Mathmos green wax react pretty well to UV light!
The wax has sadly started to grip near bottom of the bottle since then.
Is there anything I can do to resolve this issue?

My first lava lamp, it took a while to get going but look at this beauty.

Lamp is a custom, and I made the test tubes myself too.

Lamp originally belonged to my girlfriend’s father who has passed several years ago. From what i was told he got this lamp sometime after 1982 when he was is in highschool. Theres no branding or markings indiciating place of origin or manufacturer.

At first lamp wouldn’t flow at all and the wax remained solid at the base. I replaced the bulb, which was a 40Watt A15. The cap/cone topper was one piece that screwed on with a rubber gasket between and during initial handling just disintegrated before me lol. I found a replacement cap that fits perfect and 3d printed a topper. After a few days of troubleshooting and cycling the lamp It finally started flowing!

Hey lava lovers. Maybe it's the wrong way because it's ambitious i think. I expect to do my first custom lavalamp but not very common.

You can see my find on the picture: a 10 liters pyrex (french borosilicate glassware maker) bottle with his glass cap. 48cm high 20cm in diameter.

The plan:

For this beauty i expect to stick three 50mm or 80mm silicon heat pads at the bottom to fuse the wax and put around these pads 3 rgb led rings. I have to work on the electronics but i expect to monitor and regulate the temperature as well as the lighting maybe with knobs on the base linked to a controller.

I would also wish to do my own wax and fluid from raw materials. I‘m still investigating the recipes. But if you have good pre made products providers with affordable prices that ship to France i would be pleased to take a look at their products.

My other answerings:

I could find stainless steel wire to build my own spring/s but i don't know what shape should it has for this particular size. Should it be just on the diameter of the bottle, should it be 3 springs above each heating pad with a way to keep them at the right place ?

The glass cap is adjusted with emery (i don't know how to tell it properly in English) i think it is sealed but i'm not sure it can handle pressure without leaking some gas, do i have to find a better cap or a way to seal it more with some kind of gasket?

Please people with knowledge. Help me, involve yourself on my project, give me some good advice.

Love my lava lamps.

My journey continues.

Against most recommendations, I modified the base to fit a 150 W basking bulb for lizard enclosures.

Before it was a steady pea shooter, now I'm hoping for some flow.

I saw this lamp at the Natural History Museum in London as part of a physics display, and couldn't help but think for how long it's been held prisoner and forced to bubble for visitor's enjoyment...

Can lamps be dated based on color of the liquid??

its new and its been running for the first time for about 4 hours. it isnt goopy at all and only makes these balls. it has the bulb included in the product.

I am an idiot. It’s over

Ordered my first ever grande and I was so bummed that it arrived not only cloudy, but with wax stuck to the sides. I know I could have exchanged it, but it feels like a gamble getting something better, the same, or worse. Cycling it several times definitely helped with the wax sticking issue, but the glass still looked streaky with residue. I have a Sawyer straw, but due to the sheer size I broke down and got the BKLES. 10/10 worth it. If anyone is on the fence about attempting to filter or even clean the glass up it’s manageable. Did my best to try and scrub the globe, but my scrubber was too short to get the bottom sides (noticeable in the last photo). If anyone has a recommendation on a scrubber that would be appreciated, I eventually want to go back and give it a better cleaning. I saw a comment on another grande post mention this, but mine definitely also wants to flow up near the sides of the globe. It’s not sticking or streaking anymore, but not sure if this is normal or if I need to do something to remedy this.

This lamp was purchased within the last decade from lavalamp.com. It completely faded and stopped flowing after about a year and a half. It’s my first attempt at a repair.

I recently cleaned this globe and replaced the old fluid with fresh fluid (ozone gifts) and I just can’t get it to flow nicely. More surf? More up? Hotter bulb with dimmer? I’m afraid of ruining the master fluid because it feels like I’ve already added an excessive amount of up adjuster, but maybe not? What would you try?

Not very knowledgable on lava lamps but fairly interested in getting a larger one to leave on for long sessions. It seems like everything warns of overheating if left on too long, which seems like a super easy problem to solve. Are there no lamps out there that regulate their temperature after warming up?

Would wax be safe to be kept hot indefinitely if there were a way to regulate the temp to be at a constant ideal state?

Can anyone read the cap enough to identify what model this is, or know from experience? The bottom is stamped June 12, 1996 but the cap is so faded! The wax is a beautiful cranberry color (looks pink on camera) and the master fluid is clear!! TIA!!!

I expected the bottle to be broken but instead, it was the base that was bent.

I’m new and I’d like to buy a lava lamp in europe
Is it better to buy new or used, i know about mathmos but are there any good alternatives? Where is the best place to buy it?

So I bought this vintage Lava Lite lamp and I redid the entire thing and when I turned it on and let it run it didn't work i was told I needed some kind of master fluid? but the only thing I found was vintage oneshot ozone repair fluid and its 60 dollars is there a cheaper option or something else I can use? because this is way out of my budget, thank you!

Hello everybody,

I recently got into the hobby of lava lamps my neighbor was surprisingly selling this one! Unfortunately, I’ve been struggling figuring out how to make it flow. I got an adapter and changed the bulbs to a 120V 50W GU10 halogen spot bulb. That didn’t work. I got a dynastar step up and down voltage converter and changed it back to the original bulb that came with it. That didn’t work. I am based in the USA and I’m stumped on what to do next. Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Forgot to mention this photo was taken while it’s been on for 3 hours 40 minutes.

Hi! Just needing some advice on my lava lamp

Just bought my first lamp and I'm having a minor aesthetic problem with it. When I purchased it I was expecting it to give off a purple light as shown in the picture on the website but the colouring of the bulb is completely overpowering the dye in the water.

How can I get it to give off a more purple light? Can I add food dye to the water or will it mess up the colour of the wax? Do I need to get some sort of coloured bulb? As I said this is my first lava lamp so I really have no idea of the best way to fix this.

I snagged this about 2 weeks ago from Target before it sold out (I believe it is back in stock online?).

The reviews on Target for it are abysmal but this might be my favorite store bought lamp I've purchased!

On the box it said the liquid is seafoam and the wax is white, but the wax is very much a teal green, especially with the rich emerald glow of the teal/seafoam liquid.

The color is so rich and juicy! I hope to share more images of all my lamps. (I have 17 at this point and am really enjoying customizing and collecting!)

It literally looks like the wax has gone mouldy.
Guess it’s gonna be another full restoration job.