I got a free lava -- an icky one

[John]

Ok,

My uncle just gave me a lava lamp he literally knows nothing about. He has so much crap that he didn't even know where it was, but he kept saying, "I have one of those. Well, he brought it over yesterday. Free!

But my uncle's a slight bit odd. He told me a great bit of advice: "I turned it on. But you know what? You don't want to shake it when it's hot".

Anyways, It's a cool looking model (I have no idea what it is or when it was made. I really hope I figure out how to tell the age because I'm lost.)

It's blue with white (now yellowy) wax in a pyramid shape. It doesn't look very old but it's nice looking and the lava flows good with a few problems.

The wax is crusty looking. Like oatmeal. I couldn't really photograph it but it looks chunky. Also, it has a tendency to splinter and have a lot of microscopic little circles floating around.

I just know I am repeating posts. I searched old ones and found some of you recommend taking out most of the liquid and letting the wax heat up in just a small amount. Will that work? I've never opened one before and I'm scared (honest at least) to try. I'm a careful person though, so if the technique will work, I'll try it. I'm just concerned about replacing the cap. How hard is it? I searched old posts on that but couldn't find the page that was mentioned that describes opening a bottle and recapping it. Could I buy a bottle capper? There are some on ebay for $10-ish.

Sorry if these questions get asked a lot but this lava is kind of grossing me out so I need to try to fix it. Ask the experts!

-John

[John]

YES - that was what I was hoping to hear.

I have been running it for about 5 hours at a time because that seems to be the point when it gets a little overheated (so wow you know your stuff about the timing). After posting this I dug out an old timer and so I was going to put it on so I don't have to worry about shutting it off and it will be consistent.

Will do this for at least a week and after looking at it some more and your comments I think I can get it to eventually fix itself. Good tip with the rag thing. THANKS!!!

Oh PS: I know a lot of you say the USA globes flow better, so I guess that's a plus for this one. It does flow better than my new Lava World one and that's with it's oatmeal-texture. When did they stop making USA globes? THANK YOU!

[Modulo '70]

I couldn't give any better advice than Bohdan has. He has the knowledge about these sorts of problems so hopefully his advice should get you through this. It's a really nice looking lamp by the way.
Peace and lava
Jerome

[John]

Another oddness to report:

The lamp base says use 25 watt bulb.

There's a 40 watt in it!

I even called my uncle and asked if he replaced it but he swore it must be the original that he got it with. Although he earlier said he didn't know where he got it, he says he's certain he bought it new.

So what's the standard wattage?

Sorry, I don't mean to ask picky questions, but I thought if any of you have them you might tell me what you're using. It doesn't seem to overheat too easily, but the base does get really hot.

Thanks again!

[John]

I went and got a 25 watt bulb that I think should work better but I haven't tried it yet - will do tomorrow.

Maybe my uncle's just a nut, but he swears that's how it came. Whatever...

Good thing I noticed though. It couldn't be good running it 15 watts over.

Thanks!

[John]

A lot of lamps would really be in trouble if the bases were a standard bulb size socket instead of the smaller size.

You know everybody would put a standard 60 watt in any lamp that would fit it.

I am warming up my lamp right now with a 25 watt and hopefully it will be happy. My uncle said the reason he never used it was that when he fired it up it got too hot (!) Well duh...

[John]

I've had it running for about 3 hours on a 25 watt bulb. It is an oblongish (?) shape bulb because it says it is for a microwave but it was all I had so i tried it. I pulled the socket up pretty much as close to the bottom of the globe as possible while still not touching it.

It's flowing pretty good, just not great. It will produce big blobs that go almost to the top but not quite. It's still better than with the 40 watt and that was with the 40 pushed as far away as it would go. I will wait and see if this 25 watt works for me (remember the wax is still kind of separated so maybe it might improve as it melts???). The 40 watt got it really hot. Plus the base says 25watt, so I'd like to be around that more. I'm even thinking of trying a 30 watt (I'll have to get one) even though it's kind of silly to mess with the wattage it might be just right.

Thanks!!!!!
-John

[goodude26]

I can tell you from my experience with the blue/white Blips that the flow is really slow. I have one and when it "was" original it flowed like yours with the 25 watt bulb.
I faded the color in mine and noticed that the wax looked kinda chunky like yours, like an oatmeal texture or something. That never went away. For some reason, the last 2 or 3 years before Lava World started making lamps in China, some of the lamps would come with that odd texture. I had a clear/teal Silver Streak with that texture and I have a clear/green Silver Starship that has that texture also. Not sure why, but it has it.

Another note. My blue/yellow Blip has perfect flow and wax texture. I'm not sure why the wax varies as much as it does.

Keep running your Blip lamp with the 25 watt bulb. This will really help it last many more years. Or, if you do go back to the 40, a dimmer will be needed.

W_J

[John]

Went to......WAL MART! today and got a pack of 2 25 watt lava lamp bulbs from lava World. I had seen them a while back there and so I got those just to make sure i was definately getting the right size.

I'm gonna keep running it with the 25 watt. It does flow slow, but it's better than with the 40 watt and at least it doesn't get burning hot.

Strange about the wax, maybe it's just that way, but yes, it seems to have small chunks and flakes in it. I'll just see what happens...Thanks!

-John