Spencers Cloudy Lava Lites Oh What a Mess Please Help!

[Vince]

Hi Everyone!

Well, I'm new here, and I found this awesome forum in my online travels because I have undertaken a journey..  We got four 52 oz lava lamps from Spencers for Christmas.  A clear/yellow, blue/red, red/black, and yellow/red.  The yellow/red is working fine.  The red/black - well, you absolutely can NOT see any lava at night or in dim conditions. Only during the day or in bright light is the lava noticeable.  A very poor color combo.  The blue/red is still cloudy enough that the lava is hard to see.  The clear/yellow you could not see the lava.  The replacement they sent us was the same.  So I investigated and found this website, lots of help, and that these Spencers lamps well, they suck.  :-)  I have a LL lamp from the early 1990's that rocks!

So I redid the clear/yellow with the distilled/epsom salt/dishwash liquid deal and it works fairly well but the cloudiness is coming back.  The replacement clear/yellow I am experimenting. 

So for questions: 

1-what is the thing with using propylene glycol?  I've tried a 50/50 PG with water and the lava just stayed at the top.  Is anyone having any success using the PG for lava lites?

2-does anyone think the yellow lava goo in the Spencers lamps is no good?  I've noticed a lot of white smeary type "floaters" trapped in the goo.  I wonder if the goo is "dirty" or no good mix?

3-is everyone getting better results with epsom salts, or should I try this pickling salt that everyone is talking about?

4-Should I just scrap the goo and just geta GOO KIT and redo the lamp?

Please help folks!!!

Thanks,
Vince

[Brad]

yeah, it was a pleasant surprise!  you won't be able to take it back once opened.

Vince Cianfichi said:

Brad, WOW, found your video.  If we had that I'd be in hippy heaven!  You guys are right, we got bad lamps.  Real bad.  Brad that neon kicks!  And the glass is so clear too. 

Vince

[Jonathan]

Just go to the store and save yourself the frustration. I ordered 2 neons a bit over a week ago (a purple and a green) The purple came first, but was very cloudy. I took it back and the girl at the store opened it, she saw it and was like "ugh another one? Sorry but we're all out of these, we had to send em all back because they were cloudy, some worse than the one you just brought back. We had a few over the holidays, but they sold pretty quickly. Sorry about that" So, my Spencer's was all out of 52oz, but I just picked up a color phasing vortex glitter instead. The girl also warned me the vortex break easily (I know, I've had past experience with 3 of them) but it seems to be fine.. for now. Plus they had over 20 vortexes on the shelf... if I need to exchange it, haha.

Maybe you will have better luck at yours. The green one I ordered arrived perfectly fine though, however.

If you want a fool-proof lamp, the aquariums are great. :D (I know, it's not the same)

[Vince]

Clear purple neon sounds nice!   I will work on getting them to replace two of ours.  If not, I'm sure Lava Lite will hook us up, I'm having faith! 

What concerns me the most is that you would never guess that LAVA LAMPS would be something that would fall to the disgraceful epidemic of china made reality.  I never imagined this would happen.  My family loves our lava lamps,  You would think it's a no brainer to go out and grab one or two new ones.  

Meanwhile I'm on to this refurbishing thing!  I might have to buy an old lamp and do a goo kit conversion!!!!

Thanks to all of you for the info you've shared.   It is all sensible and useful.

Vince

[Bridget T]

Warning, once you fiddle enough to get one of the cloudy ones re-filled with distilled/salt/wonder bubbles and working, it gets addictive.  I have my neon yellow I re-did that I now love. 

I want a red/black, but wondered if it would be like the orange/black, flow is great but it has to be back lit or next to another bright lamp to see anything.  I still might track one down though, it'd be neat to have two of them.

On the plus side, both Spencers I have been to have been great about opening multiple boxes to make sure I had clear lamps and the flow on my clear/purple is good enough to make it worth the effort.

[Vince]

Thanks to all of you who gave input on this issue to me.  What we're going to do is try to get the lamps replaced.  I'm going to take the two clear/yellows and redo them with goo kits.   Going to make "hockey lava lamps" for the kids-  one a Penguins theme the other a Flyers theme.   I'll be looking locally for old lamps that can be redone with goo kits. 

Bridget, our orange/black 52 oz can NOT be seen at all at nighttime in a dark room.  You can NOT even tell it's on.  What a dissappointment - what were they thinking?

Vince

[Bridget T]

Wow, I can see my orange black, but there has to be a light on behind it.  I'd be tempted to dump the liquid and make yourself a black/clear.  The goo flow is actually very very nice and I'm not sure I'd completely kit it. 

I'm finding myself it's hard to come up with color combos for yellow lava, so those I would probably kit.

[Steven]

I know a while back lava lites released a 20oz blackin orange around halloween. I debated on getting one because because of the unique color combo. A short time later spencers released the 52oz black in orange and it by no means a bright lamp but considering its time of release and it being halloweenish I don't think it was ever meant for its brightness. What through me for a loop was that during the holliday shopping season they had a ton of the black in orange rather than a bunch of I flashy colored lava lamps. If they want to invest in dark colors halloween is the time to do it.

[Vince]

Bridget you are right, I was just looking at our orange/black and the flow is really super, but we can't actually see it at all unless there is a bright light on it.  BUT, here is another problem and why I need this one replaced:  the glass is so full of bubbles imperfections that it looks "starry" and takes away from the whole lamp.  Very distracting.   It really is poor craftsmanship. 

Vince

[Bridget T]

Yeah, the glass bubbles can either be an add, or when there are too many, a great distraction.

[Keith]

Can't fix the glass bubbles, but you can fade the water by setting the globe in a sunny window.  It will take a while this time of year but it can be faded too nearly clear (or just enough to lighten it, your preference.)

Vince Cianfichi said:

Bridget you are right, I was just looking at our orange/black and the flow is really super, but we can't actually see it at all unless there is a bright light on it.  BUT, here is another problem and why I need this one replaced:  the glass is so full of bubbles imperfections that it looks "starry" and takes away from the whole lamp.  Very distracting.   It really is poor craftsmanship. 

Vince