Grande rebuild and Gookit.com

I'm thinking of rebuilding two Grande lava lamps that don't flow, I suspect they are from China. But I'm not terribly eager to spend the $179 USD (incl $47 shipping) that it will cost me to buy two Goo kits from gookits.com... the price is a bit much... at that price I need assurance that they'd work well and it would be relatively easy to do - getting the sealed lids off and back on concerns me most.

Some questions if you guys don't mind:

1. Is there a cheaper solution? Are these the only guys selling goo kits? Can't I just buy the ingredients myself for much less? Maybe I can re-use my goo. Where would I get some Surfactant (sp) and dye online?

2. Is there some place you can you buy lids for Grande lava lamps? (in case I mess mine up)

3. Has anyone ever rebuilt a grande with a kit from Magma Tower? What was your experience? Was it worth the price? Was it easy? How much quicker does it flow now compared to before?

Thanks in advance

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Permalink Reply by Christian BayLee on October 19, 2016 at 10:28pm

Go for it dude
http://oozinggoo.ning.com/page/goo-kits

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Permalink Reply by Tim Gill on October 20, 2016 at 8:30pm

Goo kits do work well, a lot of members on hear have used them and got good results the goo-kit page has a good tutorial on how to goo kit lamps.

Yes there is the initial cost of the kit but apart from using a quart of wax for one grande the surf and dye will last for other lamps as you don't need much surf or dye so it is relativity cost effective in that sense.

Getting lids for a grande unfortunately there is not somewhere which sells them as such you just have to take the seal off carefully so it can be re attached but it wont be factory perfect (unless someone has a better solution).

I haven't goo-kited a grande before but I have goo-kited smaller lamps and they work well. They aren't 90's LL formula but certantly a lot better then some of the lamps that LL sell now, espshaly if you don't add too much surf and the lamp is on a dimmer. Goo-kits run on a slightly lower temperature so will heat up quicker

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Permalink Reply by Erin on October 20, 2016 at 9:26pm

1. Not that I've seen. You can buy the ingredients yourself, but getting the right mixture of wax, SLES and water is tricky. Very tricky. Few have succeeded. You can get the surfactant online (eBay, Amazon.com). Some people use miracle bubbles. Some use SLES. Some use Dawn dish soap.

2. No. Do you mean the aluminum caps, or the plug that seals the Grande?

3. Yes. My experience was not good. That was, oh, five years ago or so. I rebuilt a handful of lamps and had 1) fuzzies that developed in the water 2) sticking around the base of the lamp and 3) lots of air bubbles in the wax. I have the threads on here somewhere. I did not have good luck with GooKits at all. Some people here really like them, some do not. I'm in the "not" lamp. Not worth the time and money and last I knew, their customer service was spotty.