Green LavaLite lamp, wax doesn't stick to coil or move at all.

[BSP016]

I bought a green LavaLite today, and it has issues. First of all, the wax doesn't stick to the coil like it should
It doesn't move either, and there is some wax at the top that won't come down. What's the issue here? I'd like to get this lamp working because I want to give it to my mom. Any suggestions?

[ChuckM]

I am having this problem with a 52oz I kitted last night. I haven't made a kit in a long time and I have been sitting on a new batch of goo and surf (last time, the surf had gunk in it so I ordered a new batch a while back and just stuck it in the back of a cabinet). Anyway, I had a globe and coil that I bought from a member. I used Dawn... hot water... boiled the globe with water... then used hot water and Dawn on the coil. I then used acetone... rinsed... then isopropyl... then rinsed a lot... then rinsed again with distilled. The wax looks good... it melts.. but it isn't sticking to the coil. I usually had just problems with the wax mounding, but this no sticking is new for me. Any suggestions? I was thinking of taking it all back out and then cleaning it all again and maybe buying Brakleen like some folks use. 

I am starting to wonder if maybe my final rinse with surf water was maybe too concentrated. I used about 12ml of surf in about 2 cups of water... then transferred it back out prior to adding in the wax. I wonder if the concentrated surf is preventing wax from sticking to both the globe and coil. I may just clean everything and then only do the rinse on the empty bottle... then after dumping out the surf water... add the coil and then wax. Just don't know... what has been the culprit for this for other folks?

[Brad]

just thinking on my feet here, but dawn has a surfactant in it.  if you washed the coil in the acetone/alcohol etc.  i think it should be ok...if not, perhaps you could remove the coil and clean it again in something like brakleen.  or, you could re-do the liquid first using less surfactant.  dump out the water that's in there now, then add DI water and see what happens before adding surfactant.  if that doesn't work, then i'd clean the coil again.

[BSP016]

Final update: the flow has greatly improved and I am loving it. My LavaLite works much better now with the gookit. I'm so happy. Thanks everyone for all your help!

[Sentrex]

Hi Carol - just to be clear - did you wrap the original coil with the mesh?

I have tried making new coils, cleaned, heated, treated etc and still have wax sticking to only 2/3 of the coil. If I could get past these damn coil issues my life would be so much easier.

Any direction that you can supply would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

Carol said:

Looks to me like the wax might be fried.  I got a brand new 52 oz lamp from Lava Lite as a replacement for another.  It flowed ok for a few months.  Then for some odd reason the wax would stick to half the coil and start pulling up water.  So I ended up with a mound of wax at the bottom with a stream of lava with a water bubble at the end shooting up every few seconds or so.  I ended up twirling it and all of the wax would adhere, but soon again, it would start the same old stuff.

 

I did a little experiment.  I goo kitted it and you know even with the goo kit it did the same thing.  So I assumed this was a straight up coil problem.  I made my own coils.  I threw one I made out of bracelet coil (stainless steel of course) and another I made out of stainless steel washer lint screen material but left the original coil in.  This lamp has more damn hardware in it.  Now it's one of my best flowers.  It's the light blue wax/purple liquid kit!!!  I would say to kit it!!

[Verax]

I've had a lot (5-10) rejected coils after kitting.  From my limited experience, I found that just cycling the lamp (leaving it on for 6-8 hours, then off for 8+ hours, repeat) usually fixes the problem.  Sometimes it take up to 10 or so cycles, but eventually, they seem to take usually.  The last 5 or so rejected coils have been solved in that way for me.  (I used to take them out, add other metal mesh, and a few other tricks which didn't work very well.