Chalky lava.

hi fellow lava lamp nuts.

Been having a good look around for a few days now looking at photos, collections and discussions. what a great site. I'm so envious of some of your collections. Been facinated by lava since a kid.

Anyhoo, I know this is not the place to waffle so I will get to the point.

I got a Mathmos Astro of ebay eleven days ago, it looked in pristine condition and the fluid is clear. I have been running it for six hours everyday since. My problem is the wax is very chalky looking on warm up and very grainy with small white snotty looking globs in it when flowing.

I suspect its past its sell by date so am prepared for bad news.

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Permalink Reply by Johnny on January 22, 2011 at 4:38pm

do u know the age of the bottle? was the whole lamp brand new? you can get some grainy looking bits in new bottles, i noticed with some refills i did the wax looked grainy but after a while several runs the grainy stuff disapeared, this grainy stuff is common in the smart astro bottles, but with use it should go.

On the other hand if the bottle is very old then u can get white milky chalky stuff in the wax most noticable when the bottle is cold and the wax is hard it will appear on the bottom so turn the bottle over when cold, if it is visable then theres not much u can do its just old wax been well used

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Permalink Reply by Aladdin 2 Lava on January 22, 2011 at 5:18pm

i dont know the age of the bottle,i would say the base is a late nineties model,it has a round bulb. turned it over and the chalkyness seems to be evenly spread throu the solid wax. thanks for reply. will keep running it daily to see if it gets any clearer and let you know.

Johnny said:

do u know the age of the bottle? was the whole lamp brand new? you can get some grainy looking bits in new bottles, i noticed with some refills i did the wax looked grainy but after a while several runs the grainy stuff disapeared, this grainy stuff is common in the smart astro bottles, but with use it should go.

On the other hand if the bottle is very old then u can get white milky chalky stuff in the wax most noticable when the bottle is cold and the wax is hard it will appear on the bottom so turn the bottle over when cold, if it is visable then theres not much u can do its just old wax been well used

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Permalink Reply by Aladdin 2 Lava on January 22, 2011 at 5:53pm

as i suspected. oh well, you live and learn. still a nice lamp. thanks for reply. love your photos, i have one glitter lamp in my collection not sure what make but it it is stunning. had two replacement bottles from mathmos since last october, the most recent one flows ok but a bit blobby if you know what i mean.

Astrobaby feat. Monsterball said:

Exactly what John said with old bottles. I find very very old Mathmos and Crestworth bottles where there is white stuff on the inside, that is due to the age and a sign that the bottle will be going and the lamp bottle has been used a lot. You can buy a new bottle at www.mathmos.com

Johnny said:
do u know the age of the bottle? was the whole lamp brand new? you can get some grainy looking bits in new bottles, i noticed with some refills i did the wax looked grainy but after a while several runs the grainy stuff disapeared, this grainy stuff is common in the smart astro bottles, but with use it should go.

On the other hand if the bottle is very old then u can get white milky chalky stuff in the wax most noticable when the bottle is cold and the wax is hard it will appear on the bottom so turn the bottle over when cold, if it is visable then theres not much u can do its just old wax been well used