I haven't a clue

[James Cotton]

Hello everyone, hope you are well. Amazing website, can't believe I've only just found it.

Please excuse my ignorance, and apologiies with going straight in with a big question, but I'd love some help please. I have a lovely red / pink Crestworth lava lamp, which originally belonged to my parents in the 70s, before they gave it to me in the early 90s. It gets alot of use, especially in the winter, but alas I think it isn't really working properly. I will attempt to explain how it is, and I have some photos to aid me. I suppose I'm wondering if the lamp is finished, or if there's an easy option to restore it.

To me it appears as though the lava isn't getting hot enough, it never really gets going properly any more, and only very small bubbles leave the base, and most don't make it to the top. I am using a 40w round clear bulb, and really don't want to attempt a 60w. Are more expensive bulbs more likely to get to 40w than cheap ones, because I do tend to buy cheap ones.

All help gratefully received, and thanks for the add to the community

Much love

James

PS Think I can only add 1 photo due to size restrictions, Im a bit of a luddite so don't know a way around it, this photo is taken 3.5 hours after switching on - thanks again

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Hi James and welcome to OG, That’s a lovely Crestworth Astro mk4 you have there and my personal favourite model of all the Crestworth/Mathmos lamps.
The formula will be well over 40yrs old and well past its sell by date I’m afraid. You can try running it for 6hrs every day for a couple of weeks to see if things improve, but in my experience the older Crestworths never do. Your best bet would be to order a new bottle from Mathmos and run it on the base or use it to refill the original Crestworth bottle if you want to dump the original formula.

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

It looks like the fluid has gone cloudy too, alas in my experience they never clear up.

[James Cotton]

Hi Aladdin 2 Lava, cheers for the reply, looks like I've some work to do! I'll sleep on it and come up with a plan, new bottle or replace!

Thanks again

James

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Anytime James,

If the copper cap is still glued to the inner Bakolite cap they can be separated by using a hairdryer or very hot water.

You will need to separate them if you replace the bottle to use the cap.

I found it best to leave the caps on the bottle, heat them up and twist clockwise to free the copper cap. It might take a couple of attempts and a bit of twisting too & fro but be careful not to over tighten and crack the Bakolite cap !

Pete.