24 old lava lamp behavior

[Clinton W Salvato]

Hey guys, here is a  short video of my 24 year old lava lamp running.  I am posting this to find out if this is still normal behavior, or if the wax has started to degrade.  This happens after about 2 to 3 hours being on.  This is the one with the midnight base, and orange liquid white wax,

https://youtu.be/rtZ_Hm45C04

[Keith]

You are most welcome!  And the result are so satisfying!!

Clinton W Salvato said:

Hey guys! thanks for the suggestion about the dimmer.  This old lamp looks like it's brand new now!  I received the dimmer today from amazon, and plugged the lamp into it.  I let the lamp heat up at full brightness then slid the slider switch down a bit to slightly dim but not too much.  It actually started moving around very nicely without breaking apart.  Here are a couple videos, I think you will be impressed with the results as well:

https://youtu.be/01WI6eZOojg https://youtu.be/YNMNBr1ajkk

[Mr MaGoo]

Hey hey hey, there is that "old lamp flow"! Grats on the results!  Enjoy!

MaGoo!

[Claude J]

YAY!
Clinton W Salvato said:

Hey guys! thanks for the suggestion about the dimmer.  This old lamp looks like it's brand new now!  I received the dimmer today from amazon, and plugged the lamp into it.  I let the lamp heat up at full brightness then slid the slider switch down a bit to slightly dim but not too much.  It actually started moving around very nicely without breaking apart.  Here are a couple videos, I think you will be impressed with the results as well:

https://youtu.be/01WI6eZOojg https://youtu.be/YNMNBr1ajkk

[Clinton W Salvato]

I've actually considered doing an experiment with the new lamps after observing the results of the old one on the dimmer, and how each lamp has it's own flow, and none are exactly the same.  It seems like the cooler the lamps the more they flow similar to the old one, and as they get hotter the more the wax breaks apart into smaller blobs.  So maybe putting the old ones on a dimmer as well will help improve flow.  From my observations of both the old and new lamps together, I wouldn't call the new lamps bad, just different because they still do both forms of flow as the old one, however it's like comparing a couple different sets of smart LEDs one may have 5 different modes while the other  maybe only have 2 or 3.  The newer lamps seem like the smart lights with 2 or 3 modes vs the older lamp that is like the 5 mode light.  They all flow, but the older one seems to have the ability to change the style of flow and frequency easier than the new ones.

Initially I thought it was mainly because the old lamp has older wax and it's more flexible than the new ones from age.

I'll follow up if I decide to get another dimmer and try one of the new lamps on it and share the results.  The old one on the dimmer is working perfectly.  I can leave it on a long time now and it doesn't act up anymore.