Repaired my 6821 Grande

[Mike Pepe]

I've been lurking here for a while now, but I wanted to express my thanks for the site and the content. I was able to rescue my old H6821 Grande lamp with the info here.

I bought this lamp around 2004. I never remember it being clear or terribly purple, but over time the cloudiness got worse and worse to the point where you couldn't even see the lava. Upon dis-assembly I found the white rubber stopper to be badly deteriorated, and I'm fairly certain the white cloudiness came from the stopper.

One thing I noticed is that the goo seems to have a lot of bubbles in it. So far it hasn't been an issue, but it's a change from the way it used to operate.

I siphoned out the old liquid, washed the globe out with distilled water, and replaced the fluid with distilled water, epsom salt solution and a few drops of Ivory dish soap. Later I decided to color the water a turquoise just to see what it would look like.

[Kirk]

Nice job - using the Jus method!  Congratulations!

[Mike Pepe]

Yes, it seems to work fine. I have some concerns over the long term effects of the magnesium and sulfate ions that are now dissolved in that solution, but I guess we'll see what happens.

Anyone know what causes the fluid bubbles in the wax?

Also, is the number on the cap a date code of some sort? The cap has the model (H6821) and the number 040903

[Cowmatian]

My lamps with bubbly wax all had a slight leak. I assume that means water evaporated leaving the fluid with a higher concentration of surfactant. It could also be from the perc evaporating from the wax. That's just what I have notice with my lamps.

[gunner]

Great work on the grande!! It's exciting to see them working & visible after a long time sitting unplugged, cloudy & ugly! I used this same method (except with pickling salt) to redo my blue/yellow grande. I googled to get the info, don't remember the actual source. It's been a couple years now, still works great! My only complaint is the blue food coloring I used to dye the water gives off an odd purple hue when used in the dark. Not sure why, but I've been told leaving it in a sunny window for a few days will make the liquid go clear again and then can try a different coloring. But it's not that big of a deal...having clarity is an exciting thing!

[Cowmatian]

The grande looks great by the way!

[Mike Pepe]

Thanks! I suppose if too much surf in the liquid is the cause of the slight bubbling, there's really not much to do aside from draining and re-doing with less soap. Nothing leads me to believe that the bubbling is damaging in any way, so I'll leave that for if/when I get bored of the color and want to change it. I had a used Grande arrive this week frozen solid and with an exploded globe, but that at least gave me a rubber stopper in good condition to replace the deteriorated one that was in this lamp. I should start up a thread with some pictures of the frozen one. Also perhaps to ask if someone has an empty Grande globe for sale!

[Mike Pepe]

Strange thing happened- after a week of nice, normal behavior, the wax started sticking to the glass.

Any ideas what could suddenly have caused this change of behavior? Did my dishwashing soap get absorbed into the wax somehow?

Should I add some bubble fluid instead? How much?