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.

[Jon-Erik]

TBH im not a big fan of that piss yellow lamp but thats just me lol

3-5 years you say lol ?  One of my grandes i redid the plunger is already being sucked in lol. 

I just got my pink.purple lamp,  This will be my 4th grande, the liquid came crystal clear but i already had plans to redo it anyway, the pink/purple and yellow/purple look almost identical when they are running.  The yellow and pink wax look red with that dark purple liquid.

Since two of my other 3 lamps came cloudy i redid one a neon green color, one a neon orange color. and this purple/pink lamp even though it was clear i redid a turquioise water with the pink wax..  Looks stunning if you ask me.

I also have a glitter lamp i ordered yesturday coming, but i opted for the gold base, the silver base is meh plus i got 4 of em now, and the black looks ok looking at your pics but i havent seen a gold one so i took the chance to see what itll look like.  The only bad thing about this turquoise lamp i just did is the globe has alot of scratches on one side on the outside.  Thats a tad annoying but just turning it around i dont see em, Ill probly get some really high grit sand paper and wet polish them away.

I also found a better way to lower the bulbs in the lamps.  This is my 4th grande 2 were made in 2017 the other two in 2018.  All 4 have the higher socket and with the bulbs supplied are touching or nearly touching all the globes.. As you mentioned and as i mentioned a page or two.  Instead of taking the lamp apart using a torch to melt the blue locktight and going to the store for a shorter stem..   The bulb i ordered on ebay here.  Is the same bulb our lamps use, but its half an inch shorter,  I put that bulb in the new base for my turquoise lamp i did which hasnt been lowered yet and the bulb is sitting slightly below the rim.  Just like the other bulbs with the modified socket stem.  So rather then going through all that work its easier to just buy this shorter bulb.

Dont ask me why the bulb is shorter yet it says its for grande lamps, but its deff 1/2 inch shorter then the bulbs supplied by the lava lamp company. 

As for the clouding globe on the inside of the glass like you mentioned.  I have old lamps from the 90s and 70s that cloud the inside of the glass.  It isnt just the newer lamps man.  I have 5 lamps from the 70's all that had cloud on the glass.  I had to use a shiskabob with a fish tank spong filter skewered on the end to clean the glass.  Some of them the cloud came back. some didnt. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lava-Lamp-Light-Bulb-100W-100-watt-125-Vol...

[Bohdan]

Great looking Grande with your new color combo. Would have been great to see better made cap seal plug the rubber they use is so bad. 

[Jon-Erik]

Its the rubber.. The design is fine the rubber is bad.  Its like car oarts ( i work on cars ) rubber mounts or bushings from china they crack and dey rot in just a few years.. to where original parts lasted 15 or 20 years.

Its just pathetic china is a plague imo sorry ill just come out and say it.

So you think the turquoise looks good with the pink wax ? 

[Claude J]

Here is your solution to the grande rubber plug problem

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

[Jon-Erik]

 sweet thx 

[Bohdan]

One of the problems with this LL China glitter is even when using a 100w or 75w r bulb the glitter after around 8 hours starts to die away and the globe needs to be lifted and tilted to have the glitter work again.

I wonder how many buyers of this lamp will put up with this not knowing what needs to be done.

Again we have another very cheap LL China lamp and this time in Glitter form!!

[ElectricAstro]

Really nice photo, looks like a galaxy at night!

[Bohdan]

So far my Yellow/Red Grande is running/looking great which is nice since my 5yr old Neon Green Grande has lost its run due to a lot of wax sticking on the sides and on the bottom area around the coil. Its seems the Grande lamps have a short life span which is bad.

[Claude J]

Looks like its time for a redo,

[Bohdan]

Ordered what just may be my last Grande from Lava. With so many problems I cannot see the future with these lamps as they are just poorly made (Cheap). This one is called the Volcano and was ordered with that gold base. I will now have my 3 line-up lamps by this time next week.

[Claude J]

FYI, the new Grandes seem to work well on just distilled water

Just like MT goo
No need for PG or NcL

[Bohdan]

The order was placed thru LL at the time and should be here next week hopefully all will be well. The sad part about the grande lamps is your standard buyer will not take the lamp apart if a problem like cloudy to sticky problem comes up they will just ask for a refund and never order said lamp again. We will see if Schylling will have better batch lamps over time.