How Long Can You Leave A Lava Lamp On? Is It Okay to Leave?
Lava lamps have gained popularity in the last few years for their unique and vibrant lights. Its floating blobs and calming lights attract a lot of customers. Because of the mesmerizing light, you can wish to keep the lamp on all the time. But can you leave a lava lamp on always? No, as this act poses a risk to you and your house. As you can’t leave a lava lamp on for more than ten hours.
The lava lamp is a long glass bottle or container that has clear liquids in it. The liquids start to glow and create bubbles once it’s heated. Chemicals are used in the liquids to make the lamp glow and make bubbles. So, the liquid is made of oil, wax, and chemicals. Once heated the wax starts to float in round shapes.
How Long Can You Leave A Lava Lamp On – Can You Keep On All The Time?
A lava lamp has incandescent bulbs in them to produce heat. Because the lamp won’t get heated the liquid in it won’t work. In the liquid, there is a wax that is less dense than water. When the hot wax starts to float it looks like lava. Thus the lamp is called a lava lamp, as the liquid also emits mild light like lava.
However, the heat of the incandescent bulb of the lamp gets the lamp to work. So when the lamp is on the bulb keeps generating heat. Which eventually leads to overheating lava lamps. And overheating any electric device isn’t safe especially if it functions based on heat.
The experts suggest that you can keep a lava lamp on for 8-10 hours straight. Others say that when you see the lamp overheating you should turn it off. Now you may ask how to know if the lava lamp is overheating or not. If the lavas or floating waxes start to break into small particles then you should know the lamp is overheating.
How To Use A Lava Lamp Safely?
If you have kids and pets in your house make sure they can’t reach the lava lamp. To do so place the lamp in a higher place. Also, you have to make sure that the lamp is on a flat surface. Otherwise, the lamp can fall over and break. But what you have to be more careful about is not overheating the lamp. A lava lamp takes 8 to 10 hours to overheat.
You have to turn off the lamp before overheating. For this, you can keep checking on the lamp and turn it off after 10 hours. Or else, you can assign anyone, or set a timer on your phone. There are also timer plugs available in the market. The plugs disconnect themselves after a certain period. Moreover, you can’t leave the lamp on unattended.
What To Do If A Lava Lamp Overheats?
In case you see the lavas of your lamp have started to break in half inches size you should know that the lamp is overheating. In such a case, you don’t need to panic. Just turn off the lamp or disconnect it from the power source. No need to try to cool down by using water or ice. The lava lamp will cool down by itself. What you can do is let air pass in the room to fasten the cooling speed.
You can’t ignore an overheating lamp by assuming nothing will happen if the lava lamp overheats. The least impact of overheating a lava lamp is it’ll damage the lamp itself. Plus the lamp can melt or blast. The lamp can’t catch fire but this overheating can result in inflaming fire on any nearby flammable object.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is It A Fire Hazard To Leave A Lava Lamp On?
If the lava lamp overheats it may not catch fire, but the is a chance of exploding. The explosion can be small but if it reaches any flammable item it can cause a fire. That’s why you should never leave a lava lamp on unnoticed.
Can I Sleep With Lava Lamps On?
Yes, you can as it is safe to keep a lava lamp on for 10 hours. But when you’re sleeping you can’t see the light of the lamp. Then why keep it on? Also, while you sleep you can’t check o it. But leaving a lava lamp unchecked for a long time is risky. So, you shouldn’t leave the lamp on while you sleep.
Can A Lava Lamp Explode?
A lava lamp is made of an incandescent bulb, oil, wax, and chemicals. If the bulb keeps producing heat for a long time it’ll impact the liquid of oil and wax. Thus left unchecked while overheated for a long time can lead the lamp to explode.
Conclusion
While getting a lava lamp it might be in your mind that you want to enjoy the ambient light all the time. But just like any other thing the lamp also requires some rest (cooling down). Hence if you keep overusing it you’ll see that the bubbles or lava are breaking into pieces. Along with not floating anymore. This can damage the device permanently. So, for using a lava lamp at its best you shouldn’t use it at a go more than 10 hours.
