This is a follow up to Molten Meditation's guide on "How to Restore a Cloudy Lava Lamp." Below are my results and input during the process of fixing my cloudy lava lamp. If you have a cloudy lava lamp and would like to try and fix it, please read http://www.moltenmeditation.com/lava-lamps.html. As stated in Molten Meditation's post, I am not a lava lamp expert either so proceed with caution.
I got together the things listed in Molten's Post:
1x cloudy lava lamp
1x flat bottom glass
1x tub of Epsom Salts (200g is plenty)
1x bowl of hot water (preferably Distilled)
1x drinking straw or pipette
1x liquid dish soap (couple drops)
Extra items I needed:
1x fine bristled brush
1x baster
1x bottle opener
First things First, make sure your lava lamp is off and that the wax has had a good chance to harden. If the wax is soft do not proceed, wait at least a few hours to make sure the wax has had a chance to harden.
I was following Molten's directions when it came to removing the cap. I put a towel around the bottle cap and used a set up vise grips to twist the cap off. That's when I found out my cap was different (mine did not have threads). It was an actual pressed on bottle cap, do not fear. Be careful and take your time, but grab your bottle opener and ever so slightly lift on the cap. I made 5 of the tiniest lifts around the top of the cap with the bottle opener when the cap came off undamaged. You can do it! Just take your time and be very careful.
Once I had the cap off, I could drain out the milky liquid. Instead of using tap water, I used Distilled Water in gallon jug to rinse and fill the lava lamp bottle. Of course things never go as planned. When I was draining the lava lamp liquid, I found that the inside walls of the lamp were actually milky and had a visible hue. That's when I grabbed my "Fine" bristled brush. I did put one drop of the dish soap on the brush and began to clean the inside of the lamp. I tried my best, but to clean it thoroughly, I did contact the wax a couple times. If you need to scrub like I did, try and do your best NOT to contact the wax. If you contact the wax, fine particles of wax will come off during the warming stage and need to be suctioned out.
To your right is a picture of the lava lamp filled after rinsing and scrubbing the inside of the bottle. The lamp is filled with distilled water only at this time. Much much cleaner :)
Following Molten's steps: The next thing to do is turn on the lamp and let the wax "lava" warm up, mine took about a hour. My wax reacted differently than Molten's experience, but the key is to heat up the wax and water. Once heated the "Surfactant" needs to be applied. This is your dish soap. I used Palmolive Clear. A Surfactant by definition is a compound that reduces the surface tension between two liquids. So by adding two or three drops of dish soap in the warmed water of your lava lamp, we are reducing the surface tension of the water making it slippery, duh. This helps the lava flow throughout the water. Do not use too much, or your lava will not flow right and create lots of tiny bubbles. If you put in too much, don't fear :) with a little more time you'll get it out and your mixture just right.
While the dish soap and water are slowly mixing by itself in the "ON" lava lamp, it's time to make the Epsom Salt solution. You want a clean glass with heated water of choice. I'd suggest that you use distilled water because it's cleaner than tap water, but if all you have is tap water. Then tap it is :)
With about 1 cup to 1.5 cups of heated water, you want to add a tablespoon of the Epsom Salts. Mix thoroughly until no particles are present and salt is dissolved. Repeat this process until you have gone through half a pound to a full pound of Epsom Salts. Depending on how hot you get your water will depend on how much salt you can get suspended in the water. Get at least a half a pound of Epsom Salts in the warm water dissolved. The important thing to grasp is what you are about to do. With the now Epsom Salt solution you mixed, you will be adding that to the "ON" lava lamp. With your straw or pipette, make sure you have about an inch no more than two then cap the straw with your finger. Drop the Epsom Salt solution in the side of the lamp so you do not disturb the wax directly too much. What you have done now is raise the density of the "Slippery Water" in your lava lamp. Raising the density to the proper level in the lava lamp is crucial to getting your wax "lava" to flow right.
On the right is the first reaction of the wax "lava" once the dish soap and first drops of Epsom Salts solution mixed in the lava lamp. This is about an 1-2 hours on a heated lamp. As directed I waited 10-20 minutes, and dropped in the next 1-2" worth of Epsom Salt solution in my lava lamp. We are waiting for the salt solution to stabilize with the lamp temperatures, and the Epsom Salt solution can fully dissolve with lamp water. I continued doing this till I got activity in the wax "lava".
The picture on the right and below is what the lamp looked like after 2-3 hours of operation. I was very happy with these results, however after 4 hours of operation the wax "lava" became hyperactive. Too many tiny bubbles were present, and the lava wasn't flowing it was bubbling. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of the hyperactivity. I just wanted to fix the problem.
What was the problem? Too many tiny bubbles, and the wax "lava" was staying at the top of the lamp and not coming down properly.
I knew that by adding the Epsom Salt solution I was increasing the density, right? So now I had to decrease it. I came up with that because the wax "lava" was floating too much. I had in essence made a liquid too dense. So I turned off my lava lamp and let the wax "lava" cool entirely. This will take a few hours. Do Not be in a hurry. This takes time. In all I had my lava lamp accessible for the weekend so I could tweak the mixture just right. It took me 3 maybe 4 times to get it just where I wanted.
Once the lava and liquid have had a good chance to cool, I then inspected the liquid. At the top were some floaties so I took my baster and suctioned them out. I removed about a full inch of water solution in the lava lamp. I then made up that difference by pouring in straight distilled water. By doing this, I have rid my lamp of any floaties and lowered the density of the clear lava lamp solution. I like to operate my lava lamp for hours, maybe 6 hours. So I ventured to create just the right mixture of water, salt solution, and dish soap for extended periods of lamp use.
On the right is a picture of the lamp after I suctioned out the floaties and put in more distilled water (2-3hours) of operation. The wax "lava" was reacting just a little bit slower than the earlier experiment. But after about 5-6 hours of operation is was again too hyperactive. I went through the process of letting the wax "lava" cool, suction out any floating debris and made up the difference in the bottle with distilled water. Be sure to keep about 1.5" of space open in the bottle. The wax expands when heated so you need a little room for thermal expansion in the bottle once capped.
This is what it looks like after 4 hours of operation.
The look after 6 hours of run time, and ready to be capped!
I really enjoyed going through the process of restoring my cloudy lava lamp. Many thanks to Robin at Molten Meditation for making an awesome post! I hope you may get some mileage with the results posted here today.
Good Luck all on your cloudy lava lamps :)
