Questions from a New Collector

[Carol]

Hello everyone!!  Here is my story.  Bought my daughter at 7 years old her very first lava lamp.  A beautiful hot pink lava/purple liquid lava lamp.  She will be 21 this September.  So a year or 2 back she's cleaning out under her bed and puts said lamp in her "throw out" pile!!!  Thank god I saw it!!  That lamp set me back a pretty penny.  Do you remember in the 90's when you had to buy the base and the globe separate??  The globe was like 20 some odd dollars and the base and cap were another 29.99!!  Omg!!  Anyway, she tells me it doesn't work.  I buy a bulb and although the liquid is not purple anymore the lava is still the same georgeous hot pink that it always was.  Only it's crystal clear!!!  Obviously a USA made lamp.  So, when I build a 3rd bedroom on my house for my son, his room warming gift was a Neon green 52 oz lava lamp!!  His fav color!!  and I treated myself to the 52 oz purple neon.  Sorry guys this is lengthy, but I wanted to kind of give you guy's my story since I am a newbie, lol.  So, now they are both cloudy!!!  Not where I can't see the lava, but really hazy!!!  Is there something i'm doing wrong.  I'm not great at shutting them off after 10 hours as I fall asleep watching them.  My daughter's old Wizard can go non stop and is crystal clear!!  So now I go into kmart to buy bulbs and low and behold but what do my wondering eye's should appear?  A classic 14 inch black/clear liquid silver lamp onsale for 8.79 from 14.99!!  So I had to have it!!  So now I am up to 3 lava lamp's plus my son's.  I am starting to burst my lamp.  I am doing 3 hours on and 3 off per a suggestion I read on this site.  I don't have a timer and my son wants me to burst his in the hopes we can clear them up.  What do you think??

 

[Carol]

I took some pics so you could see the status of the cloud......

[Carol]

Carol Morrow said:

I took some pics so you could see the status of the cloud......

[VOXul]

Hmmmm, I have a newer China Clearview globe that has that exact haze. It has not cleared after doing the burst runs unfortunately. I have had it for about 3 months now and I have seen no change in the globe. Some say that if you store the globes in a cooler area of your house for a while without running they may clear up (maybe a fridge stay for a few days, definitely not the freezer, haha). It seems that with the newer globes it is hit or miss with clarity. You can try the 4 on 4 off method to see if it starts to work it out. Would say try sun fading it but that probably wont work since the haze is usually due to debris but you never know, might clear it up a bit

I don't think extended runs will haze them, it just beats up the wax and shortens the lifespan.

[Erin]

I have four of the Neons, but don't run them that much. They are all still crystal clear though. I really don't know what would cause one to haze like that though. That's weird. Were they every shaken/dropped while hot? 

With the newer ones, once they haze/cloud, I don't think most people have luck getting them to go back to clear. 

[Carol]

That's the weird thing.  Never shaken.  Never dropped.  Less then a year old.  The only wrong thing I did was to run them for long periods at a time.  I'm going to try to stick one in the frig and see what happens.  I'll let you know how I make out.  The only other option is a filter and I don't even know if that is worth it for a 20 something dollar lamp.  I just can't part with any of my few lamps.  It's like giving up on a family member, lol!!  Funny thing is my son's did the same exact thing and we got them a week apart. 

 

Erin, you say you don't run your neons that much so maybe it is from overheating.  I may call lava lite and see what they say.  I had to call them about my son's neon because the bulb blew out at nite and when I replaced it with the same exact wattage I could not get his wax to break up and start a normal flow so she told me to run it for 8 to 10 hours, then completely cool it, then cycle it again 8 to 10 hours.  I figured out it was the ac in his room being too cold.  duh!!  lol!!

[Keith]

Can you see any particulate in the water, or is it an indiscernible haze?  I'm trying to remember but I can't think of anyone having problems with cloudy NEON globes.  My gut feeling is that they have been ran to long.  I have some used lamps that have a haze on the inside of the glass (not the water, the inside surface of the globe).  I think those were ran for extended periods also.  

If the one in the fridge clears up then it is particulate in the water and can be filtered, if it doesn't then it may be a residue on the glass.  If it is then you can empty just the water (keeping it in reserve to refill the globe) and clean the inside of the glass.  Of course as you have said, these are $20 lamps and so may not be worth your time to repair.  

I certainly hope it all works out for you!

[Erin]

My guess is that they were run too long, too. That shouldn't happen though, but it can with the newer lamps. The quality just isn't as good as the older ones. Sadly, I have a feeling that this newer lamps will just not have the lifespan of the ones from the 90s and earlier. 

[Carol]

Well, I must say the price certainly came down but now we have disposable lava lamps!!!  lol!! I guess it is a disposable world.  The problem is, the manufacturers just don't understand how you bond with these lamps, lol!!!  I'm going to call lava lite and complain about my 2 less then a year old cloudy globes.  To answer your question Erin, I'm not seeing any particulate in the water.  Just a haze.  Could be the inside of the glass, but I don't think so.  It's just so hard to tell.

[Erin]

Let us know how the call to Lava Lite goes. I'm sure they get these calls all the time. ;( Yes, they are kind-of disposable lamps - I agree. Sad, but true. We won't be passing along these lamps to anyone in 10+ years... just putting them in the dumpster probably. 

[Carol]

Ok Erin.  Just got off the phone with Susan Richardson, Customer service rep at Lava Lite.  I feel comfortable with her knowledge as she help me get my son's 52 oz lamp oozing again after the bulb blew and it kind of stayed stuck in the stalagamite position.  She told me she doesn't really think that the short bursting works.  I told her I left them run for days at times.  She said when they get too hot, the residue from the wax bleed into the liquid causing a haze.  She asked me how bad it was and I told her not bad, that I could still see a pretty good view of my oozing. She also 1st asked me how old they were and I told her less then a year old.   She told me this:

1)  Let the lamp rest for 24 hours.

2) Run for 8 hours a day for 4 consecutive days. 

3)  After the 4 days, do not run for more then 10 hours for the bigger lamps.

 

I asked her about my new Find, My 14.5 oz black/clear.  She said smaller lamps no more then 8 hours at a run.

 

She did feel confident that the above will work for me due to the fact that they are not really old lamps.  She did say that it is the "nature of the beast".  We luv to leave our lamps on all the time, but we will have to pay the price in the end.  Looks like I will be buying a timer for my now cloudy lamp if it clears because I turn them on a few hours before bed so I can fall asleep to the oozing, but by the time I wake up, usually more then 8 hours has passed, lol!!  Funny thing though, my 1990's wizard I could leave on until next year and no cloudiness!!  And get this, it's even been rolled around under my daughter's bed for years!!  From the cap it is definitely a usa made lamp......things that make ya go hummm....

 

P.S.  Hope this info will help other newbs to the lava world!!!

[Erin]

I hope it works out for you. Something tells me it might not, but one can hope! Please do keep us posted. I would agree that the new lamps cannot run endlessly like the lamps from the past. I rarely run my neons (happens when you have 60+ lamps) but when I do, I run them about 6-8 hours. 

Good luck! 

[Carol]

well, I just went up in the attic and set up my 2 timers........tomorrow 12 noon will be blast off for day 1 of the 8 hour runs, i'll keep ya posted.  If you look at the before pics, i'll send some after's if and when my globes clear up!!  hey, if not, I can always send my globe to kirk for a glitter refill!!!!  that's if he is still doing it....kirk?  oops, sorry, off topic....i'll post to kirk and see if he is still going forward with his glitter service.  they sure are stunning in the vids.