Giant Won't Flow - To open or not to open?

[Sentrex]

I was really excited to find a Giant purple/ yellow that was barely used, however, it just won't flow like it's brothers and sisters.

I know that this color was offered in the 2nd batch and also noted that it has less wax in it than the others which can be seen when it is "cold" and on it's base..

When I find NIB smaller lamps it seems like I always have to add some glycerin or PG to increase fluid density or they behave just like this giant. I think that I would need to do the same with this one.

This situation has been discussed here in the past:

https://oozinggoo.ning.com/forum/topics/why-do-my-giants-always-do?...

I thought that maybe the problem was that it is cold here in Michigan so I made reflectors for my giants out of aluminum foil. While this has helped a lot with the other Giant lamps, still not so much with this lamp.... it will look like the lamp in the previous mentioned post but "flow" once every 10 minutes or so.

Should I crack it open or wait until summer to see?

If some of you scientists or engineers could look at the picture in the previous post and make recommendations on a fix it would be sincerely appreciated... more fluid density of more surf?

Thanks much to my brothers and sisters here :-)

The lamp is gorgeous otherwise...

[Keith]

I would say wait, but try some things in the mean time.  Try the globe on different bases, I have one Grande globe that does kind of the same thing on it's original base but flows fantastic on a Heritage base.  Also set up a test area that's more enclosed where the heat won't dissipate into the room, maybe even set up a heat lamp to keep the area warmer (this would just be for testing, I wouldn't recommend doing this for a display set-up)  Just some ideas that may help.

[Critter]

Keith is offering good advice.  Try different bases first if you have them.  Also try a bulb extender in the base too....that is if it doesn’t raise the bulb too high.  There were small differences in those Giant and Grande bases depending on the generation and with Lava small variances do matter a lot at times.  

[Tim]

Did you ever get your Giant to Flow properly? I have had the same issue with two of mine but I just kept running them and the flow did improve a bit. Giants are very sensitive to temperature changes!

[Rory]

Exactly what Tim said. Temperature change can really affect the flow, even amongst Giants.

[Sentrex]

Hey Tim and Rory - thanks for asking!

After cycling it daily for about 5 weeks with no improvement it was getting depressing and frustrating so I retired it to the basement until this summer to see if it will respond better in warmer weather.

Of all my giants, it is in the best shape in regards to the bottle condition so I am trying to avoid tampering with it.

If it doesn't wake up this summer then it will get opened.

On a side note, I picked up a yellow green Giant bottle last week for $50... it flows nice but the bottle is banged up pretty bad. Will try to transfer it to an empty Grande bottle when I get the chance.

Travelling 4- 5 days a week these days so not much time for anything.

[Rory]

Hey Sentrex- I did that with a blue/white giant and it worked wonders. Had a huge crack on the bottle and I was scared to even run it! Just be careful- Giant glass is thicker than grande glass. I put my blue/white on a dimmer and it works wonders. 

[Claude J]

Critter said:

Keith is offering good advice.  Try different bases first if you have them.  Also try a bulb extender in the base too....that is if it doesn’t raise the bulb too high.  There were small differences in those Giant and Grande bases depending on the generation and with Lava small variances do matter a lot at times.  

[Tim]

Sentrex said:

Hey Tim and Rory - thanks for asking!

After cycling it daily for about 5 weeks with no improvement it was getting depressing and frustrating so I retired it to the basement until this summer to see if it will respond better in warmer weather.

Of all my giants, it is in the best shape in regards to the bottle condition so I am trying to avoid tampering with it.

If it doesn't wake up this summer then it will get opened.

On a side note, I picked up a yellow green Giant bottle last week for $50... it flows nice but the bottle is banged up pretty bad. Will try to transfer it to an empty Grande bottle when I get the chance.

Travelling 4- 5 days a week these days so not much time for anything.

[Tim]

Hey Sentrex!

How are you finding all of these Giants?? LOL! I'm always on the look out as well but no luck lately. So anyway I have a purple/yellow that's in MINT condition as well and I had the same issue but I just kept cycling it over and over for a long long time and It did finally start to flow. Some Giants can be extremely stubborn for some reason but they are very high quality lamps and they will eventually flow.

So with that being said I would not open your lamp up BUT thats entirely up to you. So on a different note if you ever want to sell one of your Pink/Pinks please let me know I have been looking for one for a long time! I know that's probably asking the almost impossible but I'm still gonna try! LOL. Thanks!

Sentrex said:

Hey Tim and Rory - thanks for asking!

After cycling it daily for about 5 weeks with no improvement it was getting depressing and frustrating so I retired it to the basement until this summer to see if it will respond better in warmer weather.

Of all my giants, it is in the best shape in regards to the bottle condition so I am trying to avoid tampering with it.

If it doesn't wake up this summer then it will get opened.

On a side note, I picked up a yellow green Giant bottle last week for $50... it flows nice but the bottle is banged up pretty bad. Will try to transfer it to an empty Grande bottle when I get the chance.

Travelling 4- 5 days a week these days so not much time for anything.

[Sentrex]

So I noticed that my globes seem to be running better on two of the bases and while I understand that the base itself can make a difference it was still boggling my mind because the bulbs were all the same height for all bases. Upon closer inspection I have been using 130V 100W replacement bulbs but the bases that seems to be doing better have the 120V 100W bulbs. One would think that 100W is 100W - energy used is 100 watt hours (W. h), 0.1 kilowatt hour, or 360 kJ. The calculation for watts is V x A.... so right now, with a limited amount of data, I believe that higher amps genarte more heat through the lamp (any EE's out there please speak up. At 130V the bulbs use .77A and at 120V they use .83A ( about 8% delta). Everything that I have read says that 100W is 100W and should emit the same heat but maybe it is an efficiency situation... hell, I dunno.

I will running some more tests to see if this holds true for some of the other globes that have been problematic. If this solves the problem I will be elated.... but will need to off the 30 130V bulbs that I bought on ebay :-/

[Claude J]

There is something to be said about reflector bulbs.

Directed heat is also an issue

scrap the 130V import bulbs

the wattage is not the same at a lower voltage than it was designed for.

I suggest purchasing 3 identical from Lava light for $4.95 ea

Change them all, then see if there is a difference

I've also  had  bad experiences with those cheap eBay bulbs

[Critter]

130v bulbs won’t develop as much heat as the 120v, unless you put 130v through them. Since US electrical systems put out 120v these will never be as hot as you probably need for the Giant.   There are times though when a 130v bulb is beneficial.