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]

Also make sure once done that the bulb is centered and with a round bubble level make sure the vase is also centered on the base all of this makes a difference with the neon Grande.

[Bohdan]

With a heat shield for the Century type base only the bulb has very little surround space left so the heat goes up more and remains there to heat the vase quicker and longer.

[Bohdan]

I have noticed that once the neon Grande cools down and the wax becomes hard its like the China Colossus the wax is not back to its original flat cold form its now just layered in lumps. Also now a few times the wax and coils as it warms up are spiked up and this will take forever to heat up. I have begun to use a towel to heat it up faster just like I have used for the Colossus. 

[Bohdan]

With the base mod and room temp. set at 69 to 70 the Neon Grande starts faster and really flow nice and hot. Also once the lamp is turned off the wax seems to settle down alot better more level as it should be. I can finally start using the dimmer since like before the vase was not getting hot enought for its use and needed to be set on to full.

[Bohdan]

Our Grande was running very well today when Patti came over to me and said there is a smell coming from the neon and the bulb is out. I took the bulb out and tested it all was well. Then I saw a black stain on the dimmer. I removed the dimmer and took it out the inner Circuit board was burnt.  The problem is at the factory in China the screw that hold the Transistor on to the large Aluminuim heat sink was very loose and not able to get rid of the heat so the Transistor blew. With this problem I noticed that even before it blew the heat would change and the neon would at times run cold them hot again. This will become a major problem for all of there lamps with this poorly made dimmer. The dimmer is easy to remove and that screw in the photo needs to be tightened big time.

[Bohdan]

What the outside Dimmer protective cover looks like as the smoke came thru it. All that LL China had to do was add a contact white cream to the transistor and make the screw tight with a hold nut. As always LL has made it cheaper for the buying public. I see many more bases from the Grande and Century being returned since the people buying them will not be able to make this repair.

[Bohdan]

I finished a re-wire and just used the bad LL dimmer assembly on the inside to hold the outside turn knob so the base still looks factory.

[Bohdan]

Now with my added in-line dimmer to the power cord I have noticed a brighter light and the lamp now runs hotter whichs leads me to believe that LL China dimmer is not working right and then it just Blows out.
The more we see happening with LLs lamps and now with there Heritage line up and our Grande a smoking we now have a saying.
Got junk then it must be Lava Lite.

[Bohdan]

I have made an adjustment to the top cap. It seems the vase has been made better however as we go to the top of the vase it has been redesigned and the Grande cap that use to fit just right with very little play now has a very loose fit and at times seems to be off center. I added green sticky felt to the inner cap to build it up so now the cap sits on center as you can hear the cap touch its metal top once seated. This also helps with wax that has been stuck to the upper area of the vase since it now retains the heat better and does not move back and forth.

[Bohdan]

With the extra heat from using the in-line dimmer plus I still retained the slightly raised socket by 3/8" once the lamp is turned off the wax now rests just like other lamps do without that cold layered fallen look.

[Bohdan]

I wonder how many people who buy the new Heritage Century versions for $50.00 will be holding on to there lamps. Soon LL will have to make another wax/liquid formula to make it right to sell. Not many buyers will be trying to fix there lamps with hotter bulbs or running the Century in another area of the room that is very hot whats the point. These lamps should work right out of the box and if not be returned for a refund. The LL Grande in its Pink and Green neon colors seem to be the only lamps to buy right now before all are sold out and then hopefully LL will bring out another color run to sell. I just hope that since the Grande is working so well they will not try to make it cheaper again to save costs.

[Bohdan]

Now with winter upon us I have raised the inner socket a little more since we now keep the room temp. at 68 which is great.

I added a screw collar and a inner collar to the factory socket to give me now 3/4" closer to the vase. This has made the lamp really start up quicker like 5 hours to total flow and now a nice cool down. This mod is still lower then using a bulb extender which I once did yrs ago and caused 2 of my older Grande lamps to crack at the bottom since the heat was to much for the China made vase even though the bulb never touched the glass.