Carramar lava lamps

[John]

Hi team. My name is John & I've purchased a few lava lamps online & picked up a blue volcano lamp. I thought it looked cool & like the previous owner I originally had no idea what it was. Fortunately there's one listed on eBay with a good description & a Google search led me here. I'm in New Zealand so using a 120 volt bulb was not an option & it took awhile to find a bulb that will work in this lamp. Eventually finding the GE Lighting "Light Bulb Lustre 25W Clear E27 Edison Screw" bulb fits & works well. I'd be keen to know more about these vintage lava lamps - how many colours was made available & how many of these lamps was made? Now that I've got a blue lamp it's motivated me to look for more. Alas it's clearly going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find another & it's shear luck I have one at all.

[John]

I didn't take a picture of the bottle by itself but it appears to be the same as used in the three leg Volcano. But in the excitement to put it together & test that it works I didn't confirm this before it was plugged in & working. Are going to let it sit upright to settle for 24 hours before warming it up. I'm not sure why but I've always done this with any new lamp prior to warming it up for the first time.

[John]

Have put it with the other new lamps where it'll get the most use & be appreciated. Will take more pictures of it warmed up & flowing tomorrow & I really have to thank the gentleman that sold it to me along with the new lightbulbs. Cheers mate!

[John]

Warmed up the lamp today & if it's like the other new lamps I've owned. It'll take a few days of use before the lava mixes up properly & is flowing normally. I see the price on the top of the box is $59.95 & considering the quality of lamp they should've cost more in my opinion.

[John]

Has taken some time, a bit of effort, a good eye & all of these eight Volcano lamps are flowing normally. A couple of the lamps had developed small bubbles throughout the lava & wasn't flowing properly like the other lamps. It turns out I don't have two blue lamps as after cleaning, polishing & warming them up. One of them has navy blue wax with the other lamp has dark purple wax. It wasn't until I put an external light on them while cleaning & warm up that I noticed the difference. The room they're in doesn't get any direct light & it feels like winter is trying to assert itself as it's polar cold today. A really good place to store them but at times too cold to use them properly. Really don't know what's happening lately but either the used lamp market has dried up or people have learnt that these lamps are worth keeping.

[John]

Have been regularly enjoying the five leg Volcano with an Astro & Astrobaby in the bedtoom. The Volcano outshines both of the Mathmos lamps & worked really well over winter. Even when it was too cold for the Brits to warm up properly the Aussie was working nicely. Now that things are warming up & sunny something different is intermittently taking place. The Volcano will warm up & flow normally for awhile but are guessing that it’s getting too hot at times as it shoots a pulsating column of wax up through the middle of the bottle & eventually most of the wax ends up at the top part of the bottle. It stays up there for a few minutes then slowly starts dropping blobs of wax & eventually most of it drops down & starts flowing normally. It would appear that a 30 watt bulb is too much at times & considering it was only twenty two degrees Celsius it’s likely to get worse over summer. Got another in-line analogue dimmer coming which is wired into the power cord & works really well on the Astro. Did this tendency not to flow normally during a hot day have something to do with the design’s demise? Are interested to know if anyone else has witnessed this with their five leg Volcano & wonder if it would flow differently with the round glass lightbulb? I can see why they made a 25 watt lightbulb as well to better suit the conditions their lamps were used in.

Have pretty much given up the hunt for more of these lamps as I’ve only found a few this year & only one was worth having. At least we now know that the blue & the purple are two different wax colours which look quite similar unless put under a bright light together.

[John]

Has taken quite some time looking but have found another orange three leg Volcano & it’s the first in the collection with the legs screwed in through the inside of the base.