Double blob on side

[Stella]

Hi guys, I'm not an expert on lava lamps but I love mine and I hope you could help!
I got a model similar to mathmos jet 3-4 years ago. At the time I didn't have much money, so it's probably a Chinese version of it, from Amazon.
It worked beautifully till the bulb burst and I never had the chance to change it. It's been off for maybe 1 1/2 year and I moved house twice so the liquid is a bit cloudy (but not too bad).
I've now managed to get a new bulb r39 25W (inside it says it can hold up to 30W but the bulb kept exploding) and for the first few days I had a big problem of a blob forming attached to the side. It would go half the way up and no bubbles at all. I read the forum and tried several things, shuffling a bit the coil and also covering the lamp in foil. Mostly I left it on for long times trying to improve it.
Tonight for the first time I've noticed something different, the formation of TWO blobs on each side of the glass! It's like a big U and of course not a bubble in sight.
What is happening to the lamp? Any trick which could be useful?
Thanks so much for any suggestion, I don't want to give up on it just yet! :)

[Tim Gill]

My first thoughts are that the wax is dead, lava lamps do have a limited life span. If you ran the lamp a lot for a fue years the  wax doesn't work as well as it should it can happen more quickly with cheaper lamps as well.

Its not completely lost though you can change the wax and water in it if its a Mathmos jet the bottle takes the same amount as a baby astro bottle you can get just the bottle from Mathmos then re fill the lamp with this its probably the easiest way of getting the lamp back to how it was.

[Stella]

Oh, I see... Not a chance of getting it back to life then :(
I guess I can ask for a new birthday present then!!
Thanks so much Tim! :)

[Tim Gill]

No worries on the up side there is nothing better then a lava lamp as a present

Stella said:

Oh, I see... Not a chance of getting it back to life then :(
I guess I can ask for a new birthday present then!!
Thanks so much Tim! :)

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Tell him I said... if he really loves you make it a Mathmos !!!

[Stella]

Ahahahah nice one!

[Aladdin 2 Lava]

Hope you get one...let us know and post a photo if you do :)
 
Stella said:

Ahahahah nice one!

[Keith]

So, what I'm seeing is the wax sticking to the sides.  To fix that you would have to open the globe, empty out the fluid (saving it to put back in later), heat the globe until the wax melts and empty (save), and then cleaning the globe until there is no wax residue left inside.

Then, when you're ready to refill the globe, you would need to rinse it with a water/surfactant mix to coat the inside; melt the wax and pour back in (with a funnel and tube so no wax splatters onto the side of the globe); let wax harden (a few hours); refill with the fluid; and recap the globe.  Depending on how the globe is capped this could be the most challenging part, if it's a screw cap it's easy; if it's a bottle cap it's not too hard; if it's a rolled and cut type cap it may be difficult to get it to seal properly.  Since you say it's a chinese brand I would suspect the later.

So, all that being said, you can try your hand at fixing what you have, or

Make it a Mathmos!!  

[Keith]

Actually, I just reread your post and something concerns me.  You say that 30w bulbs keep exploding (not literally I hope!).  To me that indicates a possible safety issue with the base.  But it also means that the globe is not getting as hot as intended.  Wax that is colder can also stick more readily, so that could be making things worse.  I have had some globes that had slight sticky wax problems but got better as the globe got hotter.

[Stella]

I don't think the problem is the base because I got it checked by an electrician friend long time ago. He thought 30W was just too hot making the bulb burn. I'm going to try to leave the lamp on for few more days on long stretches to see if it improves at all; the fact that it used to stick on one side on a high column but now it's on two sides makes me think something is changing and something else may happen somehow, but I doubt I will see flow again. The globe gets really hot so I don't think that's an issue; I mean you can't hold it with your hands really so it is hot enough.

It's true that I used the lamp for very long time when I bought it, so if it behaves similarly to a mathmos I've calculated it's getting close to the end of lifespan which is more or less one year every day for 6-7hrs per day from what I've read.