question about lava lamps?

[j12]

i just got a lava lamp and its pretty cool. but i was wondering why there was some spring type of thing at the bottom of the lamp. (bottom of the liquid bottle) the spring is curled up into a circle and i do not see what purpose it serves. the lava lamp is very mesmerizing.

 

[The General]

Heats up the liquid?

 

[b0dge]

Heats up the liquid?

Usually the heat from the lamp warms the liquid, but it could be a different type...

 

[Metal Chaos]

Is it a spring or a coil?

 

[FireFox]

Mine also have it. It just serves to heat up the wax.

 

[Juice Daddy]

Mine also have it. It just serves to heat up the wax.

yep

btw, what color/s is it?

I have two, one is black (looks like oil) and the other is green

 

[FireFox]

I have two. They're both the same....

Silver metal casing, blue oil, and green wax.

 

[Nubius]

I used to have one with blue wax inside.

The spring is probably just another thing that transfers heat, but it might also be what causes the lava to 'stretch' more in some cases. I think it might do that because of the wax being in the spring and then some rising up and some sticking making it stretch out, but usually when it all gets hot enough it just turns into balls and they continually move up and down.

DONT KNOW MAN. They all have em though.

EDIT: Doing a little bit of searching on google (Something you could have tried) it appears to be the "heating coil" and apparently lava will just sit at the bottom without it.

 

[bigr5026]

helps store heat

 

[FireFox]

helps store heat

Wow, that's brilliant.