Schylling and Lava Lamp's Future

[Ryan]

I haven't posted here in quite some time, so I apologize if this has already been discussed. Is it just me or does it seem like Schylling is running Lava Lamp into the ground? The Lava Lamp website shows pretty much every product out of stock. I see that Schylling offers some lava lamps on their website, but the selection isn't that big. Moreover, Spencer's isn't offering many lava lamp selections on their website either. I would love to hear more input on this.

[Lamp Addict]

So I saw the same thing a few days ago and sent them an email. They responded and are on a shipping hold due to the cold. Below is the actual email response they sent me.

We are currently on a ship hold due to freezing temperatures across the US. We do not have a date as to when we expect to lift the ship hold. It is all dependent on the weather conditions. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you,

Karen

 

[Ryan]

Interesting. I don't recall LifeSpan putting shipping on hold during previous winters. I'm in New Jersey, and this winter has been quite mild here compared to previous years. We are mostly between 20 and 30 degrees right now, with a few higher temperature days, but last year or the year before we had temperatures below zero. I think LifeSpan shipped from Illinois, but never held shipping because of winter temperatures that I'm aware of.

[Mr MaGoo]

Hey, if they go under, then that should open door for mathmos to make appearance here in the USA.  Woot!

[Ryan]

That would be amazing! :)

Mr MaGoo said:

Hey, if they go under, then that should open door for mathmos to make appearance here in the USA.  Woot!

[Brad]

never thought i'd say it, but I hope that happens!

Mr MaGoo said:

Hey, if they go under, then that should open door for mathmos to make appearance here in the USA.  Woot!

[BamaMatt]

Has anyone replaced the liquid on the new lamps?  I have a grande from 2017 that is balanced to run with zero propylene glycol. Just straight up distilled water, which of course is much easier to freeze than a lamp with say 30% propylene glycol.

[Ant Bee]

It's strange, because Spencers is continually getting new stock in stores, just not online (they have a pretty good looking red base + white wax 16" model on their site- ordered one because yolo)

And the lamps they have in store are different from schyllings website.  I picked up three this weekend- two 17" (purple metallic and purple wax/clear liquid) and a 16" (yellow wax pink liquid).

The two 17" are great, not a speck of stickage or cloudiness.  The purple/clear liquid, once it heats up, could easily pass for a 90's model.  It's just great, super pleased with it.

The 16" is the cloudiest lamp I have ever seen, and the only reason I am not returning it (yet) is there is no stickage, which IME is hard to come by these days.  I'm cycling it for a week or two to see if the cloudiness clears, then will return it if not.

I have quite a few modern schyllings- and from what I have noticed, the 17" models are *pretty* good.  They flow nicely.  Hell, my purple/clear even has a warmup spiking phase that ALMOST looks like 90's formula.  Almost.

But it seems like every other model is plagued with issues.  The little 11" ones are fun for like a day, then you come to realize that a single, perfectly spherical, perpetually-stuck-in-the-middle blob is flat out boring.  The 14" models CAN look nice, but the flow is really uninspiring.  The 16" thicker models are pretty atrocious- stickage, cloudy, boring flow...

I'd love for them to turn it around, move production back to the US and get back to making slightly more expensive but BETTER QUALITY objects.  And, offer wider variety in the 17"/Grande range.

I really want a Grande, but yellow wax/blue liquid or yellow wax/purple liquid is super boring to me.  I want more clear liquid with vibrant colored wax, dammit!

[Mr MaGoo]

Hey, enjoy that one ball up, one ball down flow!  Classic China lamp Crap flow!  It never gets old! J/K.  Let's see how many years these new lamps last.  Can pretty much guarantee you wont see them in 40-50 years, like the originals!  Have fun! Good luck with that elusive color combo for that Grande!

MaGoo!

[Ant Bee]

The 17" models I have are actually pretty nice, though.  I'll post a couple pics later- they have really nice stretchy flow.  It's just the smaller ones that are like "what is the point of this"

I almost wonder if you just added a bunch of surf if it would improve them.

[bob]

Hi all , like others have said I also called the lava company they said it’s to cold to ship , I order the 2 foot lava from Amazon 7x they have all come ruined , shaken or wax stuck . Spencer’s has a good choices in store , i also got to 14.5 inch from Home Depot and target . The new lamps ain’t so bad especially if you use a dimmer . I got a silver metal liquid one but it was shaken had like Cotten on the inside so I gave it back . It’s definitely hit or miss but the new lamps are good if you find one new in goood shape and use a dimmer .

[Chris]

I actually gave up on ever getting a good lava lamp again a few years ago when my last remaining China Lava Lite died and wouldn't flow anymore. I was tired of goo kitting every single lamp I bought, and my attempts to get a genuine Mathmos from overseas has never panned out. I even had a friend who was vacationing in Europe offer to go to a store, get me one, and have it shipped back here. She called a place that she found online when they got settled in and they said, "Come on in! We have Mathmos lava lamps!" She went there to pick one out for me, and they were all generic knock offs or Lava Lite.

Long story short, I totally missed out on the whole Schylling buying Lava Lite incident, because I've been completely out of the loop. I have been missing having a lamp running on my desk while I work, so I threw caution to the wind and bought a Schylling era model from Amazon.

Here's the weird thing--the glass is crystal clear with almost no bubbles. The water is a very nice shade of blue and the wax is a very nice shade of green. (It's the 16.3" blue/green model). It flows great, there is no stickage on the sides that I can see yet, and most importantly, they have DEFINITELY changed something about the way they make the caps and bases. The one I got in 2014 felt like it was made out of a tin can. The one I just bought feels more solid and stable. I also like that I can barely see the seam on the side.

So I was pleasantly surprised by the fit and finish of this lamp as well as the flow and colors. I daresay it actually acts a little bit like my old school 90s model that I used to have. I will be sad when it dies in 2 years, but this lamp is such high quality as far as cosmetics, I would gladly spend the money on a goo kit to fix it. I cannot say the same for the two dead ones in my basement.

[Kay]

My hope is that they are selling the old stock out to make room for new stock and better lamps?