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.

 

[Bridget T]

If you see a spotlight on your ceiling, turn it down.  Seriously, my replacement will overheat and flow off the middle (small) coil, but stays on the large coil, so it behaves significantly better than the p/y.  I have to cool it off for about an hour but then it behaves again.  On the up side, I can run it for 3-4 days before the spotlight effect, so I am much happier overall with mine.

[Brad]

sweeeeet :)  glad to hear it's working for you now.

lalalava said:

okay soooo...my colossus was being a major A$$ for a few weeks and got really tired of even trying to deal with it so i turned it way down to where the wax was still molten inside but had sorta a hard crust on the outside and all it would do was spike over and over and i left it that way for 2 weeks straight then shut it off 24h and restarted it as normal and its been running like a dream for 3+ days now with no over heating or comming off the coil. YAY!!! :D 

 

red/clear and still using the 250 watt bulb

[Ben]

Update on my replacement red/clear globe, after one month:

Still flowing great and so easy to care for.  A million times better than the purple/yellow ever was.  Still waiting for my new base to arrive to give the purple/yellow another shot.  If it still stinks, it'll be GOO KIT TIME!  Not sure if I want to attempt to replicate the purple/yellow (which I love) or go with clear/blue like Kirk's goo kitted 20oz lamp.  Thoughts?

[Bridget T]

Yeah, they are really great lamps once you have one that behaves.  I think I finally found the magic setting for my clear/red and I've had it on for almost a week with no problems, so I'm thrilled that it may be behaving.

Still, when watching the lamp, the main problem seems to be lava/coil interaction/bonding. My clear red, it's just the small coil that never has wax on it, in fact, when the blobs fall back down on the edge they immediately blob back to the wax on the large coil, when they fall in the center, they sit on top of/beside the small coil until they either migrate to the side and blob with the main wax or get overtaken by the main wax blob migrating to the center to cover the center coil.

If you try the purple/yellow again, before you goo kit, any chance you might consider fishing the coils out, cleaning/de-greasing them very well and seeing if they'd bond with the wax?  I mean, if you're planning on taking it apart anyway.... 

[Kirk]

Guys - I opened my pink/purple over the weekend. I'm experimenting with the coils. I'll post more when I get home tonight.

I need to make some dough to pay for this obsession...

[Ben]

I will try fiddling with the coils if it comes to that. I might also try taking the small coil out. as i understand that small coil was added after the initial run of Colossi in 2007 to speed up the initial warm up period. I suspect its allowing the center to get too hot, making the wax come off the center so maybe this globe will run better without it. As for yours not bonding, both of my globes do that but the red only does it when too hot and it always fixes itself. The yellow purple does it and does not fix itself. The red is a welcome relief to the Y/P's bad attitude.

[Bridget T]

I thought about doing that Critter, but didn't know where to start with the idea of frosting a light bulb. 

[Phishy Lava]

I've had decent results with the Norman Lamps 200 watt bulb.
Never overheats, but it takes almost 12 hours to get flowing, and the flow is not optimal.

[Kirk]

So, I took the plunge and opened my pink/purple over the weekend.  It still remains troubled.  Here's what I've done:

1. Removed both coils

2. Created a screen about 9" long and 4" wide, folded length wise, sat on bottom, bisecting the the lamp

- flow didn't get stuck, but as it got too hot - just ball flow shooting up intermittently

3. Removed screen and fashioned another screen in a round shape that rises about an inch in height and fits in the bottom of the globe - in the same place as the original large coil

- watching flow now

This lamp is fitted with the Norman 200w bulb.  I like Critter's idea that the center is too hot.  If this doesn't yield results, next step will be to put the original, large coil back in the bottom and remove the fashioned round screen.  If that doesn't work, I'll try the frosted bulb technique.  If that doesn't work, I'm moving on to modifying that damn China wax!  :>)

I say this all with a smile, because my red/clear and yellow/purple are flowing beautifully, and I'm determined to get this pink/purple flowing well, too!

[Ben]

What exactly did you do to simmer it? How hot? Cool enough to make spikes, or warm enough to be molten but not flowing? I just got my 2nd base today! Who hoo! And the faux wood looks darker than others. This is brown, not tan like I've seen in other people's photos. Pics to come!

lalalava said:

just wanted to report that my red/clear is still running like a dream after letting it "simmer" for 2 weeks. im SO happy with it now! anyone still having probs should def try it!
 
lalalava said:

okay soooo...my colossus was being a major A$$ for a few weeks and got really tired of even trying to deal with it so i turned it way down to where the wax was still molten inside but had sorta a hard crust on the outside and all it would do was spike over and over and i left it that way for 2 weeks straight then shut it off 24h and restarted it as normal and its been running like a dream for 3+ days now with no over heating or comming off the coil. YAY!!! :D 

 

red/clear and still using the 250 watt bulb

[Kirk]

Oh, I forgot.  I sampled some of the fluid.  Colossus fluid density is 1.010.  A little denser than water, but not as dense as 1990s liquid ~1.040.  Makes me think goo kit wax would flow in it.

Kirk said:

So, I took the plunge and opened my pink/purple over the weekend.  It still remains troubled.  Here's what I've done:

1. Removed both coils

2. Created a screen about 9" long and 4" wide, folded length wise, sat on bottom, bisecting the the lamp

- flow didn't get stuck, but as it got too hot - just ball flow shooting up intermittently

3. Removed screen and fashioned another screen in a round shape that rises about an inch in height and fits in the bottom of the globe - in the same place as the original large coil

- watching flow now

This lamp is fitted with the Norman 200w bulb.  I like Critter's idea that the center is too hot.  If this doesn't yield results, next step will be to put the original, large coil back in the bottom and remove the fashioned round screen.  If that doesn't work, I'll try the frosted bulb technique.  If that doesn't work, I'm moving on to modifying that damn China wax!  :>)

I say this all with a smile, because my red/clear and yellow/purple are flowing beautifully, and I'm determined to get this pink/purple flowing well, too!

[Ben]

Anyone have updates on their Colossi? Specifically those of us that had problems? I haven't yet had the time or the balls to crack open my evil purple/yellow, but my replacement red/clear is working beautifully.

The red/clear is set at approximately 26-27 minutes, with occasional tweaking a barely perceptible amount forward/backwards. The purple/yellow is set at 28-29 minutes. The red/clear runs well between 102-108 degrees and the purple yellow tries its best to not totally suck between about 102-104 degrees. I'm still using the original 250w bulbs.

I turned down the house thermostats when the weather got nicer and yesterday it got colder in the house (temp dropped from low 70's to 69-70) so both Colossi got chunky and spiked out. I refuse to mess with the dimmers so the red/clear has almost warmed back up to normal on its own after a day (currently 100-101 degrees) and the purple/yellow is still a little chunky at 99-100.

I'm not sure why the red/clear likes it at a slightly lower setting on the dimmer, but it is set up about 3' off the floor and surrounded by about 6 other smaller lamps. I assume that has something to do with it because when they're all running you can feel the heat coming off of them. I have a circulation fan in the ceiling that comes on with the little lamps to combat the heat. Even still, the red/clear takes the heat in stride; it gets as hot as 108-109 if the fan is off and still flows well but in smaller blobs (which I like better anyway.)

Meanwhile, purple/yellow is quarantined by itself, directly on the floor next to the recliner. It doesn't like having company around! The purple/yellow flow is best described as large bubbly columns and blobs. Not at all what it should be. The bubbles are the worst and I don't know what to do to fix it, short of a goo kit.

The red/clear does it all--snakey columns, little blobs, huge blobs that drip smaller blobs, a volcano that spits blobs, and combinations of all of those. To sit down next to it is a total time-suck. It's hard to tear yourself away from watching it! I've had them both running for weeks on end. The red/clear rarely, if ever, gets stuck. Can't even remember when it last happened. If I turn up the purple/yellow, it would likely get stuck in short order. It's just wayyyyy too finicky. Grrr.