Blobs and more blobs

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

Okay so I recently bought a lava globe that I found at Goodwill. It was a little messed up because the coil had detached from the bottom and was embedded in the wax vertically. Having recently discovered my hidden love/obsession for lava lamps I thought  "I can fix this!" Plus I was stoked because the wax was blue :) anyway I got it home plugged it in and it worked really well. It had columns and blobs and was moving a little on the slow side but still good. However, the longer it was on the more the wax broke up into blobs to where it resembled slow boiling water at the bottom. I thought it may have been too hot so I shut it off and didn't turn it on for about 24 hrs.

The next day I turned it on and after heating up again it resembled the slow boil from the day before after just a couple hours.

I'm not sure what it could be. The globe has been opened, the cap spins but wont come off.I read another post saying that too much surf makes more blobs. Is there a way I can fix that besides dumping the water out and starting from scratch?

The pic is clearly not my lamp but that is very similar to what it looks like except with smaller blobs as many as 10 to 15 at a time maybe more.

[Da9L]

Before opening it up i would try to use a dimmer on the lamp or a bulb with a smaller wattage.. It sounds like it is running hot..

When a lava lamp runs to hot i will begin breaking into smaller blobs and much of the wax will begin stay longer at the top of the lamp.. If it gets even hotter it will all fall to the bottom and hower just over the coil in one big blob doing nothing..

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

Where can I get a dimmer and what kind do you recommend? I have left it running for 6 -8 hrs the first time and the blobs were still free flowing when I turned it off, they didn't gather at the top. I have it sitting in a wizard base could that have something to do with it?

[Da9L]

Im not sure what kind of dimmers you can get where you are from. But most hardware stores should have them. Here in Denmark i use a kit with 4 dimmers with two remotes, so i can control them remotely. But you can also get something much simplier that just looks like the switch but with a wheel on which you can turn to control how much you want to dim the bulb.

And yes it can have an impact if you use it in another base. Does the base use the same bulb size as the intended ? And the distance between the globe and the bulb also has an effect.

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

I'm using a 40w wax warmer bulb its the only one I could find. I know some lamps require frosted bulbs but I couldn't find out if a wizard was one of them. I will try two things, I will try adjusting the position of the light and if that doesn't work I will try using another base and see what happens.

[Da9L]

Hmm im not sure if it could have an impact on the flow if you use such kind of bulb.. I have never tried it.. But what ever you do dont use halogen bulbs i have allmost blown up a base that way!

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

Whoa! I never thought of using one but thanks for the warning.

[Tim Gill]

You can find dimmers on amazon and ebay - just search for dimmers - they are the ones that plug into the socket and you lamp plugs into the dimmer, it should help to control the flow.

What size globe is it?

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

Its a 32oz. I just checked it and now I have big blobs that are fighting to float up. the bigger the blob the lower it rises but it has only been on for about 2 hrs

[Tim Gill]

Try using a 30w bulb for the globe your using - that should sort it out.

My 32oz swerls are using a 30w bulb and they flow perfictly but if its not enough then stick with the 40w and dim it as it sounds like its overheating.

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

Okay I swapped bases and it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. here are some pics

The first is what the bottom of the globe looks like 45 mins to an hour after I turned it on today

The second is how the blobs flow up the center of the globe

and the third is how the lava looks when i lifted it out of the base

why would it form balls instead of become more fluid like it did when I first brought it home?

[Tim Gill]

I haven't seen a lamp 'flowing' like this - have you opened the lamp at all, added anything etc as it seams it may be down to formula.

What is the room temp like and where is the lamp situated as the environment  temp can affect how a lamp flows.

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

I personally did not open it but I think the previous owner did. I got it from a second hand store. Like I said the cap wont come off but you can spin it around. I haven't added anything mainly because I think it may have too much serf in it. It is sitting on my night stand in a dark room next to my bedroom door which doesn't really provide much of a draft