Old Lamp Will Not Flow

[Jeffery T]

I just bought an old 1996 Midnight Series lamp that had not been used in many years. Its original 15 watt bulb works but the lava does not flow. When turned on, half the lava floats to the top and stays there, the other half stays at the bottom. I have tried it several times for several hours each, but the lava will not flow up and down like they usually do. I have attached a photo below. How can I get it to work right?

[Bohdan]

These lamps require a 40w bulb to get the lava flowing. If the wax does the same thing then you will need to remove the cap and drain 3/4 of the liquid into a clean container to hold it for a few days if needed. You will then run this lamp with the 40w bulb and see if the wax will become as one again. Over time the properties will seperate and will need to joined once more. By having the wax close enought to make contact with the upper part hopefully they will be as one again. Once the wax is joined add half of the saved liquid back again and run the lamp once more to make sure it flow well again.

[Jeffery T]

The bulb is 40 watt, type A15. Sorry I mis-stated above.

Would it help to shake-up the lamp?

[Bohdan]

No the wax has to meet together and heat up normal as one shaking it will kill it. I have done a few like this before and once most of the liquid is removed and the lamp is left to run normal as the wax becomes hot both parts will take time to reform once again. If this does not happen then the liquid has expried its time perhaps due to the lamp being overheated to many times by the last owner.

[Jeffery T]

Two questions...

1) How could the lamp have been overheated?

2) If I open the lamp to pour out 3/4 of the liquid, how would I reseal it?

[Bohdan]

People buy lava lamps and at times just let them run all day into the nite till they come home. I myself have left a lamp on thinking that I shut it off. Once a lamp has been left on for lets say 24 hours and then it happens again and again in time the wax will seperate and then one day you turn the lamp on and the wax will look like the one you have. I have even seen new lamps were the wax was poured incorrectly at the factory show the same as yours does. What I would do is determine that the liquid is still good by removing said amount of liquid and run the lamp to see if the wax does come back together if it does not then no point in going further since the cost would not be worth it.

[Bohdan]

Your globe has the bottle cap and what I use to do is take a small flat screw driver and bend out the 21 points on the cap so I could just lift it off the globe. Caps can be bought on-line and they even come in colors. If you take your time once the cap is taken off it will looks like the caps below and can be reused again with a capper tool. If you use a bottle opener then the cap is ruined.

[Bohdan]

I would then use a bottle capper which run around $35.00 to re-seal the vase once done. This version works great and can be had on-line. As your collection grows this capper will pay for itself since you will run into other problems that will need the cap removed like inner rusting of an original cap that has started to let air inside or buying lamps that have a loose cap and is leaking. 

[James]

Just screw the cap back on. All older lamps pre 1990's had screw on caps.

[Bohdan]

I would however stay away from the cheaper version at around $20.00 since they need the use of a hammer blow to press the seal cap back on and you may damage the globe. Also lava lamps once they are hit at the top it sends a vibration down and you may see White dye running out into the clear liquid which causes cloudyness. 

[Bohdan]

Just for the hell of it take some aluminium foil and cover the top 1/3 half of the vase. It will be like having a giant cap this will retain the inner heat as you run the vase for at least 6 to 8 hours if you start to see the top wax melting and slowly failing down to the bottom then you may be able to save this globe. However if the top wax becomes melted and does not move down then we have a wax seperation that will require the above procedure.

[Jeffery T]

UPDATE:

My Lava Lamp is now looking and working normally. All I did was to keep using it a few hours every day. I think the lava was just stiff from the lamp not being used for many years. Repeated heating and cooling eventually softened up the wax and got it flowing again.

[Bohdan]

Glad all is well with your lamp. Over time a lava lamp may not work as well from just sitting around and there also may happen a wax seperation that once the lamp has started the wax seperates and the heavy portion remains on the bottom while the other portion shoots to the top.