Why is there such a difference in my 2 Grande Lava's?

[Heather Updike]

I have two Grande's, one is blue and yellow and one is pink and purple. They were bought at the same time but the blue and yellow one just doesn't seem to work right. It just makes little balls all the time. I even swapped the bases and it doesn't seem to matter. Is it not getting hot enough or too hot? It really makes me mad cuz I love them. I would like to get the 4ft one. Heck I would move out my refrigerator just so I have a place for it. LOL

[Jeff]

Sounds like the exact same problem I faced.  By blue/yellow ended up doing the same thing.  Wonder if they had issues w/ that formula or something, like it separated or something over time.  When I first got my 2 they both worked great, then they sat unused a few years and this is what the blue/yellow did.  The purple/yellow one works great still, but for some reason needed a bit more heat than it used to.  Both used to run great dimmed to about 80%, now I had to put a socket extender on to get the purple/yellow to flow.  I also tried that w/ the blue/yellow but it didn't make any difference.  The only thing it'd do after hours of the small blobs was gush to the top a few times then overheat and just ball up and sit in the middle of the lamp in 1 big lump. 

[Cowmatian]

I had the same problem with my 1993 aristocrat, dome at the bottom with tiny blobs partially filled with water going up. I was able to fix my lamp by putting in a coil that is slightly larger in diameter than the bottom of the globe. That way every piece of wax that goes up will have its surface tension broken at the bottom so it has to join the main blob at the bottom. Otherwise, at least with my aristocrat, some little beads of wax would accumulate under the main blob of wax, which would allow some water to enter the wax, and make a small bubble. I'm not sure why some lamps do this, it could be degradation of the wax, but the coil fixed it for me.
Here's what it did when I bought it: http://youtu.be/BniaZEUqpgc
Here it is with the over sized coil: : http://youtu.be/HVDX5OTQfUU
(it is dimmed down in the second video, but it will get much more active if I turn it up, and still flow great)

[tweavs]

I have had 3 Blue/ Yellow Grandes and 2 didn't flow so good but one is crystal clear and flows great. I ended Goo Kitting the other two and made custom colors.

[Jeff]

Wow what a difference in flow that coil made!! I might try that with a 32oz I have that gets those damn liquid bubbles too.

Yea I'm still a bit nervous myself the w/ the bulb extender, but I made sure the bulb is not touching the bottom of the globe (Just adding the extender put it just at the bottom of the globe, it might have just been touching), so what I did was remove the socket and the post holding it, and pounded down the middle section of the base, that was kind of bent upward about 1/2 inch.  I pounded a dimple into it where the socket post bolts to the bottom, effectively lowering the entire thing by about 1/2 inch.  Then w/ the extender on again I know its not touching the globe.  It's close, but not touching.  Hopefully it won't crack.  If it does I'm in for not only a hell of a mess, but probably the end of my lava lamp hobby.