LAVA LOUIE GOO GRANDE REFILL EXPERIENCE = WHY WOULD YOU EVER REFILL ANY OTHER WAY? HA!

[Woodvetch]

I have done it all.
Used existing lamps to refill a grande = a mess, not to mention the globe sacrifice and cost of buying complete lamps for a refill project. Filtering all the fluid is also time consuming and pain in the butt.

Made my own goo and fluid = Yuk talk about a time consuming nightmare of a mess, takes forever and adjusting the fluid is catch as catch can

Bought Louie's goo kit with everything needed included = Easy as eating fresh made blueberry pie. 3 minutes in the micro to melt the wax. Another minute to easily pour the wax into the Grande thru the funnel and large straw that goes all the way to the bottom of the globe. Let wax harden, (I put the covered globe on the porch to speed the process). Put 50 ml of the surficent in distilled water and pour into the globe. No muss, no fuss and you can easily make your own colors if you want.

Run the lamp with a 60 watt bulb instead of 100 watt bulb and use a 52z coil. Running a Louie goo Grande on 60 watts and a 52z coil for 12-13 hours will give you the same flow progression ending in a begin to overheat as US made Lava Lite lamps running on 100 watts does in less time.

The first run is way cool, gets all the ingredients used to each other and the goo is almost transparent. Got really cool spikes and great flow. After the first run the flow just gets better and better and the goo begins to become translucent, color richer/deeper with light still able to come thru the blobs. Real pretty goo.

Huge benefit using distilled water and louie surficent. The fluid is absolutely crystal clear. The reflections of the goo in the water are amazing. I cannot overstate the benefits of crystal clear fluid I have over 70 lava lamps most "crystal clear". I'm here to tell you nothing touches the clarity of distilled water. No comparison.

Have so many great pics of the initial run and will post more later of subseqent runs so you can see how the goo texture gradually changes.

K

pee ess
Nothing like crystal clear fluid. Nothing like it.
I am completely sold.
k

[Soeren Nielsen]

Woodvetch,

1) Whats the story on the heavier Louie goo that you spoke of back in March. Have you had a chance to test it?
2) I've read several places that you prefer to use 52z and 32z coils in the grande as opposed to the standard grande coil. What does the 52z and 32z look like and where do you buy them?
3) Where do you get the distilled water for your lamps?

Thanks
Soeren

[Woodvetch]

I have not tried the heavier goo as I'm so happy with Louie's standard goo.
Louie sells screens to use in place of coils. The ones I used came from existing lamps I had dumped due to cloudiness. Louie's goo doesn't need the heat LavaWorld/Lite Mathmos goo needs so you don't need a large coil. Louie's goo will even flow with no coil but does better with a bit of metal in the bottom of the globe.
Distilled water is sold in grocery stores where spring/drinking water is sold and is less than $1 per gallon

[Soeren Nielsen]

So how come you prefer the 52z or 32z coil? How do they affect the flow of the lamp when compared to the standard grande coil?

I have only been able to locate demineralised water at the grocery stores I've visited lately.
The pharmacy has distilled water but they want app. $10 a gallon.
According to jonny magma demineralised water is not good enough so I guess I'll have to keep looking. $10 a gallon for water seems expensive...

[Woodvetch]

there's not alot of difference but I like a slow column type flow and I seem to get best results with less metal in the globe than lava world/mathmos uses.

Look in your phone book and call a water company and inquire about distilled water. In the states I pay about 60 cents for a gallon.

[Woodvetch]

I use the 40 but cut the coil by 1/3 to help reduce heat. works.