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]

The liquid was clear the wax looking good and even the vase had a Stop Sticker around it.

[Bohdan]

Date when this version was done.

[Bohdan]

This version also has 2 inner heat coils for the wax.

[Bohdan]

I like what they did to the base as to how high the bulb now sits. Many yrs ago when the Grande was released the bulb sat up higher then over time they lowered it. Grande lamps had a hard time warming up took sooo many hours to start. Now with the newer versions for 2017 it sits just right and starts quicker like it once did. The older socket setup was around 3 1/2" tall from top of socket to base contact now its 5 1/4" tall from top of socket to base so no longer bulb extenders need

[Bohdan]

What the vase looks like with its first spike.

LL now has all Grande lamps Out of Stock along with the custom versions.

[Bohdan]

Its been almost 5yrs since I bought a new Grande and they have a new instruction sheet. I like the area about if your lamp appears Cloudy since many do!

[Bohdan]

My wife wanted the Grande Glitter so was ordered today along with an extra bulb spoke with Susan today from LL and all are in stock for order they have a new Warehouse now in California and I should have her Grande soon. They have started to add other Grandes back for order by June of this year. We already have the Yellow/Red Grande and its fantastic.

[Claude J]

Susan told me she was part of the crew that was being let go at end of last month due to the takeover

Glad to hear she is still there

[Bohdan]

Had to add a base dimmer to my Heritage Grande the ones they have are very cheap and stopped working over time. The install was easy and I soldered the 2 wires into place on the Blk solid smooth looking wire not the Blk ribbed wire.

[Claude J]

[Jon-Erik]

Hi guys, i am the one from the other forum you mentioned where amazon sent me 2 replacements, and then told me to keep the 3 grandes and gave me my $96 back.. lol

The 3rd lamp was super clear, the other 2 were so cloudy i couldnt see my hand behind the glass even if i was touching the glass.  Also my 3 lamps have two springs and the same intruction booklet yours has, they were made in July of 2017 according to the base anyway, i cant figured out the codes on the cap for the globes. 

Your stem for the bulb socket well both stems look way different then mine do..   Mine in all 3 were 3 1/4 inches long exactly.  One solid shiny peice too unlike yours where it looks like it has extenders put on it ?  My bulbs included were always longer 100w bulbs.  So the bulb was so high above the rim of the lamp where the globe sits that the globe was actually touching the bulb when it set it down.  How do i know it was touching ?  Well the globe could wobble around and there were tiny gaps between the oval base and the globe so it wasnt sitting on the base properly. 

Claude J suggested i shorten the stem on the socket and i went to lowes and got some fully threaded stems that were 3 inches long vs 3 1/4 on my stock one.  I threaded them down enough and into the lamp socket enough that it lowered it another 1/4 of an inch.  So this lowered the bulb 1/2 an inch, so it was slightly slightly below the rim on the base, or maybe more accurately right on the rim.  Due to the curve in the globes on the bottom this allowed room so it doesnt touch the light bulb anymore.

Now one of my globes didnt come with a bulb ?? So i ordered one on ebay its 100w, looks identical to the ones supplied but when i got it its about 1/2 inch shorter ?? no idea why..  But the lava light bulbs are much taller..  Anyway with it being 1/2 shorter and put into my socket with the stem already down 1/2 an inch it lowered my bulb 1 inch effectivly so its deff below the rim now.   Oddly this lamp with the 1 inch lower bulb heats up alot quicker then my other 2 do.  Im talkin like 30-40 min quicker.  I redid my two Grandes and made then into a neon like green color and a dark orange color.  The orange one i had to redo two times due the coloring being a little difficult to perfect.   It took like 20 drops of red food coloring to the get the orange i wanted.  The green lamp took about 2 blue and 6 green.

Also i complained to amazon about the poor packaging because it was AMAZON who did the shit job on packing (well i take that back the large box for lava light had the base wobbling around which is probly why one of mine were dented)  The crap job amazon did was to take the lava light box.. toss it inside a massive box so big i could fit almost 3 of these grandes inside.. one on top sideways and two side by side.. and the padding they put into the box  was a peice of brown paper.. so the lamp would slam up and down and side to side due to the large box they put it inside.. When i picked it up the lava lamp box just went SLAM to the left same with the ups guy.. a great way to jolt the globe..  I also paid for next day shipping too and still two arrived cloudy..  Also the fact of it being inside this box, it hides all the KEEP THIS SIDE UP and glass warnings from the original lava light boxes...  Make sense ?

The clear purple one i did get is so clear actually clearer then the two i redid lol.. Which is funny, it also flows different it flows like a snake reminds me of the 70s century lamps i have..  The other two just do large blobs up and down, and they did this before i drained them so it wasnt me changing the liquid.

[Jon-Erik]

Also these pics of the bulb heights..  First one is the height from the original stem see how far up it is ?  The 2nd pic is when i lowered it with the shorter stem..  The 3rd pic is using the shorter stem and shorter bulb..   See how low it is ?  Yet it actually warms up the lamp faster then the bulbs that are higher

And these pics are the two bulbs..  The top one is the lava light bulb.. the bottom is the one i ordered on ebay..  They look identical almost, but there are subtle differences, one is the length.. Two is the white reflector on the shorter bulb looks silvery/white almost..  And looking inside from the top the lava light bulb is more clear and the new one is more white.  Both are 100w same socket bulbs.  I think the one i ordered is a higher quality bulb to be honest.  Look at the base of the bulb.. the one on the right is the lava light one the left is the new one.. Much better quality..  This is probably why it heats up the lamp much quicker even when its alot lower.  Its a Halco pool light bulb