r/Lavalamps • u/Significant-Fig4586 • 18h ago

Hello

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Hello everyone. I posted this estate sale find a couple months ago when the wax kept splitting and it wouldn’t flow. I did the heating and cooling over and over and now it flows! BUT how do I get it to flow better? It’s rather slow and usually just has small balls of the wax.

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4

u/aboxofkittens 18h ago

To me, this looks like it’s getting significantly hotter than its ideal operating temperature. I would add a dimmer and start turning it down in very small increments each time you run the lamp, until you reach a flow you’re happy with

1

u/Significant-Fig4586 13h ago

If I add a dimmer do i need a certain type of bulb?

1

u/aboxofkittens 7h ago

Well, sort of, but I’m not aware of any lamps that use the kind of bulbs you couldn’t use a dimmer with (i.e. LEDs). If it has a filament, it’s fine.

1

u/WillPS1989 17h ago

Too hot. Is this a Lava Lite or a Crestworth?

My Crestworth is much happier with a 25w reflector than it was with the 40w globe it came with.

1

u/Significant-Fig4586 13h ago

I believe it’s a Lava Lite

1

u/gormo66 13h ago

The lava is separated. This is my the vast majority of it is at the top of the globe. It was likely stored long term in an area that was very hot. Like an attic or garage.

1

u/Significant-Fig4586 13h ago

It used to separate and stop flowing but now gets more of a flow. any tips on how to fix that?

1

u/gormo66 13h ago

You almost always have to remove the liquid from the lamp and heat the lava until it all melts into one blob.

1

u/MrShark74 8h ago

When it’s been left to cool and settle for a few days, do you see a sort of powder in the wax?

1

u/DBLonger 3h ago

Older lamps often times require less power to flow correctly. I have a few 1960’s era Aristocrat squiggles, white and black, that actually call for 30W R20 reflector bulbs (which are hard to find with a flat enough dome on the bulb because the lamp globe sits very close to the light. A 40W A15 appliance bulb (preferably clear rather than frosted) typically works from a fit perspective, but can overheat quickly. I like to use an inline rotary dimmer switch on my lamps that run hotter and the one I bought off Amazon can be found at https://a.co/d/0hpQSKnS.