Heavy lava?

[Ouija]

So I treated myself to a new MATHMOS ASTRO globe. I have had it over a week now and have been running it every day, the only thing is it takes around 6 hours to get a decent flow going, I expected this the first run because it was so new, but after a week it is causing concern. today I have had it on for over 10 hours and it is only just starting to flow the way I love. My old globe only took around 3 to flow nicely. I have it sitting next to my ASTRO BABY and it takes hardly any time in comparison.

It has been so long since I bought a new MATHMOS and I am wondering if it is still because of the newness. Any ideas?

photos are after 10 hours

[john]

what bulb r u useing is it a 40w goft ball ses e14 bulbs, if yes i would contact mathmos and there send you a new replacement. Yiu should not run the lamp for more than 6 hours this will cause the wax lifttime to reduce. Hope this helps thanks john

[Ouija]

It was electric planet I bought it from, still waiting for a reply. I will email Mathmos and sk them, thanks.

[Ouija]

After many hours of head scratching I have solved the problem. Turns out the new bottle I ordered seems to be a little bit shorter at the base, My old bottle touched the bulb, but my new bottle doesn't. I simply unscrewed the bulb a couple of turns so it is still lighting up but now it is touching the bottle slightly and "TAH-DAH!" One perfect flowing Astro!

[ElectricMonkey]

It's unfortunate that from time to time, for various reasons, the liquid in lava bottles can become cloudy. At Electric Planet, we take great care to ensure our lava lamps and bottles are stored correctly (at the right temperature etc), packed securely and sent to customers via speedy and reputable delivery services. We also double check bottles prior to dispatch - even though Mathmos claim to thoroughly test each bottle we buy in from them. Occasionally, however, one slips through the net and, infrequently, a good bottle is probably shaken excessively in transit. Frustratingly, there's not a lot any retailer can do about this - other than to offer the customer a replacement (or their money back) in the rare instances that bottles arrive cloudy or otherwise unsatisfactory. We will always replace faulty products quickly and efficiently, and offer a full refund or fair - equivalent or higher value - substitute product if an item is no longer in stock.

As a relatively small company, we do have to rely on our suppliers (Mathmos, in this case) to provide replacements when a faulty product is discovered. When they aren't able to respond to us quickly, or can't provide a replacement for whatever reason, it puts us in an awkward position.

We explained to Neil that, as the Clear/White Astro colour scheme had been discontinued (regrettably, in our opinion) by Mathmos, and since we had completely sold out of C/W replacement bottles, we couldn't offer a replacement in this colourway. We spoke to Mathmos at the time and asked them to provide a replacement C/W bottle for us to send to Neil. They told us they couldn't. Although this bottle's cloudiness was probably caused by 'manufacturing error' (their words, allegedly, not ours) they simply didn't have any left and weren't producing any more. Perhaps they decided they would make up a C/W bottle especially for Neil - or found one at their factory, store or offices.

Anyway, we did as Mathmos suggested and offered Neil the choice of a replacement Astro bottle in any other colourway of his choice - including either of the brand new Clear/Turquoise or Clear/Pink bottles - or a full refund. We never received a response to this email (sent on 07/10/2009) so we assumed that the problem had resolved itself. This can happen and, not having seen the bottle, we couldn't know the extent of the clouding.

We pride ourselves on first-rate communication, good ethics and high customer service standards. We want every lamp and bottle to arrive unscathed, look great and work perfectly. We love lava lamps and get a real buzz when we hear about people enjoying the lamps they've purchased from us. It really hurts to read that someone thinks our company is 'rubbish', when we did everything in our power to help and tried to provide a top quality service throughout.

Neil, we realise you may have missed our email, and we understand that, despite our best efforts, you were inconvenienced here - it's never nice to receive an unsatisfactory product in the post. We'd still like to offer you a new Astro bottle of your choice, which we will, of course, send you free of charge. Just email us at: [e-mail] to let us know which of the 7 colours we have in stock you'd like.

Visit our Replacement Mathmos Astro Bottle page for current availability:
http://www.electricplanet.co.uk/product/94/99/Replacement-Astro-Bottle

[Novemberchild]

Actually, the bulb touching or not touching the bottle should not make that much of a difference.
The"headspace" left between bottle and bulb always varies(sp?) slightly, but any Mathmos Astro bottle should work on any Mathmos Astro Base.
Also - and I am certainly being very particular here - in any lamp the lightbulb should be screwed in properly to prevent troubles such as a short circuit (which could cause damage to the socket).
In addition to what's been said before, I can only point out that the Mathmos Astro originally uses clear(!) bulbs.