HOW TO CLEAR CLOUDY LAMPS FROM THE OOZGOO FORUM ARCHIVES

[Woodvetch]

Bad me, I neglected to get the author's name but the material is worth reading for us Lava Come Latelys.
K

"Revisiting the clouds"
LAST EDITED ON Jan-04-05 AT 05:50 PM (PST)

I'm revisiting this subject to show proof positive of success using various procedures of declouding.

Here are the procedures used.

1. Hot -n- heavy. This is running it normally but to it's complete cycle. This should be done for at least the first week or so. 8-10hours a day. once a day.

2. Intermittant molten interruptus. Run it hot enough to get the wax molting and "flowing" for a "short" period of time. (1hr or 2). Then letting it cool all the way down (till solid and cold) and restarting. This yeilds the ability to run it 2-4 a day. For 32oz globes, 2hr on/4 hr off.

3. Intermittant mounded interruptus. As above, but interrupt it when the lava starts to mound up or swell. If tentacles/sprouts appear, continue to heat until they remelt back to the source from whence it came. Then as the wax mounds up (as it wants to flow). Interrupt the cycle and let it cool. This only works on the larger globes. It's too hard to get the cycle right on 32ozers.

4. Intermittant heated interruptus. As many times a day as possible. Good to clear up the final haze. As outlined in endoftherainbow's lava care page. A timer here is very helpful. Heated long enough for the lava to slightly melt but not flow or shoot sproutes. Then letting it cool off. my cycles were 15-20 minutes on, then 5:40 or 5:40 off. This may be able to be shortend I have not tried it. I've only tested this on 32ozers.

5. Leave it aloneicus. Just leave it alone for a while. Could be a few weeks. This should be done at some point in time. before restarting. It allows the particiles to settle on their own. I've seen this help mis shipped globes.

I've found that procedure 1&2 helps with heavy clouding.
Procedure 2 helps with medium to light clouding.
Procedure 4 helps with light & hazy clouding.


Cloudiness is very common with new lamps,
especially the smaller sizes and the lamps with
clear liquids. Cloudiness is caused when small
particles of wax soften and break off and remain
suspended in the solution. This will clear up with
continued use. Here is what Lava World
recommends:
Turn the lamp on only long enough for the wax to
mound up and glow. Don’t allow it to send up the
tentacles or allow blobs to form. Here are the
suggested heat up times:
Grandes and 52 oz lamps 1 hour
32 and 20 ounce lamps 30 minutes
8 ounce lamps 15 minutes
Keep in mind, these times are for a brand new,
never used lamp. If the lamp has been used and
the globe has been heated, the times will be
considerable less.
Once it has run for this short period, totally shut
it off. Allow it to totally cool. What you are
trying to achieve is to heat the liquid, not the
wax. Since cold wax is denser than the hot liquid,
the wax droplets that are suspended will
eventually drop out of the solution. Slowly.
It won’t happen overnight. If the warm up cycle
runs too long and you have lava movement, shut
it down, cool it completely and start over
tomorrow.

[medicated goo]

Pretty sure this was WeeboTech's work when so many of the LW globes/Grande's (??) were coming in cloudy. His work was thorough, extensive, insightful and helped me fix some cloudy globes. Thanks WeeboTech!

[Woodvetch]

Thanks for the clarification in this string Bohdan. All of my globes are Lava Lite except for one 32z china and my brand spanking new o so cloudy Grande.
K

[Woodvetch]

...and do you put some sort of o ring or silicone under the cap before reseal ? I'm concerned about cracking the seal too but agree with Bohdan and DJ the results are worth it. I have a cheap china 32z bought for sperimenting!
Ha!
K
My po cloudy Grande. It gives me an ice cream headache to think about screwing with it for 2 months. I like pump idea better.

fingers behind the cloudy grande purple yellow 32z (1).jpg

[medicated goo]

I agree that the new formulaes don't respond well to cycling and filter pumping is the best and fastest way. I have one of these backpacking Miniworks filter pumps and it works awesome! Everywhere I saw them they range from $75 to $85. You can even get them from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/MSR-Miniworks-EX-Water-Filter/dp/B000BBF2RY/r...

[userva]

i tried the mini filter and all i have is an angry blob at the bottom. did the filter remove too much of the disolved contents of the liquid?

[Jeff Monteith]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

You stated "...did you continue to pump out the filter after all the liquid came out this is very important. You need to pump it after all is gone you will start to see the white foam come out and you still must pump it out."

Does this mean that once all the liquid has been removed/pumped out of the original globe that we should continue to pump until a foamy substance stops flowing from the ceramic filter in the hand pump? Is this foam then just blended into the clear solution and then reintroduced into the original globe?

Do you try to clean the wax? What about rinsing the globe with water or something before replacing the master solution? Any other steps to consider before turning the globe back on?

Thanks.

[Jeff Monteith]

Great info, thanks.

Do you do anything special with the wax to clean it after you have pumped the solution?

[Tanya]

If you use a filter pump for a lava lamp, can you still use it for drinking water? It doesn't seem like you could get all traces of the chemicals out of the filter and I rather doubt they would be good for you to drink. Anyone know for sure?

[fog rider]

The MSR pump (the 0.3 micron model) works most of the time. I have restored about 15 vintage lamps in the last few years. On 2 occasions I had to resort to a liquid transplant while retaining the old wax (my Imperial for example). The pump can be purchased at several leading camping supply stores. Some hints:

1. Never use a pump for drinking water once you've run lava lamp liquid through it.
2. I seal the rubber lips at the top and bottom of a new filter element with 2 part epoxy before I use it (they tend to leak over time).
3. As stated, pump everything out of the filter. The foam will liquify in a couple of hours. Pour the liquid back into the lamp.
4. You may still have to top off the restored lamp with a bit of distilled water. Once you've done this, run the lamp at full temperature. The liquid may need to be tuned up a bit (adding stright distilled water will make the wax sink lower in the lamp. Adding a bit of distilled water pre-mixed with sea salt will make the wax float higher in the lamp. Never dump sea salt directly into a lamp. It will settle out under the wax.). You might have to experiment a bit to get the lamp just right.
5. Remember to always leave a bit of an air space at the top of the lamp. Failure to do so may cause the globe to shatter as the liquid heats up and expands.

I've include a couple of pictures of an Crestworth Astro restoration using the MSR pump.

Hope that helps. Cheers!