Heritage Neon Grande Plus

[Bohdan]

Its been a long time since we have bought a Grande since the last 4 we had were Junk/Cloudy/non-running and over time were thrown away. Patti ordered for us the Neon green version to match our newly redone home. The lamp arrived a few hours ago and is now turned on. The vase is very clear and no smears or glass stars marks on it also the vase has 2 coils for a faster start and one very cool looking dimmer built into the back area. The base has a great Black finish with a nice looking LAVA logo on the front. The pin holes are different in there design unlike a Century would have yet looks nice. This just may be one the LL best Grandes yet so why has it taken so many years to reach this point?

[Bohdan]

I have finished a Black table ring holder and made a smaller table for this lamp.

[ElectricAstro]

Great touch Bohdan!

[ElectricAstro]

Looking great! I love the holes on the base!

[Bohdan]

It looks like this Grande will take a while for its first run. Will add more photos tomorrow as it runs.

[Bohdan]

What the Neon looks like when it spikes. This lamp takes about 8 hours for it to start to run ever so slowly and around 10 hours for it to start flowing like a lava lamp. 

[Bohdan]

What the base looks like with its Black table inner hold ring and a smaller made Glass table.

[Bohdan]

I wonder why Lava Lite did not make this Century Grande with Century original looking pin holes. Its nice to see that LL finally came thru with the pin holes for a Grande with its Star Constellation set up. Now that the Grande has the pin holes it will take a little longer to heat up do to heat loss thru them just like the 52z Century had with its inner heat ring.

[Bohdan]

Daytime starting flow with flash. So far all seems well with the grande. We were going to order a Gold Century but will wait till a Black version is released and perhaps by then the China wax will be better for the Century as I feel the vase has the same formula as many of the $20.00 version have and just the Heritage base has made the high cost difference.

[Bohdan]

As Nightfall has come this Neon Grande is really flowing away with no problems at all I will lower the Dimmer 1/3 down for the late nite into morning to keep the wax soft and restart early. 

[Bohdan]

It seems the dimmer on the Grande is not really needed it takes 10 to 12 hours for it to flow nice however if you lower the dimmer just a little the wax becomes harder and starts to re-spike again. Now the dimmer will be great for the summer time run with the Grande once the temp becomes warmer inside the home.

[Bohdan]

What is funny is the instructions for the Neon Grande says do-not run for more then 8 hours at the recomended room temp. of 68. What should have been said was do-not run it more then 8 hours after it has spiked and started to flow then run for 8 hours since it takes 10 to 12 hours with room temp. set at 70 to make it happen. Just for fun I covered the pin holes with cloth and the Grande ran hotter. Just like the USA LW Century version with its pin holes LW added an inner heat ring to help with the heat flow and perhaps this is what is needed for the new LL Century models.

[Bohdan]

Adding a bulb extender to the Grande will become a problem so I removed the shaft holding the socket and added a brass washer to the bottom there is enought room to make it happen and it raised it 3/8" up. This easy mod took about 10 min. and has made a big difference to the flow with its slight added heat. With this Grande unless your room temp. is set to 74 for the winter the dimmer must be on full and the lamp must be on for at least 15 hours if not the lava will cold fold on it self as it flows. Once the washer is on there is still enought room to re-tighten the nut and bottom washer.