1971 Starlight bubbles and tiny globs

[Jason]

I have a 1971 starlight lava lamp that my folks got for me as a gift because I collect lava lamps. The moron selling it at the antique store picked it up and shook it before selling it to my folks. Upon firing it up at home, the fluid was a clear amber color with bright ruby red wax sitting at the bottom. The lava looks sort of clean and smooth when it's first warming up. It has a lot of stalagmites and is quite pretty, but once it gets flowing, there's a lot of bubbles in the wax (looks clumpy or "rough"), and that is when little tiny balls of wax start forming (very tiny ones). It's as though the wax can't stay together and is breaking apart prematurely. The yellowish oil/water never gets cloudy, but those tiny blobs of wax are not normal and really detracts from it. After its been turned off for several hours, the little blobs of wax settle to the bottom and everything is clear again. My folks told me that it was smooth and clear running at the store, and we're all pretty mad at what happened. I really would rather not open it up, and it was a good deal so I don't really want to try to return it.

On a side note; what is that white stuff at the bottom?!


Any help would GREATLY be appreciated!!!!

[Jason]

Lots of views but no comments?!

[Jason]

I have a voice activated star trek plug that does 100%, 50%, and 25% power. I plugged my lamp into it and I've had it running at 50% for 5/6 hours now and during that time, a lot of bubbles came to the top. This morning when it was cold, I shook and rolled it around to get the coil unstuck from the bottom. Since then and running at 50% power, it's looking a lot better!

Any other suggestions?!

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Doesn't look that bad to me at all Jason... I would run it for  4 to 5hrs each day for a week or two and see how it goes.

Keep us posted !

Edit... don't shake, just twist !

[Jason]

Ok. Thanks!

[Jason]

It seems to run better at 50% though. Maybe it's getting too hot and breaking up the wax into tiny pieces. It's not thick when run at 100% and is sort of stringy.

[Christian BayLee]

Looks just fine to me.. The little tiny floaties are just a result of vintage used lamps. All of mine do it nothing to worry about..

[Jason]

Well it wasn't doing that at the store, and none of my new ones do that, not even my grande.

[Christian BayLee]

It used to bother me too but I got over it eventually. It's the older lamps that do that, maybe they have all been shook at one time or another who knows... The only ones I had that didn't have floaties were my red/clear ones but they always bleed and the liquid starts looking like junk.

[Jason]

:-(

[Jason]

Well mine is red with amber liquid

[Christian BayLee]

The liquid used to be clear. The red wax and black I heard always end up bleeding color into the clear liquid. Not much you can do about it. It looks just fine when it's running though don't worry about it.

[Christian BayLee]

Here's a real bad one I gave to my buddy.