Colossus Lamps available!

[Charlie]

Found oozinggoo.com when I was looking for ways to repair the Grande I picked up at CostCo a few years ago.  It's one of the Chinese made ones that has gone extremely cloudy and ceased to flow (going to try replacing the fluid one of these weekends). 

It was here that I found out about really big Lava lamps.  I was bowled over by videos of the  Colossus lamps and really want to see if I could get one, I couldn't find them available anywhere so I wrote LavaLite.  I wanted to let this group know what I got this from Lava Lite today:

We have a special promo on the Colossus for serious buyers.   This will be the last time the Colossus will be seen.

Please see attached promo sheet with pricing included.

If you are interested please contact on my direct line at 630-496-6663.

 

Best regards,

 

Susan Michaels

Customer Service Representative

LAVA LITE

630-496-6663 direct line

[e-mail]

www.lavalite.com

Sadly these prices are outside of my discretionary funds, even though they include shipping.  I post it in hopes that someone here may be interested.

 

[Kirk]

I just got an email response from Susan this morning. Their Quality Manager has a 5 day procedure they want me to run on my stuck purple/yellow.

Clarifying the finer details of the procedure now, and I'll post it when I get them.

Basically, if this 5 day procedure of not turning it off and putting the dimmer up during the day and down at night doesn't work -- they'll ship me a purple/pink. Can't ask for anything more. Great customer service!!!

[Kirk]

From Susan:

"Yes, you keep the lamp on 24/7 do not turn off.

Use the dimmer switch accordingly to get the lava flow you like. Keep it up higher once you start it up, if it is moving too fast turn it down until you get the type of flow that you like.
Turn the dimmer down at night so the lava still stays hot but has a chance to rest as well. Sometimes the blob means the lamp is getting too hot, so the dimmer helps to avoid that from happening.
The Colossus never feels hot to the touch as the smaller lamps do so it is harder to adjust. Once you get that happy median of flow. He thinks it will run the way it should.
If it doesn’t than we will replace your lamp. No problem."

[Bridget T]

Kirk,

Glad you also contacted Susan as she mentioned only one other not functioning right, wondered if it was yours.  She gave me the same song/dance procedure list, so I'll try it but it goes from perfect flow to blob pretty fast.  After blob, no matter how much I turn it down, it doesn't flow again, just goes back to castle stage.

I'm warming my purple/pink up in the house today so I can get it running tomorrow to see what it does.  If it behaves normally, I'm going to be very suspicious of the purple/yellow.

[Kirk]

FYI -- I ran my clear/red for 24 hours yesterday. It flowed around hour 10, and then flowed beautifully for 14 hours when I decided to turn it off. No evidence of the "blob" or "creature from Abyss" -- just beautiful flow.

BridgetT- I think your purple/pink will flow great, too. Lets see.

[T Saviiille]

This msg is about a colossus i managed to obtain last weekend(Feb 9)..before i read the messages on this

board about more being in stock, in the warehouse or whatever the case was.

I actually got it for my brother...who has roughly 190 lava lamps all wired in a single

room. Lest anyone be concerned, he's a master electrician so he knows what he's doing.

Anyway, i digress.

The one i got was yellow with clear liquid.
I drove it home from china town in Philadelphia propped upright in
the front passenger seat, seat belted in with a big web clamp wrapped
around it and the seat.  I used a hand truck to move the lamp from the guys
4^th floor apartment to my truck and wore a weight belt when I lifted it
into the truck.

I do *not* know the original source, production date etc of the lamp.
It was modified to use a 300w bulb (not by me).
I wouldn’t suggest this.
You know the implications of this. So if you try it yourself, your on your own.
The guy couldn’t get the 200w bulbs anymore so he modified it(not very good job) to use a 300 watt bulb.

He did this by unscrewing the light bulb socket bracket from the bottom of the silver base(or maybe he drilled out the rivets…I can’t tell what it looked like before...since I got it already taken apart). He bent the socket bracket so that it was pushed further down into
the silver base(I assume because the 300w bulb is taller than the 200w bulb). Then he
reattached the bulb bracket to the silver base using scotch tape(no I’m not kidding).

I didn’t like that set up, so I riveted the bulb bracket to the bottom of the silver base.
It was a hassle to get the 300w bulb in/out of the bulb socket. I ended up using a long strip of Velcro to wrap around the bulb and haul the bulb out of the base.

As for the lamp, it works fine. It took roughly 26hrs to heat up. 8hrs at 300w,
16 hrs (ie over night) at 200w. I have the lamp hooked up to a device that
measure voltage, watts, amperage etc…and used that to gauge the wattage
when I used the dimmer. I made a little label to put around the dimmer switch
and marked spots on it that refer to different wattages. when teh knob is turned to
specific positions.
I also used a infrared thermometer to check the
globe, electrical cord, base, cap etc.
I also checked the temp of the bulb without the globe on the base.
That thing burns at over 450 degrees.

Right now I have the lamp at work sitting on top of
an old heavy duty pc case.

[Tim]

So far my pink/purple is running just fine my house is about 65 degrees it takes 8 or more  hours to warm up at 70% power. I havent have any blob or bare coil at all just a beautiful flow. Not to be a downer but I think we all need to keep in mind that these are china lamps. However Suzan is doing a very excellent job at taking care of us she will make things right im sure. I will post pics soon!

[Jethro]

Yes, Susan confirms they are the same, just different color water. The Goo did not perform properly with the 250W bulb so I switched to the 300W.  When I get around to modifying the sealed cap with a bulkhead (like my Humongo that would not flow) I can easily change the density of the water that will permit flow at a lower temperature.

Kirk said:

I think it's the yellow goo...

[Loren]

My lamp is here. :)

The globe is exposed down to the styro foam, and the base is in place.

...And today, of all days, my back went out. :( When I woke up, I could barely get out of bed.

Soooo...the thing's just sitting there until my back gets better.

The driver seemed nice at first, but then everything out of his mouth was N****R this and N****R that...what an ass.

[Ben]

I just ordered my purple/yellow Colossus today from Susan and I'm totally stoked.  I mentioned the problems some have had with the purple/yellow and she said two of the available 8 have had issues.  I LOVE the purple/yellow combo, and I bought the last one, so I am freaking out wondering if mine will have the blob issues.  A replacement globe is a great option, but they won't have that same combo anymore.  Hoping... crossing fingers!!!!

[Loren]

Wow, that's a lot of work and effort you went through! And for your brother! You're an awesome brother, dude. :p

T Saviiille said:

This msg is about a colossus i managed to obtain last weekend(Feb 9)..before i read the messages on this

board about more being in stock, in the warehouse or whatever the case was.

I actually got it for my brother...who has roughly 190 lava lamps all wired in a single

room. Lest anyone be concerned, he's a master electrician so he knows what he's doing.

Anyway, i digress.

The one i got was yellow with clear liquid.
I drove it home from china town in Philadelphia propped upright in
the front passenger seat, seat belted in with a big web clamp wrapped
around it and the seat.  I used a hand truck to move the lamp from the guys
4^th floor apartment to my truck and wore a weight belt when I lifted it
into the truck.

I do *not* know the original source, production date etc of the lamp.
It was modified to use a 300w bulb (not by me).
I wouldn’t suggest this.
You know the implications of this. So if you try it yourself, your on your own.
The guy couldn’t get the 200w bulbs anymore so he modified it(not very good job) to use a 300 watt bulb.

He did this by unscrewing the light bulb socket bracket from the bottom of the silver base(or maybe he drilled out the rivets…I can’t tell what it looked like before...since I got it already taken apart). He bent the socket bracket so that it was pushed further down into
the silver base(I assume because the 300w bulb is taller than the 200w bulb). Then he
reattached the bulb bracket to the silver base using scotch tape(no I’m not kidding).

I didn’t like that set up, so I riveted the bulb bracket to the bottom of the silver base.
It was a hassle to get the 300w bulb in/out of the bulb socket. I ended up using a long strip of Velcro to wrap around the bulb and haul the bulb out of the base.

As for the lamp, it works fine. It took roughly 26hrs to heat up. 8hrs at 300w,
16 hrs (ie over night) at 200w. I have the lamp hooked up to a device that
measure voltage, watts, amperage etc…and used that to gauge the wattage
when I used the dimmer. I made a little label to put around the dimmer switch
and marked spots on it that refer to different wattages. when teh knob is turned to
specific positions.
I also used a infrared thermometer to check the
globe, electrical cord, base, cap etc.
I also checked the temp of the bulb without the globe on the base.
That thing burns at over 450 degrees.

Right now I have the lamp at work sitting on top of
an old heavy duty pc case.

[Loren]

Here's the lamp, with the base placed where it's going to be, ultimately. I just need to get the globe on the base:

And here's how I marked the dimmer switch, with a white paint marker for the knob indicator:

[Jim]

How about a better close up on that base Loren?  That's the marble, correct?