Customer Reviews

Lava Lite 5225 16.3-Inch Silver Base Lava Lamp, Yellow/Purple

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Introduction: This company claims to make the "original" lava lamps because they invented the "Lava" name, but they licensed the actual product from the British company Crestworth, which started the production of this kind of lamps in the early 1960s and changed its name to Mathmos in the 1990s. A friend of mine has a truly "original" Mathmos lamp from the 1990s, which has pretty uniformly-colored water and wax from the bottom to the top when it is on. I have never seen a lamp of this quality from Lava Lite, but the Lava Lites are also much cheaper than corresponding products from Mathmos (which are not officially sold in the U.S.).

I got my first Lava Lite 16.3" lamp about 1 1/2 years ago. When it was on, the water and the wax showed the color of the (white) light bulb at the bottom and became more colorful towards the top, but the water was clear and wax bubbles were going up and down as they should. I liked it. Unfortunately this lamp was destroyed by a cleaning lady a few weeks ago.

My new lamp from Amazon is exactly the same model, but when it arrived two weeks ago, the water was very cloudy, and this has not changed so far. When the lamp is on and I look at it from a close distance, I can see the wax bubbles, but while the water is more cloudy than in the old lamp, the wax seems to be more transparent - the desired effect of colorful wax bubbles moving in clear purple-colored water does not occur at all; from a distance it looks like an illuminated bottle of thin pomegranate juice. I am too lazy to send this $20 item back to Amazon, and some people say the cloudiness may disappear in a few weeks, thus I will keep this lamp and see what happens, but I am disappointed. And I don't understand why this new lamp is so much worse than the first one - is it from a different factory? Was it shaken too much during shipping? Is it a "refurbished" lamp that was not treated right by its previous owner? Many other customers seem to have very similar problems with Lava Lite lamps. On the basis of these experiences I cannot recommend this product. Try to get the British one if you can.

Reading the reviews here, I was really wary of buying this item at all... It seems that the lamps with the "clear" fluid have issues with being very cloudy. So perhaps steer clear of those. I went with the version that has yellow lava and purple fluid. At first I thought that this combination of colors was going to look kind of tacky and not as classic as the red lava/clear fluid versions. I went for it anyway. I love the colors. The lava at the bottom looks like molten gold and as it rises, it looks reddish at the top. It pretty much looks like the cartoon image they show on the product page. The fluid is a pale purple and very clear. When it arrived, there were little flakes of "lava" (the wax) all throughout the fluid and I was a little worried about whether the flakes would disappear with use or if they would always "dirty" the fluid. Well, after running the lamp for about 4 hours, all the flakes of wax melted into the main blobs and the fluid is totally clear. It looks great and I'm really happy I got this larger size. So nice and way more affordable than the tiny ones I saw locally for twice the price.

I haven't had a lava lamp since I was little and I forgot how fun and hypnotic they are to watch! Recommended!

I have to say that Amazon shipped the lava lamp package in a box with no packing material - thank goodness it didn't break. Not impressed with that part, but of course that's no reflection on the product. I haven't had it long enough to comment on the longevity of the lava lamp but it's off to a great start.

I used to have a lava lamp with clear liquid and purple lava, and it was the smaller size. I lost it in a move or something, and have been wanting to replace it for ages. Of course, I had to go with the original brand, out of loyalty and having a bad experience with a knock-off in the past. I'm sooo glad I got the bigger size, it makes much more impact! And I will never go for the clear liquid again! The colors that this makes as the lava rises and falls are incredible! It looks like a sunrise, and it's so cool!!

Bought this lamp for my kid on his birthday and he loves it. Takes a while (2-3 hours) to heat up fully but then you get TONS of lava going. Yellow-to-red color transition makes it one of the coolest lava lamps we have ever owned.

Great value! Lamp is much bigger than I thought it would be but was only a few bucks more than we have paid for much smaller lamps.

Don't let the bad reviews fool ya! Every lava lamp gets stuck once in a while. Just have to take it off the base after it gets good and hot and turn it (keep lamp upright!) gently for about 30 seconds to get the lava going again. Put it back on the base and you're back in business.

Lava Lites were first popular when I was a teenager. I was glad to see they were making a comeback and have been for several years. I bought two at the same time; this one and a glitter Lite. The glitter works fine but this one doesn't. I followed all instructions and the light worked but once. Each time I turned it on the Lava sits on the bottom and doesn't move.
I contacted Lava lite who told me to return it to Amazon. Amazon is just terriffic about returns. In two days I got a shipping label and the defective lite was on it's way. 1 star for Lava Lite but 5 for Amazon!

After reading these reviews, I decided to roll the dice and see if I could get a good lamp. I got a murky disgusting looking swamp bottle. I saw someone posted that the company has discovered a flaw in their manufacturing process, but I have no idea if that's true. Even if it is, who knows what that means or when/if we will be able to reliably get a good product from the end retailers. Steer far clear of this product. I posted some pictures here so you can see what you're probably going to get.

This is my fourth lava lamp over the years, and the only one to be this cloudy out of the box. In fact, I'd call it down right murky. It doesn't clear up with operation, either.

The forum at oozinggoo.com, which is a website dedicated to the lava lamp, has a February 2011 posting that states Lava Lite has acknowledged a manufacturing process error that causes the cloudiness. I assume that means future lights will be better in this regard, but current stock will presumably be problematic.

The liquid was cloudy and after using it for 2 weeks it was still cloudy so I sent it back.

Very well made Lava Lamp, works like a charm. Allow about 2 hours for it to heat up and it will start amazing you with beautiful colors. Just make sure not to leave it on for more than 10 hours thus causing serious damage to it. Anyway, it is a great lamp for a bedroom, rec. room, or even a night light.

As an owner of many older lava lamps this lamp is nothing but garbage. The lamp is so cloudy I can barely even see the wax. Even if I could see the wax there is no point because it all sits at the middle and doesn't move. These lamps used to run great, that is until lava lite moved its manufacturing over to china. These lamps used to sell for over $40 and now they are down to about $20. You get what you pay for.