Lava Grande Doesn't Flow Much

[Jeff]

Hello,

I've been a guest of the forums for years, decided to finally join last night.  I've been collecting lava lamps since I was a teenager. 

I'm writing to inquire about my Lava Grandes...they used to both work excellently at about 80% (dimmed), now neither never seems to flow much.  Neither really has been used heavily either, in fact tonight's the first in at least a year I've fired any of them up...and the past 10 yrs I've probably onl had the on maybe 5 times total, since they don't flow much I don't bother to turn them on. 

Attached is a pic of one of them, the other one I didn't run tonight.  The most it'll do is eventually that rising blob will connect w/ the top and there will be a snake of lava for about 15 min or so, when it finally sinks down and breaks off, then the cycle repeats.  Takes almost an hour to even form the snake again.  I never get any of the blobs and breakup, like the one I have, also attached a pic (the small red one, that is my favorite, oldest lamp too). 

My other Grande is basically the opposite.  All it ever does is release little tiny wax bubbles, each tiny little bubble will have a pocket of either air or liquid (not sure how to tell).  No pics of that one yet, since I didn't run it tonight along w/ the others.  I will get some possibly next weekend if I turn it on.

This behavior is after the lamps have had plenty of time to warm up fully (been on at least 6 hrs), and it never changes much even in another 6-8 hrs. 

I have dimmers on both of the Grande's and have tried less heat, but that just results in even less flow.  They used to both run great at about 80% of full brightness...that was why I had put the dimmers on since they seemed to run too hot at full, now they don't flow hardly at all at 80%, and at full it isn't much better.   

Any advice anyone has that might fix either of these would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

Jeff

[Jeff]

Just wondering if there were any other thoughts....and/or if anyone thinks/knows if my globe is going to crack if the bulb IS in fact touching it.   I did in fact end up with 5 socket extenders (4 good ones, 1 cracked one), and the 3 candelabra to e27 adapters...they stated they didn't want any of the mistakes or the broken one back.

I decided to try an extender on the orange/purple one this past weekend and boy does that thing flow great now....I thought it was OK before...now its awesome.  And it doesn't seem to overheat either...ran it 10 hrs yesterday and it was flowing just the same when I turned it off as it was at 4 hrs in.  My only fear again is cracking the globe...b/c I think the bulb might be touching...really hard to determine.  I know if I loosen it just a bit then I KNOW it touches b/c when I go to set the globe back on I can feel it wanting to balance on the bulb. 

Unfortunately the blue/green one didn't respond the same w/ the extender...and just tends to do the same thing until about 6 hrs on...then it'll all go to the top in 1 stream and kind of "rain" back down in small blobs.  It'll repeat this about 3 times then overheat (wax just lifts off the bottom and kind of rolls there, never going up or down).  If I dim it down it goes back to the little bubbles.  It also seems kind of "runny" when it does eventually flow to the top...almost like its too thin or something.  I'm pretty much at the point of having it goo-kitted or junking it and looking for another Grande or Giant if there's no other thoughts on what may be wrong and/or how to fix it.

[Jeff]

When it flows....it does flow good...but it only does this for 15-20 min tops.  The next set of pics will show what happens after this stage.  Prior to it...its doing what I originally uploaded, small grape sized bubbles.

[Jeff]

All the lava goes to the top like this a few times...then it ends up "rolling" in a dome shape lifted off the coil.  I tried to capture that in the last pic...but its hard to see unless you are looking up close at the lamp.  Does anyone have any further thoughts...or is it time for a gookit?

[Jeff]

Lastly, just a few pics of what the orange/purple one is doing now...that one is working great.

[☆VixenGypsy☆]

Hi Jeff, welcome to the Goo House! The Grandes do have a tendency to be too thin on the bottom for some owners & a bulb extender can potentially crack the glass. I'm just chucking my fluid & wax & I'm gonna do a refill Goo kit. I've been fighting with my Grandes for nearly 10 years.

I'm hoping you can find someway of returning your lamps to their former glory.

[Jeff]

I found a few pics of these lamps from 2004 while I was going through some old SD cards tonight....this was how this blue/green one used to flow!  Then for some reason sitting idle for about 6 yrs caused it to become junk.  Very frustrating.

[Jeff]

A few of the orange/purple from back then.  This was when these 2 lamps used to run on reduced heat, about 85% brightness.  The orange one flows like this again now...but I had to put the socket extender in to get it to do so.  Even on full bright without it the flow was sluggish and only formed a column now and then, and mostly just domed.