Mathmos Astro Lava Lamp cleaning problems. before/after

Comment by Pierre Brazeau on June 3, 2012 at 10:23am

Hi,nice flow on the tap water. Strange that distilled water appeared to have such a terrible effect on your lamp.

I guess distilled seems to be preferred because of it's known density & specific gravity 1.000 all around,tap

water though has different elements in it depending if you live in a city with municipal water or if you live in the

country on well water. Usually municipal water has several ingredients like chloramine fluoride small amounts

of dead organic matter a varied degree of hardness,and being that fine tuning a lamp to get a decent flow is

brought about by adding tiny amounts of different ingredients like sea salt for nice flow,soap for good bubble

separation and to prevent the wax from adhering to the globe: I haven't figured why the wax won't stick to the

globe, but very important that it sticks to the coil, soon, for now though more questions and brain storming.

Anyways back to the composition of the water and then the wax. And there's time also involved, wattage of

lamp size of globe, thickness of globe wall, minute irregularities in the globe wall thickness, exact composition

of globe wall, more lead in some small spot as apposed to another spot, completely dissolved silica particles

in spot to another spot. I'm almost certain thickness in one small area to an adjacent area on the globe's bottom

is bound to have a some effect on heat released on the wax that comes in contact with spot to spot. How does

that small heat difference effect the coil also, who knows, I just find this whole dilemma so interesting, striving

for the ideal action of one lamp to another lamp. It's like the alchemist from days past turning lead into gold.

Excellent job on the repair, and nice flow action. Really nice lava lamp and again I've learned something else,

considering the use of tap water for lamp refill would have never crossed my mind,thanks for the learned

experience. Finally the question of seeking the opinion from others on whether your lamp is good or so,so. How

does it make feel about it, what does it do for you. I think it's amazing you went from having a problem to good

working lamp with tap water on top of it all. I'm understanding more and more why many members have such

a large collection on lamp. No one lamp is exactly the same, such a huge choice. Best of luck on perfecting

your alchemy.

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