Tips to Maintain Tanning Bed, Booth Lamp Performance: Proper Seating, Cleaning, Starter, Instability

Proper seating of lamps in their sockets is vital!  Poor seating can lead to poor electrical contact between lamp and socket and can significantly shorten the life of any lamp.  This will also cause burned lamp ends and melted sockets.  Replacing any socket that appears loose or worn is an easy way to maintain tanning lamp performance.

Most tanning lamps are used in what is known as a preheat circuit.  These systems use a starter to get the lamps to turn on.  It is important to replace the existing tanning bed lamp starter with every lamp or at least every other lamp change in order to maintain tanning lamp performance.  An old worn out $2 starter can dramatically shorten the life of a lamp or destroy a good lamp worth many dollars more than the cheap starter!  If lamps appear to be glowing on the ends only and do not start the problem is likely a failed tanning bed lamp starter.  Replace the starter immediately to avoid damaging the lamp or causing premature end darkening.  The most common cause of early lamp failure or short life in tanning lamps are old improper functioning starters

Minor instabilities in new lamps such as “snaking” or “swirling” can be corrected by turning the lamps on and off several times after installation.  This is usually not a lamp defect but a mercury instability issue caused during shipping and is normally only seen on the first few starters of new lamps.Clean lamps can improve UV output by as much as 10%!  Therefore, make sure you wipe your lamps down with a damp alcohol soaked cloth on a regular basis (don’t use solvents!).

An acrylic that is old and solarized can filter out well over 10% of the UVA (320nm – 400nm) that is trying to get through, and significantly more in the UVB (290nm – 320nm) region!  Using your UV meter, check lamp output with, and then without, the acrylic sheet in place.  Note any significant changes over time and replace acrylics as recommended by the manufacturer.    A bad or aged acrylic can make good lamps perform very poorly

Cooling is everything in a tanning bed.  Always be sure the cooling fans in the tanning device are working properly.  Dirty air filters or broken fans can cause the lamps to operate at elevated temperatures causing the lamps to drop as much as 30% below their optimum intensity.  High room temperatures caused by poor air conditioning can also cause the same problems.

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