(Lava Chat)

New light bulbs

So I've been having bad luck with light bulbs lately, I've had to return 4 different packs of them. The bulbs keep burning out after 2 to 3 uses!! Very frustrating. I was buying the frosted 40 watt General Electric bulbs, an they just are not working. So I tried these instead, they are 60 watt equivilant, using only 40 watts. So far, they are working great! I just hope they don't burn out super fast! But they are energy saving, and they still produce the same amount of heat as a regular 40 watt bulb. They are walmart brand.

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Comment by Carol on July 29, 2014 at 1:27pm: I'm in south jersey and although we can get some hot weather in the summer, I can't live without my air conditioning. Number 1, I have 5 dogs and 2 of them are pugs. They will die in the heat. So the lamps are pretty much run in between a 70 and 75 degree room. Now in the winter, it gets cold, but I have a fireplace. This I have to be careful about because sometimes the kids crank it up and it is gas fueled. It's open real flame!!! That baby can cook a room in no time flat. So now with the lavas all going in the living room, I'll watch for that.

Comment by Ian on July 29, 2014 at 12:11pm: Yea, haha I mean it's not a huge difference in temperature, but I think after awhile the clears ruin the lamps. I have always wondered that too, how the 52s and the 32s use the same bulb!! If you ever get vintage 52s, definitely use a frosted bulb. They should flow fine on a frosted bulb, and the vintage 52s rarely seem to overheat. The china ones overheat all the time.
Also, a helpful hint from my experiences, is that lava lamps will get ruined if ran in rooms hotter than about 80 degrees. Especially the 32oz, and what it does is permanently makes them overheat. Just running them for 8 hours in that temperature will cause issues, and if you try to run it again in the normal room temperature, they will overheat. It depends on how often and how long the lamp is run in that temp. I have a few that I did that to, cause I didn't know better, (and I live in Tucson, Az lol) and now I have to run them on 25 watt bulbs because they overheat so bad on a 40 watt. But if you have room temps that hot, dimmer work great to avoid permanently ruining them. :)

Comment by Carol on July 29, 2014 at 11:11am: oops, sorry, I missed that whole post, lol!!! I have to make a run for bulbs, so I'm going to buy a few of those Walmarts and see how they do. I have clear 40's in my 2 vintage lamps, and I have to use a dimmer because after a few hours they really start to get hot. I'm buying frosted for them as well. I don't know if my 52 oz'ers from china will like a frosted though. I have a hard enough time getting them to flow on a 40 clear. I've even had to get one going on a 60 and switch back to a 40. I think with the bigger ones, you need those ones that run hotter, but my vintage's are only 32 oz'ers. It doesn't make much sense that you can run a 52oz lava on the same exact bulb as a 32oz. I guess that's why they get overheated. I'm def switching to 2 frosteds on those.

Thanxs....funny how I learn something new on here all the time!!!! lol!!!

Comment by Carol on July 29, 2014 at 11:06am: I'm with ya on that one!!! How are your Walmart bulbs standing the test of time though?

Comment by Ian on July 29, 2014 at 10:50am: These bulbs are also cheaper than getting the single packs. I refuse to buy just one bulb like that, as I think it's a rip off.

Comment by Ian on July 29, 2014 at 10:49am: Also the other problem with buying directy from lava lite, is that they are clear bulbs. Lava lamps need frosted for the appliance bulbs, because the clear ones actually get hotter, and they will eventually ruin the wax. I usually run my lamps for 12 to 24 hours to a few days at a time lol.. Haven't had any issues with clouding or the wax frying yet, and I've been doing that for the past 10 years. But they need frosted bulbs, and the GE bulbs, while being so cheap, should last longer than 2 runs!! I've had bulbs last me for 3 years running them constantly like I do! But so far so good on these walmart brand energy saving bulbs. I haven't tried them on my good USA lamps yet, only my china lamps, to make sure they don't get too hot or anything.

Comment by Carol on July 29, 2014 at 10:40am: I buy the Sylvania Appliance bulbs 40 watt. They aren't cheap though and you only get one bulb in the pack. I called LL and told her I was having a problem with some of my lamp's flow using the standard A15 appliance bulbs. She said that because some of them just do not get hot enough that it was better to order the original lava lite brand bulb online. Well, good idea, but when you have 8 lamps and 6 of them take the same bulb at 4.99 a pop plus shipping, well, that's not really an option for me anyway on my budget. Then someone told me GE bulbs. Well I went to literally 5 stores and nobody seems to be carrying GE bulbs anymore. Then I heard they are putting energy savers in the newer bulbs to make them not run as hot and eat up energy. Good for a normal reading lamp.....not good for our lava's. How's the Walmart brand's holding up for ya? and do you run your lamps a lot? I run mine about 10 hours a day every day. 2 of them right now i'm running more because they are fluid changes and I'm kind of bursting them to clear up some unsettled wax issues.

Comment by Ian on July 3, 2014 at 9:04pm: I also want to add they are brighter than normal bulbs- being that they are 60 watt equivilant. But they don't get any hotter than normal 40 watt bulbs.