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??

 

[Erin]

Kirk's glitter is amazing. ;) Well worth looking into for defunct globes!

[Keith]

Hope it works out for you Carol!  We do get attached to our lamps and would love to be able to run them 24/7.  I have "evening" lamps in the living room that go on mid-afternoon and "night" lamps in the bedroom that go on about an hour before bedtime. 

[Carol]

Keith, what a great idea!!!  I believe that's a plan!!!  I just put my 1 bedroom lamp and my son's on timers.....also I want to buy dimmers......Unfortunately, I didn't realize when I purchased 2 newer Neon's that there was an issue with overheating until I ran them for days.  I thought they were like my daughter's 1990's usa made wizard!!  I could keep that thing on and the only thing is it doesn't like to be hot and the lava breaks up into little balls, but she comes right back to a full flow and and remains crystal clear after all these years!!  When I read about only leaving it on for 8 to 10 hours I was kind of like, hum...I never did that with my older lamp.....now I know the reason they put that on the maintenance manual!! 

 

 

Thanks!!!

[Tim Gill]

Nice to hear your story about getting into lava lamps, it is interesting to see how each of us get into it or back into lava lamps

lava lite is right about it being 'the nature of the beast' but its a cop out - it shouldent be like this if they use quality ingredients and also the right formula as it is a formula issue not how lava lamps are. 

Like most on hear I am very attached to my lamps I am one to invest in things raver then people as such. They are important to me but I don't expect i will be handing on or handing down my cheapo lamps as they wont survive the test of time.

[Carol]

It really does sound like a cop out tim...also they were backpeddling, but anyway.  Ya know i'm 51 and when I was around say 7 or 8 years old, my mother would take me to this doctor's office.  I think it was my eye doctor, but could have been my dentist, too little to remember.  Anyway, he had a gold vintage lamp with red lava and orange liquid in his office.  It was of course bolted to the table as my curiousity as a child made me want to touch and move it, lol!!  I remember falling in utter luv and always remember that from way back in my memory.  When I finally came across the lamps in Spencer's later on in my lifetime, I was like OMG that's what was in that doctor's office, lol!! 

[Carol]

OK....I GIVE UP!!!  On my way tonite to go to Spencer's for 2 new 52 ounce Neon Lamps.  I'm done trying to clear these things from an overheat situation.  Also, the sun was on them for a bit which I think didn't help either.  They are on sale for 22.00 from 27.99.  They have a good bit in stock so i'm off to the mall 2nite......oh yah me!!