comments:
Some things to keep in mind. Hot is relative. I have a big 27 inch tall grande. I can keep my finger right up on the base, and the globe itself doesn't get as hot as that. It's not pleasant but it's not enough to burn. So heat is not something to really worry about unless you place them next to something with a really low melting point. Or unless you have a bunch which can warm a whole small to mid room. Cats can knock them over. Even the big ones like mine. You don't want to overheat them. This pic shows what it looks like at different temps. Overheating them shortens the lifespan of the wax. It's why it's recommended to not run them for longer than 8 hours at a time to help prevent overheating. That being said they work best if you use a dimmer. That way you can adjust the temp and run them for longer than 8 hours without issues and well as fine tune their flow. And if you use a smart dimmer you can do things like set schedules for them to turn on and off as well as temp settings automatically. Like set it to start at 100% power then drop to 80 or whatever after X amount of hours, or the similar the like. I use these particular ones for my lamps. They can be very temperamental as easily effected by outside temps and airflow. Like don't put them next to fans or under AC vents. My grande despite being 27 inches, over a gallon and a half of water, and 32 ounces of wax. Was still effected by all of a dinky 4 inch bladed USB powered desktop fan. And I was sitting in the way of the fan too no less. The lamp was on the other side of me when I use to have it at my PC desk. Direct sunlight will bleach the colors of the wax and liquid. Different color combos will take different amounts of time but it will eventually happen to all of them in a matter of months to years. Bleach as in change its colors. Not necessarily make them white like clothing bleach. Now that I think about it the sun actually bleaches pretty much everything I can think of in different amounts of time but most of those will take far longer than lava lamps to happen. All I can think of off the top of my head. Oh one more thing. Try to buy yours in person from a place like Spencer's as opposed to buying online. Not only will they usually let you check it out in person. Those sold in stores are generally shipped around less and its being shook in shipping that can lead to a cloudy lamp. If that's not possible and you do end up with a cloudy. Sometimes numerous heating and cooling cycles can clear them. But other times they'll have to be filtered clear. I never bothered to try and filter so though I've read about it numerous times here I can't remember all of what's involved. The 3 17 inch I bought at Amazon I just returned for being too cloudy. The 16 inch I got from Spencer's was online as well but it was clear. The grande I got from Amazon was also clear. lol So I dumped it...... 😄 Had planned to before I bought it I just always found that funny. Dumped it to redo a kit in it to get white wax and colorless fluid to make a color changer out of it. Need white and clear for the colored LED light to show up properly and they never make white and clear grande size, just in 16 and 17 inch. Which was the one I got at Spencer's online store. Here's how they turned out after doing the color changer mod.