Heat - Surf Goo Kit Experiment

[Carol]

I hope this is in the right place!!  I kind of figured it can be a problem and a lot of members new to goo-kitting have or had the same questions as I had I'm sure.  I decided to do a little experiment on the 2 lamps that I goo-kitted yesterday.  This is including a 20 oz lamp that has been boring since the day I got it!!  I goo-kitted the 20 oz, still had boring flow with the 25 watt bulb that came stock with the base.  Now with the 52 oz'er slow flow, but better with the 40 watt bulb.  I didn't want to add more surf to the 52 oz as I was pretty happy with that flow, but the 20 0z.....Zzzzzz so I added more surf.  Still Zzzzzzz!!!!  SO TODAY, I decide to pop a 60 watt in the 52 oz and of course that flowed like a charm (I did however install a dimmer switch).......but hummm what about the 20 oz'er.  I put a 40 watt small but high intensity reader bulb in (also with a dimmer switch) and wow, immediately the flow became quite active and I even started to get a bit of snake and column flow.  This was unheard of in this lamp before.  I guess LL doesn't want any fire hazard liability on their hands so they recommend the lowest wattage bulb possible to get the job done. 

 

KIDS - DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME WITHOUT A DIMMER SWITCH, lol!!  The lamps do get quite hot running on a higher wattage bulb then is recommended. 

 

CONCLUSION:  IMO I really don't think the amount of surf has as much to do with the flow as does the heat that the lamp is receiving to make it boil.  Makes sense.  When you want something to boil, do you put it on a low temp? 

 

FOOTNOTE:  Lamphead did say that he does not think that the addition of surf has much to do with the flow and to give it a few "runs" to break in the wax before adding more surf.  I completely agree with him on the whole surf controversy.  This is in goo-kitted lamps only.  I do not know how the surf and heat would work with a homemade fluid change as I've always used dish liquid and Epsom salt and my lamps always clouded back up.  So before you add more surf to your goo-kitted lamp, and if the bulb is the wattage recommended try the higher wattage bulb with the dimmer. 

Todd also posted a comment on this and he also has found out that the goo-kitted lamps need more heat contrary to what Magma Towers states.    It's just a shame that customers who buy these kits keep adding more and more surf to their lamp and may possibly ruin it before trying to increase their bulb wattage.  Just a thought and by all means I'm no expert.  Any other feedback would I'm sure be greatly appreciated from any other members who have done more goo-kits then I have. 

 

Weird though I do think Lamphead said he runs all his 52 oz goo-kitted lamps on 40 watt bulbs.  This is really so confusing, lol!!!! 

[LampHead]

 I do run the 52s with 40 watt bulbs and they run great. I tend to run them in sets so they create more heat than single lamps. I can get them to run on 30 watt bulbs but they take 4-5 hours to get moving and can probably be left on continuously.

  The MT wax has changed slightly over the years so that may be the difference people are seeing today. Mine were all made from the older wax when Louie was still running things there.

 My Grande even runs on a 75 watt blacklight bulb with no problems.

  If they seem stubborn on the 40 watt bulbs dont be afraid to run them on 60 watters with a dimmer. You can get the exact flow desired with a dimmer. The darker colored wax lamps do need more heat to run than the lighter colored waxes.

[Carol]

Maybe that's what the mystery is....the different goo.  I thought it weird that some can achieve decent flow on the 40 watter's because mine will dome, then just jiggle around like jello in a bowl.  I left it like that for hours, then finally cracked, ran to the local hardware store and grabbed a dimmer and popped a 60 watter back in.  I thought maybe it was just because the wax needed to break in, but I gave it enough time.  I have both kitted lamps on one dimmer.  I may have to put the 20 oz'er on it's own dimmer though because that has a 40 watt in it and it gets pretty hot, even dimmed down.  The 25 watt gives me flow pretty quick, but it's slow and boring.  So when I dim down the 20 oz too much, then the 52 oz doesn't flow active enough.  Man, I'm gonna have a butt ton of cords to deal with.  I try to hide them in back of the cd stand that my lamps are on top of, lol!!!  I hate cords!!!!   Someone needs to invent Bluetooth lava lamps!!!  Wouldn't that be cool, one central base station for the signal to put out to power the lamps and NO CORDS!!!