I can't believe the state of Lava Lite

Hi everyone! First time poster here. I am absolutely shocked at the situation I'm in lately with trying to procure a new lava lamp. Long story short--I got my first lava lamp back in college--it was a Lava Lite model. Black base, clear liquid, lime green lava. The switch broke a few years ago, and like a moron, I tossed it thinking it wasn't worth it to fix the switch. Over the last year, I started missing having a lava lamp, so I started looking around for a new one. During the holidays, I also got an old one as a white elephant gift (it's not a Lava Lite, but a bullet shaped looking one that doesn't work all that well). That pushed me over the edge and I finally bought a Lava Lite on Amazon.

To my dismay the Lava Lite worked well for 2 weeks, then started pea shooting bubbles of lava filled with liquid, and not flowing well at all. Now the lava just sits at the bottom of the globe and is full of black flecks. It also will not melt into the coil at all, but rather sits on top of the coil in a ball, even after I replaced the 25w bulb with a 40w bulb just to see what would happen.

I got a full refund on the Amazon lamp and didn't have to send it back, so I may try to rebuild it someday. I also bought a 90s model Lava Lite Silver Streak on eBay, which is supposed to arrive today. I am just shocked by the state of Lava Lite. It's very hard to find a Mathmos lamp in the US that's not upwards of $200, so I'm just really sad about this whole thing. I have always loved lava lamps and I can't believe how hard it is now to find one that actually works. I'm glad this site is here, because I have gotten so much good information on what's REALLY going on with Lava Lite.

Anyway, hi everyone! I'll just be over here lurking.

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Permalink Reply by Brad on January 20, 2015 at 10:36pm

yeah, HD or lowe's should have them.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on January 21, 2015 at 10:25am

Just made a stop at Home Depot--they didn't have any 40w 130v bulbs, but they did have a dimmer switch. Just started the lamp up again with the dimmer at about 75-80%. I'm excited to see if this will work or not. I'll post pics if it does.

I'm having my tonsils out next month, and I was hoping to have a nice smooth flowing lamp by then so that I have something to focus on during my recovery when the pain gets really bad. Hopefully this is the last thing I need to try.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on January 21, 2015 at 12:06pm

Getting pretty fantastic results so far using the dimmer switch. This is the flow after about 2 hours:

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Permalink Reply by Brad on January 21, 2015 at 12:37pm

excellent! great to hear!!

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Permalink Reply by Chris on January 21, 2015 at 4:15pm

Ahhhhh--panic over, I guess. The vintage lamp is flowing well when I dim it to just slightly lower than max heat. I ran it for about 6 hours today and used that time to fine tune the dimmer to where I wanted it to be. This lamp is really finicky--one tiny adjustment changes the whole scenario pretty quickly.

Thanks everyone for all your help. I've learned a lot over the last couple weeks!

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Permalink Reply by Carol on January 21, 2015 at 11:26pm

The only decent use for an LL china lamp is a goo kit or glitterized!!! Well, that's if you can find a decent globe without it looking like the celestial sky!!!

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Permalink Reply by Mr MaGoo on February 11, 2015 at 3:29pm

Oh the pretty stars!, as he stares into his lava lamp! :P

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Permalink Reply by Chris on February 11, 2015 at 5:50pm

Yeah--all my lamps have been kitted now, and the bubbly glass China one is going to my mother in law, who has been wanting to have one again. She will never notice the difference because she's not an OCD weirdo like I am. :)