Think it'll clear?

[Jeff]

[Critter]

Jeff,

As I mentioned before lose the rubber stopper.  They just deteriorate and pieces fall into the bottle and you'll get chunks in your wax and end up needing to open it again later on.  Your rubber stopper is already showing signs of falling apart.  Lava Lite uses these too on the Grande's and they cause problems over time.  The Rubber Stopper you post in the Amazon link looks decent however, be sure that the Outer Diameter of it is NOT larger than the Inner Diameter of your lamp's decorative top or else the top won't sit down properly.  Personally I like the acrylic solution...acrylic is 17 times stronger than glass, it's easy to cut too.  I cut the piece the exact diameter of the outer edge of the bottle's lip and then clear silicone it down when the lamp is still a little bit warm.  Wait 24 hours for it to dry and then put something on it like a rubber shrink fit seal and you're good to go.

Critter

[Jeff]

I recapped tonight...the stopper's history.  Noticed this morning after the overnight warmup that it now decided to split in the middle too....I didn't want to take anymore chances with it and end up with crap in the lamp again or have it end up clouding. 

I got some of those quick caps tonight on the way home from work and redid it tonight..lamp was around simmering temp..it wasn't quite warm enough to be flowing...except for the occasional hard snake.  The 4 inch seems to fit OK, its a bit tight but that might be a good thing.  I was able to get it on over the flange and there was enough to get the hose clamp to grab some material under the flange so I don't think its going anywhere, even when the lamp cools and it sucks on it.  It probably could use a 5 inch cap...but I don't know if they had that size, and that may to big.  Am going to leave it w/ the 4 inch one for now and see how it goes.  At least I know its not going to drop chunks of crap in my lamp now :)

[Brian]

Where did you get the cap? I have a couple grande lamps and I think I might have to filter one and don't want to reuse the rubber stopper. Also, anyone know what filter I can use? The one suggested on the main fix page no longer exists and the gravity one posted is out of stock. Is there a cheaper solution? I really don't want to play scientist with kits or barebones.

[Brad]

you can get the rubber cap and hose clamp at home depot in the plumbing section.

[Jeff]

Yup, both were from Home Depot but I've since redone it again with something a bit more robust since the fluid started to permeate this rubber cap after about 10 months.  I kept finding a small puddle under the decorative cap every few weeks and was like how the heck is it getting up here.  Then I realized what was going on.  The vapors were condensing on the underside of the dec. cap.  I guess from the vapors hitting it all the time it slowly broke it down enough to allow them through and they were then condensing between the decorative cap and the top of the rubber cap.  The rubber was actually saturated...I originally reused the old one for a few days and it was still oozing fluid.  Thought at first somehow it was getting through the plastic plug but didn't see how, so I replaced it.  Kept the old one for a few days off the lamp and sure enough it continued to ooze and become wet on top even off the lamp.  So it must have been saturated.

Anyways, I've now got one of these on it ( http://www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-4-in-Gripper-Mechanical-Plastic-Te...  ) with a new one of the quick caps like pictured here over the top of it.  Had to grind down the stud some and use a regular nut instead of the wing nut in order to fit the decorative cap on but so far so good...nothing underneath it now, and nothing leaking yet.  Also had to grind down part of the bottom half around the rim so that it'd go down into the neck of the bottle.

For a Grande a 2 inch one may work ( I got one when I picked up the 4 inch one, but haven't had to use it yet, since the rubber one on my grande has been fine so far.  Maybe since its a much smaller neck it won't do the same thing as the colossus did.  It could also be b/c the one I have capped isn't original lava fluid either, its a goo kit.  Since its just distilled water those vapors may not break it down like the original lava fluid did.  I also haven't had it on no where near as long as the colossus runs were.

Here's the rubber quick caps.  They come w/ the clamps too.  2 inch fits a grande bottle, its a bit tight though and the dec. cap doesn't fit the best.  http://www.homedepot.com/s/test%2520pipe%2520plug?NCNI-5

[Jeff]

The filter I used is this one.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030DH1RY?psc=1&redirect=true...   You MUST make sure it does not have carbon....that WILL ruin the lamp.  Learend the hard way...luckily on a cheapo clearview.  I ended up getting this filter b/c the carbon granules are seperate and don't have to be used.  Most of the ceramic filters use a cartridge w/ the carbon non removable.  

Jeff said:

Yup, both were from Home Depot but I've since redone it again with something a bit more robust since the fluid started to permeate this rubber cap after about 10 months.  I kept finding a small puddle under the decorative cap every few weeks and was like how the heck is it getting up here.  Then I realized what was going on.  The vapors were condensing on the underside of the dec. cap.  I guess from the vapors hitting it all the time it slowly broke it down enough to allow them through and they were then condensing between the decorative cap and the top of the rubber cap.  The rubber was actually saturated...I originally reused the old one for a few days and it was still oozing fluid.  Thought at first somehow it was getting through the plastic plug but didn't see how, so I replaced it.  Kept the old one for a few days off the lamp and sure enough it continued to ooze and become wet on top even off the lamp.  So it must have been saturated.

Anyways, I've now got one of these on it ( http://www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-4-in-Gripper-Mechanical-Plastic-Te...  ) with a new one of the quick caps like pictured here over the top of it.  Had to grind down the stud some and use a regular nut instead of the wing nut in order to fit the decorative cap on but so far so good...nothing underneath it now, and nothing leaking yet.  Also had to grind down part of the bottom half around the rim so that it'd go down into the neck of the bottle.

For a Grande a 2 inch one may work ( I got one when I picked up the 4 inch one, but haven't had to use it yet, since the rubber one on my grande has been fine so far.  Maybe since its a much smaller neck it won't do the same thing as the colossus did.  It could also be b/c the one I have capped isn't original lava fluid either, its a goo kit.  Since its just distilled water those vapors may not break it down like the original lava fluid did.  I also haven't had it on no where near as long as the colossus runs were.

Here's the rubber quick caps.  They come w/ the clamps too.  2 inch fits a grande bottle, its a bit tight though and the dec. cap doesn't fit the best.  http://www.homedepot.com/s/test%2520pipe%2520plug?NCNI-5

[Jeff]

Forgot to mention too its cleared up to crystal clear over the past yr on its own too...it was still a bit hazy after the filtering but after several runs, its now perfectly clear.  

[Brian]

thanks for that update. Those look pretty hefty. Never thought about using pipe testers. Was looking everywhere for stoppers and was worried most I've seen wouldn't fit or would just breakdown. Thank you for the tips! Now just have to find a cheap filter or just suck it up and trust myself with a goo kit.

[Brad]

great to hear that it cleared up after filtering, jeff!

[Sentrex]

This discussion was very helpful so thanks to all that contributed!

Now I just need to figure out if I return the MSR miniworks for the gravity fed MSR.

That is the great thing about this site... we are such a small % of the population but almost every problem that one could have with a lamp is addressed here if you look hard enough!