Why is my wax floating to the top in a giant blob?!

[Dave]

And it just stays there. I tried a dimmer and then it either doesn’t melt (too low) or the wax all floats to the top (too high).

I tried emptying the lamp and heating the wax inside the lamp using a boiling pot. Refilled the lamp with new distilled water and epsom salt, and while the wax is now more separated into bubbles, it still all floats to the top and just stays there.

Help?!?!

[Claude J]

Epson Salt is your problem
You changed the density and probably ruined the wax.

NEVER USE SALT

This seems to be a little bit of a touchy subject in the lava lamp community. A lot of people believe Epsom salts is exactly what you want to put into a lava lamp but that could not be less true.

Salt is corrosive. Look at the underside of a car that is driven in a place where they salt the roads to keep the ice off. It causes the metal to rust and corrode. Epsom salts are equally corrosive and if you use them in a lava lamp eventually it will break down the metal coil in the bottom of the lamp.

Epsom salts can also cause cloudiness and they can even leave bits of white particulate matter in the lamp. Most of the time if someone is opening up a lava lamp it's because it is cloudy and they are trying to fix it. If you use Epsom salts you might just find that you have made the problem much worse.

Salt can also change the chemical composition of the wax itself. As most of us know lava lamp wax is not just wax. There are other chemicals in it for various reasons and some of these chemicals can react to the Salt.

When it comes to redoing a lava lamp that is not vintage, meaning it wasn't made before 2010, all you need is distilled water and surfactant. You do not need propylene glycol and you certainly do not need Epsom salts.

 

[Dave]

It was doing this same thing before I changed the water and added the salt. Not saying didn’t make it worse but yeah. It’s just a giant blob every time it heats up that sits at the top and never moves.

[Claude J]

What is the date of manufacture of the globe ??
http://https://lava-library.com/color-code-reference/

Dave said:

It was doing this same thing before I changed the water and added the salt. Not saying didn’t make it worse but yeah. It’s just a giant blob every time it heats up that sits at the top and never moves.