Swirl lamps

[Melonie]

I am new to the group.. My eight year old daughter loves lava lamps .. I picked up one at a junkstore and turns out it's a purple swirl (thanks to this website) he had 3 others and one appeared to be the apparently rare haze ... He had the rest of them in pieces and said he would dig around to see if he had complete sets on them... Question is if he does not is it worth it to buy the bases ?? Probably cheap I got the purple for 8 dollars (lavender water white wax)

[Melonie]

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/the-beginning?context=user

[Keith]

Ultimately, the value of any of our lamps is what we put on them.  So have fun and get your Lava on!! 

Melonie said:

You guys are awesome.. So the haze was damaged.. Almost like it had been crushed on one side.. However we got a beautiful blue swirl too and my daughter begged for the last one which I think it is red marble .. Even with no cap.. She said.. I don't care.. It's beautiful.. And I will say this .. The globe is stunning..the red goo is very rich colored almost like a dark cherry .. The blue swirl has blue water white goo... The goo has lots of bubbles in it but flows beautifully... Will post pics today .. I think we are hooked..

[Carol]

Right on Keith!!!!  Great post!!!

[Keith]

One thing to remember, lamps shouldn't be ran more that 8 to 10 hours a day, or less depending on whether they get too hot.  Running them to long can lead to problems, even "killing" the goo so that it won't flow.

The pictures will help you know if the globe is too hot:

[Carol]

Keith, I think you were the one that turned me on to dimmer's!!!!  WHAT a life saver, umm or should I say lava saver!!!  Wow I never realized how much info there can be to know about the lava world!!!

 

Melonie, If your lamps are running too hot, you can buy a dimmer switch and dim them down to where the flow is just the way you like it.  My blue swirl and Enchantress will start to run really hot after a few hours and the Wizard, forget it, that overheats right away.  Also, for my son's room because he likes to fall asleep to his lava's and I don't want them running all nite, I have put a timer on them.  This way, he can de-stress to his lava's to fall asleep, but they will shut off at like 2am.

[Tim Gill]

welcome to OG Melonie, I know you got the lamps now (and they look good). My answer to your question would be to buy the bases anyway even without the cap as they are a 90's USA base so its worth having if the price is very cheap as they would only go up in value and you never know someone on hear may be looking for that exact item so could trade.