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That isn’t a good indicator of overheating. That’s more a function of the wax itself.

This picture is decent one to check for overheating. An overheating lava lamp makes smaller balls that tend to stay at the top of the lamp leaving a low amount at the bottom.

I have a great picture example of overheating from my collection, but I can’t find the picture on my phone here. Sorry. But it looks very similar to the picture I posted above. The lamps next to the overheating one is flowing normally while the overheating lamp has lots of smaller globs of wax floating near the top of the lamp. My light green just has this tendency to always overheat.

However, if you still are concerned about overheating then the best thing you can do to control it is buy a lamp dimmer to control the lamp intensity.

Lutron TTCL-100H-BL Credenza Dimmable CFL/LED Dimmer, Black

That’s the one I use and like. It’ll allow you to turn the lamp down a little or up a little to tune the lamp if it is overheating.

The wax is probably still good. If /u/ChickenPicture's suggestions don't work. I would probably work on getting all the wax to settle as much as you can to the bottom and let it harden. Then I would remove the top, dump the water, re-heat the wax on a stove in the globe (using a double boiler), pour out the wax (to reuse later). Clean the globe really good with distilled water and replace with distilled water + surfactant (liquid dish soap, sent free Dawn). The amount of surfactant controls the surface tension between the water and the wax, more surfactant the smaller the blobs. It also keeps the wax from sticking to the side of the globe. That's why it's important to start with a little surfactant so you can get a good coating on the sides. You can start with just distilled water and a little surfactant (5ml), heat the lamp up on the base and start adding surfactant 1-2 drops at a time (let it run for a bit between doses). My guess for that globe you would start with 5ml of surfactant and work your way up once it starts flowing to the desired effect.

The beauty of these lamps is you can do a little trial and error. I re-did my lamp like 3 times in a row till I got it flowing exactly the way I wanted. Another option would be to get a GooKit from Magma Tower and just restore the whole thing.

Also if you're feeling all mad scientist you could make you're own GooKit using just 3 parts candle wax and 1 part Tetrachloroethylene. Heat up the wax, pour in the tetrachloroethylene and mix for 5 minutes. I've yet to try this but I have all the ingredients. Just need to find a new lamp to restore using this formula.

Good luck!

I’m sorry about your lamp!

You have the 11.5” Lava Lite that operates on a 15 watt appliance bulb. This model is notoriously defective. Also Lava brand is hot garbage ever since they moved production to China, and they know it, but they basically have a monopoly of the US/North America market.

Anyways, you can try a 20 or 25 watt appliance bulb.

If that doesn’t work, you might want to replace the lamp with a 14.5”, 16.3”, or 17” Lava Lite model.

LavaLamp.com and Spencer’s have the best selections.

I've heard of some having success hooking up to a simple dimmer to reduce heat enough that the lamp can be run for longer times without over heating. Have not tried it myself yet though.

My grande takes about 5-7 hours just do start 100% motion. It varies with room temp and such. That being said...Do you have the correct bulb in there? It should be 100w reflector flood bulb. Like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DH19820/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Ej.ZDb7F3H6JE

Aha! Thanks so much. I do not have a projector bulb, but rather one of these. I believe this bulb is the one I should purchase, then?

Try an Inline dimmer it looks a little hot

https://www.amazon.ca/Globe-Electric-Incandescent-Spotlight-00090/dp/B00CISCP78


is where i found one