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.

 

[razerface]

well,,i have a clue to my problems,,but don't know what to do with it. I have a clear/red that hovers. I turned it over today to see the coil. I found it has 2 coils,,,one around the poutside, and the 2nd is a smaller one that is off to one side of the globe. When it hovers, it does it to the side where the 2nd coil is. So,,,since it hovers over the small, offcenter coil,,,,,everytime,,,,i believe that coil is causing problems.

everybody have 2 coils?

[Jim]

I sense all of the Colossi have two coils.  I know mine does.

razerface said:

well,,i have a clue to my problems,,but don't know what to do with it. I have a clear/red that hovers. I turned it over today to see the coil. I found it has 2 coils,,,one around the poutside, and the 2nd is a smaller one that is off to one side of the globe. When it hovers, it does it to the side where the 2nd coil is. So,,,since it hovers over the small, offcenter coil,,,,,everytime,,,,i believe that coil is causing problems.

everybody have 2 coils?

[razerface]

is your small one in the center?

[Loren]

A-Ha! I think this may be the cause of the hovering problem! I think the stuck flow that I and others have been experiencing is the same issue, and maybe it's a displaced secondary coil?

[Autumn]

I think they all have 2 coils. I have a clear/red like yours. Mine won't even flow without coming off the coil, except it comes off the coil on the opposite side of the smaller coil. I can dim it down all the way until it does not flow and it will be fine, but as soon as it gets hot enough to flow it comes off the coil. I am going to leave it on all night at a very low temperature to see if it will somehow bond with the coil, but I am a bit pessimistic. I have had lamps where the wax came off the coil and the only solution I ever found was to replace the coil. Needless to say I do not want to have to replace the coil in this lamp.

razerface said:

is your small one in the center?

[Kirk]

This is the same technique I used on my yellow/purple, but I kept it at a low temperature for several days.  It was at a temperature low enough to prevent flowing, but high enough to keep it melted.  My Y/P has had several successful runs now without getting stuck.  I'm also thinking this has something to do with the wax -- i.e.: as the wax gets worked and more pliant, it stays on the coil better?

The funny thing is the pink/purple replacement is now having the same issue. Good gawd! :>)  I'm putting it through the same low heat process now, and I'm hopeful this will cure my P/P, too.  I really love this color.  The purple liquid is much deeper and darker than my Y/P's purple liquid.

I have run my red/clear for several weeks now with some of the runs lasting for days.  My R/C has never gotten stuck.  It  flows flawlessly at both high and low temperatures.

What an adventure these Colossus have been!

Autumn said:

I am going to leave it on all night at a very low temperature to see if it will somehow bond with the coil,

razerface said:

is your small one in the center?

[razerface]

that is exactly what mine does,,,while it hovers over the offcenter coil,,,the large coil is exposed on the other side. I would say probly 50-60% of the large coil shows when it hovers. It is hard to tell looking thru that globe while it distorts everything. Sometimes a large glob will sit on the opposite side, on the large coil,,doing nothing,,just sitting there.

Autumn said:

I think they all have 2 coils. I have a clear/red like yours. Mine won't even flow without coming off the coil, except it comes off the coil on the opposite side of the smaller coil. I can dim it down all the way until it does not flow and it will be fine, but as soon as it gets hot enough to flow it comes off the coil. I am going to leave it on all night at a very low temperature to see if it will somehow bond with the coil, but I am a bit pessimistic. I have had lamps where the wax came off the coil and the only solution I ever found was to replace the coil. Needless to say I do not want to have to replace the coil in this lamp

[Don Souliere]

I did the same thing but mine was based for a winter day with heat on at 66 to 67"

[Ben]

Kirk, you have three of these things?!?

I'm regretting buying a yellow/purple. The red/clear seems to have been the way to go, although my purple/yellow is beautiful when running right. We shouldn't have to fiddle with them this much. I keep bouncing back and forth between sluggish flow and spinning blobs on the bottom.

Kirk said:

This is the same technique I used on my yellow/purple, but I kept it at a low temperature for several days.  It was at a temperature low enough to prevent flowing, but high enough to keep it melted.  My Y/P has had several successful runs now without getting stuck.  I'm also thinking this has something to do with the wax -- i.e.: as the wax gets worked and more pliant, it stays on the coil better?

The funny thing is the pink/purple replacement is now having the same issue. Good gawd! :>)  I'm putting it through the same low heat process now, and I'm hopeful this will cure my P/P, too.  I really love this color.  The purple liquid is much deeper and darker than my Y/P's purple liquid.

I have run my red/clear for several weeks now with some of the runs lasting for days.  My R/C has never gotten stuck.  It  flows flawlessly at both high and low temperatures.

What an adventure these Colossus have been!

Autumn said:

I am going to leave it on all night at a very low temperature to see if it will somehow bond with the coil,

razerface said:

is your small one in the center?

[Al Chemysto]

So my lamp has finally started to behave the past few days and running for extended periods of times in excess of 12-24 hours. Here's what I've noticed.....

For starters the dial is THE worst design flaw on these lamps. Makes properly dialing in the performance difficult to say the least. Now BEFORE you place your globe and make your dial setting marks on the lamp DO THE FOLLOWING....

Slowly tun your dial until you here the "click on" of the dial NOT the light bulb humming. 

Think of this as the lamp's "ready" state. The circuit is complete and electricity is flowing HOWEVER the bulb is not lit.

Now slowly turn the dial until you see just the barest of light. You should here an audible buzzing and might see the coil throw off a warm glow. 

THIS is 1% "on" mark it

Next turn you lamp fully bright. Mark that as 100%

Now when you here Susan (from LL) or other folks say "dial it up to...." or "dial it down to....", keep your marks in mind and approximate your settings from there.

How does my system differ from everyone else who's posted nearly the same thing? MOST people are placing their globes on the base and THEN making their marks. So what you say? Well with the globe on the base you won't get accurate dial readings of how much electricity and light is actually active to create your own personalized settings because the lamp will be warming and throwing off light somewhat earlier than what you might perceive because the globe is darkening what you see.

When I follow other people's settings who based their marking off of having the globe placed first I NEVER get the lamp flowing like they do apparently. But when I make the adjustments based off of how I've marked things more accurately I get the flow I want.

Also this lamp is working nicely about 3 weeks after first turned on. Susan advised me it could take up to 3 weeks of cycling before they work properly so now I feel stupid for doubting her. lol

I still say these lamps shouldn't be so temperamental and there really needs to be some serious disclaimers and far better instructions included with them. These were supposedly made for businesses as conversation pieces but it would be absurd to assume any business would bother to re-arrange their rooms, heating/cooling or sit there "dialing in" settings all day/all night. IF they ever make these or another version again they need to include printed dial settings and temperature guage

[Loren]

I've honestly never had the dial problems that a lot of other people have had. I turn mine to the same spot and leave it. If it's really cold in the house and the wax stays chunky-looking, I turn it up a little, and if it's warm in the house I might have to turn it down a little.

I think Susan was probably right, and that these lamps can take 100% with no problems. I've probably been overly cautious, but the last Chinese lavalite that I had was a blue/yellow, and after only about a year, that wax stopped flowing completely...and I never marathon-ed that lamp. I took good care of it. For me it's a personal decision to never turn it up to 100, but then I've never really felt the need to.

[Al Chemysto]

ALSO 

Here's another technique I'm using successfully

Turn the lamp on full.

Once it melts to the point of "chunky flow"...

Turn down to about 60-70ish percent

That's sort of the breakthrough that happened earlier this week and keeps my lamp running pretty well non-stop.

Also when you see the 1st sign of it "going the way of hovering blobs", nip that in the bud and dial back until you don't see any bare coil peeking out. Once the wax has massed up and covers the coil, slowly start dialing up again to get it flowing again