmation for a few days and am happy to be on the board. I bought a Lava Lamp (Lava Lite) back in the 90's. Fast forward to now and my daughter saw a Lava Lamp in a store and got really excited. I told her I had one and would "dig it out". It had been sitting in storage for years so I expected it would need a few things. I knew it would at least need a light bulb. I added a 40w appliance bulb (old one had burned out last I had recalled and this was confirmed when I brought it out of storage). Well... now I think I am remembering why I forgot about the thing. I am not sure it ever really worked all that well. It has a 1996 date on the felt on the bottom and it has a date code of 1996 on the cap. It WAS a blue/white globe (confirmed with the 03 code) that has now gone clear (or perhaps yellowish or off-clear is a better term). In the first several runs, it would form lots of smallish balls that would mostly go to the top. I decided to try a 25W bulb. This resulted in a column effect... after several days of cycling, I noticed that there are bubbles in the goo... I switched back to a 40w bulb and it just looks pretty unimpressive. I also notice that the liquid level was about an inch below the black cap (that seems pretty low to me)... and may have always been this way (foggy memory!).

Anyway... while waiting to be confirmed to join the website, I read a lot here while waiting...

I also ordered a Goo Kit to renovate my Lava Lite. I cannot imagine it would be worse than how the lamp looks now. I am thinking of using some Krylon to paint the lamp base/cap white for my kids' room and doing purplish lava. Anyway... before I do all this, I wanted to post here to see what people think about my old lamp. I feel like there isn't much else I can do with it.

I am posting a couple photos as well as some video of how it looks after being on for a couple hours. It really only gets worse after more time.

Please let me know what you think. Definitely impressed by the Goo Kits I have seen posted here. I am looking for more lamps to recondition!

[Jim]

My advice - search Craigslist for a Grande that is in putrid condition and use your Goo Kit on that.  Your daughter will be blown away.

Small blobs all collecting at the top sounds like your lamp is overheating to me.  Based on what you say about the 25 watt bulb, sounds like 30-35 watts would be ideal.  But...

Its a 32 ounce lamp and the dimmer will set you back about $10.  It would be more cost effective to just get a new lamp at Spencers and I personally recommend getting one of the Neons.  Its a bigger globe at 52 ounces and will provide more action for your daughter to be mesmerized by.

Rehabbing the 32 ounce you have with a Goo Kit is a bit of a waste in my opinion.  Goo Kits are fun as can be and would make for a great project for you and your daughter.  Goo Kits were really designed to refill Grandes though and you will get the most bang for your buck using it for that purpose.  Goo Kits also tend to require a little less heat than Lava Lite wax, so ma dimmer will still likely be required if you do go the Goo Kit route on your 32 ounce lamp.

And finally, welcome to the site!

[Tim Gill]

Welcome to OG firstly
Yea goo kits are good, Jim's right they are best for grandes but I have used them as redo's and they are ok

For what it's worth I think the lamp you have is fine, run it quite a fue times and it should clear it would be a shame to waste it

[Jeff]

I wouldn't goo kit that...the flow looks pretty good actually.  I agree I think its getting a bit hot.  I have a few of the same era globes that I have to use dimmers on once they're going or they start to do the same thing.  I dim to about 90% and they flow beautifully. 

If you don't want it, and just want one to goo kit...let me know...I'd buy that off you just as it is and send you an empty globe.

[ChuckM]

Hmmmm... you have all raised a lot of good points. From the research I have done on here, it seems like this 32oz is at least from a good era. I found a Carlisle 300 that I may be able to get for not too much money as well. If it doesn't have good lava then I could always use the gookit on that (if I get it that is). I like the Grande idea, but I haven't seen one on my local Craigslist... the few lava lamps on the Boston area Craigs are kind of hard to place (size/model).

I almost bought a dimmer the other day but figured it wasn't worth it... now I might reconsider since I could probably use it on some lamp someday. The thing that has me a bit concerned about this 1996 lamp is that the liquid just isn't clear. I suppose I could use some food coloring to at least make it an actual color. I think I just top it up a bit, though... from looking at the pictures here of 1996-era midnights, it seems like they have fluid to the bottom of the removable cap at least. I imagine a little distilled water?

What about replacing just the liquid? Is that simply going to be distilled water or could I follow the liquid portion of the gookit directions?

As a side... I was going to see about ordering a lamp from loren here on the forum but it took so long to get approved to post... that I fell in love with a Mathmos telstar on lights.com and ordered one. It was 10% off the price and free shipping at least. I kind of wish I could take a business trip to Europe soon! In any case I am going to have to watch the shipping on my Mathmos.... worried about the cold weather. Will watch the tracking and try to time my arrival at my house...

These things are addictive... especially when you see nice videos on this website and just want your lamp to look that good! By the way...thanks for the welcome... cool site indeed!

[ChuckM]

Okay, here is my latest update:

I installed a dimmer on this and it seemed to help manage the flow a bit. I still have a large about of bubbles in the lava and I still think the fluid is way too low. Here are some updated photos attached (I use an ipad so I don't think I can embed the photos as easily as simply posting them).

I am wondering whether I shouldn't just try taking the cap off and adding some distilled water to bring it up to just below the bottom of the black cap. Currently there is about an inch of space between the top of the liquid and the bottom of the black cap. That seems like a lot compare to photos I have seen (such as the bad quality video of the guy from Dirty Jobs selling one on QVC years ago... it is the same model I have and it seems like the liquid is to the bottom of the black cap when flowing. Maybe the liquid has evaporated and thrown off the specific gravity/surfactant amounts.

If that doesn't help, then maybe I could try to drain fluid into something, then boil the lava in a double-boiler... then add fluid back. I might even filter it crudely through a coffee filter first to get rid of large flecks.

I have that small gookit coming in the mail... that is a last resort I suppose. I understand that it would be better to gookit a Grande, but I simply don't have one sitting around! I ordered one of Kirk's glitter globes as an alternative... does seem like a shame I suppose to gookit a midnight (According to what I have been reading), but I really want this to work right.

I have photos here... will post one of the cap and dimmer too.

[ChuckM]

... and here is the gap...

[ChuckM]

...some more photos including the bottle cap...

[ChuckM]

For some reason it is only letting me post a single photo at a time.

[Rich C]

That fluid level does look low.

[Jeff]

THe fluid is low...I would agree with adding a bit of distilled water to it, but you still need to leave at least 3/4th of an inch gap for expansion. 

Those bubbles may work out over time.  On a side note I just completed the wax pouring of my 32oz and a 2nd 52oz  last night, I'll throw up some photos and a vid when it gets flowing.

[ChuckM]

Started my rework of the Midnight... I decided to filter the liquid through a cheap dollar store sieve (cleaned and rinsed with distilled water first). When I took the bottle cap off (prying with a screwdriver, I saw how dirty the bottle top and cap were... I think the bottle cap is useless. I grabbed an unopened bottle of beer from Trader Joe's (way past its useful life) and carefully pried off the cap... washed, and rinsed it with distilled water. I am now boiling the wax...

[ChuckM]

Now the bottle cap...