First vintage lava lamp (1978 Century) wax is shooting up and breaking into little balls instead of flowing. Can she be saved?
Hi all! I recently got my first vintage lava lamp, a beautiful 1978 century lamp. I got it secondhand off Facebook Marketplace. I've had her running for about 5 hours now, and she's sitting at 110°F, but instead of flowing normally, the wax is shooting up and breaking apart, and it's not rejoining at the bottom. Now I've got a growing pile of small wax balls instead of one cohesive blob. Is the wax toast at this point?
Is there any way to save it, like heating the wax separately to get it to rejoin? Does old wax need a "refresher" of surfactant to behave properly again? Is this a common issue with vintage wax, or does it sound like something else is going on (temperature, bulb wattage, etc.)?
I've never worked with vintage lamp wax before and would really love to restore her properly rather than replace the wax if at all possible. Any advice from people who've dealt with this is hugely appreciated!