Flaming Cauldrons 2005

I have used many different designs of flaming cauldrons over the years.  They became extremely affordable about 5-6 years ago and continue to get better (for the most part) in design and effect.  Power supplies have always been the weak link in every design that I have purchased.  Eventually the power supply burns up instead of the lights or fan.  Lately they have come out with LED versions which get rid of the minor fire hazard and reduce the power consumption to a level that allows you to get rid of the power cord...

Look for designs that have a white, yellow or clear (clear is the best but hard to find) flame material.  It should have enough airflow to keep the flame aloft so that it does not flop over and remain motionless, but they shouldn't flutter too fast.  Also look at the color of the bulbs.  3 bulbs are best in my opinion and they should be orange or yellow (2-3 different amber bulbs look great) and blue is OK.  Stay away from any red bulbs.

I bought a flaming cauldron from a craft store lately.  I was really excited, because this particular model used LEDs instead of small halogen bulbs.  Why is that exciting?  Because LEDs take VERY little power to run and you can now run the cauldron for hours from batteries instead of a transformer plugged in to an outlet somewhere.  That frees up an outlet and means you can hang the caldron anywhere without having to worry about hiding the power cord. Unfortunately, the thing turned out to be junk...  Why? The fan was too weak to make the cloth flutter.  No matter how hard I tried to rearrange the cloth, it just kind of flopped over and looked stupid. they used an orange silk cloth for the flame.  White silk looks so much more realistic to me when lit with orange, blue & yellow bulbs.  Orange cloth lit by yellow bulbs looks orange... The LEDs were positioned so that they spotlighted the flame (making literally little blue and orange spots on the cloth) instead of diffusely lighting it.  With the cloth flopped over instead of vertical you couldn't ignore the spots of light. Bottom line - it looked dumb in the light and even dumber in the dark.  I didn't waste my time trying to fix the problems and promptly returned it.

(a great idea but poor design)