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]

As my Grande enters its 5th month of running another problem has started with this Grande Heritage Premium collection lamp. The coils have started to fail the Lava is no longer attached to 2/3 of the outer coil. Also the coil has started to break down its outer coating and is now releasing dark small metal spots to the Lava. What we have here as always is a cheaply made coil. Even after the vase is removed and rotated to have the wax reform to the coil it starts to fail again.

[Bohdan]

I will be removing both coils and using an older Grande coil but only one and see what happens.

[Bohdan]

And so it begins I will list here as we go along with the coils replacement. I started out with hand tighten using a band clamp this will let me use a small screw driver to unclamp the cap slowly. I then used a larger screw driver to finish of the opening. Once done the cap is still great looking with no bends due to the clamp.

[Bohdan]

As you can see in this photo the coil has started to break down and it outer coating is now part of the wax. This is a very cheap coil with what looks like a Zinc outer coating on it. The water within the vase liquid has now started to eat away at the coil. This will become a major problem with all of the Heritage Grandes and of course it will happen way after LLs wonderful warrenty has ended. With this problem about to happen to many other Heritage Grandes many people who have bought this lamp will not know what to do and they will not be able to repair like members from this site can so they will stop using it since it no longer sticks to the coil and will no longer care about LLs lamps.

[Bohdan]

I will be using my home made extention with its hook to pull out the coils tomorrow once the lamps is running hot.

[Bohdan]

What the vase looks like as I start to run it to make it hot to remove the coils as you can see half of the wax is no longer working since it no longer has contact with the coils. 

[Bohdan]

This is what Premium parts from LL looks like. These are the worst looking coils I have ever seen in the yrs of collecting and repairing lava lamps. The coils have started to turn black in areas and have started to release there Black spects thru out the wax.

[Bohdan]

I have installed 1 Stainless large outer coil and this is what the flow looks like after a day. I will next add a smaller coil for a better flow.

[Bohdan]

Now with the 2nd Stainless coil installed. I have also resealed the vase and rebent the cap to its original crimp setup. 

[Bohdan]

Something interesting has started to happen and I will do another report on this next week. Since using Stainless coils which I now believe are not used in the Neon Grande the wax has not flipped up with the coils embedded within the wax as most owners have been seeing. The old coils donot have that shiny Stainless look to them and Stainless does not start to react with the liquid and then start to break down.

[Bohdan]

Now with the added new stainless coils that are very well made unlike LL premium cheap cost effective ones the spiking is even better now and the lamp has yet to flip its coils as it warms up. 

[Mr MaGoo]

Bohdan, what did you use to make your warming ring and where are you getting your stainless steal coils from.  Nice write up by the way.  Have always admired your work and your collection bro.

Thanks, Joe=