Good Lava ?

[Pete]

Hi everyone......new to collecting Mathmos lava Lamps and a new member to OozingGoo........I have a question regarding the appearance of lava in it's molten, bubbling state.

On some of my lamps the lava forms opaque shiny globs of goo. On other lamps the lava while still opaque appears to be filled with unmolten specs of wax, i.e. crystalisation, and on other lamps the goo becomes semi-transparent with crystalisation and fluid bubbles. 

Are what I'm describing the natural and unique characteristics of each lamp, or are these stages of natural or aged deteriouration of the wax through overheating etc.

[Tim Gill]

On some of my lamps the lava forms opaque shiny globs of goo

That's how a good formula of wax should be - cheaper lamps (i.e. new lava lite lamps or cheap Chinese  made units) or ones with a dodgy batch tend to have issues - often poor flow or none at all, cloudy, wax stuck to the sides when new etc.

So therefor what I am trying to say is you the lava is probley poorly made which has probley caused these issues

My advice would be to run the lamp for a number of days and see if anything improves and if that doesn't help try remaking the lamp using a Goo kit.

[Pete]

Tim,  many thanks for your advice.  I don't know if this makes any difference, but I forgot to mention that my lamps are all original Mathmos lamps made during the period 1999 to 2005, so some of them are quite a few years old.

 

I'm interested to hear more about about Goo kits and where I can obtain them etc.

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Hi Pete, welcome to the site. I only joined myself a few months ago, and hav'nt looked back, people are so helpful here.

You have answered your question yourself I think.

I got an Astro off ebay last year that was very grainy with white specs in it, but after running it almost every day for a few months its flowing and glowing fine. I think it just had'nt been run for a long time, years maybe !

Enjoy the forum,

Peter.

[Pete]

Thanks guys.....im not going to complain at sitting here watching two dozen lamps on the go at the same time for a few weeks.....

 

On the subject of glued on screw bottle caps, is there an effective way of removing them without damage. I've got a couple of bottles with hazy liquid and would also like to ask if it's possible to filter the liquid clear and how to go about it.

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Best leave it to the experts. I've had a try a few times.

They allways go foggy after a while.

Viva Sativa is your best bet.