I just bought this...

[Loren]

A Mathmos orange Jet!

I'm so excited!!

Did I pay a fair price, do you think? Whenever I see jets, they are either broken in some way, or much more expensive than this...and usually not the neon orange one.

Also, can anybody give me pointers, as far as re-wiring/adapting this to US outlets?

[Critter]

The amount you paid for shipping is more than adequate to cover UK to US shipping.

[Loren]

Well after 10 days, this finally was marked as shipped today! Woooo!

I'm pretty sure that the tracking will start as soon as it reaches the shipping hub. Yay! I'm totally excited about impending lava like I haven't been in a long time. :)

For those in the know...

I am planning on getting the step-up adapter. I know proper bulbs might be an issue (thanks VOX), but I really do want to try and duplicate the real mathmos experience, as much as I can. I have heard from others that rewiring for US bulbs can be a bit sketchy, as far as lamp operation...different flow, etc. Have others found this to be true? Good spiking behavior is also important to me.

I haven't ordered the adapter yet.

Thanks in advance for any advices!

[Critter]

Loren. I have a purple jet with clear purple bottle that is US wired and all is just fine.

Critter

[Jim]

Ditto Loren.  Its all about precision - if you rewire and make sure you use the same style and wattage of bulb and set it to the same socket height, lamp operation should be identical.

Critter said:

Loren. I have a purple jet with clear purple bottle that is US wired and all is just fine.

Critter

[VOXul]

No problem Loren, congratulations, beautiful lamp!  If you are looking to get the 240v UK bulbs here are the ones I have purchased and they work great!

[Kirk]

I've rewired several Crestworth and Mathmos lamps at this point.  There are excellent instructions on this site.

As Jim said, it's about using the right wattage bulb installed at the right height.  I've also found that installing an inline dimmer on the cord can compensate for any flow issues.  I had to do this on one of my Fluidiums where the wax was softer and seemed to overheat.

While the Mathmos quality is definitely better than LL, it can have its issues, too.

IMO, nothing beats the 1990s flow from Lava Lite.  Nothing. 

[Loren]

Okay, I'm definitely getting the step-up adapter, because those bulbs VOX posted are the exact same ones that my lamps that I modify use. :) And the inline dimmer switch is a great idea, Kirk. You can also get 25w reflector bulbs that are almost the exact same size (actually a tiny bit taller), but cooler than the 30w ones. They are cheap and easily available in the US, at least right now. I had to do that with some of my gookit lavas, when MT was a bit flaky with their product consistency. They are frosted rather than clear, but I found that they actually looked better in lavas because they diffused the light through the goo nicely.

And like I say, this will be my very first mathmos lamp, of any kind. I have never even stood next to a mathmos lamp in person, and this is one of the main models/styles I have been wanting for a long time.

Thanks VOX, Jim, and Kirk for your input. I appreciate it! I knew about the guide here, but it's nice to get some real feedback from people here who have done it. If I start having problems, I will definitely rewire this jet, as I'd like to try the dimmer idea. I also just like the ability to customize the light/heat for optimal effect in general.

One of the main reasons why is because I love spikes, and from what I've seen, jets mostly don't spike...they sort of just flip the wax and erupt. I have some Chinese tube lavas that do that, and some of my gookit columnar jobs would do that if they had too much wax in them, but I fixed it by putting the frosted 25w bulb in it. Warmup takes longer, but it spikes all over the place now. I kinda would like to try that with the jet, and see if I can't get some of the same spiking action I've seen in so many astros.