LL China Grande the Good and Bad side!!

[Bohdan]

Time to correct a few problems with my 2013 Grande. The Grande lamps have always had problems due to being made in China as cheap as possible. I noticed last year the inner globe had started to haze up inside due to cheap wax run off. This is also a problem with their 32z and even 52z globes. I used what I had in the house to make it clear again.

[Bohdan]

I used a Libman Refill dish pad and a 36" thin metal ruler. I then attached the sponge to the ruler and cleaned the inner globe with its liquid as is I did not take any lava liquid out. The sponge was new and left no inner particles behind once done it looked great.

[Claude J]

Pure Genius!

[Bohdan]

Now for the cap problem since once again LL China goes cheap.

[Claude J]

Easy fix for the stopper

By this: https://store.mocap.com/mocap_en/xw.html?Item=XW2.12/2.29YW1&_g...

you will have to trim the overhang with a very sharp box cutter, but it will work well and provides the expansion chamber needed for the fluid to grow in size as it heats up

[Bohdan]

Fantastic I just ordered them thanks for the site.

[Claude J]

Wanna seal it professionally like a Giant?

Go here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/135mm-5-31-PVC-Heat-Shrink-Wrap-For-Batter...

you can find smaller amounts on Ebay from China but the wait is forever

I have some in black if you need, PM me.

I will send you a piece big enough to seal a grande

You may notice I also use a very pliable clear heat shrink underneath the black that is designed for sealing food grade bottles.

[Bohdan]

What a great seal with the tape. I will leave mine as is for now after I do a quick seal because with LL China lamps you never know what a month from now may happen within the globe. 

[Claude J]

ROFLMAO

True 

[Reszound]

The name on the ruler says it all - 'craftsman' - great job Bohdan! Timely post as I have a really crappy grande I'm trying to resurrect too atm. It was blue with red wax but the wax is now poo brown and no light came out so I bleached the crap our of it in the sun, the fluid is still cloudy (not too bad though, and the wax is ever so slowly heading towards caramelly reddish brown (it's not great but I'll keep bleaching until it hopefully lightens up enough to look decent)

I'll give this a go - it can only help! Failing all of this, hopefully it will end up with one of Marcels glitter kits :)

[Bohdan]

Yes many Grande lamps are so bad even the one I posted above after cleaning the vase it is running very clear but now the wax has started to haze up the inner vase once again. LL China made the best of the worst lamps ever the wax is very poor (cheap). I will keep the top cap seal as a temp. so it can be removed to correct future problems. 

[Reszound]

Yeah my wife calls it the brown poo lamp (nice)

This is my second one (that I've scored cheap off facebook) that is like this, I filled the 1st one with louis goo - waaay better! Do you know if he still does those kits?

[Bohdan]

It seems the Grande may become a retired lamp like the Royale did now that LL China has sold to another company. The Grande had sooo many issues with sooo many returns that the profit margin just was not there. Perhaps over the yrs the new company may change things around.