2 New LavaLite Lamps - But are both bad?

[Patricia]

Hi, I'm a newbie so sorry if this was covered elsewhere and I overlooked it. I just bought 2 lamps from the lavalite site, both 14.5" lamps. One is supposed to have purple liquid with pink wax but looked cloudy from the start. The liquid and the wax looked like the same red color. After running for 8 hours it did clear some, but even though the water looks sort of purply now the wax still looks dark red (almost like liquified valentines day lollipops).

The other lamp has blue water with yellow wax, but the wax wasn't touching the coil at all so even after 8 hours of running, the goose egg shaped blob at the bottom never rose at all. I don't have pics yet, will get them tonight if my camera cooperates.

But these are brand new lamps directly from LavaLite! Is this typical of them? Can either of my lamps be fixed without emptying and refilling? I would just return them but I am afraid of shelling out more shipping costs just to get the same quality lamps or worse in return.

[Kris]

What you have is the wonderful crap lava that they sell. None of them are worth a damn. I know, I have several of them that do not flow, even after filtering and coil replacements. They are junk and better left to rot in their warehouse. Call them and tell them you want a refund. Any replacement will more than likely be crap.

You are much better off getting USA made lamps off eBay. Don't waste your money on the new china made junk.

[LampHead]

Anything they make today is junk, 1 out of 100 may be OK but the majority of them fail. As said above your best bet is to try and get a US made model, you want to make sure it has a "lavalite" bottle cap on it. You can try here also as I am giving away a US made blue/white http://oozinggoo.ning.com/forum/topics/lampheads-lava-lamp-contest


LampHead

[Patricia]

Thanks everyone! I had to go by WallyWorld today to pick up windshield wipers so I checked out the lavalites there (like I should have to begin with). Not only did they have the exact lamps there, but theirs looked clear as a bell and were 10 bucks cheaper to boot. I tested them at work today and they work great! So now I think I will try my hand at refilling the globes of the 2 junky lamps I have left. It's not like I could make them worse!

Although if I had the stand (no bulb) and the globe of one of the jumbos, it would probably make a pretty cool betta tank:)

[Mickey-D]

This was actually my problem as well. Same lamp type too. Purple with pink wax, but it looks red and sort of cloudy!

I returned a lamp to Spencer's and got almost the exact same problem with the one I traded in. Lava congeals at the bottom and doesn't really rise at all, plus I can see bubbles through the wax in the few off-times that the lava does move. I thought maybe it was something I was doing, but it's good to know that the product just sucks.

Thanks for the advice. I'll go to e-bay and look for a real lamp now.

[Erika Rodriguez]

this is the same issue with me
do you know the number by any chance?

[Cameron]

Was it much hassle to take a lamp back to Spencer's? I bought one from there last friday and it isn't working properly, so if they don't make a big fuss about it, I'll probably try to exchange it.

[Patricia]

The purple red lamp that was cloudy when I had gotten it is sorta getting better. The liquid isn't exactly clear, but at least now the liquid and wax are two different colors! At first, the liquid and wax were both red but the water is a bit more clear and decidedly purplish. The wax used to stick in a goose egg at the bottom but now after running it 8 hrs daily for a month the wax moves. It doesn't have the lava flow motion but instead the wax separates into like 11 or 12 smaller blobs which then do an infinitesimally slow crawl up and then back down. The blobs take about 20 minutes to make one trip up and back down the lamp. Still, its better than the goose egg!

[Mickey-D]

No hassles at all. I explained to her the problem and she said, "Yeah, wow, that lamp doesn't work" and exchanged it without a problem. You're mileage may vary, but from what it sounds like, it seems like this is a very persistent and common problem.

I still have this non-functioning one. If I'm feeling courageous (and bored one day), I'm going to open it up and see if I can't figure out what's wrong with it. But for now, I'm going to stick with the one I bought on e-bay.

[Jaynie In Georgia]

Hey, Patricia. I'm a newbie, too. I recently bought my big blue/white LavaLite two little friends - an 8 ounce glitter lamp and an 8 ounce LavaLite (the small size is so cute!) The glitter lamp and Mr. Big get along happily, just glittering and oozing away at each other. However, Little Oozer arrived with a birth defect. His liquid is pink with white goo, but, alas, the liquid is extremely cloudy - so cloudy that you can't even verifiy if there is any goo in there!

Seriously, I think the problem was more in shipping than in manufacturing. It has been extremely hot in my part of the world (think 90+ degrees F and 98% humidity) and my theory is that while UPS was shipping my lamp, it got hot enough to melt the goo, then the vibrations of the delivery vehicle(s) did the rest of the damage.

[matt01165]

Hey guys try exchanging them at wally world. your allowed 3 returns without receipts annually.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

The only things LW makes now that I would buy are the glitters, the stained-glass lamps, and the Coach Lantern (simply because it's a dream come true in a small way, seeing LW actually reintroduice an older "fancy" model in some form). The glitters are quite nice, especially the little 8 oz which come in some vivid and showy colours. A bunch of those around a party - red, turquoise, purple, orange, pink - would be fun, or in a little cluster set at various heights.

If you want good flow, buy an older lamp. If you're not sure if it's a good lamp and/or a good buy for the price, but you like the look, post it here and ask. Or, drop me a mail ([e-mail]) and I'll give you a rundown of what you're l;ookin' at price-and-condition-wise. Or, if your budget is high and you want the best, order from Mathmos.