Mathmos in the USA

[Jeff Mauck]

Hello everyone,

I have a few quick questions 1. Can you buy Mathmos lava lamps and have them shipped to the US or is their a US dealer? I contacted Mathmos directly and they said no deal. 2. If one were to get a Mathmos lava lamp into the US via a secret submarine or coke mule (seriously the Mathmos rep made it sound like the feds would beat down my door if I even thought of shipping one over) would a 220 to 110 converter work to run the lamp or would I just need to change the internals of the lamp?

Thanks  

[Rodrigo]

You can buy 110v bulbs that screw right into the stock un modified mathmos lamp, that way you don't need to re wire or change the socket, all you need is a simple travel plug adapter. The 110v bulb will run on US voltage and the "internals" of the lamp are just wire, a switch and a socket so the only thing needing to be converted is the bulb.

Or you can opt for buying a more expensive 110v-220v adapter and using that instead, you may also need a travel adapter for that route if the converter doesn't take a UK plug. Your best bet is to buy the 110v bulb and keep it all stock

[June Allan]

I'm not sure but I think we can't ship lava lamps from the UK because of the amount of liquid in them. Any liquid over 1L is prohibited.

[June Allan]

http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/DangerousGoods_Leaflet...

[Jeff Mauck]

I have spoken to UPS and they are ok with the size amount of liquid and all of that but it seems that mathmos will not sell to US due to copyright laws with lavalite. Makes sense but I still want one. Do they ever show up on Ebay US? 

[Jeff Mauck]

Thanks for the info very helpful 

Rodrigo said:

You can buy 110v bulbs that screw right into the stock un modified mathmos lamp, that way you don't need to re wire or change the socket, all you need is a simple travel plug adapter. The 110v bulb will run on US voltage and the "internals" of the lamp are just wire, a switch and a socket so the only thing needing to be converted is the bulb.

Or you can opt for buying a more expensive 110v-220v adapter and using that instead, you may also need a travel adapter for that route if the converter doesn't take a UK plug. Your best bet is to buy the 110v bulb and keep it all stock

[Jim]

The one Mathmos distributor in the US.  http://www.lights.com/mathmos-m-10.html

[Erin]

Mathmos cannot sell their lamps here in the US due to trademarks by Lava Lite. However, Lava Lite sells all over the world, so figure that one out.

You can get a few Mathmos lamps from lights.com (formerly Lamp Lust). I had a horrible experience with them, but your mileage may very. I think the reason they can sell the two kinds of Mathmos lamps that they do is because the shape of them doesn't mimic the traditional shape of the lava lamps sold by Lava Lite.

And, if you ask around and buddy up to someone here from the UK, they might help you get what you need. You *can* ship lamps from the UK to here... people do it all the time. 

I used to have a Mathmos Jet and Astrobaby and actually re-wired them for the US instead of using a converter. It's pretty easy to do. 

[ChuckM]

I can see how the brand confusion would be a problem.... I mean the quality of the Lava Lite lamps compared to Mathmos... nearly indistinguishable! And the price point... sooo close. Seriously, though... this just irks me.

I may be on a business trip to London... it would be an overnight trip but I am seriously thinking about trying to buy one (I saw one store that apparently "could" be a place to buy one in London) and then literally checking the boxed lamp as luggage!

[Jim]

You may have trouble doing this.  Carry on you would most likely be denied, but not so sure about checked luggage.

ChuckM said:

I can see how the brand confusion would be a problem.... I mean the quality of the Lava Lite lamps compared to Mathmos... nearly indistinguishable! And the price point... sooo close. Seriously, though... this just irks me.

I may be on a business trip to London... it would be an overnight trip but I am seriously thinking about trying to buy one (I saw one store that apparently "could" be a place to buy one in London) and then literally checking the boxed lamp as luggage!

[Critter]

I think you can check them. Kirk recently had two brought back from the UK by a friend it is do-able.

[Critter]

I have had Lunar bottles shipped too from the UK and the large liquid quantity was not a problem. PARCEL FORCE shipped them.

[ChuckM]

Yeah, I can't imagine they would deny it as checked luggage. When we travel to our relatives in Croatia, we always end up coming back with bottles of wine and Rakia (hard alcohol) in our checked luggage. It isn't a problem if it is checked.