Lava Lamp Questions (@@@)

[hermione]

My kid likes a light in her room at night but has decided a nightlight is too babyish. She thinks a lava lamp is the perfect solution.

1. Can lava lamps be left on all night?

2. Are they safe? Like can they crack and ooze out?

3. Is my kid secretly from the 1960s?

[sdlaura]

If you get one, I highly recommend a plastic lava lamp. We broke a glass one and OMG the cleanup was awful.

[picksthemusic]

I'd get the LAVA brand only - the knockoffs aren't great. The kids have had one for a while. Make sure they get turned off in the morning to cool down and recharge.

Here's their 101 video from the website:
lavalamp.com/instructionalvideos/

Another option would be a salt rock lamp, which DS has in his room and loves it - soft glow, not 'babyish'. They sell them on Amazon, but I was able to get DS's at our local upscale grocery store that sells them.

ETA: There is a good Stuff You Should Know podcast on Lava Lamps if you're interested. (DS loves that podcast and thought this one was fascinating.)

www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/episode/the-lava-lamp-goes-great-with-29811086/

[mrsslocombe]

1. I had one as a teenager from Spencer’s and would leave it on for hours. It would get super hot but I never burned down the house.

2. I’ve never heard of them cracking. I guess if you dropped it hard enough but I don’t think they spontaneously combust?

3. Probably possessed by the demonic spirit of a hippie.

[Roc A Bee]

We have a cheapie from Target. It is fine but we don’t leave it on all night. They have all sort of fake neon lamps, salt lamps, etc to try out if the lava lamp isn’t for you.

[rachers]

I have no input on lava lamps but I got my DD one of the Himalayan Salt lamps that changes colors and we leave it on all the time! It was like $5 from Pop Shelf.

[DarcyLongfellow]

Lava lamps are definitely making a come back! My 11 year old won one at a summer camp.

The fire risk scares me, so I wouldn't leave it on all night. Ours is obviously cheap though.

As far as other non-nightlight sources of light, those rope lights that go around the top of the wall are popular now, as are neon signs. We got DD new bedside tables (not instead of a nightlight, just because she needed them), and the ones we got have an LED light as part of it.

[notreal]

They still use incandescent light bulbs for the heat, so they blow light bulbs frequently, like every 3 months or so, so keep in mind you will keep having to replace them so you will either have to have some on hand for when it happens or decide the waste is a bit too much and choose something else.

[gerberdaisy]

both kids have them. DS leaves his on all the time, guess I never thought about a fire risk before? So, same for question 2, seems safe to me, but they do get hot.

[mysteriouswife]

We have too many lava lamps. H has one from his uncle’s childhood and it stays on 24/7 for days. Then randomly someone turns it off. The others are from our teen years. They aren’t as frequently used. We have no issues with breaking or lights burning out.

DD has a salt lamp. DS uses a moon lamp. Both are led and never get turned off.


a.co/d/b8hR3Yz

[karinothing]

My kid loves his. It stays on all the time but then the light bulb burned out. I did buy more batteries. They do get hot, but it hasn't burned us down yet.

[dirtyred]

As picksthemusic said, only get a real Lava Lamp. Those things are rock solid-- the one I got as a teenager in the 70s is still going strong, and it gets left on overnight quite a bit.

[joy]

I just got my daughter a lava lamp for her birthday!

This thread is reminding me to turn it off after she goes to sleep. Good practice.

[circa1978]

I loved my lava lamp and also does anyone else remember these from the 90s? I like the smell of chlorine and dumped some bleach into mine and my mom had a fit that I was going to die from the off gassing.

[devonpow]

My kids have lava lamps but they take so long to really get going that you would need to leave it on all day and our get a touch hot so we don’t use them often.

DS2 has one of those jellyfish lamps and I highly recommend - there are about 6 different light choices, the movement of the jellyfish is soothing (at least to me lol) and it doesn’t get hot/we can leave it on all the time. www.amazon.com/Lightahead-Jellyfish-Changing-Aquarium-Decoration/dp/B01GD87X4I

[mpc]

My son has one. We plugged it in with a timer so it turns on everynight maybe an hour before bedtime, then turns off in the middle of the night.

[ellipses84]

Would she settle for a lava lamp night light (like a mini that plugs into a wall)? Another option is to get a lava lamp and put it on a plug timer but also have another light source for the middle of the night that doesn’t look like a nightlight. We have a little power strip that is box shaped and has a little LED night light on it. We also have really simple square LED nightlights all over the house for navigating with the lights off.

[jayhawkbecca]

Another option could be a LED light that shines.patterns/stars, etc on the ceiling

[lindyanne]

There are lots of other options that aren’t nightlights. LED rope light. My 15 year old son just got this star projector. Star Projector Astronaut Galaxy... www.amazon.com/dp/B08XLF1SM1?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[DotAndBuzz]

Or an LED light in the shape of something he's into. Mine had a butterfly that she could control the colors on, that she liked on her night stand, similar to this one:

LED

[VillainV]

They get really hot. I wasn’t comfortable leaving it on all night, but if you do make sure there’s nothing flammable near it. They don’t last very long, and we have had issues with them not working for more than a few months at a time (not the bulb burning out…something else that made the colors combine into small bubbles that wouldn’t settle back out….maybe overheating?).

I recommend some kind of LED light or imitation.

[raindrops]

My DD had one briefly but I wasn’t a fan and we got rid of it. It was a knock-off brand, took a couple hours to get going and then was red hot to touch so I thought it was too dangerous and not worth it.

[k3am]

My kids leave theirs on forever without an issue. They also like the LED lights that make their rooms have that lovely club atmosphere, but at least those have timers.

[mala]

Big Kid got a glitter lamp one year. The rule is she doesn't leave it on overnight or when she sleeps, it gets so hot. I think not having it on is a reasonable safety standard but you can certainly make it safer to leave on by clearing the space around it and making sure it's on a secure table.

[countthestars]

I was also going to recommend a jellyfish lamp! We leave ours on overnight.

[litskispeciality]

Aug 26, 2024 14:58:24 GMT -5 jayhawkbecca said:

Another option could be a LED light that shines.patterns/stars, etc on the ceiling

I got something like this for my birthday this year and I LOVE it. You can use bluetooth as well as it has speakers. I'm really looking forward to using it (on the weekends) when it gets dark at 4 PM. 

I think Lava Lamps are so cool, however I would forget to turn it off. I agree with the star light or another LED. My brother has a few LED bulbs from Amazon that he can turn on and off with an app or remote. He can change the colors, and has them set to shut off at a certain time when he thinks he'll be asleep. That might be safer, and the one he has allows him to change the colors depending on his mood, the outside light etc.

ETA: Agree with getting a plastic Lava Lamp. I had one or two glass ones, maybe one with glitter? in college and it got knocked over. I had to throw out a rug, and it smelled nasty forever. Just not worth all of the clean up trouble.

[meanie]

My kids recently begged for one they had at the arcade, it was a hard no because I remember how hot they get and it doesn't seem like the technology has changed much.

What about LED strip lights or an LED standing light? Our kids have both, plus they each have a fish tank with LED lights and DD has some lit vines. IDK how they sleep with all the lights but they love it.