My lava lamp is broken. The wax stuff melts and becomes liquid, but it doesn’t “blob” up, it just stays at the bottom. Does anyone know what has happened and whether I can fix it?
Maybe you need a new bulb?
Has it worked fine before and suddenly gone wrong, or is it new ?
When switched off, the wax should be solid at the bottom.
So if the wax stuff melts then there must be some heat getting to it, and a bulb is either gonna be on or off.
I got 2 lava lamps, one has a 30 watt, the other a 40 watt bulb.
If its cold, it takes ages to get ‘blobbing’ properly (sometimes an hour or so).
You can always send off for replacement innards (different colour combinations etc) depends on the make though…
A boyfriend of mine in highschool had a lava lamp that was ancient. Got it from some garage sale… years before they were being sold at the local Walmart again.
His broke when a friend shook it up… the blob broke and just changed the color of the water. there was no way to fix it.
may it rest in peace.
I hate to tell you this MissBungle but I think if it had been plugged in for a while the stuff would have congealed back together and the lamp would have been normal.
As you may know, Cecil has discussed lava lamps in the past. Although he didn’t address problems like this directly, he does darkly hint at the end that things can go wrong.
A friend of mine had, and cherished, a lava lamp for years, but eventually, it did stop bubbling. Maybe they just wear out. I seem to recall that the instructions included warnings against disturbing the lamp while it was hot and reccommendations for how long to run it at a time, etc.
My daughter’s lava lamp does this occasionally if she runs it too long.
She takes it out of the base, still hot, and rolls it around on its side for a while, then shakes it a bit, then rolls it some more until it cools. For a few days after, it will have lots of tiny bubbles that will eventually grow until it starts looking rather normal again.
The lamp is at least 12 years old.
The instructions that came with my lava lamp tell me that it shouldn’t be left running for more than six hours continuously, and that, eventually, the specially compounded wax will degrade, under the influence of repeated heating and cooling, to the point where it won’t work any more, and a replacement globe (the glass bit with the glop in it) will need to be purchased. It also tells me that the fluid inside the globe is not safe for human consumption, but hopefully nobody actually needs to be told this. I’ve got a 30-watt bulb in it, which gives me hours of entertainment.
It would be nice to hear more detail about the fault and its symptoms from big alex.
If its been shaken up, the wax would be broken up in thousaunds of iddy liddle bits floating in the liquid - dont sound like big alex’s problem to me.
The wax melts and becomes liquid but doesnt ‘bob’ he says.
For the wax to melt, the lightbulb must be working (is it the correct wattage?)
I’m still wondrin if he’s new to lava lamps or not, although he does say that its broken, which would imply previous proper functioning.
My Lava lamp goes thru a ‘sculpture’ stage before goin totally fluid. Freaky shapes and contortions etc
Does your lamp go thru that stage big alex ?
Tell us more pls big alex !
No, it doesn’t go through a “sculpture” stage. Just melts and stays put. Same bulb since I got it, so can’t be the wattage. It did work before, had it for 4 years. Might try the rolling thing described above, but I am not very hopeful.
Thanks