How to stop these small lava blobs? (picture included)

[Connor]

So I received a classic LAVA LITE from ebay.

 

The flow is pretty good except that the lava comes apart easily and ends up making lots of tiny balls of lava. When I let it cool all the wax including the tiny balls settle. But when I turn it back on it the little balls form again.

 

Is the wax too hot?  Damaged in some way?

 

Is there any fix?

 

Thank you! :)

 

[Modulo '70]

Too Hot I would suggest. The hotter the lamp the more lava 'breakage' and bubbling.

[Connor]

Right on. This is exactly what happens.

So I tried the frosted bulb and it appears to have helped some. A dimmer will be my next test.

 

MJM said:

Let me guess ... the tiny blobs crop up when a large blob separates, and the skinny, stretched-out goo between the upper and lower blobs snaps into a tiny droplet-sized blob, rather than remaining part of one of the larger blobs, right?  So you've got two medium-sized blobs, with a tiny blob or three floating in between them, right after separation?

[MJM]

FWIW, my troublesome lamp has been on a dimmer for over a month; I get the tiny blobs at any temperature warm enough to induce any flow at all, which is what got me thinking about surfactant -- it's pretty clearly some sort of chemical issue in my case, but whether that's a surfactant issue, a goo-not-cohesive-enough issue, or maybe a balance issue that requires (mild) overheating to initiate flow (or even some other variant of innards-being-not-quite-right), well, that's anyone's guess right now.

 

Glad to hear that yours seems to be responding to reduced temperature, Connor.

[Jason]

I'm having the same trouble with my '71 Starlight. I'll have to try a dimmer as well.

[Chris]

I bought a 1997 Silver Streak (Haggerty original made in US as well) on eBay a few weeks ago. It had the SAME EXACT PROBLEM. Lots of small globes, lots of bubbles in the wax, and was proned to overheating after about 4 hours. I put it on a dimmer, but that mostly just made it alternate between columns and small globes. At first I tried to just embrace it for what it was, but I broke down and goo kitted it over the weekend and now I'm absolutely in love with it. Nothing beats the stands made in the US.

[JC Harris]

I've had the same experience and I've tried replacing the water, but once the wax starts doing that, it means that the wax has permanently changed.

Learn to love the bubbles. :D

[Mr MaGoo]

Agree with Tim, looks..acts like it is overheating.  Second putting a dimmer on it and see what happens, bet if you cool it down just a bit you will get larger, stretchier blobs..possible reduction in tiny blobs, but, bet it will act better for you. Keep us in the loop bro, and good luck with it!

[Christian BayLee]

The little tiny floaties I call them are just a result of older lamps.. Nothing you can really do.. When all the blobs get kinda small and hang out at the top it's overheated. This can sort of be fixed with a dimmer for lamps at lowes or Home Depot. When the wax melts I dim mine slightly and still flows good and keeps it from overheating for a little while.